Episodios

  • Sustainable Food with Ellen Walker-Matthews @ Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association [DMO Leader]

    Sustainable Food with Ellen Walker-Matthews @ Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association [DMO Leader]
    Jun 5 2024
    15 m
  • AI to boost restaurant profitability with Jay Ashton @ Sysco Canada [Marketing Leader]

    AI to boost restaurant profitability with Jay Ashton @ Sysco Canada [Marketing Leader]
    Dec 22 2023
    Jay, I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to meet with you today. It's wonderful to catch up again since our last meeting at the SPARK conference, where we discussed many aspects of food and beverage within the hospitality industry. For our listeners who don’t know you yet, could you tell us who you are and how long you’ve been working in the foodservice industry? I'm the brand activation manager for Sysco Canada. I’ve been in the industry for almost 34 years. I ran restaurants. I've had a great, awesome opportunity to lead the resource side for Sysco for 14 years, creating resources for our customers. I started podcasting four years ago. Currently I run two podcasts, one with Sysco today and one with Restaurant Canada, on behalf of Sysco. I'm a marketing guy. I love helping our industry. I've been really fortunate to have such a great career in this industry. To really give me opportunities that are just, it blows my mind. Even today to do a show, even with yourself, Ben, is just to be able to do all this and talk about our industry and to meet some most incredible chefs and restaurateurs. I just really love what I get to do every day, it's been a dream. Amazing. No, that's great. I mean, it's so impressive to see how many years you've been working in the industry. Before we get into industry questions: what’s your favourite food? I like just a basic hot dog on toasted bread, ketchup, butter. Right now, one of the things that we are all experiencing is increasing food prices and any food business is impacted across the whole food supply chain. How has food inflation impacted restaurants? In general, everything has increased. I think it's hard on restaurants. Bananas are the only one that is safe, but everywhere else we're seeing the increase. I think it's just how you work with it. There's nothing we can do to change it, right? It doesn't matter who you are, you're dealing with this. So I think it's really how you work with it. It’s going to be your goal moving forward. We need restaurants to give us options so we can still afford it. I think that's going to be how we get through this. We can all talk about ingredients and this and that with increases, but at the end of the day, we can have the greatest food costs in the world and no traffic in our restaurant. So it's all about foot traffic moving forward. And I think David Hopkins from 15 Group has taught me as well as to really look at this in a positive notion and a positive lens. I think right now for us, it's really about getting people out there to support our industry, and to dine out again. You’re famous for your speech around the impact of AI in the hospitality industry. What do you think will change the most by 2030? Great question. Automation will be the backbone in our industry. I think you'll have AI weaved into our industry everywhere. QSRs are going to go through more transformation than they are now. I think restaurants will mostly be robotic, like the 1 in the United States with McDonald's. You have to do that for profitability. I think it comes back to more innovation when it comes to products. You're speaking a lot around zero waste. I think zero waste is going to be critical. Sustainability. All these things are not even going to be a part that they're introduced to. This is just going to be the way of life. I think that's the way we're going to have to look at 2030. People still dine out. I think we'll dine out more even. I remember you had some surprising statistics. When do you think AI will be smarter than us? Nine years from now, that's not far away, is it? It's coming fast. I'm going to say that you could probably cut that in half, based on the transformation we're seeing AI today. And AI last week was a big week for AI. Uh, they, you know, introduced GPTS or GPTs. And they introduced a new model. That's going to make it more accessible for people to use it. And that will probably cut those nine years, maybe in half, I guess. For 2024, you forecasted an average profitability of 1% in the industry. Yeah. So if you look at it today, we're running around 3 to 4% profit return on restaurants, which is really, really, really, really low. Now, if you factor in all these other factors of what we're looking at, and it's typically on your operational side. And that's going to be very difficult for businesses to generate the profit that they're looking for. Every small inch of the business will have to be reviewed to make sure we're doing everything and anything possible and every inch of that business to get as much profitability out of it. It's going to be very, very critical as we move forward into the new year. Fast casual and family may have to adjust their strategies, those are going to take a lot of the hit right now. Unfortunately. So we need to get out there and support them. That’s very insightful. And I also remember you saying that static pricing is a thing of the ...
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    14 m
  • The Joy of Feeding with Meeru Dhalwala @ Vij’s Restaurant [F&B Leader]

    The Joy of Feeding with Meeru Dhalwala @ Vij’s Restaurant [F&B Leader]
    Oct 31 2023

    Order some food from Vij's: https://vijs.oftendining.com

    Learn more about Vij's Restaurant: https://vijs.ca

    Learn more about BetterTable.ca: https://BetterTable.ca

    Apply for funding toward a food efficiency audit to improve F&B profitability: https://BetterTable.ca/apply
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    12 m
  • Chef Ned Bell, Ocean Wise Sustainable Seafood Advocate, shares some of his secrets [Culinary Leader]

    Chef Ned Bell, Ocean Wise Sustainable Seafood Advocate, shares some of his secrets [Culinary Leader]
    Sep 30 2023

    BetterTable Shortcast is brought to you by BetterTable.ca https://BetterTable.ca

    Get instant access to the BetterTable Academy to learn best practices to control food costs: https://BetterTable.ca/academy

    Learn more about Chef Ned Bell: https://www.hatchhospitality.com/ & https://www.nedbell.com/

    Watch the episode on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM2g7KZz5qo&t=15s
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    15 m
  • Boost Profitability and Sustainability with Ingrid Jarrett, CEO of the BC Hotel Association [Hospitality Leader]

    Boost Profitability and Sustainability with Ingrid Jarrett, CEO of the BC Hotel Association [Hospitality Leader]
    Sep 1 2023

    PROFITABILITY

    Apply for Vancity grant funding for your restaurant to boost F&B profits: https://BetterTable.ca/apply

    Learn more about BetterTable Food Audits: https://BetterTable.ca/audit

    SUSTAINABILITY

    BCHA Sustainability Playbook: https://www.bcha.com/sustainability-resources.html

    BCHA Sustainability Partners: https://www.bcha.com/recycling--sustainability.html

    DIVERSITY:

    50 30 Challenge from the Government of Canada: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/50-30-challenge-your-diversity-advantage
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    15 m
  • [5 Bites] 2023 BCHA Summit

    [5 Bites] 2023 BCHA Summit
    May 19 2023

    Download BetterTable.ca's food waste prevention guide: www.BetterTable.ca/ebook

    ⭐️ Bite #1 90% of hotels in BC have to increase menu prices

    ⭐️ Bite #2 The BC Government is committed to growing the tourism & hospitality industry

    Minister Lana Popham


    ⭐️ Bite #3 Diversity can help with staff shortages

    WUSC

    SDECB - Francophone Mobility (no LMIA required)

    ⭐️ Bite #4 Curiosity and Leadership will help improve customer satisfaction

    Dr John Izzo

    Synovus Bank ranks number 1 for customer satisfaction and trust


    ⭐️ Bite #5 Sustainability is a must have to be successful in 2023

    BCHA Awards winners with photos

    Trina White, winner of the Hotelier of the Year Award

    Executive Chef Kunal, winner of the Heart of Hospitality Award
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    8 m