The Case for Change: Chef Matthew Jennings, founder of Full Heart Hospitality

We're all shut down. The hamster wheel has stopped. And some of us, myself included, are wondering if we have the energy and, more importantly, the desire, to hop back on. 

Today we discuss the case for change with a man that did just that. Matthew Jennings walked away from his award winning restaurants and all of the perks that come with being a celebrity chef to follow his bliss. 

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SHOW NOTES

• Change to the flow of service
• What happens to Front-of-House service?
• When doing delivery, does presentation matter?
• Restaurants won’t be restaurants anymore
• Reservation systems could be a benefit
• More information is taken from the guest
• Additional information is an opportunity for more engagement and connection with customers
• Pivoting
• Cornell Business suggests ⅓ bodega style, ⅓ takeout, ⅓ dine-in
• Chefs Matthew interviewed pivoted in different ways
• 1 pivoted to groceraunt model
• 1 pivoted to meal kits and family meals
• 1 pivoted to mercantile - soap, non-perishable products
• Starting in consulting
• Started as a side hustle whilst running own restaurant
• Worked with Dunkin Donuts
• Started Full Heart Hospitality
• Teamed up with Jason Rose
• Areas of consulting
• Creative
• Design concepts
• Design products
• Creating menus
• Marketing
• Operational
• Strategy
• Implementation
• Why Matthew left the restaurant biz at the top of his game
• Growing wasn’t fulfilling
• Running a restaurant took a toll on health and family life
• Doctor gave him a wake-up call
• Recovering from being overworked
• Moving
• Creating a new community
• Working from home
• Belief that life can be about abundance, joy, and progress can all happen at the same time
• Changes that can be made in the industry
• What do guests want
• Comfort food
• Number of people in a restaurant
• How to treat our teams
• What systems to keep
• The hard part is not having answers regarding the future of the virus
• Information changes every day
• How do you make decisions when things are constantly changing?
• 30/60/90 strategy for planning
• 30-day strategy aiming for small wins
• Reflect and measure the results at the end of the 30days
• Create a roadmap for 60 days then 90 days
• Cut down overwhelm by breaking it down
• We must remain flexible as things change
• Not completely reinventing the business model just in case things change quickly again
• Post-pandemic predictions
• How are guests going to feel in a restaurant?
• Restaurateurs responsibility to keep guests and staff safe