How can technology help you streamline your operations and run your business more efficiently? What should you consider before investing in new technology? And how can tech help you to adhere to social distancing guidelines without losing the personal touch? 

Professor Peter Jones of the eHotelier Academy and Bryan Davern of the Press Up Hospitality Group, answer all these questions and more when they share their insights with host Ruth Hegarty in the seventh and final episode of the Inside Food series. 

A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Professor Peter Jones is a Director of Wentworth Jones, an international hospitality consultancy, and a Dean of the eHotelier Academy.  

Bryan Davern is Head of Hotels for the Press Up Hospitality Group, which includes seven hotels in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Westmeath. 

Listen to a particular topic: 

04:00 – The accelerated role of technology in the pandemic 
07:40 – Integrating technology systems 
16:54 – Improving efficiency through technology 
27:48 – How to use tech to adhere to social distancing guidelines but still maintain human interaction 
38:11 – What to consider before investing in new technology 

Data – how to gather it, how to interpret it, and how to use it to inform your business strategy – is the hot topic in the penultimate episode of Inside Food. Host Ruth Hegarty makes sense of the numbers with Karl Purdy of Coffeeangel in Dublin and Louise Palmer-Masterton of Stem & Glory in Cambridge and London.  

Resources: 

You can find a range of tools to help you analyse your data in Fáilte Ireland’s new Breakfast Innovation Toolkit.  

A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Karl Purdy is Founder and Managing Director of Coffeeangel, which spans five locations across Dublin city centre and a thriving online business. 

Louise Palmer-Masterton is Founder of Stem & Glory, a vegan restaurant group with premises in Cambridge and London. 

Listen to a particular topic: 

01:10 – What is data? 
04:18 – How to gather data 
07:02 – Understanding data systems 
11:11 – How data informs strategy 
17:49 – Gaining customer insights 
26:10 – Utilising marketing tools 
31:19 – The importance of customer interaction 

In episode 5 of Inside Food, host Ruth Hegarty is joined by Phillip O’Neill of Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport and Cariona Neary of Neary Marketing to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted operations and investigate how businesses can upskill staff and increase sales in an era of social distancing.  

Resources: 

You can find a range of tools to help you streamline operations and train staff in Fáilte Ireland’s new Breakfast Innovation Toolkit. The Service to Sales programme will launch soon, stay tuned to Fáilte Ireland’s COVID-19 Support Hub for more details.  

A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Phillip O’Neill is General Manager of the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport which features 608 bedrooms, a conference centre with 17 meeting rooms, public bar, two restaurants and café. 

Cariona Neary of Neary Marketing & Communications is a trainer, writer, lecturer, and Fáilte Ireland mentor, specialising in marketing and customer service strategies.  

Listen to a particular topic: 
01:32 – How COVID-19 has impacted food and beverage operations 
06:30 – Training and upskilling staff in preparation for reopening 
14:34 – Online learning and briefings 
19:00 – How technology can streamline operations and improve the customer journey 
22:19 – Upselling opportunities and the Service to Sales programme 

An estimated 150,000 tonnes of food is wasted in the Irish food service sector every year while globally approximately one-third of all food produced goes to waste.*  Not only is this hugely damaging to the environment, it also has a very real impact on businesses’ profitability. 

In the fourth episode of Inside Food chefs Niall Hill and Maurice McGeehan chat to host Ruth Hegarty about food waste in all its forms and discuss how to not only reduce it, but to avoid it entirely. 

* Source: EPA 

Resources: 

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Waste Charter includes information and guidance on how to reduce food waste. A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Niall Hill of Niall Hill Foods is a chef and food consultant serving clients in foodservice and food production. 

Maurice McGeehan, also known as ‘the No Waste Chef', is the Performance Chef for the IRFU. 

Listen to a particular topic: 

01:22 – The impact of food waste 
05:10 – Creative use of trimmings and by-product cooking 
12:47 – Avoiding waste through every step of the process 
18:36 – Analysing and incentivising waste reduction 
19:41 – Food waste technology 
21:54 – Labour management and operational efficiencies 

With food costs accounting for up to a third of the cost of sales, it is crucial that businesses understand the fundamentals of food cost management. Chefs Niall Hill and Mark Anderson join host Ruth Hegarty for this fast-paced discussion on controlling food costs and share their advice on: 

• Smart purchasing 
• Menu development and innovation 
• Margin erosion 
• Yield analysis 

Resources: 

You will find practical tools to help you control your food costs in Fáilte Ireland’s Breakfast Innovation Toolkit on the COVID-19 Support Hub. A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Niall Hill of Niall Hill Foods is a chef and food consultant serving clients in foodservice and food production. 

Mark Anderson is Culinary Director in Ireland for workplace catering company Gather & Gather. 


