The Tech Chef Podcast

Today I am so happy to have a true industry Rockstar, Karen Bird, CIO for Hooters of America. We have a delightful conversation about the struggles during COVID and all the exciting things she has been up to since then. This includes their new fast casual version of their restaurant called Hoots Wings in addition to several virtual kitchen brands they have launched. This is the FIRST podcast she has ever been on and I am honored she chose The Tech Chef. Enjoy!

Alex Canter, CEO and co-founder of Ordermark, is a restaurant industry innovator, in-demand speaker, and passionate advocate for restaurant operators and workers. He was raised in the kitchen of the world-famous Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, where he and his team invented Ordermark. Today we talk about how he got started in the business and how he started Ordermark in addition to his new $120 million dollar investment and new virtual kitchen company with pre-built concepts for YOUR restaurant to latch onto and start making more money today!

What can hotels learn from restaurants? Today we talk about moving away from your main brand to survive through these times in addition to coving areas such as food lockers, virtual kitchens and ghost kitchens. These are all items that a hotel may not have thought about and maybe, just maybe also give some ideas for a restaurant that might have a connection with a hotel to dig into the concept of utilizing their kitchens and creating a long term or short term arrangement.

Come hear Tom Bené, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association speak on the State of the Industry. We will cover items that the Association fought and advocated for us since the pandemic hit and what they are continuing to do for us. We will talk about vaccines, immigration and the Association's position on the $15 minimum wage initiatives we are seeing being pushed forward.

Strong partnerships are a hard thing to find. Today we talk with Abby Lorden, Vice President & Publisher of Hospitality and Co-Founder of the Restaurant Technology Network along with Angela Diffly, also Co-Founder of the RTN. These two individuals and the two networks are making a huge impact in our industry and the Tech Chef is proud to be part of their efforts.

Listen to how the RTN can add to your professional toolset and help you become a stronger industry leader.

Are food lockers the next "big thing" for your off-premise strategy? This is the second and final episode in this food locker mini-series.

Joining me is Steven Sperry, Chief Executive Officer of Minnow. Steven talks about what makes his product different that anything else out there in the food locker (food POD!) space. From a compact solution to easy installation and rapid deployment, Minnow is a really interesting solution you might want to take a look at if you are considering a food pickup solution for your guests.

Are food lockers the next "big thing" for your off-premise strategy? In this two part series, we will explore just that!

Today I am excited to have Mike Wills, Chief Executive Officer, Apex Supply Chain Technologies on the show. If you have ever been to a Little Caesars Pizza and have seen or interacted with their heated food lockers, you have experienced Apex products. Apex is the world’s leading provider of self-serve automation solutions for a wide range of applications in the foodservice, retail and b-to-b markets.

Today I have yet another trusted partner on to discuss how they can turn around your online ordering strategy to a winning and powerful relationship. ToGo is a restaurant e-commerce platform that enables customers to order directly from your custom mobile app or website. It’s incredibly powerful, and amazingly simple to use.

To talk about this I have Shaun Shankel, Chief Executive Officer at Fresh Technologies and ToGoTechnologies. This show will run a little longer than normal but we have so many important things to discuss that could change your off premise strategy!

This episode is one of my favorites as I had the pleasure of talking with Matt Haselhoff, Chief Revenue Officer for Omnivore, a company that is high on my recommendation list if you are in need of POS integrations.

So who is Omnivore and what do they do?
Omnivore empowers restaurant brands to digitize their guest and operational experience in a meaningful and sustainable way. They deliver an end-to-end suite of solutions built on data and insights that help optimize the essential elements of the digital restaurant experience; online ordering, pay at table, 3rd party delivery, reservations, loyalty, inventory, labor and analytics. All of these solutions completely integrate into the restaurant POS system for operational efficiency, future agility and leveraging of data.

This is a crazy fun bonus episode as Jim Knight joins me for a candid talk about the industry and we also delve into subjects such as mullets, clowns, funeral directors and spider cuisine(?!). Jim is well known within the hospitality industry as a motivational speaker and really knows how to relate to an audience with his bigger than life rock and roll personal. Speaking of bigger than life, check out his hair!

Today wraps our mini series on Native Delivery. To close things out, I am joined by Adriana Kosiba, Enterprise Sales Director for Restaurants at Bringg, to talk about their complete off-premise solutions. Bringg allows you to meet all of your off premise demands quickly and cost-effectively through unified technology. They are able to do this by providing a full suite of front and backend applications to help leading enterprises maximize their capacity, efficiency and speed.

