When I was in high school a McDonald’s Big Mac was among my favorite fast-food meals.

Regardless of whether you find it shocking, the concept of the all-electric commercial kitchen continues to gain amperage in all corners of the foodservice industry. And this topic will only increase its voltage in the coming months and years. 

Here are three random thoughts and observations.

In business it’s pretty common to toss around buzzwords when trying to make a point. Yet sometimes we hear the words so often it becomes easy to forget what they actually mean.

Most companies have a vision, but executing to meet that vision is often easier said than done. For a good example of how to develop a corporate vision and execute to it, look no further than Singer Equipment Company. It’s been 10 years since we last profiled the FE&S 2023 Dealer of the Year and so much has changed.

The term innovation gets tossed around the foodservice industry.

Ever since meeting Rosie the Robot on The Jetsons back in the fall of 1962, Americans have been wondering when robots will become a dominant feature in restaurants. Perhaps that time has finally come.

Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss.

If we learned anything the past few years, it’s that seminal events like a global pandemic will not uniformly impact a business segment. Instead, the results will often be uneven and vary by geography, business type and various other factors. And nowhere is this more evident than within the foodservice industry.

It was early fall in 2002 and a friend had taken a job in Singapore.

While driving my daughter to one of her early-morning swim practices we went past a fast-casual restaurant chain our family used to regularly visit. When I mentioned to Annie that it had been a while since we had been there, she laughed and said, “That was the only place we could go where we all could find something we liked.”

After more than two years where chaos was the norm, everyone in the foodservice industry seems ready to go back to a more stable approach to serving consumers, concept development and yes, even the terms and timing that pertain to the buying and selling of equipment and supply items.

Here is some simple advice for complicated times.

In many respects, the foodservice industry is a lot like Martin Scorsese’s hit movie “Goodfellas,” given how relationship-based it truly is. As Ray Liotta’s character Henry Hill said, “You know, we always called each other good fellas. Like you’d say to, uh, somebody, ‘You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.’ You understand? We were good fellas.”

Prognosticating during a pandemic can be like spitting into the wind in that it’s simultaneously messy and unpredictable.

Like certain relatives at the end of a holiday party, you know the ones, there’s a trio of foundation-shaking business challenges the foodservice industry faces that don’t show any signs of leaving anytime soon. It does not matter what role a company plays in the foodservice industry; everyone faces the same three challenges as the industry enters 2022: cost, supply chain and labor.

The idea of automating foodservice operations by using robots is nothing new. Most everyone in the foodservice industry likes to reminisce about seeing burger or pancake flipping robots at various times at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. Yet outside of a salad-making robot that came of age at the NRA Show a few years ago, the fact remains widespread automation has been slow to catch on in the foodservice industry.

As the year drags on two main issues continue to dominate the conversation throughout the foodservice industry: supply chain and labor.

Over the past year or so, two terms have dominated the foodservice industry’s lexicon: pivot and flexibility. Unless you’ve been living on a desert island, I don’t think this requires any further explanation.

In the movie “The Godfather III,” there’s an iconic scene where Michael Corleone, after years of trying to make his family business legitimate, bellows in exasperation, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” I am sure that sentiment was shared by many throughout the foodservice industry in early August when, after months of progress, a surge in COVID-19 cases courtesy of the delta variant threatened to set back the industry.

In mid-July #CovidIsNotOver was regularly trending across social media platforms. It referred to an uptick in cases across various parts of the country as mostly nonvaccinated folks danced with this disease. But this could have just as easily applied to the foodservice industry, which continues to grapple with the fallout from the pandemic.

Just about every operator segment had to abruptly change direction due to the pandemic. Take for example, college foodservice.

Just last month, many businesses started calling their teams back to the office.

Few would disagree that the current business environment is better than it was a year ago at this time.

As the pandemic plays out, lots of conversations continue to take place trying to dissect the long-term impact this public health crisis will have on the industry.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Add transparency to the list of foodservice trends already in motion but gained new momentum and meaning due to COVID-19. And, much like the need to social distance and wear a mask to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the concept of transparency isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

As foodservice operators from all segments prepare to mount a comeback from the trials and tribulations of COVID-19, expect beverages to be a key element in any successful campaign.

It’s December and that means the year 2020 is about to finally come to an end. This has been an unprecedented year in so many ways. From a pandemic to murder hornets to perhaps the most emotionally charged election cycle in the history of the U.S., the only thing that seemed to reign for most of the year is chaos. As the calendar turns over to 2021, however, let’s all make a pledge to furlough chaos and get on with our personal and professional lives.

At the start of the iconic holiday television special “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” Lucy holds the football for her old pal to kick. We all know how this turns out: Charlie Brown charges toward the football and Lucy pulls it away, yet again, before he can kick it. Charlie Brown is left lying on the ground feeling frustrated again.