May 28, 2025 • 50 mins
In this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts, Michael Attias welcomes Ellen Diehl, Operations Coordinator at Roots Natural Kitchen—affectionately dubbed “The Catering Queen” by her team.
Ellen plays a pivotal role in building and scaling off-premise catering for one of the country’s fastest-growing health-focused fast-casual brands. From her humble beginnings working the drive-thru at Long John Silver’s to orchestrating seamless catering operations across multiple locations, Ellen’s journey is both inspiring and practical.
Michael and Ellen dive into:
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How strong systems and SOPs empower store teams to deliver consistently great catering
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Using CaterZen to coordinate logistics, manage orders, and eliminate chaos
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What it takes to scale catering without sacrificing brand standards or team morale
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Why packaging, communication, and training are key ingredients to off-premise success
This is a must-listen episode for anyone looking to scale catering smartly, without burning out their teams or blowing up their operations.
Restaurant Catering Smarts is sponsored by CaterZen Catering Software—the all-in-one solution for restaurants ready to grow catering sales while saving time and staying organized.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
Hello again, I am Michael Attias, your host of Restaurant Catering Smarts and today'sguest is Ellen Deal, Operations Coordinator, but dubbed Catering Queen by her office at
Roots Natural Kitchen.
I'm gonna have to ask you about that one.
Ellen plays a pivotal role in supporting and scaling off-premise initiatives for one ofthe fastest growing health focused, fast casual brands in the country.
(00:50):
With a strong background in operations and a passion for creating efficient,guest-friendly systems, she's helped Roots deliver consistent, high quality catering
experiences that reflect the brand's values.
From process optimization to team coordination, Ellen's insights offer a fresh perspectiveon how operational excellence can fuel catering success.
And we're excited to have her on the show today.
(01:11):
Before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase sales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts.
(01:32):
Welcome, Ellen.
How are you doing?
Thank you for having me.
No, thanks for being on here.
um You've been a long time client.
We can talk about more than just Lululemon as we were talking in pre-production.
But I like to get everyone started with an icebreaker, just sort of warm things up alittle bit.
(01:53):
Give me a number between one and 300.
um Let's go with 125.
What's your favorite pair of leggings?
No.
What's your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
Oh, my favorite way to spend a Friday night.
(02:14):
Well, I am a tired mom these days.
I have a two year old.
So I think my ideal Friday night is just curling up with a cup of tea and a good book andjust having some quiet and doing some reading, maybe a little.
Maybe a little if I'm if I don't have like the mental capacity to do that, I might knitand like watch some TV.
(02:41):
Are you watching anything, uh, binge worthy?
Um, I just finished watching you.
I just yeah the show you know The show you
the show You.
Oh, I thought watching You is the name of the show.
(03:02):
I think I've heard of that.
Someone turned me on to Friends and Neighbors on Apple.
Do you know about that show?
It's pretty good.
I haven't done a lot of binge watching.
Like I need a you know, 10 day flu to get through some backlog.
Yeah.
I think it depends on the time of year.
Winter, you're definitely more TV-centric when it's nice outside.
(03:25):
You know, you're more outside.
Right, for sure, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, there's like some shows, like I watched the, like, The Last of Us.
I've been really into that show.
uh So yeah, yeah, just...
Okay, so now let's get into serious conversation, I guess.
You've been with Roots Natural Kitchen since 2020.
(03:46):
You started as a general manager and now you serve as operations coordinator with a focuson catering.
Can you tell me your journey in the restaurant business?
Everybody's got a really unique story of how they got in the restaurant business.
yes.
Well, when it comes to the restaurant business, I mean, my first job was in a restaurant,um like when I was 17.
(04:09):
So um that led me to the food industry in general.
um And I worked
this 17 year old?
Where'd you work?
I mean, this is where you skipped over this.
So it's gonna be something like McDonald's, Taco Bell,
Well, it was long John Silvers.
I do not see you as a fish and hush puppies kind of girl.
(04:31):
tell you what, when we were 17, it was the cool place to work.
I don't know why, but all the cool kids were working there and I ended up there because mycousin worked there.
And we had a lot of fun.
And I was then the drive-through queen because I was really good at getting people throughthe drive-through quickly.
You know, you do need to get out of Kansas, Ellen.
(04:55):
you
job was as a dishwasher.
I couldn't even get a job and I did such a bad job on pots and pans.
They made me a busboy.
Okay, so you start off at Long John Silver's.
I definitely would have hit you up for Hush Puppies.
I love Hush Puppies.
There's something about
don't think I've ever had one.
(05:17):
You've never had a hush puppy?
Do you know the origination of the term hush puppy?
So back during the plantation days, uh they would have the women cooking in the kitchen,the kitchens were remote, and what they would do is they'd take some cornbread batter and
(05:38):
deep fry it and throw it to the dogs and say hush puppy.
And thus the term, hush puppies.
That's what I've heard and it sounds good.
if I'm wrong, I really don't want an email telling me the real origination.
I'm going with that one.
Okay, so you start off as the drive-through queen.
(06:00):
I'm picking up perfectionist vibes.
Like you were probably the overachiever, the perfectionist, everything had to be right.
Your side work was always the best.
You always upsold the best.
Pat on the shoulder.
You you needed that acknowledgement.
I'm just picking up these vibes.
I don't know why
No, they're accurate vibes.
(06:22):
I was a bit of perfectionist.
I was always raised to take pride in everything that you do.
uh So I took a lot of pride in that job.
And I think no matter what kind of job you're doing, I think it's really important to umtake pride in it and do your best.
(06:44):
You know, I pride myself in being mediocre.
uh I, I went to school saying, well, I put in six hours for the a when you can put in anhour and get the B because I'm more efficient.
But it seems today there's not that, you know, and we're sort of, I've got questions thathave been pre-written probably by AI.
(07:04):
don't know.
They were just provided to me, but it seems like today there's not that sense of pride.
you know, I'm going to go get a job and I'm going to do a good job.
It's almost more entitlement.
And I'm not saying there aren't kids that have that and young adults that have that.
Where did where do you think we went wrong in that?
And how do you think we get that back?
(07:25):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I honestly feel like um we've just become like, I think as technology has advanced, whichhas so many benefits, feel like just people have developed a lot more convenience.
From my perspective, I feel like people are just getting more and more used to conveniencethat like they're just kind of looking to like meet an end and not, um I don't know.
(07:57):
Do you think it could be the technology being the step-parent more...
yeah, I definitely think like they're like I whenever I think about my childhood and how Igrew up like we were with people all the time and we didn't have like social media or uh
(08:19):
you know, we were just we didn't have like all of the different streaming platformseither.
I just feel like there's so much out there now that maybe people have kind of like losttheir focus at times and just I don't know.
It does seem like there's been some kind of shift and I can't really put my finger onexactly what.
to say that it's, you know, when I was growing up, like we got drug on Sunday to some oldperson's house that had vinyl on their couch.
(08:46):
And, know, we had to sit there and be polite and eat, you know, whatever they served us.
you know, and then when we were kids, it's like, my mom threw our asses out at 6 a.m.
and like, if you're thirsty, drink from the garden hose.
And we learn, we learn how to like, we were pioneers, like how to build forts and how togo fishing.
And I remember
As a kid, I was friends with the Oreo cookie delivery man at Kroger and he'd give me thebroken box, the broken cookie boxes, you the ones that had broken cookies.
(09:15):
And he wasn't a creep or anything.
So, you I don't have any, you know, crazy stories to tell, but I mean, you know, you wentout there and you created things and built your own toys and games and like, there was
this sense of doing it now.
Like I see people and even one of my friends, it's like,
The tablet is the pacifier.
(09:36):
There's no talking at the table at the end of the day.
How was your day?
What did you learn?
Oh, you had a fight with your friend.
Well, have you thought about this?
It's just sort of like, here, take the tablet and shut up.
it's really, I mean, it's a shame.
And even with adults, I'm sure you've seen this in restaurants where there's a couple andthey're out for a...
(09:58):
nice dinner.
It's not like Long John Silver's were just eating and running.
And they're both on their phones, not communicating with each other.
It's crazy.
yeah, it really, it always is kind of like startling to me because I, I really valueconnection and I feel like if we just have our, we're just like looking at a phone or
playing on a tablet, when we have people to connect with right in front of us, yeah, Ijust don't think that's, I don't think it's particularly healthy and I think it does start
(10:28):
to shift people's priorities and their intuition and their inspiration.
at times, not that I don't think that like, you know, there's a lot of creativity that canbe had within the technology world as well.
oh Yeah.
like, you know, what used to take thousands of dollars in video editing equipment, Icreate great social media videos, you know, just, you know, for Instagram or whatever for
(10:58):
fun in two seconds, right?
I have a drone, the stuff that you can create.
from a creativity suite of tools, it's great, but also from the dumbing down and, youknow, numbing, um it's bad.
But, you know, I guess every...
Every generation has something and who knows what's gonna happen with AI and I don't know,maybe we'll just implode and we'll have to learn how to like raise chickens and farm and I
(11:26):
don't know, maybe.
Yeah, who knows?
It's crazy.
um Okay, so Long John Silver's, how'd you end up at Roots?
How'd you end up the catering queen?
How'd you get dub that?
