Overseeing strategy, operational excellence and innovation to deliver more than 14,000 meals per day in 31 venues throughout the Yale University campus, Rafi Taherian has a lot on his plate. But he embraces the challenge with a hearty laugh, a dare-to-be- different approach and a deep love for the industry that he has served for 25 years.
2016 IFMA Silver Plate winner in healthcare Diane Imrie, MBA, RD, director of Nutrition Services at The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, discusses cultural change, customer service and more.
Remodeling any existing foodservice facility comes with trials and tribulations, especially around determining which pieces stay and which get replaced. Making this determination represents a challenge for operators and any member of a project team but poses an even more unique task in college and university settings, with their high volumes and frequent menu changes, not to mention budgetary and other constraints.
When David Duckworth joined Commercial Kitchen Parts & Service almost three decades ago after working seven years as a licensed journeyman electrician, he had no knowledge of foodservice equipment.
With consumers placing an emphasis on menus that use fresh and local ingredients, foodservice operators find themselves pressed for time to make food-to-order in a manner that meets guests’ expectations for speed of service. At the same time, operators now look to set up shop in smaller spaces to lower overhead costs and allow them to serve new areas.
We all get busy. For restaurants and other foodservice operators, it’s especially easy to forget to clean, maintain and check equipment on a daily basis. And many don’t keep logs or concrete schedules in place to guide these important tasks. But when you’ve invested extra dollars to buy top-of-the-line, energy- and/or water-efficient models, maintenance becomes even more important if you want to realize those benefits and cost savings over time.
Managing a foodservice operation's repair and maintenance expenses requires an understanding of how service agents structure their invoices and fees. The more operators understand, the better they can manage their costs. These different billing practices can make it hard for servicers and operators to have a fruitful conversation about costs.
A number of operators are reinventing the steakhouse segment with updated menus, sustainable meats and modern decor in an effort to attract a wider demographic.
More often, retirement community foodservice programs are reflecting the trends of retail restaurants, with from-scratch cooking, local fare and cleaner, more nutritious ingredients.
For today’s healthcare foodservice operator, speed of service has become just as important as food quality. One veteran foodservice consultant outlines five steps that can help non-commercial foodservice operators, including those in the healthcare segment, get their customers through the service lines quicker and back to their busy lives.
After launching a multifaceted corporate responsibility initiative and new energy-saving steps four years ago, Arby’s saved more than $20 million and achieved its goal to reduce energy consumption by 15 percent by 2015. The sandwich chain has also achieved an 8.6 percent reduction in water consumption in its company-owned restaurants.
Often used by institutional feeders, conveyor washers allow operators to efficiently clean large amounts of dishes over long periods of time. Below are some tips to keeping a conveyor-style warewasher running properly.
Intense competition among healthcare providers and increased pressure to continually improve the quality of food and services while containing and reducing costs have long been the challenges facing healthcare foodservice operators. So what’s new? The new normal is exponentially more intensively competitive with unprecedented pressure on healthcare foodservice operators to be at the top of their games.
Members of the supply chain begin working closer together to stave off service-related issues to ensure that the equipment foodservice operators purchase lives up to its brand promise.
Sustainable purchasing practices, room service and sous vide preparation support this provider’s commitment to preventative healthcare.
Producing 20,000 to 34,000 meals a day requires a lot of firepower, energy and labor. That’s the reality Gate Gourmet faces on a daily basis. And thanks to its participation in an ongoing test program, the producer of airline catering and other provisioning services has been able to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent at its Southern California location.
