IFPA conference features a close-up focus on foodservice stars

MONTEREY, Calif. — With personal stories, career reflections and on-set food preparation, the talk-show format of the Monterey Bay Live! July 29 general session of the Foodservice Conference dazzled with three prominent foodservice personalities.

Hosted by speaker and consultant Leslie Sbrocco, the 80-minute event featured Vincent Huynh, co-owner and culinary director at Agricole Hospitality, Michel Nischan, founder and chair of Wholesome Wave/Wholesome Crave and Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms.

Finding joy

After testing other career interests, Huynh said it was his background in working at his family’s Vietnamese American restaurant that drew him back to his passion.

Huynh's Agricole Hospitality has seven diverse restaurants in the Houston area, with another to open soon. 

“It is a joy when you are caring for people and providing them something special that they couldn’t do for themselves,” he said. Feeding people, and giving those patrons joy, is still rewarding. Cooking is “like magic” to people who don’t do it, he said.

“The highest and best parts of society will still want you regardless of what else you might have to provide for them, because everybody wants to eat well,” he said. 

Beyond culinary skills, Huynh said mentors and teachers of younger chefs must instill the character traits such as sacrifice and hard work and also leave room for personal development and growth.

“That will be your legacy, the person you were, not so much the things you did,” he said.

Riding the wave

Nischan,  founder of food supplier Wholesome Crave and the nonprofit foundation Wholesome Wave, cooked up a plant-based savory dish in front of the largest general session crowd, with another chef and his staff helping to distribute small samples of the dish to everyone in the audience.

“We make vegetables the center of the plate instead of meat the center of the plate,” Nischan said of his company Wholesome Crave.

Interviewed by Sbrocco, Nischan said he spent much time in his youth on a family farm in southeastern Missouri where he learned how to raise animals, fruits, and vegetables and turn those foods into something delicious.

The farmer and the cook have “very similar” competencies, Nischan joked. “You work your (tail) off and don't expect to make a lot of money.”

Compared with 30 years ago, the farm-to-table concept resonates increasingly with people, he said. 

“When I first started in the restaurant business, it was really impossible to, to get like a real ripe tomato, because everything was being grown far away ; it was more about volume at the time,” he said. 

Today, the winds have changed. “Everybody yearns for that authentic direct connection to the person who's growing (their food), and they're more curious about it now than ever before,” he said.

Growers and food producers with courage are increasingly engaging with consumers and are “opening the Kimono” to let people see what goes into farming, he said. “The public is ready for that conversation,” Nischan said.

Asked how advocates can ensure that all populations of Americans have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, Nischan said the federal government must steward public dollars to take down the barrier of affordability for low-income people who want to choose fruits and vegetables. 

The USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, which provides incentives for fruit and vegetable purchases in the food stamp program, has been a success. That success can be extended with produce prescription programs, he said. 

With obesity-related diseases costing the government more than $1 trillion, Nischan said many billions in taxpayer funds should arguably be invested in reimbursing people for healthier food choices.

“The economic opportunity, I would think, is irresistible,” he said, noting that the monies would create opportunities up and down the whole produce supply chain.

Lawmakers want to hear from the industry on decisions they could make that would create more jobs and economic benefits, Nischan said.

All in

Taylor of Taylor Fresh Foods said he grew up as the third generation in a produce business.

“I had no intention of getting into the produce business; it looked like a pretty crazy place with 30 different competitors making the same thing every day; how do you differentiate yourself?” he recalled.

Taylor found that differentiation in the form of fresh-cut salad, first with Fresh Express in the late 1980s, and then starting Taylor Farms in 1995 when his family partners in Fresh Express were on a path to sell that company.

Taylor said listening to consumers was paramount for Taylor Farms as it grew in the fresh-cut and salad category.

“It is the customer's decision whether they like you, whether they want to support you, whether they want to trust you,” he said. At the start of the bagged salad era, Taylor said no one knew how popular they would become.

“By making products convenient and ready to eat, it attracted people and allowed us to get our fresh products into more people's stomachs,” he said. 

Innovations in product, processes and people will make any product more accessible and successful, Taylor said.

Innovation in Taylor Farms involves everyone, he said. “All I ask is that if you make a mistake, learn from it,” he said. 

Success in meeting customer needs comes with being passionate, authentic and providing something of value.

“The way you build your business (is that) you build trust, you say what you're going to do, and then you do it,” he said. “If you make a mistake, you fix it. Some of the best relationships that we've built are after something went very wrong. Learning from those failures is also how you react to that. It's how you take responsibility for it, accountability for it, and then go and fix it. And so that's how we just built these relationships over the years.”

Looking at future opportunities in foodservice, Taylor said soaring prices of beef and chicken invite produce suppliers to take over more of the dinner plate.

In addition, increasing concerns about climate change will help build fresh produce demand relative to the demand for meat, he said. Vegetable-based items could be a huge opportunity going forward, he said.

While government programs can help the industry, Taylor said individual companies must do the work to produce great products with great freshness and quality control

“That’s what the consumer wants.”