All right, that's quite a story.
ah So basically I worked in seafood restaurants, donate seafood, and then um I don'treally eat seafood.
(11:49):
I have warmed up to salmon, but outside of that I'm not a big seafood eater.
So I never like consume the product that like we're.
had bad seafood.
If Long John Silver was your introduction, well, it's probably the smell that turned youoff, but there's some really good ceviche and all sorts of but anyway, I'm not here to but
(12:10):
make you a pescatarian keep going.
ah And then I moved into cafe management.
So I managed a cafe, which was like a lot of fun.
um And then I moved into another cafe and it wasn't really the best fit for me.
And I was quite miserable there.
(12:31):
ah Just, I think that who you, the store itself was like a lot of fun and the people weregreat.
But I think who you have as like,
your superiors, like your district manager, area manager, what have you, play a huge, theyhave a huge impact on like what kind of experience that you have.
um And it was interesting because I had been at the previous jobs for like an extendedperiod of time because I'd worked in three different jobs and I was there for like, you
(13:00):
know, five plus years at all of them.
And I always felt like very seen and heard and like the people were really like warm andempathetic and all that.
And then in that particular location, I didn't really feel seen or heard at all.
And so it was kind of just like a bad experience.
I was experiencing a lot of like debilitating anxiety trying to go to work.
(13:24):
So I really needed to do like, needed to shift and then the infamous year of 2020happened.
So good old COVID error.
ah so I was really kind of, I left that job and then I was really looking for where Iwanted to go next ah and really wanted to be very mindful about where I went.
(13:46):
And Roots Natural Kitchen, I ended up applying and they chose me and the people werereally, really great.
They were uh definitely like, I need to have a sense of that the people that I'm workingwith are good.
and just have like empathy and that they see everybody as people.
And that is something that is very true ah when it comes to Roots.
(14:09):
ah And yeah, so I started with them in July of 2020 and really got to experience how greatthey were because I actually went through kind of a little bit of a hardship, not a little
bit of a hardship, but like a month into the job, my mother.
had surgery and it did not go well and she ended up like passing away and I had like,yeah, and like, I, well, thank you, but I was really like nervous because of my previous
(14:42):
experience with my other employer.
I was really nervous about like telling them, hey, I might need some time.
Like I gotta go through this.
I was very anxious.
And they were...
I mean, do you think they were going to fire you or?
Yes, well, I didn't know that I didn't have like that impression of them ah to do thatkind of thing.
(15:03):
But just like I think there was just like this lack, this lingering anxiety from myprevious job.
So ah I was very nervous and uh I hadn't met a lot of these people because of it beingcovid.
Like it was all just like we were, you know, emailing or messaging each other from likethe for when it came to the people at the home office and.
(15:26):
people that I had never met were just reaching out and sending their condolences and justchecking in on me.
they really showed me how much they really value people in general.
And I felt so supported and I don't know, it gave me such a warm feeling that after that Iwas like Roots Natural Kitchen, I will die for you.
(15:49):
You guys are so kind, so good, but.
ah Yeah, so I was general manager for our state college location for a couple years andthen I had my son in February of 2023 and it ah kind of it really worked out well for me
because what happened was I had been I think I wasn't quite aware of it but I had been ina place where after my mom had passed away I was kind of in the mindset of like I don't
(16:20):
know if like
being a general manager is what I want to do anymore because it does require so many hourslike in the restaurant.
And I was missing out on so much time with family and I felt like a lot of guilt with mymother with that.
So I don't think I was like fully consciously aware of that.
But whenever I had my son, I was like very nervous about going back into the restaurantand being away from him and trying to balance all that.
(16:46):
And it really worked out that
they needed this operations coordinator position to be created and they kind of just likefast-tracked it and thought that I would be a good fit.
um our head of operations, Haley, I'd worked with her, like she had been my area managerfor a time and we worked really well together and she thought I would be a good fit for
(17:06):
it.
And I was able to work remote and be close to my son.
So following maternity leave.
So what was an operations coordinator?
the operations coordinator.
um So it's basically just kind of handling the backends, the back end things, likebasically being, um being the, the second person, the second go-to person for like things
(17:31):
like dealing with the different platforms that we use.
But they didn't, whenever they, whenever they pitched the job to me, they're like, wedon't have a full description.
you're going to be doing a little bit of catering, you're going to be a little doing alittle bit of like menus and like just kind of like it's going to be basically, yeah, when
it comes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(17:51):
I basically you tell me what to do.
I'll do my best to get it done, like kind of thing.
And so, yeah.
So they didn't even have like a full description whenever they they were like, would youwant to do this?
And I was like, um yes, please.
Yeah.
So I started that in.
It would have been May of 2023 following my maternity leave.
(18:15):
So how did you become the catering queen?
Mm-hmm.
So um they basically wanted somebody to focus on catering.
They had previous individuals in that role that kind of oversaw it, but uh didn't work outas well at that time.
(18:35):
And so they just wanted to kind of have somebody who could just handle all the thingscatering for all of our store locations.
So is that sales, is that operations?
More so, it started with more so just operations, just kind of fine tuning.
Catering was doing okay, but ah we wanted to just kind of have more focus on it and seewhere are the opportunities to improve ah and all that good stuff.
(19:08):
ah So basically what I did is I like to go in and just create systems myself and just geteverything nice and organized.
I kind of looked to see because I was overseeing all the stores.
I'm picking up label gun vibes.
I do have a label gun.
(19:31):
I do have one, yes.
And I loved, I love it.
You know, I should have been a mentalist in Vegas.
did you have a place you learned systems from?
uh Basically, Hailey was my mentor, so she really taught me everything that I know when itcomes to roots.
(19:55):
But in general, I...
I mean, have you just always been a systems person or did you learn it someplace?
Or is it, I'm gonna project myself on you.
Chaos causes anxiety.
So by having everything taken care of in a plan B, you don't have to worry about the shithitting the fan because you have a backup fan.
(20:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I basically like, just like to create little systems of like plan A, plan B, plan C,and what can we do to make sure that all the T's are crossed, the I's are dotted, and just
to try to run as smoothly as possible, oh and what to do when things don't run smoothly aspossible.
I like to have like a plan for that.
(20:41):
And I think working in the restaurant industry, you are just like surrounded by chaos andchaos and you have to find
your calm, your organization within all of that.
having a system helps me be able to manage all that.
Well, you it's funny you talk about chaos and calm, you know, originally our company wasrestaurant catering systems.
(21:06):
And I thought, okay, that makes sense.
Catering systems for restaurants.
And people were like, are you a restaurant supply company?
Are you this or that?
And then people in the catering business would be like, but your software is not for us.
So we tried to come up with a generic name.
And, you you look at Microsoft and how software companies throw two names together.
(21:26):
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, cater zen.
That just sounds like a good name and peaceful, whatever.
And then one day it just sort of hit me.
We turned catering chaos into calm and it fit with the zen.
It just, it all happened.
have you ever heard of Michael, have you ever read the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber?
You probably do a lot of it, but uh that's where I first learned systems when I got myfirst restaurant.
(21:52):
There really weren't systems.
And I just hate things being
What is it I say?
I prefer processes over personalities because it's profits as opposed to problems.
Personalities cause problems, processes cause profits, right?
And I made that one up, no one gets credit for that one.
(22:14):
And it's really true because you can have a superstar that does a good job, right?
You work at Long John Silver's and you're the drive-through queen.
And then what happens when you go off to college?
Well, now you're just relying somebody else to just through serendipity, be just asconscientious and care just as much where the process is, I'd rather have people operated
(22:35):
in eight out of 10, but everyone's doing the same thing.
So he talks about whether you want to be like McDonald's and have a gazillion units, oryou just want one restaurant or one barbershop or whatever, set up all these systems.
So I've always been about systems.
I think people think
cater zen is bigger than they are because we have really, really good systems in place.
(22:58):
um And so I'm all about systems.
And I think a lot of people, when you tell me you're working 90 hours a week, that tellsme you don't really have good systems and you're just, you're like in a pinball machine
and you're just going off the bumpers.
And it's like, I don't have the bandwidth for that.
I don't have the.
the stomach for it, you know, I don't want to be on Xanax, nothing against people have totake medicine for anxiety.
(23:24):
Like, I want to just peaceful as possible.
If you don't bring peace of my life, you got to go.
Yeah, yeah.
And like some people will do that like almost as a brag, like I work 80 hours a week.
was like, that's not, how are, that's not good.
That's not healthy.
Don't tell anyone I work four hours a week.
I mean, I'm sorry, four hours a day, maybe four hours a day.
(23:46):
Um, because it's like, you, you, you, you really should get rewarded on the output.
Like I understand people have to wait tables.
So you have to go in and you have to wait tables.
But when you get to higher level, it's really, what can I get done through other people'sand other systems that are replicable?
Not just, Oh my God, I worked a hundred hours last week and
(24:08):
my God, look at me.
It's like, yeah, look at you.
Yeah.
No, not at all.
I do not envy people who work excessive hours.
are lazy like I am.
mean, those are my people.
um So do you focus on the catering sales or at Roots, what's your, how do y'all go aboutselling marketing catering?
(24:34):
I mean, I don't know your exact volume, obviously as your software provider, I could lookthat up, but I know y'all do a lot of volume.
