What truly separates a cook from a chef? According to industry veteran and acclaimed Chef Brian Duffy, it's far more than culinary skill—it's understanding the business of restaurants from the ground up.
Chef Duffy took time to talk with us in Las Vegas about his remarkable journey from culinary school graduate to opening restaurants and building a diverse empire of food-related businesses. With ownership stakes in everything from a German spice company to a multimedia firm with over 100 billion content views, Duffy represents the real grit of the multifaceted modern culinary entrepreneur.
At the heart of this convo lies a critical message for restaurant owners and aspiring chefs alike: profitability matters as much as passion. Duffy recounts how most executive chef candidates fail his first interview question about understanding restaurant budgets. "If you don't know what your sales are, how are you budgeting for your purchasing, how are you budgeting for your scheduling, and how are you going to make money off that product?" This fundamental knowledge gap explains why talented cooks often struggle when given management responsibilities.
Being at the Bar & Restaurant Expo we talked about the technological revolution reshaping kitchens post-COVID. From self-cleaning hood systems to induction cooking innovations, these advancements remain unknown to many operators in smaller markets—exactly why Duffy champions the Food and Beverage Innovation Center to showcase possibilities beyond traditional vendor offerings. While acknowledging that robots might handle some repetitive kitchen tasks, both Chefs maintain that "a robot can't replace a chef's mind and hands."
Through his consulting firm, Duffified Experience Group, Chef Duffy helps bridge the knowledge gap between culinary creativity and business sense. Want to transform your restaurant's performance? Connect with Chef Brian Duffy on all social platforms @ChefBriDuff and discover how an upfront investment in expertise could save your business from costly long-term mistakes.
Thanks agian for taking the time Brian, you are an incredible talent, host, and champion for the growth in the restuarnt industry!
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Episode Transcript
Listen up here.
The restaurant industry isgrueling and unpredictable, just
like this show.
From the front of the house tothe back of the house and all in
between, we will turn up theheat, you turn up the volume.
I'm Chef Antonio Caruana.
Welcome to the Tell All Podcastat Burnt Hands for the Mecca.
Alright, sitting here right nowwith Chef Brian Duffy Classic,
classic, classic.
(00:20):
My man over here, you'reinvolved with all kinds of stuff
, bro, with the culinary world.
Tell them if they don't know.
Where did you get your startand how did you come up?
And what are you doing here?
Why am I talking to you?
Why?
Why am I attracted to you?
You are a handsome guy.
I am a very handsome right Ifeel confident in that no one
tell you different, bro, I'mtelling you right now my name is
brian defy.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm a chef.
I grew up in philadelphia.
I graduated from culinaryschool in 1995, really having no
idea what I wanted to do in theindustry.
I just knew at that point maybeI'll try cooking.
That's kind of the way itplayed out.
From there I just kind of movedinto becoming a chef of a bunch
of different restaurants andowning and operating different
restaurants.
Since then I've opened 116restaurants.
(01:00):
I am a part owner of a spicecompany called Wurzpot
W-U-R-Z-P-O-T-T out of Germany.
I am an advisor on a companycalled Molly B's Cookies out of
Alaska.
I'm also one of the owners of acompany called Yum Crunch,
which is a multimedia firm thatwe handle all culinary content
across the board.
We've got over 100 billionviews on our stuff.
I'm also on the board for theBar and Restaurant Expo, also
(01:27):
known used to be known as theBar, the Nightclub and Bar Show,
and in right after pandemic werebranded it as the Bar and
Restaurant Expo, really focusingas much as we could on things
that smaller mom and poprestaurants need, as well as
chains and whatnot.
But from there we came into theFood and Beverage Innovation
Center, which was an idea togive smaller restaurants an
opportunity to see what can bedone without being locked into a
(01:48):
purveyor or something to thateffect.
Right now a lot of ourpurveyors are really kind of
gearing what happens on ourmenus and what we do, and this
whole center is all aboutthinking outside of the box.
So we bring seven differentchefs in, we have 20 culinary
students from Johnson and Wales,we have 10 different volunteers
that help us plate.
We're going to feed over 10,000people over the next two days.
(02:09):
We have all sponsored stationsthroughout the whole thing.
Middleby Equipment handlesevery single bit of our
innovative equipment.
That's a lot of induction basedstuff, induction combi.
We've got conveyor charbroilers.
I've got a hood system overthere that cleans itself with UV
light.
Our stations over there.
We've got a pizza zone put onby Parpan.
I have a chef out of NewHampshire who runs that and does
(02:31):
whatever he wants literallywhatever he wants.
He creates some of the greatestpizzas coming out of there.
I've got a fry zone sponsoredby Allied Potato, so we have
three different cuts of fries.
And then I have Heinz Kraft whohandles all the sauces for it.
