Restaurant Masterminds Podcast

Joining IFBTA CEO Rob Grimes this week on Accelerate is Tomer Moore, founder of the Israeli Restaurant Association; Misadanim Chazakim Beyachad (Restauranteurs are Stronger Together). Tomer has background as a restauranteur, opening over 10 restaurants and working with Tech startups. Tomer noticed that despite Israel being a global technology powerhouse known as the “Startup Nation”, the restaurant industry used technology that was out of date, focusing mostly on POS.

Since COVID, things have shifted. Tomer mentions “It was a big crisis, but it was also a great opportunity for customers and for operators to make a technology shift and investment.” Customers are open for that.” Looking to the future, emerging tech like AI, robotics, blockchain, etc. are all making its way into the Israeli restaurant scene.”

To learn more about the emergence of technology in Israel and its growing restaurant, hospitality and tourism industries, this episode of Accelerate is a must!

Culture is at the center of the plate when it comes to what makes us unique and differentiates us in the products and services we offer. It needs to be served with the culture and customs of our guests and employees in mine. On this week’s episode of Accelerate, Host Rob Grimes considers the many forms of traditions and how they work hand in hand with the technology and tools that can help us.

The bottom line is that the hospitality industries need to provide good service no matter where they operate. To understand cultural expectations is to be able to provide that quality. Having options in menus is a good example of this - understanding the local needs and expectations of the customers you serve.

Technologies like AI and Machine Learning are able to help us understand and navigate various cultures in ways we couldn’t before. Still, Rob says, we don’t know everything. “We've started talking about ethics because that also plays a part; not just how people negotiate, but how they conduct business in ways which may seem different in every culture. Ethics also plays a part in how we use the technology; ethics is impacts what we can do and use in the information we collect.”

To learn more about the deep connection between technology and culture, listen to this episode of Accelerate.

New AI technologies constantly impact and offer opportunities for F&B and beyond. ChatGPT is the most recent “shiny object” garnering much of the recent media attention, conversation and debate. Education has been one of the first to call out the effect, and impact as students have the ability to get their work done by this application. While some educators have taken an optimistic approach to the new technology, others are actively resisting.

Joining host Rob Grimes on this episode is Toby Egan, PhD is Associate Professor & Senior Executive Fellow and Chair of the Faculty at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

Adaptation of technology is tough in any industry Egan notes, 3D printing for example. “Chefs would probably argue that the nuance there is going to be difficult for a machine to reproduce and I'm sure that's seen as a big challenge for the robotic industry.”

How is the government regulating these new technologies? What is the answer to the age old question of is technology here to help or hurt us? How do we put a hospitality focus on this?Find out on this episode of Accelerate.

Setting your global compass is the conversation of today’s episode of Accelerate. Host Rob Grimes talks about the relationship and considerations in sourcing technology that works across geographic borders, and where local customs, regulations, workforce and support all play a role. The impact of the different styles of service, food offerings and local customs such as service charges vs tips all need to be considered. Rob presents his thoughts on being global while adapting your tech stack for international markets and how to best understand and think locally.

If international expansion is in your gameplan, then identifying technologies and techniques that can work in an international market, are key considerations. Remember, it’s not always about the technology; it's about how you deliver your products and services, and how business is done in an international market that you need the proper technologies to enable.

And then the additional questions, while not directly tied to the functions and features you need to operate, that can impact your decision on one technology and provider over another. “Are you planning to franchise or license your operations? Are you going into new geographies, other countries, or regions of the world? Are you planning to sell or be acquired?”

To get your Visa and Passport stamped to cross the borders of technology for your operation, listen to this episode of Accelerate.

When people think about technology in a general sense, they don't necessarily think about the technology of food. This week, IFBTA CEO Rob Grimes has a conversation with Felipe Hasselmann, the President and CEO of Cuisine Solutions. Felipe says he is actually not in the business of food, but rather in the business of creating memories and experiences.

“You describe the texture. You describe the taste. That's the goal we want to accomplish. We create memories through food which requires a large amount of technology. This comes from research on equipment and cooking.”