What's your sales and marketing plan as far as building?
So we have uh marketing folks who also will go out.
We have two individuals uh who are wonderful and they are very good at marketing and kindof finding out who should we reach out to for catering.
(25:02):
um But we do have the fortune of, with us being a grain and salad bowl restaurant andbeing very allergen friendly, we do just have like
a good amount of people who just come to us because it's very convenient.
we do a lot of work with em
sales reps for medical offices and the universities.
(25:24):
put our locations in close proximity to universities, so we do a lot of catering foruniversities.
So a lot of it does just kind of come in because we are like, know, somebody orders ourfood and they don't have to be like, okay, tell me every ingredient.
We have very whole ingredients and we don't have a lot of gluten or dairy, so people don'thave to worry about like, my, because
(25:47):
And then, and when you're dealing in healthcare, obviously you've got health consciouspeople.
then in academia, you have a lot of diverse cultures that, you know, they, they don't eatcertain foods and what have you.
It's, it's really interesting.
I just got back from Europe and.
You know, I love food.
mean, I'm a before model for weight loss infomercials.
(26:09):
I've got to keep 20 pounds on.
Everybody knows I'm a major foodie and like I was.
I was eating like some good stuff, croissants, I mean like with almond cream.
Every day in Amsterdam around the corner, there was this bakery and I would get thisalmond croissant.
I mean, it was in a cappuccino.
(26:30):
And normally I drink black coffee every single day.
And I went to Michelin star restaurants and I eat pasta and bread.
And after three weeks, guess how much weight I gained when I came home?
I'm gonna guess nothing.
Yeah, because of it's different.
I was six pounds down because all the you know, when you travel, you you blowed up fromjust being an airplane and whatever.
(26:55):
So I was I probably lost weight.
I think the busiest day as I walked 23,000 miles, but the food supply is clean andhealthy.
And here, like, I just go out to regular restaurant and you think and you're havingchicken with lettuce and you just feel
Even that you think is healthy the salt and the the preservatives and stuff.
(27:17):
It's just It's and again, i'm not a health food nut by any stretch of the imagination,right?
I like taco bell it Well, it used to be 3 a.m now.
It's got to be before 10 because i'm gonna go to bed but You know, I can eat some goodcrap food but it's like It's just amazing.
We have such a bad You know from the wheat
(27:41):
that we, you know, the wheat source that we use or flour source, it's like, Europe hasn'tfigured it out.
They don't put up with shit in their food supply.
No, they really don't.
I do find it interesting because I know so many people who like, can't have, they don'teat gluten here in the States, but whenever they go over to Europe and they try pasta,
(28:03):
like they have no problem.
And I'm like, it's our food.
Like we have a problem.
Yeah, I think we're, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, maybe a light one.
It's like, are we just trying to like, neuter the population through our food supply?
how, not dumbed down, but you know, like, could we just make people just sloss, just, youknow, no, no exercise and you know, and also in Europe, even if you are the laziest person
(28:35):
in the world,
You're walking two miles a day because by the time you leave your apartment you go to thebus or the metro Then you walk a couple blocks to work.
You've put in two miles by the time you go to work and back, right?
And so I mean if everybody in america got up off their butt and walk two miles a day Youknow and you ate a better food supply and then you know the portions, right?
(28:57):
You know, you go to cheesecake factory.
You could feed a family of four off one plate and you're up there just regular portionsand they
so different.
take the time to enjoy the meal.
There's not this hurriedness like, where's my food?
Where's this?
Like if you're in a hurry, don't go out to eat in Europe.
Like you're waiting 30 minutes for a check.
(29:18):
So it allows you to not rush, you know, by the time everything's coursed out, you don'tneed as much to get full.
You know, you're not, you know, you haven't just wolfed everything down.
It's just a whole better way of living.
Which is crazy.
Anyway.
weeks there?
I went to Amsterdam because I've always wanted to ride a bicycle in the tulip fields.
(29:42):
I went to Marrakesh because my parents are from Morocco and I've never been and I didn'twant to spend two weeks.
I had a place for two weeks in Amsterdam and I cut out and I went hot air ballooning inthe desert, which is have you ever been on a hot air balloon?
I hate heights and I had the best time of my life.
It is like I'm not gonna say it's life changing but
(30:05):
you know, enhancing.
It was really cool.
I would do it again.
And then I went to Paris for a week.
I was born in Paris.
And so I just hung out in Paris for a week and took my dad and his girlfriend out to aMichelin star restaurant.
You know, my dad has never been to one.
And so that was a nice experience.
(30:25):
And then I've got this hobby.
I'm now collecting.
I just built a new kitchen.
I've got display cabinets, you know, with glass.
on the top cabinets I put in.
And every time I go to Michelin Star restaurant, I'm trying to get something from therestaurant that the chef will sign that I can put on display.
So, you know, I didn't think teapots or thimbles was my thing.
(30:49):
You know, people collect a lot of weird things.
think for a foodie to have something from a Michelin Star restaurant is pretty cool.
Um, okay,
So when, when, and I don't know, do you study what other restaurants are doing?
You know, what mistakes have you seen other restaurants make in the catering space, eithergetting into it, running it.
(31:16):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely like observe what other restaurants are doing and just seeingif we are doing like, if we should be doing something similar or if we're like, we're
definitely doing something better type of thing.
But I don't feel like I...
study the other restaurants as much, um maybe take some inspiration from them here andthere whenever I see it.
(31:42):
But I just, I like to study what our restaurants are doing and what is or isn't working.
um And I am aware of like all of the caterings that go out for all of our stores, um whichwe have, I think 13 now.
um So looking to see if there are any like trends of
(32:05):
you know, where we need to improve and like holding the stores accountable, making surethey're aware of like if something, if something was late or anything like that.
um And
The one thing I do think is like for us has been a huge benefit is we do not contract outto um like DoorDash for delivery or anything like that.
(32:26):
We use our own like in-house contracted drivers, which is a huge selling point for ourcustomers because they love that they can like our in-house.
Contracted drivers, they know our food.
They know how to set everything up.
They they're often like in-store employees as well so they can answer any questions thatthe customer might have and they're just like more reliable.
(32:49):
So our customers really love that like they know it's going to be like one of these, youknow, several drivers that are going to be dropping it off and they know what they're
doing oh and that we can like easily make sure to contact them and all that good stuff.
Yeah, we're going to have to edit this out because cater's is about to launch a thirdparty integration.
Now I'm just joking.
(33:13):
no, um, there is a place for third party integration for overflow, you know, and you don'twant to turn away business or there's just some people that they're not in a position to
have that, but I will totally agree with you and you can have your own team.
Um, it's always better because they understand your brain.
standards, the culture, what's expected, they know how to problem solve.
(33:40):
You know, they're not just like, oh, it's just food, here it is, you know.
And, and I think that does make, you know, a huge difference.
we were lucky that we had sort of a hybrid.
So when I opened my restaurant, this guy came in and he goes, Hey, I own a courierservice.
do a lot of legal, you know, document running, whatever.
(34:02):
Um,
would you consider using us for um deliveries?
And in Memphis, when I worked at the Court Cus of Memphis, they use a third party courierservice.
um And so the guy was great because he was a one man band.
He didn't have some big operations with Dispatch.
He had a Miata and a cell phone.
(34:23):
Sometimes he'd run the orders.
And he would hire...
um
he was probably the gig economy before the gig economy.
He would hire like musicians, know, Nashville's bigger musicians.
So if they're not touring, right, or doing session work, they want to make some extramoney, right?
So they come in and run a couple of orders.
We'd give them unlimited Cokes.
(34:44):
If they brought the check back, we'd give them a free sandwich, stay at home moms,retirees.
So he had this whole, he was sort of like Uber Eats or DoorDash before there was, it wasjust all this hodgepodge.
gang of people and you know, they really took pride in what they did.
You know, they felt part of the Corky's family because we treated, we didn't treat themlike, you know, hey, you're just somebody, you know, this underling that's doing this job
(35:13):
for us.
It's like we were friends with all the drivers.
We gave them food, you know, they come to us and go, hey, I'm having a family reunion thisweekend.
I'd give them half price because you want people.
Somebody taught me this a long time ago, servant leadership, right?
Your job as a leader is to serve the people who serve the people, right?
(35:38):
And obviously serve the customer.
Cause if you, to your point, like because roots took care of you when your mom wentthrough the health issue and then died, you can't put a price tag on that in loyalty.
You know, and if somebody came to you and said, Hey, I'm going to pay you an extra
10 % or 15 % you probably wouldn't leave because you're like I'm not going to risk whatI've built here in the culture and who I work with for a few extra bucks.
(36:07):
Now if somebody said look I've got this great opportunity and you I I want to pay youdouble you might take a serious look at that but you know you're not losing people over a
few bucks if you if you treat them well and you're there when they when they need you.
I mean
And that's how I've always tried to run things.
(36:29):
It's like, I really don't care if you've got to leave it to in the afternoon and take yourdog here, get an oil change.
As long as I don't have a customer calling me that you've dropped the ball and there'snothing, we're not serving food, right?
So if something, if a project gets taken care of today or tomorrow, if somebody getstraining at four in the afternoon or eight the next morning, it's not earth shattering in
(36:52):
most people's lives.
