112: Chef Maria Campbell | A Community Cookbook As a Vessel For Transformation

I would like to introduce you to my cohost Jim Taylor, Benchmark 60, but alas, he is somewhere out in California, out on a golf course, believe it or not. But how many times in your life do you actually get to play Pebble Beach? Right, . This is episode one 12. Seasonal Challenges for Restaurant Operator. In a moment we'll talk about how you can be better prepared for those seasonal slumps that seem to catch us all off guard every year.

Even though we know where they're coming, we can often have a smug sense of satisfaction that we've got this quarter clocked counting on holiday hell week to get our numbers where they need to be. Still, just as we start to pat ourselves on the back for being titans of industry, the deep down, we all hope we are.

A cold front comes down from Canada a month and a half early and all of a. Our October p and l looks just like our January and we start panicking but more of that after our shameless plug. We ask that you share the show with someone you care about who can find this information useful and leave a review cuz it always helps.

Now, even though we don't have Jim we do happen to have a surprise guest, which kind of just waiting for her to show up in the green room you know, our luxurious green room with, you know, the stuffed and the hot tub. But until then, I wanna get kind of cracking into some of these questions. So first thing is, what causes seasonal spikes in labor costs?

You know, I am in Asheville and North Carolina right now, and for the last four days it has been unseasonably cold, got our asses cracked really good. Shamefully, I must admit it was about nine o'clock at night and I was out in the backyard trying to empty my one person hot tub because the pump had gone earlier in the year and I'd forgotten about it, but I knew that if I left it there, it was gonna get down to 24. And those PVC pipes don't do very well, in the cold.

So needless to say, I think it caught us all off guard. And what a great topic to have. And a little goose in the ass to get us going. Now, here in Asheville, we actually have four seasons in our in our calendar year, especially for restaurants and hotels, which they feast off the fourth season, which is, you know, a couple weeks ago when all the leaves started turning. It was absolutely gorgeous. As a matter of fact, even last week it was, you know, 60, 65, 72, and just gorgeous outside.

It was a great excuse to be outside. Lots of people on motorcycles. Blue Ridge parkways usually jammed up pretty well. People kind of gawing at all the leaves now. I'd spent 25 years previously in Florida in Fort Lauderdale, and we got to be so good at charting the year that you could almost set a calendar by it. So we knew that there'd be a small slump for the first two weeks of September when.

Last week of oct, or last week of August, first week of September when everybody went back to school and everybody's kind of getting back into their own lives. But surely, you know, towards the end of September, October, people starting coming out, doing a little bit of traveling and the numbers start picking back up again. And that kind of cruises just like that. A little bit of a peak, little bit of peak, little bit of a rise right towards Christmas.

And then as I. Holiday hell week when you just gotta hold on for dear life between Christmas and New Year's. Now that's a really crazy way to build a p and l, especially when most of us are on calendar years. And so that's the end of our year as well. So anything like a cold snap, unseasonable weather, torrential rains, , hurricanes.

It really, really throws a wrench in our financial liberties, and I remember quite well having kind of this knee jerk reaction and pulling way, way, way, way back because again, we're all managing under labor costs. The great thing about Benchmark 60 and its revolutionary productivity metric is that it can show you. Within one or two tenths of a percent, what's the sweet spot?

Because when you cut back too far, now all of a sudden you're losing these opportunities to really capture money left on the table. Meaning that if you're sufficiently staffed on the floor, then that guest is gonna get a second cocktail. He's gonna be toured through the menu appropriately and and be able to kind of re. The benefit of having a nice leisurely dinner.

And when you're understaffed, not only are people getting stacked up at the back or at the front, I should say, but by the time they get in the table, get to the table, then it's a rush job. And what's actually happening there is losing all opportunities to expand the guest check or the customer spend. Nobody will ever, ever, ever be able to save themselves. To success if you're not managing the top line, doesn't matter what you do with the bottom line.

And I should know, cause I had some of the craziest operation managers, one of which Ronnie Ager from Chicago, one of the, one of the most dynamic guys I ever worked with. But as the service staff used to come through the kitchen door, the. Because the air was unbalanced cuz we had all the hoods going.

It would blow all the cocktail napkin, softer trays, onto the floor and he would run around trying to pick him up because he's like this, Seven senses, it's 7 cents Now that's kind of an old school way to look at it, but it really is kind of the focus of what are we doing with the small things. Unfortunately, it's never ever as big as one.