So they have the new system,which is basically it's a
million ways to sauce.
(02:51):
So they have… Choose one.
Choose one, but what you can dois you can mix and match and
create any sauce you want to do.
Then we have, like Maple LeafDuck as a sponsor, lando Lakes
Queso Bravo, which is a hugesauce that we're using in the
show.
Fresh Origin microgreens.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So really just kind of getting some of these
products in the show.
The stuff you're talking about,the broadleaf duck, I use that,
the microgreens Maple leafMaple leaf, I'm sorry, no
worries, broadleaf is where Iget my board.
Maple leaf duck Canada.
Yeah, canadian duck Good stuffthat is from there.
Maple.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Leaf is Indianapolis Things I learned yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, I didn't know either.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I always thought it was a Canadian company as well.
Then, when I started to dig inand find out more about their
product and what they're doingfor us is a sous vide duck
breast and a duck confit, andthen I'm frying all my fries in
duck fat.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Perfect.
So as I confit my duck for mymenu, I'm always recycling my
duck fat and keep growing andgrowing and growing.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So it's a great thing .
Speaker 1 (03:45):
But what you're saying now makes a lot of sense.
There's a lot of things goingon here, especially at this expo
.
You can probably agree with meSmall town, usa, everywhere, usa
, yeah, a lot of us are onlysubjected to what it is that we
are subjected to, right?
Yeah, so our reps, our vendors,our purveyors will bring us
only what we see, and I'mtalking about not the food way,
(04:07):
I'm talking about the the newtechnology going on in the
restaurant industry here atthese events.
I recommend all of you come andsee what's here, because just
walking through it one time,you're going to see so many
innovative things that can helpyou get more inspired to cook,
more methods of cooking, easierways of cooking.
Uh, monetarily, you know,saving you money to cook may
cost you a little upfront, butwhat it saves you in the long
(04:29):
run is is ridiculous.
So technology has changeddrastically since COVID.
Yeah, I feel cooking, thetechnology to cook and bring
things to the table, has gottenso much better, yeah, that we
don't even get to see him untilwe come to big events like this.
Well, we.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Originally we had a robot that was going to work our
fry bar, but he didn't show upfor work.
Yeah, so figures, we were close.
We were so close to get them inthere, trust them.
But I heard Musk has a newculinary robot that is doing a
whole bunch of stuff as well.
Five grand for this system forhim to do Right us never the
(05:08):
case.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
A robot can't replace a chef's mind and hands
absolutely, but it can assist inthings on different levels of
cooking.
May it may replace somethingthat's putting out french fries
at a massive amount at afootball game.
Sure, possibly will it reallyjust destroy cooking it already
is correct.
It already is so yes, I can seewhat they're talking about there
.
You're going to lose a little.
You know the, the, the handstaking basket fries and put them
(05:29):
up there at minimum wage.
But it's going to be so muchfaster, more productive to get
those fries to a customer,because that's really, you know,
in a football game or a stadiumsetting people want their food
now, right, so it really worksthere and monetarily works
smartly all the way around.
Yeah, so, so, without peoplelike you, and you and you are
getting ready to go and do somespeaking here, or, yeah, I'm
actually doing a seminar comingup in a minute called chefs and
(05:51):
owners.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Who owns the kitchen?
Yep, so so perfect.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So when you go to these seminars, you're teaching,
where you're basically recitingwhat you've learned, your
experiences.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Today's all about the fact that we have a lot of
chefs and a lot of culinariansthat are out there that are
really not trained in thebusiness of being in the
restaurant industry.
It's great, they put outunbelievable food, they're doing
a great job with putting thecooks in line and getting
everybody ready to go, but thefinance behind it is something
that's missing.
So if you're an owner operatorwho just buys a bar and you've
(06:20):
got a kitchen and you have akitchen manager, what do you
expect from that person?
So I walk you through a daily,weekly and monthly situation of
what you should be expectingfrom your chefs, from your
kitchen managers, to help yourkitchen not only run more
efficiently, but to run muchmore as a business so that it's
profitable instead of justputting food.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So you're right there .
A lot of people think when theyhire a sous chef or a kitchen
manager or a chef de cuisine,whatever whatever you want to
label it they're thinking thatwell, you're not doing what I
hired you to do and they put alot of pressure on that person
to come in and recreate theirvision.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That's not fair.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So what you do is you try and explain to the owners,
or the restaurant owners or thechefs on how to utilize the
people they are bringing in tofollow a projected path.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Absolutely Give these owners an idea of what they
should really be looking for andtell chefs look, you know, just
because you're putting thetitle of chef on your jacket, it
doesn't just mean that we cook,it means that we have to run a
financially sound businessoperation and that's where the
translation gets lost.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
My friend, a lot of people call themselves chefs,
especially now the way socialmedia has done that stuff.