So I think people appreciate.
that flexibility.
ah And I do because I don't want an office because when you have people you have problemsand you know, oh, Suzy left her stinky cheese in the fridge.
Michael doesn't clean out the coffee maker.
It's like, just fold your laundry on a call, leave me alone.
I don't care.
(37:12):
Just do a good job.
Ummm...
So if you look at, uh okay, so going back to what you said before, I sort of, we didn't godeeper.
What have been some of the things that you've recognized where you need to improve and howdo you track that?
(37:37):
Are you talking to the customers?
Do you have a way of monitoring complaints?
What are you seeing?
um So anytime that somebody does have a complaint, they're typically going to get me onthe phone oh because our catering has really...
been booming over the last two years.
I now have like a second person who's helping me, which is great.
(38:01):
um And so you're going to get myself or her and then we track every issue that does comeup.
And then if any issues, like track any issues that might have been noted and easy cater oranything like that as well.
And then the stores also are to communicate with us if anything is going to be, if it'srunning a couple of minutes late, say the driver has a
(38:24):
lot tire or anything like that um or you know what have you they'll let us know about thator they usually try to let us know about that before anything happens or after so most of
the art orders do run pretty smoothly ah but for every now and then you do have somehiccups and
I mean, I mean, it's impossible to have 100 % success, right?
(38:49):
Yeah.
And like, if like maybe the quality was off or anything like that.
um
We want to know about that.
And I think a lot of our customers do feel comfortable reaching out if there was an issueor if something was maybe missing.
um And then the restaurants themselves are very good at communicating and takingaccountability for anything that might have gone wrong.
(39:13):
And then we track all of that and give reports back to the stores about,
these are some opportunities and things like that.
ah So I think that's one of the biggest things that changed whenever I came into Role isthat I started seeing like, this particular restaurant is struggling with getting food out
(39:33):
on time.
um
yeah.
So obviously you're a client and I don't know what people use and don't use.
Again, I don't get involved in day to day, but we came out with a new notes feature.
Are you documenting all that with the new notes feature?
Yeah, we do use the notes for like any little bit like, this customer uh wants you to dothis or that whenever you arrive or this customer has had some issues in the past,
(40:00):
anything like that, which is helpful.
It's super helpful.
your reports?
Because you can have a headline for a note, like customer issue, and then you could pull areport for the quarter, any note that has customer issue as a headline, and you can say,
hey, for the quarter, what were our issues?
Have you done that?
We haven't done that.
We kind of have like our own separate like tracker of different things just because thereare like different platforms that we have to go through, like with Easy Cater and like we
(40:26):
have like America to Go and stuff like that.
And then there are like some issues that like...
We usually give a refund, a partial refund if something is late, but if it's like justsomething small and they're like, oh, it's not a big deal.
I just wanted to let you know.
We still like note that kind of information.
uh But yes.
(40:50):
Not in our highlighted notes.
Highlighted notes are like usually more so for just random like tidbits of informationthat we should know about that customer, particularly if there was...
uh
if they kind of have specifications as to like how they want the food delivered, but theydon't necessarily put that in the order whenever they place it, things like that.
(41:12):
Who takes the orders?
Do you have a phone center?
you?
So they can enter it, obviously manually, or enter themselves on our website.
And then uh easy cater orders, we input manually.
And ah same with America to Go orders and different like third party catering platformsthat we use.
um And then we try to just meet people where they're at.
(41:34):
So we also have people who are able that they can just like email us or give us a call.
Yeah, I take calls.
I take calls every day and take orders.
primarily the main phone order person?
They'll call you to take orders?
Yes, me or my colleague now, Victoria.
Yes.
Yeah.
that's cool.
Yeah, we're, um well two things, we're integrating with EasyCator.
(42:00):
They've chosen us, hopefully uh sooner than later we'll have that done.
We did, I don't know if you use the EasyCator, a manual interface we built.
Do you use that?
I don't think so.
So we had a client that says the invoices don't match and caters in from what the checksare.
(42:21):
So every field on an easy cater order can be manually entered into the order, even if thesales tax is a penny off.
So when you get your check, you can reconcile it in two seconds.
Okay.
Yeah, so I know there's so many things people don't know.
I don't even know half the shit that my software does.
I really don't.
(42:41):
I have to ask.
We've built so much good stuff.
um The other thing is um you've worked with Jillian, right?
uh Do you know Jill, our new COO?
Um, I don't think so.
You need to meet her.
The two of them are like super nice and super engaging.
I'm sort of an ass.
(43:01):
So people stay away from me.
But Jillian is like your best friend.
Like she knows everything about people.
And that's where I think the highlighted notes really can give you an unfair advantage.
Because if you've got a client and you know that they like to fly fish, right?
You don't give a crap about fly fishing.
You don't fly fish, right?
You like to hike.
I've done my research.
So if I knew you liked to hike, I go, Hey, do you have a good, you know,
(43:24):
What's the weather gonna be like this weekend?
it's gonna be sent you going hiking.
yeah, I'm going up here.
Well, what's it like?
So now you're buying from a friend as opposed to transactional, right?
We want to do business with people we know like and trust price doesn't become an issuebecause every time I call Ellen she asked, you know, how's the beach or how's mediocre
(43:45):
life or whatever it is?
um So I think that's a good
tool is to sort of get to know people and put that in the highlighted notes because Welive in such a depersonalized Society.
Yes, we have this persona on social media what we the mass we want to show people But youknow when you're talking to someone on the phone They let that down a little bit or they
(44:10):
tell you something about their life and they're not trying to show off right?
I'm ordering food like it's some what might
be considered maybe not a big piece of information, but something important to them thatyou can, you know, tap into.
Yeah, which I've had like the benefit of because I had been the one primarily taking allof the calls.
I got to know the customers pretty well.
(44:32):
So I'm like, oh, Jill.
Well, I guess I maybe not Jill, but I had, but like, how have you been type of thing.
And for me, it's actually interesting because because I have my son at home with metypically, like he, I have helped.
between, uh you know, five hours before he goes down for his nap.
(44:54):
But because he's like kind of in the background making noise a lot of the time and just,you know, being a two year old, that's also like for me a really nice like connecting
point with customers because they're like, you have a kid, like how old is he?
And it's always kind of fun.
And then I get to like, you know, brag about how...
I guess, yeah, brag about how I'm grateful for being able to hang out at home and be ableto still see him while working.
(45:20):
I think it is a big benefit to be able to do that.
I don't use the word blessing a lot, but I'll use the word blessing, you know, because,you you, really have this small window of opportunity to shape a little person.
I guess they say by the time they're three, they're sort of figured out.
And um if you can do that and do your job.
(45:40):
And I think today, especially the COVID trained us with Zoom calls.
You know your dog barks in the background your cat like we're all people, you know As longas you're not getting up showing you're in your underwear on a zoom call It's like
anything goes and you know, hey, can you wait someone's at the doorbell?
It's a ups guy.
I mean people get that right and you know, it's it's human.
(46:03):
So that's very cool.
Okay, so last question Where do you see the future of ai intersecting with the cateringindustry?
Oh my-
I don't know.
AI.
I get a little nervous about AI.
(46:26):
So probably a little bit.
So do you have a prediction?
I well, I think AI can be used for really great things and can be a very useful tool.
Um, for, we have been able to use like chat GPT to like, when we get individual bowlorders on EasyCater, we've learned how to, we're starting to learn how to like get that
(46:51):
inputted so that we can just like make it Excel so we can make labels from it, which is,which is cool.
Um, but yeah, I'm not quite sure.
I'm not quite sure.
I'm just a little, I get nervous about AI and how it's going to be as long as it's usedfor good and useful things.
(47:11):
Well, that sounds like the Star Wars trilogy, but I will give you my high level.
uh I think short term, it's going to be a phenomenal tool, right?
Like we use chat GPT all the time where it's headed and how fast it's advancing.
I think if you see what's going on in the world of robots.
(47:32):
10, 15, 20 years from now, our kitchen's gonna be manned by robots.
They show up on time.
They don't complain.
You know,
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think it might not be a bad idea to own a big plotof land that you can raise your own food on and wake up with a purpose because if we go to
(47:56):
an economy where we have a, um what do they call it?
Not guaranteed income, universal basic income.
I think AI is gonna be taxed because it's like, okay,
this AI has put this many people out of work, so we're gonna have to tax it like a payrolltax.
And then people are gonna get a check to stay at home because there's probably not gonnabe enough jobs to make up.
(48:20):
Yes, it's gonna make a lot of difference, but there's a lot of jobs that will never bereplaced, so we don't want people burning down.
em And so what happens when people don't have a purpose, right?
It's not like if all of a sudden I gave you a big check every day, maybe you'd find apurpose.
you have a kid, but are most people going to say, well, I'm going to paint and draw, raisechickens, whatever.
(48:40):
So I think you're going to need to maybe find a reason to wake up in the morning asidefrom money, something that gives you life and purpose, whether it's art creating, know,
raising chickens, you know, I'm into kayaking, hiking, I need to do something with my lifeto feel I have a purpose because otherwise it's just debauchery and downfall.
(49:03):
Yeah, don't that.