Solution. So Benchmark 60 is pretty unique in that they can be able to lay it off so clearly that most operators that we show this solution to come up with all kinds of crazy ideas and how to be able to optimize this opportunity. And it's not like they're putting that money back in their pocket. Our experience has been is that a lot of these operators who live through the pandemic in the shutdown, just like all of. probably wondering like, how can I do something nice for my staff?

How can I get, keep them engaged? And maybe they were wondering about how they were gonna afford healthcare or mental healthcare. And now all of a sudden it seems very, very clear to them that this is an opportunity. And so when that metric goes a little bit higher, when the productivity is higher, it's, you know, you don't have to be in the facility to know that everybody worked really, really, really hard. and. For good or ill, There's only so much that folks are gonna be able to take of that.

The ones that came back to the industry after the pandemic found an environment where people were rushing into the restaurants because they wanted to be connected emotionally with one another, which is great, but they're also the operators who wanted to kind of optimize. That opportunity and would open up, , would open up the restaurant full even though they didn't have the staff to manage it. Because again, it's this kind of short sighted thoughts around budgeting for these particular times.

So it really behooves us to be able to kind of step back and use a very, very clear eye, not only. To try to gauge what our opportunity is for revenue maximization, but also how much can our staff really take? Right. And I know there's more questions about this, but I wanted to bring on a very dear friend, someone who I have been connected with for a long time and who my support 100%. And that would be Chef Maria. Hey,

But you're also a heck of a consultant, so I, I know that you so I'm gonna want, I'm gonna want to know before we end, you know, what you would do, like, what would be your prescription that maybe some operators who are, who are watching this, you know, maybe gain a couple insights that they can. Walk right back into their operation.

And we know there's staffing shortages as you're mentioning. People are leaving in droves and, but there are people that deeply care about this and stay. And for us as Cooks who care founder here Yep. Working on providing benefits to individuals. I'm gonna tell you what, I've been trying to tackle this healthcare situation since six years ago. Oh, I know you have. It's too, too big of a beast to go directly to the healthcare companies I've tried. Right. And I haven't been able to succeed.

What I have been able to do is to figure out the infrastructure to set up a community fund. And how that works is through the sale of our community cookbook, which the owner of this establishment, Chad Durkin, participated with a recipe and 100% of the proceeds can actually pay forward mental health service access to people who are in industry. So, hey, I'm a worker. I need assistance for addiction recovery, right?

Oh, I wanna see a counselor more than one time a month cuz I can't afford to, or, you know, I need access to a prescription medication. I mean, and go, You know what? I don't know if I should eat well this month. Right? I have to pay that first. Right? And they can go, Hey, let us help you with that.

And the cool thing is my friend Chef Adam Lamb I just found out something that blew my mind because once we get this cookbook off the ground, we're starting in Philly right now, Southern New Jersey area, right? I can scale. To different cities all across the United States where anybody who can raise a certain amount can have an independent fund for their location. That's fantastic. Who care?

And that's kind of the way it started. And so why don't you kind of give our listeners and our viewers a kind of a snapshot of how you transitioned in the industry to actually focus on community. Oh

So this, this was something I think You know, after meeting you, we had a harmony at heart and you didn't wanna leave because we were, at that time I was talking about millennials and I was talking about bridging young people into the conversation and the fold. We often underestimate our teens, especially in their youth. It used, there used to be a time where apprenticeship was a thing and we actually brought people in, drove. Cause we spent time to train. We don't have time for that anymore.

I mean, I barely see an internship that's actually doing some good work to train somebody. And so I've been working even with clients to kind of set the stage of like, how are we going to intentionally bring up people? Correct. How are we going to intentionally share what is gonna help them grow? And because we've imparted know. From ourselves. Right? Right. So as an educator, I feel like I am constantly teaching. I'm constantly sharing that information.

I've learned over the years, it's not mine to keep. Right. And so if it's, I believe it is our responsibility to pay forward that knowledge. And instead of just being in your everyday to day, looking at your bottom line, I, I say that is important. But if we are going to keep our people what's not on the bottom line, how people feel if they're happy to be with us. And how long that they've stayed.

You know, how we're interviewing people, how are we looking at resumes even, you know, it's like there's gonna be gaps all over the place of what kind of biases do we have, you know, that are preventing us from actually not just retaining our people, but attracting the right folks and bringing 'em up.

