Culinary Options is a foodservice consultancy whose primary focus is on the development of concept clarity, strategic menu choices, and memorable customer experiences.
Today’s operators face challenging realities such as shorter concept and food trend shelf lives, growing demographic shifts, accelerated building and operating costs and technological disruptions. CulinaryOptions vigorously studies these shifts and offers collaborative input, allowing clients to achieve optimal solutions for their new beginning, during concept refreshment or in rebranding efforts.
We work closely with design consultants, architects, interior designers and all project stakeholders to assure concept integration, with a focus on the menu as driver, the kitchen design, and equipment packages that will serve each concept most effectively.
Simply, the goal of Culinary Options is to assist clients in creating a harmonious, sensible, profitable and enduring operation.
Culinary Options is a foodservice consultancy whose primary focus is on the development of concept clarity, strategic menu choices, and memorable customer experiences.
Today’s operators face challenging realities such as shorter concept and food trend shelf lives, growing demographic shifts, accelerated building and operating costs and technological disruptions. Culinary Options vigorously studies these shifts and offers collaborative input, allowing clients to achieve optimal solutions for their new beginning, during concept refreshment or in rebranding efforts.
We work closely with design consultants, architects, interior designers and all project stakeholders to assure concept integration, with a focus on the menu as driver, the kitchen design and equipment packages that will serve each concept most effectively.
Simply, the goal of Culinary Options is to assist clients in creating a harmonious, sensible, profitable and enduring operation.
Culinary Options is a foodservice consultancy whose primary focus is on the development of concept clarity, strategic menu choices, and memorable customer experiences.
Today’s operators face challenging realities such as shorter concept and food trend shelf lives, growing demographic shifts, accelerated building and operating costs and technological disruptions. Culinary Options vigorously studies these shifts and offers collaborative input, allowing clients to achieve optimal solutions for their new beginning, during concept refreshment or in rebranding efforts.
We work closely with design consultants, architects, interior designers and all project stakeholders to assure concept integration, with a focus on the menu as driver, the kitchen design and equipment packages that will serve each concept most effectively.
Simply, the goal of Culinary Options is to assist clients in creating a harmonious, sensible, profitable and enduring operation.
This is the most important step. We listen, probe, and assist clients in detailing their vision. This leads to actual concept creation as ideas are given specificity and bone structure.
A concept must be brought to life through its menu. We now specify what types of items, price points and stylistic elements for the menu that will enhance and strengthen the concept. This phase places meat on the bones.
We assist our clients in mapping the strategy for timely and successful project completion and implementation.. Execution can be complex. We remain involved as client needs dictate.
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When Amazon executive leaders realized the mammoth task that lied ahead for them to feed nearly 50,000 employees, they realized that a team of consultants was required to help them develop a master plan for foodservice. They wanted to digress from the classic corporate campus “cafeteria thinking” and create discreet, fully articulated Fast Casual concepts within the secure spaces of their three newest 37-story buildings, as well as reinvent foodservice in three existing buildings. My role was to research the Fast Casual category and present fully articulated concepts from which they could choose. I presented 47 Fast Casual Concepts, with narratives, pictures, operational descriptions and prototype menus for each. From these 47, they have so far selected 27 which are being built.
Collaborated with Russ Benson, DayOne Hospitality, as part of an RFP process, to analyze the current operations at headquarters in Silicon Valley and San Francisco from a menu, concept and quality standpoint that would further inform the content of the RFP. The same consultant and I were then hired to conduct a deep dive into technological solutions for their current operations as well as that of a soon-to-be large
Was hired, along with Russ Benson, DayOne Hospitality and Laura Lentz, Culinary Advisors, to create an intensive workshop for the foodservice program managers at the AOC covering elements ranging from visioning, to concept development to operational feasibility and design. We were then asked to analyze all existing operations to both assist the AOC in developing an entirely new “way of being” (anti-cafeteria) as well as contribute to the Master Planning process and RFP process.
As a result of totally redesigning the entire campus and hiring respected architects from other countries to design spectacular buildings, the executive leaders wanted to do something dramatically different with foodservice on this corporate campus. They wanted a restaurant expert on the foodservice planning team in addition to those who historically had worked only with corporate dining. I was hired (referred by Coburn & Guyette Kitchen Designers & Foodservice Consultants in Boston) to assist in the development of three fully articulated restaurant concepts for each of the new buildings: concept, menu, equipment requirements, operational flow and design personality for each. Detailed documents were created which then allowed the architects and kitchen designers to have a road map. I then assisted in the RFP process for finding outside restaurateurs to operate the restaurants, interviewing them and participating in the ultimate operator choices.
Sentry headquarters in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was in the midst of a total cafeteria remodel. They did not want to rely on their foodservice operator to determine their future for them, so I was hired to frame the conceptual approach to the food in the cafeteria, develop prototype menus for each station, help select merchandising and tabletop decor that was congruent with the concept and liaise with the existing operator to assure that the vision held by the thought leaders was executed according to the master plan.
HCSC (Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company)
The foodservice program leaders requested a thorough analysis of their menus and sales reports in order to develop forward-thinking strategies based on my study and resulting recommendations. HCSC has multiple locations around the United States.