So that's sort of my, I think people don't like what I have to say and probably getscared, but you know, that's it.
that, I mean the idea of being able to have like a plot of land and just kind of do yourown thing.
Because I feel like for me, I'm never short of having a list of things that I'd like tocreate and grow and all that jazz.
(49:27):
But don't feel like I have the time for it.
oh
I mean, you do have a job and a child.
So you have an excuse.
Maybe when he goes off to school, you won't have the excuse.
Okay, well, I appreciate you being here today.
Not only informative, but a lot of fun.
(49:47):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Hello again, I am Michael Attias, your host of Restaurant Catering Smarts and today'sguest is Ellen Deal, Operations Coordinator, but dubbed Catering Queen by her office at
Roots Natural Kitchen.
I'm gonna have to ask you about that one.
Ellen plays a pivotal role in supporting and scaling off-premise initiatives for one ofthe fastest growing health focused, fast casual brands in the country.
(00:50):
With a strong background in operations and a passion for creating efficient,guest-friendly systems, she's helped Roots deliver consistent, high quality catering
experiences that reflect the brand's values.
From process optimization to team coordination, Ellen's insights offer a fresh perspectiveon how operational excellence can fuel catering success.
And we're excited to have her on the show today.
(01:11):
Before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase sales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts.
(01:32):
Welcome, Ellen.
How are you doing?
Thank you for having me.
No, thanks for being on here.
um You've been a long time client.
We can talk about more than just Lululemon as we were talking in pre-production.
But I like to get everyone started with an icebreaker, just sort of warm things up alittle bit.
(01:53):
Give me a number between one and 300.
um Let's go with 125.
What's your favorite pair of leggings?
No.
What's your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
Oh, my favorite way to spend a Friday night.
(02:14):
Well, I am a tired mom these days.
I have a two year old.
So I think my ideal Friday night is just curling up with a cup of tea and a good book andjust having some quiet and doing some reading, maybe a little.
Maybe a little if I'm if I don't have like the mental capacity to do that, I might knitand like watch some TV.
(02:41):
Are you watching anything, uh, binge worthy?
Um, I just finished watching you.
I just yeah the show you know The show you
the show You.
Oh, I thought watching You is the name of the show.
(03:02):
I think I've heard of that.
Someone turned me on to Friends and Neighbors on Apple.
Do you know about that show?
It's pretty good.
I haven't done a lot of binge watching.
Like I need a you know, 10 day flu to get through some backlog.
Yeah.
I think it depends on the time of year.
Winter, you're definitely more TV-centric when it's nice outside.
(03:25):
You know, you're more outside.
Right, for sure, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, there's like some shows, like I watched the, like, The Last of Us.
I've been really into that show.
uh So yeah, yeah, just...
Okay, so now let's get into serious conversation, I guess.
You've been with Roots Natural Kitchen since 2020.
(03:46):
You started as a general manager and now you serve as operations coordinator with a focuson catering.
Can you tell me your journey in the restaurant business?
Everybody's got a really unique story of how they got in the restaurant business.
yes.
Well, when it comes to the restaurant business, I mean, my first job was in a restaurant,um like when I was 17.
(04:09):
So um that led me to the food industry in general.
um And I worked
this 17 year old?
Where'd you work?
I mean, this is where you skipped over this.
So it's gonna be something like McDonald's, Taco Bell,
Well, it was long John Silvers.
I do not see you as a fish and hush puppies kind of girl.
(04:31):
tell you what, when we were 17, it was the cool place to work.
I don't know why, but all the cool kids were working there and I ended up there because mycousin worked there.
And we had a lot of fun.
And I was then the drive-through queen because I was really good at getting people throughthe drive-through quickly.
You know, you do need to get out of Kansas, Ellen.
(04:55):
you
job was as a dishwasher.
I couldn't even get a job and I did such a bad job on pots and pans.
They made me a busboy.
Okay, so you start off at Long John Silver's.
I definitely would have hit you up for Hush Puppies.
I love Hush Puppies.
There's something about
don't think I've ever had one.
(05:17):
You've never had a hush puppy?
Do you know the origination of the term hush puppy?
So back during the plantation days, uh they would have the women cooking in the kitchen,the kitchens were remote, and what they would do is they'd take some cornbread batter and
(05:38):
deep fry it and throw it to the dogs and say hush puppy.
And thus the term, hush puppies.
That's what I've heard and it sounds good.
if I'm wrong, I really don't want an email telling me the real origination.
I'm going with that one.
Okay, so you start off as the drive-through queen.
(06:00):
I'm picking up perfectionist vibes.
Like you were probably the overachiever, the perfectionist, everything had to be right.
Your side work was always the best.
You always upsold the best.
Pat on the shoulder.
You you needed that acknowledgement.
I'm just picking up these vibes.
I don't know why
No, they're accurate vibes.
(06:22):
I was a bit of perfectionist.
I was always raised to take pride in everything that you do.
uh So I took a lot of pride in that job.
And I think no matter what kind of job you're doing, I think it's really important to umtake pride in it and do your best.
(06:44):
You know, I pride myself in being mediocre.
uh I, I went to school saying, well, I put in six hours for the a when you can put in anhour and get the B because I'm more efficient.
But it seems today there's not that, you know, and we're sort of, I've got questions thathave been pre-written probably by AI.
(07:04):
don't know.
They were just provided to me, but it seems like today there's not that sense of pride.
you know, I'm going to go get a job and I'm going to do a good job.
It's almost more entitlement.
And I'm not saying there aren't kids that have that and young adults that have that.
Where did where do you think we went wrong in that?
And how do you think we get that back?
(07:25):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I honestly feel like um we've just become like, I think as technology has advanced, whichhas so many benefits, feel like just people have developed a lot more convenience.
From my perspective, I feel like people are just getting more and more used to conveniencethat like they're just kind of looking to like meet an end and not, um I don't know.
(07:57):
Do you think it could be the technology being the step-parent more...
yeah, I definitely think like they're like I whenever I think about my childhood and how Igrew up like we were with people all the time and we didn't have like social media or uh
(08:19):
you know, we were just we didn't have like all of the different streaming platformseither.
I just feel like there's so much out there now that maybe people have kind of like losttheir focus at times and just I don't know.
It does seem like there's been some kind of shift and I can't really put my finger onexactly what.
to say that it's, you know, when I was growing up, like we got drug on Sunday to some oldperson's house that had vinyl on their couch.
(08:46):
And, know, we had to sit there and be polite and eat, you know, whatever they served us.
you know, and then when we were kids, it's like, my mom threw our asses out at 6 a.m.
and like, if you're thirsty, drink from the garden hose.
And we learn, we learn how to like, we were pioneers, like how to build forts and how togo fishing.
And I remember
As a kid, I was friends with the Oreo cookie delivery man at Kroger and he'd give me thebroken box, the broken cookie boxes, you the ones that had broken cookies.
(09:15):
And he wasn't a creep or anything.
So, you I don't have any, you know, crazy stories to tell, but I mean, you know, you wentout there and you created things and built your own toys and games and like, there was
this sense of doing it now.
Like I see people and even one of my friends, it's like,
The tablet is the pacifier.
(09:36):
There's no talking at the table at the end of the day.
How was your day?
What did you learn?
Oh, you had a fight with your friend.
Well, have you thought about this?
It's just sort of like, here, take the tablet and shut up.
it's really, I mean, it's a shame.
And even with adults, I'm sure you've seen this in restaurants where there's a couple andthey're out for a...
(09:58):
nice dinner.
It's not like Long John Silver's were just eating and running.
And they're both on their phones, not communicating with each other.
It's crazy.
yeah, it really, it always is kind of like startling to me because I, I really valueconnection and I feel like if we just have our, we're just like looking at a phone or
playing on a tablet, when we have people to connect with right in front of us, yeah, Ijust don't think that's, I don't think it's particularly healthy and I think it does start
(10:28):
to shift people's priorities and their intuition and their inspiration.
at times, not that I don't think that like, you know, there's a lot of creativity that canbe had within the technology world as well.
oh Yeah.
like, you know, what used to take thousands of dollars in video editing equipment, Icreate great social media videos, you know, just, you know, for Instagram or whatever for
(10:58):
fun in two seconds, right?
I have a drone, the stuff that you can create.
from a creativity suite of tools, it's great, but also from the dumbing down and, youknow, numbing, um it's bad.
But, you know, I guess every...
Every generation has something and who knows what's gonna happen with AI and I don't know,maybe we'll just implode and we'll have to learn how to like raise chickens and farm and I
(11:26):
don't know, maybe.
Yeah, who knows?
It's crazy.
um Okay, so Long John Silver's, how'd you end up at Roots?
How'd you end up the catering queen?
How'd you get dub that?
All right, that's quite a story.
ah So basically I worked in seafood restaurants, donate seafood, and then um I don'treally eat seafood.
(11:49):
I have warmed up to salmon, but outside of that I'm not a big seafood eater.
So I never like consume the product that like we're.
had bad seafood.
If Long John Silver was your introduction, well, it's probably the smell that turned youoff, but there's some really good ceviche and all sorts of but anyway, I'm not here to but
(12:10):
make you a pescatarian keep going.
ah And then I moved into cafe management.