Rob and Felipe discuss the importance of being consistent with high quality food products, where social media plays a role in maintaining a positive or negative memory, associating it with the provider.

They consider a future where cooking occurs via light waves, and food is prepared to perfection every step of the process, every time..

To learn more about food-tech, the relationship between memories, experiences, and food, and looking to future-tech cooking, listen to this episode of Accelerate.

NAFEM had one key message this year – Connected Kitchens. Connected Kitchens are more than simply connectivity between various pieces of equipment such as ovens, fryers and walk-ins. Today. Digital, Smart equipment connect not only with each other, but also communicate outside the four walls of the kitchen sharing data that enables more efficient and sustainable operations.

In this episode of Accelerate, Rob Grimes starts by recounting his recent experience at NAFEM, where the latest and greatest in foodservice equipment is showcased. Rob then goes on to sharing his perspective and an approach to defining your tech stack, putting it all together, and making it part of your roadmap for the next 3-5 years.

To learn more about the highlights at NAFEM, the power of connectivity and communication, and how to put it all together, listen to this episode of Accelerate.

When Lee Cockerell got to Walt Disney World in 1993, they did not have email and were still using brown envelopes and carbon paper to communicate. Needless to say, day-to-day operations have changed quite a bit since then.

In this episode of Accelerate, Rob Grimes talks with father & son Dan Cockerell and Lee Cockerell who were both part of the Disney leadership team as Executive Vice President and Vice President, respectively. They talk the journey of rolling out technology and the importance of adoption with both staff and guests alike.

Dan Cockerell notes on implementing technology that “every time we came up with a new technology… it was for our employees. We said they better love it. If they don’t, they will passively not adopt it. They're not going to help us fix it and make it better.” When asked about the influence of technology and how to stand out as a company, Lee shares that “there's 3 things you got to do better than everybody else and that's hire them right, train them right, and treat them right.”

To learn more about why technology is the most important focus for every business, and how it deeply impacts customer service & experience, listen to this episode of Accelerate.

With so many places to look for technology, sometimes what you’re looking for is available in a different part of the world or peripheral industries. Retail, for example, is an industry with many overlapping services within the foodservice space..

NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show took place in New York, showcasing retailers who specialize in convenience stores, grocery, and specialty stores. Trends highlighted included data, cameras, robotics, and holograms, and what do you know - these technologies were similarly displayed just a week prior at CES. “The speed of technology finding its way from the consumer industry to retail side is instantaneous today,” says Rob Grimes.

In this episode of Accelerate, IFBTA CEO Rob Grimes talks about his experience at NRF 2023's innovation lab as well as his observation of other crossover industries such lodging, travel, healthcare, vending and their overall impact on the future of the food and beverage industry.

What would you do if you could have a conversation with your great grandmother, or a deceased historical figure or celebrity? What started for Stephen Smith, founder of StoryFile, as an interest in the oral history of holocaust survivors has become a revolution in AI – technology that captures the beauty and wonder of the human spirit.

In the hospitality industry, where your culture is your difference, and maintaining a connection with guests creates brand loyalty. A virtual host that welcomes guests into a space can help bridge the gap in those connections. An employee can learn the company’s culture and be trained directly by the founder of their company. The opportunities are as endless as the imagination of what is possible, visualizing how technologies can be used to create a direct connection between operator/customer and employee/employer that has not have existed before.

Join IFBTA CEO, Rob Grimes and Chairman/CEO Stephen Smith of StoryFile in the conversation, as they navigate artificial intelligence and explore how to maintain the hospitality-human connection enabled by technology and innovation

When we think about innovation and the future, all roads lead to CES. While food and beverage technology are represented at CES in some form, it’s the technologies from other industries which will predict the trajectory of restaurants operations.


Let’s look at something like SmartHomes for example. We can look at the interconnectivity between our homes and portable devices to look at how restaurant equipment can all be interconnected, and communication streamlined.


In this Episode, Rob Grimes breaks down the various trends witnessed at CES, and how we might see these effect the restaurant experience as we know it.