Today I am starting off a new mini series on Native Delivery. This seems to be one of the newest trending topics in our industry and I am excited to have some pretty awesome guests to talk about the subject. First in the series is Ryan Pershad, Global Operations Lead for GetSwift which is a software company who is a global leader in the logistics, last-mile delivery sector. Currently used by hundreds of clients in over 70 countries to deliver better and faster.

We are going to talk about the benefits and complications of Native Delivery as well as RTN’s TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) calculator to help figure out the profitability between Native Delivery, 3rd Party Delivery and Delivery as a Service. This can be a complicated puzzle to try to put together. You will learn how this tool will simplify that process.

It's day 2 coverage of the Restaurant Next conference held in conjunction with MURTEC and the Restaurant Technology Network. This immersive experience has tons of valuable content and well respected speakers who are our industry leaders.

Today is dedicated to covering the Restaurant Next conference held in conjunction with MURTEC and the Restaurant Technology Network. This immersive experience has tons of valuable content and well respected speakers who are our industry leaders. This podcast is a recap of day 1.

Today we finish off our five part food safety series with a BIG guest star. Food Network superstar, Chef Robert Irvine joins me to talk about how COVID19 has proven that technology is a key component to the success of a restaurant. Technology has given Robert the tools needed to get restaurants "re-booted" and back up and running during these challenging times. If you have not seen "Restaurant Impossible : Back in Business," you must!

In addition we will talk about a new food safety app called Virus Safe Pro that he partnered with several other military entrepreneurs to help solve for not only making sure the restaurant is following their safety protocols but also providing the guests with the visibility and assurance that it is safe to eat in that establishment.

Continuing with our food safety series, this show dives right in with Manik Suri, the CEO and Co-founder of CoInspect. Manik joins me in a discussion about his company which is a technology startup whose mission is to help protect our food and our planet. CoInspect builds safety and sustainability tools to eliminate food waste, energy inefficiency and refrigerant emissions — protecting consumers and combating climate change.

Today is a special bonus episode featuring Carol Dover, the President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. Come hear about what the FRLA has been doing to fight for your business and very important legislative initiatives in the pipeline.

Today is part 3 of our food safety mini-series. I have joining me today, Doug Smith, the Director of National accounts of DTiQ. DTiQ is the world’s leading provider of intelligent video-based surveillance and loss prevention services for the hospitality, convenience store, and retail industries. DTiQ combines state-of-the-art surveillance equipment with advanced, cloud-based analytics and managed services. DTiQ has been in business for over 20 years, enhancing over 8 million consumer experiences daily, while protecting trillions of dollars of assets. DTiQ has over 45,000 customers, including corporations and/or franchisees such as Burger King, Dairy Queen, Hard Rock Café, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway, and Taco Bell, just to name a few.

Possibly the most powerful video analytics system I have come across, this episode is packed full of information so you might want to take notes. As related to our main topic of this series, enjoy this fascinating way to solve for food safety issues in your organization.

Today, now more than ever, hand washing and hand hygiene is an integral part of our daily lives. Christine Schindler, CEO and Co-Founder of PathSpot, talks to The Tech Chef about a technology based solution that will help keep your guests and team members safe through proper monitoring. PathSpot has “gamified” a mundane task and made it an exciting process for your team members! In today’s world that we live in, there is no reason to take a risk regarding this most basic form of food safety. Learn how your company can enhance their hand washing protocols and make it fun at the same time. This is part 2 of our 5 part food safety mini-series.

Want to learn how to combat food allergy risk in your establishment using a simple to use technology solution? Not only will this episode talk about mitigating risk, it will potentially open up a whole new profit center for you. Join me today in part 1 of our new 5 part food safety mini-series as I talk to Shandee Chernow, Founder and CEO of Certistar.

This week I speak to key players in White Castle’s technology initiatives as we have a discussion about robotics, drive-through technology as well as a touchless economy. Joining me is the VP of Technology, Susan Carroll-Boser and the VP of Operations Services, Mike Guinan. We are going to dig into how company culture creates longevity and dig even deeper into their newest technology that partners with Miso Robotics, Computervision and Mastercard to provide cutting edge advantages to their organization.

I met Fred several months ago and I knew immediately I had to share his story. Back then I didn’t even have this show up and running but he immediately came to mind as I started planning out my episodes. Just to let you know, if you are looking for technology tips and tricks, this bonus episode does not have any. Next Tuesday starts back in with our regular schedule where the Tech Chef brings you all the latest and greatest restaurant and hospitality technology information.