So I managed a cafe, which was like a lot of fun.
um And then I moved into another cafe and it wasn't really the best fit for me.
And I was quite miserable there.
(12:31):
ah Just, I think that who you, the store itself was like a lot of fun and the people weregreat.
But I think who you have as like,
your superiors, like your district manager, area manager, what have you, play a huge, theyhave a huge impact on like what kind of experience that you have.
um And it was interesting because I had been at the previous jobs for like an extendedperiod of time because I'd worked in three different jobs and I was there for like, you
(13:00):
know, five plus years at all of them.
And I always felt like very seen and heard and like the people were really like warm andempathetic and all that.
And then in that particular location, I didn't really feel seen or heard at all.
And so it was kind of just like a bad experience.
I was experiencing a lot of like debilitating anxiety trying to go to work.
(13:24):
So I really needed to do like, needed to shift and then the infamous year of 2020happened.
So good old COVID error.
ah so I was really kind of, I left that job and then I was really looking for where Iwanted to go next ah and really wanted to be very mindful about where I went.
(13:46):
And Roots Natural Kitchen, I ended up applying and they chose me and the people werereally, really great.
They were uh definitely like, I need to have a sense of that the people that I'm workingwith are good.
and just have like empathy and that they see everybody as people.
And that is something that is very true ah when it comes to Roots.
(14:09):
ah And yeah, so I started with them in July of 2020 and really got to experience how greatthey were because I actually went through kind of a little bit of a hardship, not a little
bit of a hardship, but like a month into the job, my mother.
had surgery and it did not go well and she ended up like passing away and I had like,yeah, and like, I, well, thank you, but I was really like nervous because of my previous
(14:42):
experience with my other employer.
I was really nervous about like telling them, hey, I might need some time.
Like I gotta go through this.
I was very anxious.
And they were...
I mean, do you think they were going to fire you or?
Yes, well, I didn't know that I didn't have like that impression of them ah to do thatkind of thing.
(15:03):
But just like I think there was just like this lack, this lingering anxiety from myprevious job.
So ah I was very nervous and uh I hadn't met a lot of these people because of it beingcovid.
Like it was all just like we were, you know, emailing or messaging each other from likethe for when it came to the people at the home office and.
(15:26):
people that I had never met were just reaching out and sending their condolences and justchecking in on me.
they really showed me how much they really value people in general.
And I felt so supported and I don't know, it gave me such a warm feeling that after that Iwas like Roots Natural Kitchen, I will die for you.
(15:49):
You guys are so kind, so good, but.
ah Yeah, so I was general manager for our state college location for a couple years andthen I had my son in February of 2023 and it ah kind of it really worked out well for me
because what happened was I had been I think I wasn't quite aware of it but I had been ina place where after my mom had passed away I was kind of in the mindset of like I don't
(16:20):
know if like
being a general manager is what I want to do anymore because it does require so many hourslike in the restaurant.
And I was missing out on so much time with family and I felt like a lot of guilt with mymother with that.
So I don't think I was like fully consciously aware of that.
But whenever I had my son, I was like very nervous about going back into the restaurantand being away from him and trying to balance all that.
(16:46):
And it really worked out that
they needed this operations coordinator position to be created and they kind of just likefast-tracked it and thought that I would be a good fit.
um our head of operations, Haley, I'd worked with her, like she had been my area managerfor a time and we worked really well together and she thought I would be a good fit for
(17:06):
it.
And I was able to work remote and be close to my son.
So following maternity leave.
So what was an operations coordinator?
the operations coordinator.
um So it's basically just kind of handling the backends, the back end things, likebasically being, um being the, the second person, the second go-to person for like things
(17:31):
like dealing with the different platforms that we use.
But they didn't, whenever they, whenever they pitched the job to me, they're like, wedon't have a full description.
you're going to be doing a little bit of catering, you're going to be a little doing alittle bit of like menus and like just kind of like it's going to be basically, yeah, when
it comes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(17:51):
I basically you tell me what to do.
I'll do my best to get it done, like kind of thing.
And so, yeah.
So they didn't even have like a full description whenever they they were like, would youwant to do this?
And I was like, um yes, please.
Yeah.
So I started that in.
It would have been May of 2023 following my maternity leave.
(18:15):
So how did you become the catering queen?
Mm-hmm.
So um they basically wanted somebody to focus on catering.
They had previous individuals in that role that kind of oversaw it, but uh didn't work outas well at that time.
(18:35):
And so they just wanted to kind of have somebody who could just handle all the thingscatering for all of our store locations.
So is that sales, is that operations?
More so, it started with more so just operations, just kind of fine tuning.
Catering was doing okay, but ah we wanted to just kind of have more focus on it and seewhere are the opportunities to improve ah and all that good stuff.
(19:08):
ah So basically what I did is I like to go in and just create systems myself and just geteverything nice and organized.
I kind of looked to see because I was overseeing all the stores.
I'm picking up label gun vibes.
I do have a label gun.
(19:31):
I do have one, yes.
And I loved, I love it.
You know, I should have been a mentalist in Vegas.
did you have a place you learned systems from?
uh Basically, Hailey was my mentor, so she really taught me everything that I know when itcomes to roots.
(19:55):
But in general, I...
I mean, have you just always been a systems person or did you learn it someplace?
Or is it, I'm gonna project myself on you.
Chaos causes anxiety.
So by having everything taken care of in a plan B, you don't have to worry about the shithitting the fan because you have a backup fan.
(20:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I basically like, just like to create little systems of like plan A, plan B, plan C,and what can we do to make sure that all the T's are crossed, the I's are dotted, and just
to try to run as smoothly as possible, oh and what to do when things don't run smoothly aspossible.
I like to have like a plan for that.
(20:41):
And I think working in the restaurant industry, you are just like surrounded by chaos andchaos and you have to find
your calm, your organization within all of that.
having a system helps me be able to manage all that.
Well, you it's funny you talk about chaos and calm, you know, originally our company wasrestaurant catering systems.
(21:06):
And I thought, okay, that makes sense.
Catering systems for restaurants.
And people were like, are you a restaurant supply company?
Are you this or that?
And then people in the catering business would be like, but your software is not for us.
So we tried to come up with a generic name.
And, you you look at Microsoft and how software companies throw two names together.
(21:26):
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, cater zen.
That just sounds like a good name and peaceful, whatever.
And then one day it just sort of hit me.
We turned catering chaos into calm and it fit with the zen.
It just, it all happened.
have you ever heard of Michael, have you ever read the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber?
You probably do a lot of it, but uh that's where I first learned systems when I got myfirst restaurant.
(21:52):
There really weren't systems.
And I just hate things being
What is it I say?
I prefer processes over personalities because it's profits as opposed to problems.
Personalities cause problems, processes cause profits, right?
And I made that one up, no one gets credit for that one.
(22:14):
And it's really true because you can have a superstar that does a good job, right?
You work at Long John Silver's and you're the drive-through queen.
And then what happens when you go off to college?
Well, now you're just relying somebody else to just through serendipity, be just asconscientious and care just as much where the process is, I'd rather have people operated
(22:35):
in eight out of 10, but everyone's doing the same thing.
So he talks about whether you want to be like McDonald's and have a gazillion units, oryou just want one restaurant or one barbershop or whatever, set up all these systems.
So I've always been about systems.
I think people think
cater zen is bigger than they are because we have really, really good systems in place.
(22:58):
um And so I'm all about systems.
And I think a lot of people, when you tell me you're working 90 hours a week, that tellsme you don't really have good systems and you're just, you're like in a pinball machine
and you're just going off the bumpers.
And it's like, I don't have the bandwidth for that.
I don't have the.
the stomach for it, you know, I don't want to be on Xanax, nothing against people have totake medicine for anxiety.
(23:24):
Like, I want to just peaceful as possible.
If you don't bring peace of my life, you got to go.
Yeah, yeah.
And like some people will do that like almost as a brag, like I work 80 hours a week.
was like, that's not, how are, that's not good.
That's not healthy.
Don't tell anyone I work four hours a week.
I mean, I'm sorry, four hours a day, maybe four hours a day.
(23:46):
Um, because it's like, you, you, you, you really should get rewarded on the output.
Like I understand people have to wait tables.
So you have to go in and you have to wait tables.
But when you get to higher level, it's really, what can I get done through other people'sand other systems that are replicable?
Not just, Oh my God, I worked a hundred hours last week and
(24:08):
my God, look at me.
It's like, yeah, look at you.
Yeah.
No, not at all.
I do not envy people who work excessive hours.
are lazy like I am.
mean, those are my people.
um So do you focus on the catering sales or at Roots, what's your, how do y'all go aboutselling marketing catering?
(24:34):
I mean, I don't know your exact volume, obviously as your software provider, I could lookthat up, but I know y'all do a lot of volume.
What's your sales and marketing plan as far as building?
So we have uh marketing folks who also will go out.
We have two individuals uh who are wonderful and they are very good at marketing and kindof finding out who should we reach out to for catering.
(25:02):
um But we do have the fortune of, with us being a grain and salad bowl restaurant andbeing very allergen friendly, we do just have like
a good amount of people who just come to us because it's very convenient.
we do a lot of work with em
sales reps for medical offices and the universities.
(25:24):
put our locations in close proximity to universities, so we do a lot of catering foruniversities.
