As VP of culinary innovation at Untamed Brands, the parent company of fast-casual Taim Mediterranean Kitchen and Hot Chicken Takeover, Avi Szapiro brings years of fine-dining experience to the job. He grew up in Bogota, Colombia, and thought he’d become a lawyer. But he caught the cooking bug as a teenager and never looked back. Szapiro graduated from the CIA; worked in top restaurants and hotels in Latin America, Europe and California; operated his own highly rated restaurant in New Haven, Conn...
May 25, 2023•32 min
Aaron Noveshen, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Starbird, trained as a French chef and started a company called The Culinary Edge that develops menus for restaurants. After years of helping other operators get successful concepts up and running, he felt it was time to start his own. In 2016, Starbird was hatched. The fast-casual chicken chain now numbers 12 brick-and-mortar units and a couple of virtual kitchens, but Noveshen plans to open five more company locations this year, and franch...
May 18, 2023•26 min
Anna Castellani launched her first food hall in the basement of a building in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., when the neighborhood was essentially a food desert. Today, the underground space is the thriving DeKalb Market, home to more than 25 local vendors offering a range of cuisines that celebrate Brooklyn’s diverse culture. “I like to transform unloved spaces into vibrant eating and drinking venues,” Castellani said. Her next project was The Hugh, a space in midtown Manhattan’s Citicorp building th...
May 11, 2023•31 min
“Cinco de Mayo is like Super Bowl and New Year’s packed into one,” said Jared Galbut, founder and CEO of Bodega Taqueria y Tequila. As celebrants flock to Mexican restaurants and bars on Friday, he expects record crowds, with a number of revelers partying until 5 a.m.—closing time for some of the seven locations. Jared Galbut The newest Bodega is actually opening on May 5 in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, far north of its South Florida roots. More are planned for Nashville and other parts of ...
May 04, 2023•28 min
Menu innovation is key to differentiating a concept in the crowded and competitive chain restaurant environment. During Winsight’s annual Restaurant Leadership Conference, which took place this week in Phoenix, Ariz., we caught up with three top execs to find out what innovation looks like at their operations. Donna Josephson, CMO of Shipley Do-Nuts; Andre Vener, co-founder of Dog Haus; and Frank Paci, CEO of Newk’s Eatery, each share their menu strategies and how they’ve contributed to growth. ...
Apr 20, 2023•42 min
Katy Velazquez, executive chef at Qdoba Mexican Eats, claims that she got her Ph.D in regional Mexican cooking while working with chef Rick Bayless in his celebrated restaurants, on TV shows and throughout his travels in Mexico. Those experiences influence her menu R&D for 735-unit Qdoba, but she balances that authenticity with a good dose of fast-casual fun. Although Velazquez has innovated the menu with on-trend items such as birria tacos and breakfast burritos, there’s one item she can ne...
Apr 13, 2023•24 min
After graduating from culinary school, Aaron Taylor criss-crossed the country, earning his cred at a number of top resorts and restaurants. But his ultimate ambition was to become a corporate chef for a restaurant group—a goal he reached with The ONE Group, operators of STK and other global concepts. Now, Taylor is corporate chef-partner for Atlas Restaurant Group in Baltimore, overseeing 27 restaurants mostly in that city as well as Boca Raton, Fla., and Houston. In this role, he taps into his ...
Apr 06, 2023•29 min
The devastation of 9/11 prompted Andrew Pudalov to leave his finance career behind in New York City, move to Boulder, Colorado and launch a healthy bowl concept. That was almost 20 years ago and Rush Bowls has since grown from a single location at the University of Colorado to a 40-unit chain in 21 states. Although the healthy bowl category is now a crowded one, Pudalov sees Rush Bowls as a differentiator, with its focus on a scratch-made menu of curated bowls featuring diverse flavor profiles. ...
Mar 16, 2023•26 min
“If you’re a broccoli or watermelon, stay away from Planta,” warns Steven Salm, founder and CEO of the veggie-centric restaurant concept. “We can do serious damage.” Indeed, what Salm calls a “plant-powered” menu offers indulgent, chef-driven items like Bang Bang Broccoli, ahi watermelon sushi and noodles with truffle mushroom cream, all served in a polished-casual setting with a full bar pouring craft cocktails and biodynamic wines. Planta’s mission is to open diners’ minds and taste buds to th...
Mar 02, 2023•24 min
Adenah Bayoh, an IHOP franchisee and passionate entrepreneur, co-founded fast casual Cornbread Farm to Soul to put a spotlight on soul food favorites. Along with the restaurant’s signature cornbread, its menu features chef-partner Elzadie Smith’s scratch-made fried chicken, catfish, yams, baked mac and cheese, collard greens and peach cobbler. Three locations are currently open in the New York-New Jersey area, and now, the partners are on a mission to expand Cornbread through franchising. But as...