And the one thing that we did that was by far the most impactful was, is we created a half. , we called it day two orientation because HR would do their orientation, which is like, sign all these. And then the second day they came down and we spent a half a day in a, in a room.

Going over, like doing silly stuff like like showing the Phish video going over the missions, the why's, like really trying to connect them to the values of what we stand for in hopes that they were actually aligned to that and everybody who went through that process. I had a tenure that outlived me. Let's put it, they were still there when I left. Mm-hmm. . So I know that that's like one of the top two reasons why a lot of people leave their present.

Employment is just communication or lack thereof. And so if there's no framework for which that to occur, and I, and I'm a big systems guy, so I figure that, you know, if we have some guardrails in place, and some boundaries, then it can be a good thing. But what caused you to start Cooks Who Care and give us a kind of give us an idea of what Cooks For Care stands for.

. Right. I, I've met a lot of people in the industry that spent 15 plus years dedicated to the industry, and then they were trying to dedicate time to their family. Right. It's like, well, couldn't we have done something about being intentional and finding balance? If we all accept. That, that part of our lives is just as important as the goals we're trying to reach. Right, Right. I, I felt bad for.

To be honest, that many people would stand up and say that if I were to be successful, that pitcher looks like this and it means, mm-hmm. I've worked 90 hours a week, I've abandoned my family. I've reached success goals that people should be proud of. The bottom lines and the percentages that I've been able to maintain. But at the end of the day, my life is crap. My family doesn't talk to me, and I have zero relationships with friends and family. Oh boy.

And. I think that seeing that over and over that pattern and, you know, drug addiction, people losing mm-hmm. lives, you know, I mean, this is, I find that there are no more individuals. Are more passionate about what they do than the food industry, right? They do it for the reasons they express. Those moments they create, they will sacrifice their entire lives for it. I have complete respect for that, but at the same time I thought, Isn't there something culturally wrong with that?

Like, can I have respect for somebody that's a mom and hustling on her own, or a dad that has kids and is taking care of 'em and doing what they do, or is in a relationship with a partner and maintaining that and is successful in their career? Like I think we've been missing the picture of the circle of wellness and how we take care of ourselves for a sustainable future. Mm-hmm. , that's what made me wanna start cooks. And

Folks who were out there, you know, kind of on a wing and a prayer, you know, trying to string something together for the pure profit motive, you know, they got stripped out and so it's okay. There doesn't have to be hundreds and hundreds of restaurants or, you know, several restaurants doing the same thing. My, my coaching is, you know, at this point now we all need a niche down and get so specific. So you started Cooks Who Care, which I thought.

It's really interesting way to do it because it's not like you came out and said we're gonna aggregate you know, we're gonna just deal with mental health and wellness, like a lot of other organizations out there and, and, and doing great work. But you focused it around community building. Mm-hmm. , like bringing everybody together. I was fortunate enough to be able to come up to Philly for an event, Couldn't believe how. , you know, restaurant folks were in one building.

And it's such amazing thing because it's so easy to get siloed in your operation. Yes. I mean, I know I did. And when you were talking about, you know, the things that we sometimes well that all of us make a bargain for I like, you know, I am guilty as charged. I, there was a large portion of my time when I was not around because I thought that I needed to reach a certain level financially. So I could take care of my children, even though that meant I couldn't be around

them, which was the stupidest . Like my daughters didn't give a shit about the, you know, about the new shiny toy. The thing that they wanted most was my time. Right. And I don't know how I fucking lucked out, but you know, they, after spending their entire dir entire lives in, You know, they now live an hour away from me in Tennessee. Wow.

Grabbing that microphone and resonated with everyone. And you wanna know why? It's because of your honesty. Mm-hmm. , It's because of your directness and your candid nature to just speak truth. People's heads were like looking down and when Adam was speaking, everyone's like, What is going on? Like, well, there was community. Go ahead. You know, community is all part of that. There

An intensity that says I wanna do this and give myself whatever representation that is to someone else through a form of service. Mm-hmm. . And to me, there, there's only certain people that do that. And when you are in a room of 60 plus people that do the same freaking thing, right. There's an energy you cannot replicate. . That's why community is so important to me because people needed to feel, you know, the energy of others who were doing the same thing. Mm-hmm.

