What are the folks at the top of our industry doing to help us and themselves? On today's show, we chat with four-time James Beard award-winning TV personality, chef, writer, teacher and social justice advocate, Chef Andrew Zimmern. Andrew has not only reached the pinnacles of success, he'd done so while supporting and advocating for independent restaurants. Today we talk about the where we are and where we're headed as an industry and what we can do to help each other.

Click to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Click here to book time on my personal calendar.

Click here to download our Restaurant Recovery Guide.

Want to streamline your front-of-house operations and increase sales? Head over to http://restaurants.yelp.com/fullcomppodcast to claim your free page and learn more about these powerful tools for your business.

SHOW NOTES

3-pronged strategy for moving forward during the Covid crisis
Not getting stuck in one metric or business model. Being fluid and flexible
Covid give us a chance to review our businesses
Many sectors of the hospitality industry were already broken - Covid accelerated the demise
Building back the right way
Reviewing pricing, menus, HR
Realigning our motives for being in the hospitality industry
Many people joined to become famous or seek wealth
This can be poor for mental health as stardom is fleeting
Stay in the industry because of love, not to get rich
Wolfgang Puck took a huge risk coming to America and struggled alot in his early career. His passion led to his stardom.
There is a low barrier to entry to become a restaurateur
Anyone with finance can open a restaurant
The restaurant life seems “sexy” and appealing to anyone who loves dining out
The restaurant business is extremely fragile to run well - pennies business with slim margins
Reflecting as a practice
Andrew has a daily reflection practice he learned whilst becoming sober
Taking regular inventory of problems e.g pros and cons lists
Writing things on paper helps to reflect on them
Any business or human being that doesn’t regularly take stock will fail
Reflecting on the restaurant business
Slowing down to learn from what is happening right now
Working on ops issues
How working for larger causes helps mental health
Taking focus off himself slows his thoughts
Working extremely hard
Extremely fulfilling work
Projects to help the hospitality industry
Small anonymous group helping local community
Speaking to the local governor regarding safety in hospitality reopening
Why we are on this earth
Andrew would ask First Peoples’ this question
“We’re on this earth to love and nurture each other”
Small gestures are more fulfilling than big gestures
Things we can do to service the industry
Start at a community level
Create a community resource kitchen if it is needed
Donate time, money, or food to resource kitchens and initiatives already operating
Share causes on social media
Checking in on people
Donating masks
The podcast is awareness-raising and impacting lives
Positive changes predicted for after Covid
Low-cost micro model restaurants for feeding small communities

808: 6/17 Hour 3: Superflex Mock Draft with Jake Ciely