Feb 16, 2023•21 min
As executive chef of Parcelle Wine Bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Ron Yan has created a menu that balances playfulness with skilled technique. During the pandemic, Yan partnered with seasoned restaurateur and wine retailer Grant Reynolds to launch a popup. The success of that venture evolved into the current brick-and-mortar restaurant, opened in 2022. Listen as Yan describes his culinary journey from pre-med student to accomplished chef, how he crafts a wine-pairing menu that artfully...
Feb 02, 2023•20 min
When Jimmy Wang started at Panda Express in 2014, the now executive director of culinary innovation already had many years of experience in top hotel kitchens and operating his own restaurant. At Panda Express, Wang and his team look to create dishes that tell a story. They apply the chain’s menu mantra—“Chinese Flavors with American Tastes”—to every item they develop, and recent successes include Black Pepper Angus Steak and Plant-Based Orange Chicken. Lunar New Year, which begins on Jan. 22, h...
Jan 18, 2023•26 min
Located on the ground floor of New York City’s landmark Empire State Building, STATE Grill & Bar must appeal to two demographics: tourists visiting the iconic skyscraper and office workers and locals looking for a chef-inspired lunch or dinner. Executive Chef Morgan Jarrett bridges the two by balancing seasonal dishes geared to adventurous tastes with more familiar steaks, pastas and desserts. Signature cocktails are also a draw, and she works closely with the bar to create happy hour food ...
Jan 05, 2023•22 min
Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen has been instrumental in turning Minneapolis into a dining destination, moving back to his hometown after advancing his career in Daniel Boulud’s New York City restaurants. Eight years ago, he opened Spoon and Stable and has since added three new restaurants to the collection—Demi, Mara and Socca—along with several locations of Bellecour, a French-inspired bakery and cafe. Just last month, he self-published his first cookbook, At Home, plus he hosts a Synergy Seri...
Dec 15, 2022•24 min
Mackenzie Gibson traded in her blazer for a chef’s coat when she was promoted to VP of Culinary and Menu Innovation at Sonic Drive-in. Previously in marketing, she now integrates that expertise into developing the menu, prioritizing Sonic as a consumer-driven brand. She and her team keep the R&D pipeline constantly flowing with new items, balancing indulgence with comfort and innovation. Listen as she talks about how even dumb ideas can gain traction and turn into successes, and how Sonic wa...
Dec 01, 2022•26 min
After Popeyes off-the-charts success with its fried chicken sandwich, Amy Alarcon and her culinary team spent four years perfecting the cooking technique and flavor profile of the just-launched Blackened Chicken Sandwich. In between, she developed a new and improved chicken nugget and a number of seasonal LTOs. Throughout the R&D process, Alarcon taps into New Orleans as her inspiration point. Listen as she shares how her Southern roots have impacted her culinary journey, how Popeyes Louisia...
Nov 18, 2022•27 min
Customers can order pancakes and eggs all day long at IHOP, but VP of Culinary Scott Randolph is making sure there are plenty of innovative but traditional lunch and dinner options, too. In his four years as head chef, he has worked to expand IHOP’s positioning from the breakfast leader to the all-day leader, adding signature burritos, bowls, melts and more. But he’s also busy elevating breakfast—the latest menu launch is new French toast (NFT), a thicker, fluffier version of the morning favorit...
Nov 03, 2022•25 min
Rick Petralia led menu innovation at Fazoli’s for many years before moving over to Wichita, Kan.-based Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers earlier this year, applying his deep culinary experience to a new platform. Burgers and frozen custard are very different from pasta, he admits, but menu development relies on the same principles. Petralia analyzes consumer research, focuses on seasonality and tries to push the envelope on flavor. He’s also a TikTok fan, saying there’s lots of inspirat...
Oct 20, 2022•24 min
Joe Isidori is chef-owner of Arthur & Sons, an old-school Italian restaurant he opened in New York City this past summer. Isidori comes from a three-generation restaurant family and grew up in his father’s red sauce joint, standing on milk crates to clean shrimp and plate pasta when he was just five. He went on to hone his skills in culinary school, head up Michelin-starred restaurants and create Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beers, which started as a 15-seat luncheonette and grew to an inte...
Oct 06, 2022•30 min
Climate change is top of mind right now, with recent heat waves, droughts and wildfires directly affecting food production and the environment. Michael P. Hoffmann, professor emeritus at Cornell University and co-author of the book “Our Changing Menu,” relays how all this directly affects what foodservice operators can put on the menu. Some favorite foods and beverages, like sushi, salads, coffee and cocktails, are being threatened. And climate change has the potential to impact the taste of win...