. Cause I could be in my, you know, four walls. This, here I am in Portco small, and then, you know, these guys don't leave here. They, they go to work and they, they, they go home. Right. You know? So I knew that. And because even during the pandemic, we were serving food to mm-hmm. individuals, I literally loaded up my car. Medical marijuana company, Ale Healthcare actually gave us money when we weren't even a nonprofit, Right. And said, We wanna help you in your cause.

I bought 100 meals from eight locations in Philly and. The community piece, which I'm threading through right, Was I, I bought those meals, put it in my car, and actually Park codes was part of that too. Here, , and then I giving people Right. I, I, I resonate with giving people like yourself mm-hmm. . So when I did that, it was during the time when Philadelphia was gonna shut down for Covid. Right. And it was thank right before than. Shitty. Okay. Right.

I remember that time period as being just one of the goosebump rising experiences for me because there was people smoking cigarettes on front steps, you know, not having service people like come in. There was Right individuals that I dropped off lunch from Pocos to them and they were like I can't remember the last time somebody bumped me lunch. Right. people crying because it was right before Thanksgiving and like, what am I gonna do to get money for the holidays? Right. It's shitty. Right?

And so the community part is important because while, especially when they were isolating at that time, everyone's like, I didn't know my neighbors getting the same meal I am today. Oh, I didn't know the restaurant down the street was doing the same thing. Like, Oh, thank you. Like some people were like, You're doing God's work. , I think. A feeling right of us just being connected. I was like, this is staff meal, community staff meal.

And people just felt like, okay, we're, we're being brought together. And I, I think like think of just even with food we gather, I think it's an essential element to the work we do.

Was taking sips of their water bottle that had laced with I think opioids. And what happened is these, these rats all just kind of went into their own corners and continued to drink the water. And then when he put those same rats in a park-like environment in community with other rats, they most often made a dec, made a choice to be with the other rats as opposed to drinking that water. Now I'm not saying.

That, that's, you know, a cure all for addiction, because I know in my own particular case, when I was, you know, troubled and addicted to opioids, I, I didn't wanna do anything except hide out. I didn't wanna be around anybody else. Mm-hmm. . And so when people would try to go meet into like, no, no, no, come out, I would most often push off because of my own shame and regret. But I also get that without that type of connection mm-hmm. things probably wouldn't have gotten that far.

Yeah. So it seems to me that while most operators and I'm including myself, focus on the outside community as being the, the ones that are most important to the ones that they need to connect to, whether they're making TikTok videos or, or you know, talking to 'em. It's that's it. Shane, look at you, man. Yeah. Fantastic. Shane said, Dr. Bruce Alexander. The Rat Park study was done here in Vancouver at ubc.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. That should an operator decide to shift and give equal, equal time and attention to the internal community within his o operation, his or her operation. And this doesn't have to be, you know, the owner or, or the, the, this could be the chef or the front of the house manager to connect everybody to sh a set of shared values. Yeah, which is what any community's about.

Then that's probably the first step to shifting the culture because you know, as well as I, It's all happening elbow to elbow. It's not a poster on the wall or anything. So, no, the question is, is how do you get everybody agreed to the same set of values? Cuz everybody's gonna have their own opinion and yet focus on this idea that we are, we're not a family, we're a team, but we're also a community. And from that standpoint, let that grow. And that's why I thought your particular.

Focus on the community was so revolutionary and I didn't get it until a couple years later cuz I remember calling you and saying, Okay, so how do you build a community? Yeah, yeah. Enough. Like, can you

You are your independent self with your own experiences and. You know, what you've gone through in your life an identity that makes you, you. And when we have just a sliver of overlap where something, a string in me and a string in you goes, Oh, that connects, you stop in that ACF room. We, we talk all throughout the years of us going on our own journeys. It's because we overlap on a value. Right. You know, we care about people and we're not afraid to put ourselves out there to tell people

I had a partner with Eric Lovett, Jr. Who's 100% volunteered his time to film. Mm-hmm. in 4k. Like we had four location, like doors just kept opening and opening because I said, I found the foundational tool. I can start an account to pay forward mini grants right away. So that, which by the way took Sue care was gonna get denied for my non-profit status, which led me on that journey really one week before my application was going to expire. Okay. Amazing.

I was in a three month courting process with tcf or GCF helps.org. They are our fiscal sponsor now, and they said We're gonna sign with you. First, I said, I only have two grand. What can I do with it? . Second, they said you are the only person making impact in the community right now. People have budgets and they have money, and they have this whole thing. And they go, You're doing the work. We already know there's a need.