So a lot of it does just kind of come in because we are like, know, somebody orders ourfood and they don't have to be like, okay, tell me every ingredient.
We have very whole ingredients and we don't have a lot of gluten or dairy, so people don'thave to worry about like, my, because
(25:47):
And then, and when you're dealing in healthcare, obviously you've got health consciouspeople.
then in academia, you have a lot of diverse cultures that, you know, they, they don't eatcertain foods and what have you.
It's, it's really interesting.
I just got back from Europe and.
You know, I love food.
mean, I'm a before model for weight loss infomercials.
(26:09):
I've got to keep 20 pounds on.
Everybody knows I'm a major foodie and like I was.
I was eating like some good stuff, croissants, I mean like with almond cream.
Every day in Amsterdam around the corner, there was this bakery and I would get thisalmond croissant.
I mean, it was in a cappuccino.
(26:30):
And normally I drink black coffee every single day.
And I went to Michelin star restaurants and I eat pasta and bread.
And after three weeks, guess how much weight I gained when I came home?
I'm gonna guess nothing.
Yeah, because of it's different.
I was six pounds down because all the you know, when you travel, you you blowed up fromjust being an airplane and whatever.
(26:55):
So I was I probably lost weight.
I think the busiest day as I walked 23,000 miles, but the food supply is clean andhealthy.
And here, like, I just go out to regular restaurant and you think and you're havingchicken with lettuce and you just feel
Even that you think is healthy the salt and the the preservatives and stuff.
(27:17):
It's just It's and again, i'm not a health food nut by any stretch of the imagination,right?
I like taco bell it Well, it used to be 3 a.m now.
It's got to be before 10 because i'm gonna go to bed but You know, I can eat some goodcrap food but it's like It's just amazing.
We have such a bad You know from the wheat
(27:41):
that we, you know, the wheat source that we use or flour source, it's like, Europe hasn'tfigured it out.
They don't put up with shit in their food supply.
No, they really don't.
I do find it interesting because I know so many people who like, can't have, they don'teat gluten here in the States, but whenever they go over to Europe and they try pasta,
(28:03):
like they have no problem.
And I'm like, it's our food.
Like we have a problem.
Yeah, I think we're, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, maybe a light one.
It's like, are we just trying to like, neuter the population through our food supply?
how, not dumbed down, but you know, like, could we just make people just sloss, just, youknow, no, no exercise and you know, and also in Europe, even if you are the laziest person
(28:35):
in the world,
You're walking two miles a day because by the time you leave your apartment you go to thebus or the metro Then you walk a couple blocks to work.
You've put in two miles by the time you go to work and back, right?
And so I mean if everybody in america got up off their butt and walk two miles a day Youknow and you ate a better food supply and then you know the portions, right?
(28:57):
You know, you go to cheesecake factory.
You could feed a family of four off one plate and you're up there just regular portionsand they
so different.
take the time to enjoy the meal.
There's not this hurriedness like, where's my food?
Where's this?
Like if you're in a hurry, don't go out to eat in Europe.
Like you're waiting 30 minutes for a check.
(29:18):
So it allows you to not rush, you know, by the time everything's coursed out, you don'tneed as much to get full.
You know, you're not, you know, you haven't just wolfed everything down.
It's just a whole better way of living.
Which is crazy.
Anyway.
weeks there?
I went to Amsterdam because I've always wanted to ride a bicycle in the tulip fields.
(29:42):
I went to Marrakesh because my parents are from Morocco and I've never been and I didn'twant to spend two weeks.
I had a place for two weeks in Amsterdam and I cut out and I went hot air ballooning inthe desert, which is have you ever been on a hot air balloon?
I hate heights and I had the best time of my life.
It is like I'm not gonna say it's life changing but
(30:05):
you know, enhancing.
It was really cool.
I would do it again.
And then I went to Paris for a week.
I was born in Paris.
And so I just hung out in Paris for a week and took my dad and his girlfriend out to aMichelin star restaurant.
You know, my dad has never been to one.
And so that was a nice experience.
(30:25):
And then I've got this hobby.
I'm now collecting.
I just built a new kitchen.
I've got display cabinets, you know, with glass.
on the top cabinets I put in.
And every time I go to Michelin Star restaurant, I'm trying to get something from therestaurant that the chef will sign that I can put on display.
So, you know, I didn't think teapots or thimbles was my thing.
(30:49):
You know, people collect a lot of weird things.
think for a foodie to have something from a Michelin Star restaurant is pretty cool.
Um, okay,
So when, when, and I don't know, do you study what other restaurants are doing?
You know, what mistakes have you seen other restaurants make in the catering space, eithergetting into it, running it.
(31:16):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely like observe what other restaurants are doing and just seeingif we are doing like, if we should be doing something similar or if we're like, we're
definitely doing something better type of thing.
But I don't feel like I...
study the other restaurants as much, um maybe take some inspiration from them here andthere whenever I see it.
(31:42):
But I just, I like to study what our restaurants are doing and what is or isn't working.
um And I am aware of like all of the caterings that go out for all of our stores, um whichwe have, I think 13 now.
um So looking to see if there are any like trends of
(32:05):
you know, where we need to improve and like holding the stores accountable, making surethey're aware of like if something, if something was late or anything like that.
um And
The one thing I do think is like for us has been a huge benefit is we do not contract outto um like DoorDash for delivery or anything like that.
(32:26):
We use our own like in-house contracted drivers, which is a huge selling point for ourcustomers because they love that they can like our in-house.
Contracted drivers, they know our food.
They know how to set everything up.
They they're often like in-store employees as well so they can answer any questions thatthe customer might have and they're just like more reliable.
(32:49):
So our customers really love that like they know it's going to be like one of these, youknow, several drivers that are going to be dropping it off and they know what they're
doing oh and that we can like easily make sure to contact them and all that good stuff.
Yeah, we're going to have to edit this out because cater's is about to launch a thirdparty integration.
Now I'm just joking.
(33:13):
no, um, there is a place for third party integration for overflow, you know, and you don'twant to turn away business or there's just some people that they're not in a position to
have that, but I will totally agree with you and you can have your own team.
Um, it's always better because they understand your brain.
standards, the culture, what's expected, they know how to problem solve.
(33:40):
You know, they're not just like, oh, it's just food, here it is, you know.
And, and I think that does make, you know, a huge difference.
we were lucky that we had sort of a hybrid.
So when I opened my restaurant, this guy came in and he goes, Hey, I own a courierservice.
do a lot of legal, you know, document running, whatever.
(34:02):
Um,
would you consider using us for um deliveries?
And in Memphis, when I worked at the Court Cus of Memphis, they use a third party courierservice.
um And so the guy was great because he was a one man band.
He didn't have some big operations with Dispatch.
He had a Miata and a cell phone.
(34:23):
Sometimes he'd run the orders.
And he would hire...
um
he was probably the gig economy before the gig economy.
He would hire like musicians, know, Nashville's bigger musicians.
So if they're not touring, right, or doing session work, they want to make some extramoney, right?
So they come in and run a couple of orders.
We'd give them unlimited Cokes.
(34:44):
If they brought the check back, we'd give them a free sandwich, stay at home moms,retirees.
So he had this whole, he was sort of like Uber Eats or DoorDash before there was, it wasjust all this hodgepodge.
gang of people and you know, they really took pride in what they did.
You know, they felt part of the Corky's family because we treated, we didn't treat themlike, you know, hey, you're just somebody, you know, this underling that's doing this job
(35:13):
for us.
It's like we were friends with all the drivers.
We gave them food, you know, they come to us and go, hey, I'm having a family reunion thisweekend.
I'd give them half price because you want people.
Somebody taught me this a long time ago, servant leadership, right?
Your job as a leader is to serve the people who serve the people, right?
(35:38):
And obviously serve the customer.
Cause if you, to your point, like because roots took care of you when your mom wentthrough the health issue and then died, you can't put a price tag on that in loyalty.
You know, and if somebody came to you and said, Hey, I'm going to pay you an extra
10 % or 15 % you probably wouldn't leave because you're like I'm not going to risk whatI've built here in the culture and who I work with for a few extra bucks.
(36:07):
Now if somebody said look I've got this great opportunity and you I I want to pay youdouble you might take a serious look at that but you know you're not losing people over a
few bucks if you if you treat them well and you're there when they when they need you.
I mean
And that's how I've always tried to run things.
(36:29):
It's like, I really don't care if you've got to leave it to in the afternoon and take yourdog here, get an oil change.
As long as I don't have a customer calling me that you've dropped the ball and there'snothing, we're not serving food, right?
So if something, if a project gets taken care of today or tomorrow, if somebody getstraining at four in the afternoon or eight the next morning, it's not earth shattering in
(36:52):
most people's lives.
So I think people appreciate.
that flexibility.
ah And I do because I don't want an office because when you have people you have problemsand you know, oh, Suzy left her stinky cheese in the fridge.
Michael doesn't clean out the coffee maker.
It's like, just fold your laundry on a call, leave me alone.
I don't care.
(37:12):
Just do a good job.
Ummm...
So if you look at, uh okay, so going back to what you said before, I sort of, we didn't godeeper.
What have been some of the things that you've recognized where you need to improve and howdo you track that?