Sep 15, 2022•27 min
Cristina Suarez is a self-taught “bargirl”—a name she is proud to call herself even as a skilled hospitality professional in her 30s. At 18, Suarez began her journey behind the bar at Hooters, moving on to several Miami hotels where she polished her cocktail-making expertise and learned valuable management, training and operational techniques. Listen as Suarez describes how she taps her Cuban-American heritage to create unique drinks, differentiates the bar at each of the eight Kush concepts, sp...
Sep 01, 2022•32 min
Caribou Coffee is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and menu innovation has shifted from hot drinks to cold in the years since. Gretchen Hashemi-Rad, beverage category manager for the 400-plus chain, says sales of cold coffee and other icy beverages outpace hot coffees and teas—especially among younger consumers and even in the winter. Listen as she talks about how Caribou is changing up the menu to meet that demand, with equipment upgrades, energy drinks, blended and sparkling mocktai...
Aug 18, 2022•28 min
Sabin Lomac and Jim Tselikis, actual cousins from Maine who founded Cousins Maine Lobster, started with one truck, a simple menu and a commitment to source the best-tasting, best-quality Maine lobster for their lobster rolls. That caught the attention of Barbara Corcoran when the pair pitched the concept on Shark Tank. She invested and mentored the partners, and 10 years later, Cousins Maine Lobster has close to 50 locations, including nine brick-and-mortar restaurants and an enthusiastic team o...
Aug 04, 2022•18 min
Marc Forgione was born into a restaurant family, but he wasn’t trained from birth to be a chef, he says. He worked at An American Place, the restaurant founded by his father Larry Forgione, from the age of 16, but it wasn’t until he cooked big dinners for his college friends that he changed his career path from psychiatry to hospitality. Next steps included backpacking in Europe, stints in France’s restaurant kitchens and executing the menus for several BLT concepts. He opened his first place, t...
Jul 21, 2022•29 min
Sam Polk, founder and CEO of Everytable, launched the social enterprise grab-and-go concept in Los Angeles in 2015. His goal was to provide healthy, affordable meals in neighborhoods that are often classified as food deserts. The chef-inspired food is prepared at a central commissary to keep pricing low and is delivered to Everytable store locations, refrigerated vending machines and directly to consumers. The customer base includes more affluent diners, too, and Polk follows a variable pricing ...
Jul 07, 2022•22 min
Steve Sturm is senior VP of food and beverage and executive chef of the 55-unit Firebirds Wood-Fired Grill. The namesake wood-fired grill is the focal point of the menu at the polished casual chain, not only for items like shrimp, salmon, beef tenderloin, chicken, blistered vegetables and tuna, but for cocktails that feature charred pineapple and chilies. Chef Sturm is currently working on revamping the bar food menu, adding more small plates and shareables that deliver a big flavor punch and fi...
Jun 16, 2022•22 min
Menu analyst Lizzy Freier, director of menu research & insights at Technomic, keeps a close watch on food and drink trends at the Top 500 restaurant chains. During her recent presentation at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, she recapped the novel trends that are shaping menus as we move into the second half of 2022. Based on Technomic data, four Ps define the current state of menu innovation: Pivots, Preparations, Proteins & Plants, and Personalization.
Jun 02, 2022•25 min
Matt Weingarten believes in the power of community and of shared meals around the table. As head chef of 30-location DIG, that was his driving force when creating the menu for the brand’s new all-day cafe, DIG on 4th, where guests are encouraged to linger. Along with the plant-forward, customizable bowls from the original concept, this new fast-casual/full-service hybrid offers all-day happy hour, shareable sheet tray dinners, sandwiches made with local ingredients on housemade focaccia and seas...
May 19, 2022•22 min
Menu guru Nancy Kruse, who writes the State of the Plate column for Restaurant Business , keeps a close watch on trends in chain and independent restaurants. She is seeing that several favorites that gained popularity in the last two years—like chicken sandwiches and cauliflower—are still going strong, showing up with global flavor twists. And burgers and pizza will always be platforms for creativity with broad appeal. Kruse believes that the more familiar an item, the more adaptable it is for i...
May 05, 2022•24 min
Graze Craze Founder Kerry Sylvester and President Brady Lee are taking the charcuterie trend nationwide through franchising. The focus of the 12-location chain is the charcuterie board, which became an Instagram sensation as photos of more and more elaborate creations were posted on the social media platform. Operating out of a small-footprint store, Graze Craze offers several charcuterie variations for takeout and delivery only, ranging from individual snack boxes to large boards for a crowd. T...
Apr 21, 2022•28 min