Listen to a particular topic: 

02:27 – Smart purchasing 
04:59 – Working with the seasons 
09:00 – Engineering menus 
12:11 – Margin erosion 
15:49 – Yield analysis 

Inside Food host Ruth Hegarty delves into the science of menu engineering in this fascinating discussion with chef Niall Hill and Managing Director of The Twelve Hotel, Fergus O’Halloran. Listen now to learn how to design your menus to increase sales of high-margin dishes and in turn boost profits. 

Niall and Fergus share their insights on: 

• The science of menu engineering 
• The importance of menu design 
• Cross-functional dishes to increase efficiencies 
• Developing outdoor dining menus 
• Re-engineering breakfast 
• Core-based recipes that can evolve through the seasons 

Resources: 

You will find practical tools to help you engineer your menus in Fáilte Ireland’s Breakfast Innovation Toolkit on the COVID-19 Support Hub. A full transcript of this discussion is available on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panellists: 

Ruth Hegarty (egg&chicken consulting) is a consultant and facilitator focused on food, farming and sustainability in business and policy. 

Niall Hill of Niall Hill Foods is a chef and food consultant serving clients in foodservice and food production. 

Fergus O’Halloran is Managing Director of The Twelve, an award-winning hotel in Galway. 

Chapters: listen to a particular topic

• 1:50 – What is menu engineering? 
• 5:19 – The importance of menu design 
• 09:55 – Driving efficiency in the kitchen 
• 14:30 – Developing outdoor dining menus 
• 16:30 – Re-engineering breakfast 
• 19:45 – Continuously evolving recipes 

The first episode in Fáilte Ireland’s seven-part Inside Food series charts how changing consumer behaviours will shape the future of eating out when businesses re-open. 

Host Ruth Hegarty is joined by Fáilte Ireland’s Amanda Horan; hospitality consultant Joe Quinn; and chef Niall Hill for a wide-ranging discussion on emerging trends in food. Listen now to learn how breakfast is changing, outdoor dining is evolving and food-to-go is here to stay. 

You will find the practical tools mentioned in this episode plus a transcript of the discussion on failteireland.ie/podcasts. 

Panel Biographies 

Host: Ruth Hegarty, Director, egg&chicken consulting  

After 11 years as Secretary-General of the Irish branch European chef organisation Euro-Toques, Ruth founded egg&chicken consulting in 2014 driven by a desire to work more closely with Ireland’s food producers and farmers, in addition to the hospitality and tourism sectors. 

Ruth is part of the management team of the international food symposium, Food on the Edge, and headed up the development of Chef Network, a professional network founded in 2016 with over 4,000 members. She is on the mentoring and training panels of BIM, Fáilte Ireland, LEO (Local Enterprise Offices) and New Frontiers. In addition to consultancy services, Ruth is an experienced speaker, MC/presenter, moderator and facilitator. 

Amanda Horan, Enterprise Development Manager, Fáilte Ireland 

Amanda’s early education and career in hospitality management included time spent in Switzerland, the UK and Ireland. Following a number of years in roles including F&B Development, Revenue Management, HR & People Development, Amanda moved into the further education sector and spent over a decade in roles including Facilities Management, third-level education and training and the management of Vocational and Rehabilitative Training Centres.  

Since joining Fáilte Ireland some 15 years ago, she has been involved in Continuous Professional Development, Regional Tourism Development, International Leisure Tourism Sales and for the past two years has been part of the team Supporting Enterprise Development of Industry. 

Joe Quinn, Hospitality Management Consultant 

Joe Quinn is a hospitality management consultant specialising in Hotel Operations Management. He held the role of Group Operations and Integration Manager for Clayton Hotels at Dalata Hotel Group from 2014 to 2018. 

Prior to this, and during his 25 years with Jurys Doyle Hotel Group plc, Joe held a number of senior positions including General Manager, Construction Projects Manager, Group General Manager and finally Chief Operations Officer. As Chief Operations Officer he was instrumental in opening 12 new hotels in the UK between 2007 and 2012.   

Niall Hill, Founder, Niall Hill Foods 

With over 30 years’ experience both national and international, Niall is best known for his work as head of food at the award-winning food company, The Butler’s Pantry. 

Over the last 16 years Niall has won numerous awards including the Great Taste Awards, Small Business Award and Blas na hÉireann, and has a MSc in Applied Culinary Nutrition. Niall has been a regular contributor to Food & Wine magazine, TV3, and is a guest chef for Miele. A member of the Chef Network Advisory Council, he runs Niall Hill Foods, a consultancy business serving clients in foodservice and food production. 

Get ready for Inside Tourism Business, the new podcast from Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority.

Launching this spring, Fáilte Ireland’s Inside Tourism Business is the definitive podcast for tourism operators. Bringing you expert advice, insights and practical tools, the podcast will help you navigate the challenges your business is facing, drive efficiency, and maximise revenue.

Series one of Fáilte Ireland’s new podcast looks Inside Food, examining trends and tackling costs to help you innovate while running a leaner, more successful food operation.