And so they signed me on and then my husband and I went to their event where now we can write off donations and I don't have. Tell everybody we don't exist anymore. So , I feel I'm serving our purpose. I said, If, if I'm not supposed to do this, stop me. Right? Right. So that's, that's where I am with all of this right now. But because I had community champion behind me mm-hmm.

, we were able to connect the infrastructure for setting up these accounts and then have the, the cookbook be the way to connect the customer. How many times have we said the customers don't understand what we're going through? Sure. They don't identify what the service we had. And I thought that was one missing element that I've, I've struggled with over the years is not connecting with industry, it's been connecting with the customer.

Yep. So the, the vessel, the physical entity, it'll be a digital book and we're working hard to get a digital print book ready by December. But I would say that the customer, it's. Entertaining for mental health. . Excellent. So we're, we're, we're keeping it light. All of these individuals that shared either a drink, a mocktail an entertaining recipe. It was all because we wanted to bring the customer into our lives, into our world, meet us where we are. Right? And it's not just a recipe.

They get to see a video of how to make. That's crazy. It's like, here's our craft, here's what we do. And they all shared a personal story about their own experiences. So it's a unique book for sure. But I thought the greatest way to make impact include the customer, include the community, , and boom, help others

Yes. They also had the other part of it where they were feeling underappreciated, you know, by their employers. But what really chapped their ass was the idea that the guests had no had no conception of what they were going through. And I think, you know me well enough to know that I've always said, like, Look, if you're, if you're expecting anybody to understand how much you put in, you know, you're standing there for a while.

I and I get at that particular point, the emotionality of the release and the desire for connection was so strong that yeah, they probably didn't think very much. And I know from all the accounts that we've seen and heard of in the papers and on news reports of like people acting very, very badly. Yes. And and I thought, Goddammit, that's brilliant, Maria. Get them bought in so they have some conception of what's going. Exactly. A little bit of the dust is settled now. Well, well done.

So how can we support this effort? Because, because the proceeds are going to what?

And I'm saying that the energy that I'm pushing between now and November 7th is super important because I will have the digital book. I've already fundraised for that, right? We've got it right away, honestly supported by industry members. I'm, I'm so amazed once we'll have that ready for December, right? But guess what? I could by November 7th, cuz I have to prepay for the book. Right?

And if you think about all these companies have raised like millions of fricking dollars and they don't even have an idea in the world of what they're gonna do with the money. Right? And know what I'm gonna do with the money. I'm gonna buy the book, and then we're gonna grow the fund for holiday sales because buy the holidays. How many people are gonna wanna give a cookbook to somebody? and put it in a present, put it under, you know, in their

Or they can actually get a direct link in our, in, be in the book and digital how to videos with a direct link to their business and or organization by sponsoring $500. Okay. And that's, that's the way we're connecting the community. We're kicking it off.

I, So the word is already getting out and the deadline is for.

Yep. The, you know, challenges during the holidays, it's not happy happiness for everybody during this time of year. And you know, we had a few people last year that, that committed suicide, unfortunately during the holidays. And you know, I'm trying to see, we can make impact as early as December and I'm trying to push for that to help more.

So Maria, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been really en. I know we didn't talk about seasonal challenges, but you know, to, Do you have a word that, or a thought for those operators out there who perhaps haven't prepared themselves enough from a p and l standpoint to deal with cold snaps? I mean, not everybody can hold off until, you know, holiday hell week in order to get the revenue going, so yes. What, what can somebody do right

We're doing something unique or we are, I know Pocos does this often where they'll collaborate with a neighboring organization to get lunch. You know, so that way it's not just your own staff meal. And I know it gets busy, we. , we gotta be weary of that word, busy in how we use it. Mm-hmm. And to say, Could I spend 30 minutes walking down the street with my team outside? Yes, you can.

Okay. I, I think that 30 minutes, just like your one-on-ones, like maybe even doing something is just as useful as being in a private room with them saying, How are you doing? Oh, I think, how

And for those of us who love this industry so much that we just keep coming back, we. Let ourselves get taken out. So by taking the time to self nurture, by taking care of ourselves, maybe we're showing up differently emotionally at work and maybe not so stressed out. Because as we both know, you know, ain't no, ain't no miracles happening when you're stressed, , no.

So if you're not changing your attitude and everybody else, you're not gonna be productive and you're not gonna make your numbers.