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Welcome, everybody. My name is richard weil and i’m the ceo of national restaurant consultants. And we appreciate you joining us for our 10th edition of the nrc helpful moment during these very difficult trying times. As we talked about last friday, we’re going to begin a process of having a featured, food service professional.
And we’re going to kick it off today with somebody who i’ve known for quite a few years. And then worked with him when we opened up a new restaurant back in the pennsylvania area many years ago and felix maietta thank you for joining us, felix. We appreciate it. Felix is the corporate executive chef of nestle professional in the philadelphia market area.
And I can’t thank you enough for taking the time this afternoon to be with us, felix. So thank you. My pleasure. I’m glad to be here.
Thank you. So, brian, devine is joining us, of course, from top line management.
And brian will be here throughout this little interview as well. So, felix, I guess the first question is, how are you doing personally? How are you doing? Are you and your family doing?
Well, think god we’re all safe and healthy, practicing social distancing as much as we can and, you know, making lemonade out of lemons. I guess the best we can do.
So what is your company doing? I know you have a big position with nestle in their executive chef group. What are you all doing? Obviously, right now with the social distancing and a lot of shut downs what are you all doing?
As far as the company right now? Well, you know, we’re still trying to engage with our customers as best we can. I mean, we have travel restrictions in place like everybody else.
So we’re not traveling at all. We’re not doing client visits, but we’re really trying to engage with everybody through facebook and skype meetings. The company is really taking the forefront and shown great leadership to keep the employees safe.
But also to be here, as a resource for our customers and and our clients. So, um, you know, we’re just doing like, what everybody else is trying to do. Is to be the professional resource for our customers helping them to navigate through this really trying time in our country and just trying to, you know, we always say that, you know, we’re in the hospitality industry, so let’s be hospitable and supportive of one another and really show, great partnerships.
I think that’s exactly right. That’s what people could do. Is there anything specific that your company is doing from a, corporate leadership standpoint or anything as far as the hospitality industry you’d like to share with us this afternoon?
Nestle is the largest food service company in the world. And so we’re engaging all across the globe whether it’s food donations or financial donations.
They’re really just taking care off the employees number one, which is fabulous. You know, everybody’s pretty much working.
We’re working from home. But just stressing that, you know, during these tough times, we still have to engage with our customers and, be the resource that that we can be and be the leaders, that we are in the industry.
You know, we’re very diverse company. So you know when when one line or one channel is having a tough time.
Our other channels are able to to grow, you know, hospitals are still feeding people, you know, healthcare and long term care facilities are still operated 24 7 so they need our support. They need our products.
So we’re working with our broad liners and our opcos to really, you know, keep the supply chain strong and communicate with our customers that the supply chain is strong and showing them other solutions that, you know we have that could help them through this time.
You know, not everybody is able to cook from scratch these days, you know that we’re facing labor shortages. Um, people are not coming to work. People are being told to stay home, but you still have to feed people. So we have solutions, different lines of products that we are, you know, making available and really showing our customers to give them options to keep their businesses going. That was great.
That’s just wonderful. I know you’ve been, thankfully, we thank you very much, you’ve been following nrc on our facebook and our website and appreciate you re-posting something for us. Well, thank you very much.
I know brian has basically our last question cause you’ve been following nrc. But brian, what’s that, what’s that question?
Yeah. So, felix, if there’s anything that that you feel like, maybe we could be doing different, better, stronger.
What, what can we as consultants, what could we be doing to offer more support to the restaurants out there? Well, I think that, um, as everybody struggles toe keep their doors open, too reinvent themselves in this current crisis. You know, I think it’s really important that we focus on products and solutions and strategies that that work in this environment.
You know, i’ve been doing a lot of work developing speed, scratch, speed scratch recipes for my customers. And, you know, how do we take advantage of products that are maybe pre prepared or pre cut vegetables instead of making your own? Stocks may be using a flavor concentrate or base and putting, you know, simple recipes together that somebody that’s not so skilled can do in a relatively short amount of time and then provide, you know, provided option.
You know, we I see a lot out here and across the country. People are focusing on take out now and contactless pickups. So you still have to prepare these items. You still have to package them correctly.
You know how do you show value? Um, how do you feed the family affordably with great quality food and that’s just gonna build goodwill for the future. When we come out of this, we will come out of this.
So I think that’s a big focus. I have one last question, richard, if you don’t mind, this just popped in my head. Felix, what would you say to the restaurants out there that are just closing their doors? They haven’t tried, you know, like curbside delivery or anything because that’s just not what they’re used to. Is there anything that you would say to them? Yeah. I think that you need to reinvent yourself.
I mean, this is the time to do it. You have the time to do it. So I think that I keep saying you have to make lemonade out of lemons, but I think moving forward, you know, the hospitality and restaurant industry is going to change the way that we do business.
Take the time now when you have it, to figure out how you’re gonna do that when you know we opened up the country back up because the consumers, mindset will change.
And so we have to be a little proactive and forward thinking of how can we adapt our, um, our business model to meet the new need in the new norm? Well, this was excellent, felix, and it’s great to see you get unfortunately, under these stressful circumstances, it’s been a while. But thanks for taking the time. The best to you and all of our friends back on the east coast and throughout north america, in the country, in the world, for that matter.
We wish you well. Good health. And thanks again for being here, felix. We appreciate it. My pleasure richard. You stay well. To, healthy, safe and happy.
All right, thanks so much. Bye for now everyone. Bye for now, everyone.
Bye.
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