It's so easy to get the cheftitle Because you can cook for
all you in the back.
Because you can cook for allyou in the back because you can
cook doesn't make you a chef.
Stop, there's a whole bunch ofstuff that goes into that.
Run your crew, run a kitchen,run a productive menu, have your
food costs, show the resultsand then, and then you're.
(07:39):
You're on the way to being achef.
Just because you're cookingmakes you a cook.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Chef means head of the brigade.
That's the idea behind that.
You're the person that overseeseverybody that works underneath
of you and what happens withthat, and it is.
I mean, I interview people forclients and for restaurants and
for my own places all the time,and I'm interviewing for
executive chefs and usually theyfail on the first question.
First question being let's talkabout the budget at your last
restaurant, sure?
Well, most of them don'tunderstand what a budget is.
(08:04):
They don't even know what thesales they were doing.
Well, if you don't know whatyour sales are, how are you
budgeting for your purchasing,how are you budgeting for your
scheduling and how are you goingto make money off of that
product?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
right and a budget can go a couple ways.
So when I, when I ask that same,question I'm looking for at
least some sort of costedpercentages, some court, some
sort of how are you spending abudget?
Because a budget could be abudget, could be a budget, but
how are you going to go aroundit?
If you have a $500,000 budget,which would be beautiful, it's
going to be the same treatmentas a $30,000 budget.
So what is your parameters ofwhat you're going to do with
(08:32):
that budget?
Where do you want to operate?
Where are your numbers?
Where are your percentage?
Where are you staying?
So these are all things in yourspeeches and lectures I spend a
lot of time.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I talk all over the country, all over the world,
about hospitality andprofitability, how you can make
more money based off of whatyou're doing.
While I'm here, I do two daysof live menu reads where I have
not seen any of the menus thatare being presented to me.
They get up on a screen.
I read it for the first time,not only as a chef, but also as
a guest, and I'm looking at thatmenu and menu.
How you can make more money.
(09:00):
What can work in this way?
You've got spelling errors here.
Your menu is not developed inthe right way.
You should move this over tohere.
You can use this product to goa different way.
So I try to show owners andoperators ways to make more
money in the industry as well asbe more creative, and number
one beyond all that is to bringin unbelievable products.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Sure, so with that I mean that's great, that's pretty
much great.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
to close on, man, because go any further with that
.
Where can people find you asnow, if you want to put yourself
out there as what we're talkingabout now, or just you as a
chef in a culinary and whatyou've done for the community?
Absolutely.
My consulting firm is calledDuffified Experience Group, but
you can find me on all socialsat Chef Bride Duff, and that's
the best way to go through me.
Schedule a call.
We can sit and talk about yourproject, see what's going on and
(09:42):
determine whether or not you'regoing to be a fit for me,
because I don't work withjackasses.
Yeah, jackasses suck.
Nobody likes to work with them.
Probably why you don't havepeople working for you or with
you because you're a jackass.
Don, look at your inventory ona weekly basis.
(10:04):
We talk about what's happening,what you guys are doing, what
your marketing plan is and howyou're going to move forward and
what we can do on a food levelto make that happen, not only
match the concept but also makesure that it's coming out in a
profitable and creative manner.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So it's an upfront cost for you, but money well
spent is better money saved inthe end.
So in this instance, sometimesyou have to bite the bullet.
Realize how much you're losingover the course of time.
Rip the Band-Aid off.
Spend it at the beginning, sothat way you could make it up in
time instead of losing it.
So hiring a consultant like youor your firm is something that
most people who are eventroubled with the question we
(10:38):
asked where are you operating Ifyou can't answer that right now
?
Calling someone like you or youis something that should be in
everybody's repertoire.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That's what makes a good chef.
I come into your restaurant, Ido a kind of behind the scenes
evaluation.
I watch the operation up front.
The next day I come back in Ihop into your kitchen, I watch
the operation in the kitchen andthen we go from there and
figure out where the problemsare and what lies.
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, I've been following you for quite a while
now.
I got the pleasure to meet youfirst months ago and we've been
somewhat of contact between nowand then Back out there again
this week.
Plan to see you again in thenext couple months Sounds good
to me, man.
Love seeing you out here doingwhat you're doing, bro,
especially for the kids, whatyou're doing with the kids and
the programs and the training.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
We've got great students.
We've got great students.
We do a session in the morning.
All of our vendors come in,talk to them about the products,
because it starts with yourculinary students and your
guests about what it is that'sgoing to move forward in the
future.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Multi-fascinated culinary experience right here.
Brian Duffy, Come check him out.
You saw he plugged.
You can go over to find him.
I'm Chef Antonio Caruana.
This is the Burnt Hands PodcastBurnt Hands Perspective.
Thanks for watching.
Ciao for now.
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