(37:37):
Are you talking to the customers?
Do you have a way of monitoring complaints?
What are you seeing?
um So anytime that somebody does have a complaint, they're typically going to get me onthe phone oh because our catering has really...
been booming over the last two years.
I now have like a second person who's helping me, which is great.
(38:01):
um And so you're going to get myself or her and then we track every issue that does comeup.
And then if any issues, like track any issues that might have been noted and easy cater oranything like that as well.
And then the stores also are to communicate with us if anything is going to be, if it'srunning a couple of minutes late, say the driver has a
(38:24):
lot tire or anything like that um or you know what have you they'll let us know about thator they usually try to let us know about that before anything happens or after so most of
the art orders do run pretty smoothly ah but for every now and then you do have somehiccups and
I mean, I mean, it's impossible to have 100 % success, right?
(38:49):
Yeah.
And like, if like maybe the quality was off or anything like that.
um
We want to know about that.
And I think a lot of our customers do feel comfortable reaching out if there was an issueor if something was maybe missing.
um And then the restaurants themselves are very good at communicating and takingaccountability for anything that might have gone wrong.
(39:13):
And then we track all of that and give reports back to the stores about,
these are some opportunities and things like that.
ah So I think that's one of the biggest things that changed whenever I came into Role isthat I started seeing like, this particular restaurant is struggling with getting food out
(39:33):
on time.
um
yeah.
So obviously you're a client and I don't know what people use and don't use.
Again, I don't get involved in day to day, but we came out with a new notes feature.
Are you documenting all that with the new notes feature?
Yeah, we do use the notes for like any little bit like, this customer uh wants you to dothis or that whenever you arrive or this customer has had some issues in the past,
(40:00):
anything like that, which is helpful.
It's super helpful.
your reports?
Because you can have a headline for a note, like customer issue, and then you could pull areport for the quarter, any note that has customer issue as a headline, and you can say,
hey, for the quarter, what were our issues?
Have you done that?
We haven't done that.
We kind of have like our own separate like tracker of different things just because thereare like different platforms that we have to go through, like with Easy Cater and like we
(40:26):
have like America to Go and stuff like that.
And then there are like some issues that like...
We usually give a refund, a partial refund if something is late, but if it's like justsomething small and they're like, oh, it's not a big deal.
I just wanted to let you know.
We still like note that kind of information.
uh But yes.
(40:50):
Not in our highlighted notes.
Highlighted notes are like usually more so for just random like tidbits of informationthat we should know about that customer, particularly if there was...
uh
if they kind of have specifications as to like how they want the food delivered, but theydon't necessarily put that in the order whenever they place it, things like that.
(41:12):
Who takes the orders?
Do you have a phone center?
you?
So they can enter it, obviously manually, or enter themselves on our website.
And then uh easy cater orders, we input manually.
And ah same with America to Go orders and different like third party catering platformsthat we use.
um And then we try to just meet people where they're at.
(41:34):
So we also have people who are able that they can just like email us or give us a call.
Yeah, I take calls.
I take calls every day and take orders.
primarily the main phone order person?
They'll call you to take orders?
Yes, me or my colleague now, Victoria.
Yes.
Yeah.
that's cool.
Yeah, we're, um well two things, we're integrating with EasyCator.
(42:00):
They've chosen us, hopefully uh sooner than later we'll have that done.
We did, I don't know if you use the EasyCator, a manual interface we built.
Do you use that?
I don't think so.
So we had a client that says the invoices don't match and caters in from what the checksare.
(42:21):
So every field on an easy cater order can be manually entered into the order, even if thesales tax is a penny off.
So when you get your check, you can reconcile it in two seconds.
Okay.
Yeah, so I know there's so many things people don't know.
I don't even know half the shit that my software does.
I really don't.
(42:41):
I have to ask.
We've built so much good stuff.
um The other thing is um you've worked with Jillian, right?
uh Do you know Jill, our new COO?
Um, I don't think so.
You need to meet her.
The two of them are like super nice and super engaging.
I'm sort of an ass.
(43:01):
So people stay away from me.
But Jillian is like your best friend.
Like she knows everything about people.
And that's where I think the highlighted notes really can give you an unfair advantage.
Because if you've got a client and you know that they like to fly fish, right?
You don't give a crap about fly fishing.
You don't fly fish, right?
You like to hike.
I've done my research.
So if I knew you liked to hike, I go, Hey, do you have a good, you know,
(43:24):
What's the weather gonna be like this weekend?
it's gonna be sent you going hiking.
yeah, I'm going up here.
Well, what's it like?
So now you're buying from a friend as opposed to transactional, right?
We want to do business with people we know like and trust price doesn't become an issuebecause every time I call Ellen she asked, you know, how's the beach or how's mediocre
(43:45):
life or whatever it is?
um So I think that's a good
tool is to sort of get to know people and put that in the highlighted notes because Welive in such a depersonalized Society.
Yes, we have this persona on social media what we the mass we want to show people But youknow when you're talking to someone on the phone They let that down a little bit or they
(44:10):
tell you something about their life and they're not trying to show off right?
I'm ordering food like it's some what might
be considered maybe not a big piece of information, but something important to them thatyou can, you know, tap into.
Yeah, which I've had like the benefit of because I had been the one primarily taking allof the calls.
I got to know the customers pretty well.
(44:32):
So I'm like, oh, Jill.
Well, I guess I maybe not Jill, but I had, but like, how have you been type of thing.
And for me, it's actually interesting because because I have my son at home with metypically, like he, I have helped.
between, uh you know, five hours before he goes down for his nap.
(44:54):
But because he's like kind of in the background making noise a lot of the time and just,you know, being a two year old, that's also like for me a really nice like connecting
point with customers because they're like, you have a kid, like how old is he?
And it's always kind of fun.
And then I get to like, you know, brag about how...
I guess, yeah, brag about how I'm grateful for being able to hang out at home and be ableto still see him while working.
(45:20):
I think it is a big benefit to be able to do that.
I don't use the word blessing a lot, but I'll use the word blessing, you know, because,you you, really have this small window of opportunity to shape a little person.
I guess they say by the time they're three, they're sort of figured out.
And um if you can do that and do your job.
(45:40):
And I think today, especially the COVID trained us with Zoom calls.
You know your dog barks in the background your cat like we're all people, you know As longas you're not getting up showing you're in your underwear on a zoom call It's like
anything goes and you know, hey, can you wait someone's at the doorbell?
It's a ups guy.
I mean people get that right and you know, it's it's human.
(46:03):
So that's very cool.
Okay, so last question Where do you see the future of ai intersecting with the cateringindustry?
Oh my-
I don't know.
AI.
I get a little nervous about AI.
(46:26):
So probably a little bit.
So do you have a prediction?
I well, I think AI can be used for really great things and can be a very useful tool.
Um, for, we have been able to use like chat GPT to like, when we get individual bowlorders on EasyCater, we've learned how to, we're starting to learn how to like get that
(46:51):
inputted so that we can just like make it Excel so we can make labels from it, which is,which is cool.
Um, but yeah, I'm not quite sure.
I'm not quite sure.
I'm just a little, I get nervous about AI and how it's going to be as long as it's usedfor good and useful things.
(47:11):
Well, that sounds like the Star Wars trilogy, but I will give you my high level.
uh I think short term, it's going to be a phenomenal tool, right?
Like we use chat GPT all the time where it's headed and how fast it's advancing.
I think if you see what's going on in the world of robots.
(47:32):
10, 15, 20 years from now, our kitchen's gonna be manned by robots.
They show up on time.
They don't complain.
You know,
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think it might not be a bad idea to own a big plotof land that you can raise your own food on and wake up with a purpose because if we go to
(47:56):
an economy where we have a, um what do they call it?
Not guaranteed income, universal basic income.
I think AI is gonna be taxed because it's like, okay,
this AI has put this many people out of work, so we're gonna have to tax it like a payrolltax.
And then people are gonna get a check to stay at home because there's probably not gonnabe enough jobs to make up.
(48:20):
Yes, it's gonna make a lot of difference, but there's a lot of jobs that will never bereplaced, so we don't want people burning down.
em And so what happens when people don't have a purpose, right?
It's not like if all of a sudden I gave you a big check every day, maybe you'd find apurpose.
you have a kid, but are most people going to say, well, I'm going to paint and draw, raisechickens, whatever.
(48:40):
So I think you're going to need to maybe find a reason to wake up in the morning asidefrom money, something that gives you life and purpose, whether it's art creating, know,
raising chickens, you know, I'm into kayaking, hiking, I need to do something with my lifeto feel I have a purpose because otherwise it's just debauchery and downfall.
(49:03):
Yeah, don't that.
So that's sort of my, I think people don't like what I have to say and probably getscared, but you know, that's it.
that, I mean the idea of being able to have like a plot of land and just kind of do yourown thing.
Because I feel like for me, I'm never short of having a list of things that I'd like tocreate and grow and all that jazz.
(49:27):
But don't feel like I have the time for it.
oh
I mean, you do have a job and a child.
So you have an excuse.
Maybe when he goes off to school, you won't have the excuse.
Okay, well, I appreciate you being here today.
Not only informative, but a lot of fun.
(49:47):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Thank you.
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