Today, in lucky episode 13, we will be talking about Digital ADA Compliancy and how to make your website compliant as well as what to do if you get notification you are being sued due to non-compliancy. Jacey Kaps, Attorney at Law for Rumberger / Kirk, will discuss what to do when you get notified of such an event as well as the legal implications around this. Anne Sallee, Senior Relationship Manager for DigiPro Media will discuss how to fix your website for compliance as well as some pre-emptive things you can do to prevent future lawsuits.

Charlie Guzzetta, the President of BurgerFi joins us on this show. Charlie gives us some insight behind the success of the brand and the technology that got them to where they are today. We also talk about some pretty cool augmented reality technology that they have played around with in the past. In times when other restaurants are struggling to survive, this is a “feel good” episode to hear of a brand that is not only expanding but going public by the end of the year, thanks to Mr. Guzzetta’s leadership.

This is part 7 and the final episode of the contactless payment series… Today we have a Sarah L'Heureux form TouchPoint where she will be talking about their latest product, ZeroContact. A complete contactless customer journey solution at the cost of ZERO dollars!

This is part 6 of the contactless payment series… Today we have a legendary restaurant leader on the show, Rom Krupp from OneDine. He has so much insight and good advice, you need to grab a pen and paper and make notes for this one. Enjoy this chat with a man who needs no introduction.

This is BONUS episode and a break from the of the contactless payment series… In this episode I will be having a conversation with a good friend of mine for over 25 years, Brett Krueger.

Brett is a boutique hotel and high end condo developer in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He has unique vision for his developments and a passion for his projects like I have not seen from anybody else. He personally takes on each development and curates everything down to the art hanging on the wall. Heck, I have seen him fly to Paris, many times, just to find unique items to install in his hotel environments to make his guest experience special.

He has experience in all phases of development from assessing properties for acquisition, finance, sales of residential condos and commercial hotels.

He was VP of MRK when they purchased, designed and built the Windsor Hotel in Asheville NC and the Ivey’s hotel in Charlotte NC. Both hotels he oversaw conceptualized, managed build out, opening and operations to a #1 status in their respective markets on Tipadvisor.com.

This is part 5 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I will be talking with Tim Lockhart from TableSafe. Although you may already know of their elegant pay at the table device, hear how they are adjusting for the touchless world!

This is part 4 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I will be talking with Yale Goldberg from PopID. The product line consists of PopEntry and PopPay which gives a guest the ability to pay with their face! Talk about the total contactless payment solution!

This is Part 3 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have a good friend, Tom Holmes who is the CEO and founder of DinerIQ and PayMyTab. We will be talking about their contactless hardware devices in addition to some "no-touch" methods. In addition, DinerIQ is the perfect place to gather, review and analyze all the data coming into your system from this service.

This is part two of our contactless payment series. In this episode I am delighted to have a special guest, all the way from Canada. Laurent May is the Head of Ready, a fully integrated mobile self-ordering, payment and loyalty technology solution. He has over 20 years of expertise in product management and the electronic payments space.

This is part one of our contactless payment series. Today we are going look at the guest dining experience and hear from 5 different individuals, each with a very different mindset on why they are dining the way they do.

The 5 categories come from a recent poll I placed online at several different social media outlets. Here is the question and the options:

A) I'm ready to dine inside restaurants now

B) I'm ready to dine using outdoor seating only

C) The most I am comfortable with is pickup or takeout

D) I'm only going to do delivery for now

E) I'm not eating at or ordering from restaurants

Come listen to hear how you can drive more business to your restaurant by shifting customer behavior.

Growth Hacking and Marketing Technology. This episode features Danielle Guzzetta who is the Senior Vice President of Growth Hacking for Smokey Bones and, has more than 25 years of marketing and revenue-generation experience. Danielle join Smokey Bones in January 2019 and is responsible for driving non-traditional revenue and delivering rapid growth by finding every go-to-market opportunity that provides leverage as well as uncovering new revenue streams; ultimately driving the bottom line. She has established several new revenue streams for the organization including Ghost Kitchens.

This episode will cover the remote workforce, how to secure it, tricks and tips along with good end user advice including video conferencing etiquette.

QR code Resurgence: This episode will cover the resurgence of QR codes and I will be discussing how we can effectively use QR codes successfully in the restaurant and hospitality industry. This is an older technology that now has a new revival of use!