Archive for Food

Blog Post #6 Chipotle

Steve Ells, went to culinary school and is trained chef. He had the idea for Chipotle while working at a high end restaurant in San Francisco. Frustrated with the lack of affordable and quick,  high-quality food options, Ells envisioned a place where people could enjoy freshly prepared Mexican-inspired dishes without compromising taste. Ells turned his vision into reality when he opened the first Chipotle restaurant in Denver, Colorado, on July 13, 1993. The name “Chipotle” is derived from the Nahuatl word “chīlpōctli.”

One of Chipotle’s founding principles was the commitment to using fresh, high-quality ingredients. Ells aimed for naturally raised meats and organic produce whenever possible, setting Chipotle apart from other fast-food chains. This dedication to freshness appealed to health-conscious consumers and contributed to the company’s success in the business world. 

While the initial menu was fairly simple, featuring burritos, tacos, and salads, the customizable nature of the offerings set Chipotle apart. Customers could choose their preferred protein, from grilled chicken to steak, and customize their meals with fresh toppings and sauces. This personalized, Subway type service concept was a game-changer and became a significant factor in Chipotle’s rapid expansion.

In the early 2000s, Chipotle took a bold stance on sourcing ethically raised meat long before it became a widespread trend. The company is committed to using only responsibly raised, hormone-free meats, supporting sustainable farming practices. This commitment resonated with environmentally conscious consumers and the food industry as a whole. 

Chipotle’s popularity snowballed, expanding its restaurant locations across the United States and eventually internationally. However, the company faced challenges, including food safety issues in 2015 that temporarily tarnished its reputation. Despite setbacks, Chipotle undertook comprehensive measures to enhance food safety protocols and rebuild customer trust.

Chipotle continues to be a force in the fast-food industry, known for its commitment to quality, sustainability, and customer satisfaction. The company’s success story demonstrates how well Ells thinks like an entrepreneur. 

 

Abid Khan – Thremalog

     Food waste is a major problem for most stores and restaurants. A lot of this waste is created by not knowing how long food has been out on the roller, shelf, or buffet line. Abid Khan, founder of Thermalog, is tackling this monstrous problem through automation. In 2019, Khan was wrapping up a closing shift at a local convenience store when he had to toss out yet another batch of food that might or might not have gone bad. This caused him to pause and think that there had to be a better way to determine whether or not food is still good for human consumption. This led to the founding of Thermalog, a company that is changing food safety for the better. “Back then, we had to manually record temperatures, and I noticed various issues with the system, such as people forgetting to log the data and having to discard large amounts of food because there was no way to know when the storage equipment failed,” Khan said in an interview. With Thermalog’s automated temperature-tracking system, this is no longer necessary.

     The system uses a computer to track food temperatures, in order to maintain food quality, safety, and to prevent food waste. On top of that, Thermalog’s system will also warn users when food integrity could be compromised by extreme temperature changes, further preventing loss. While their main focus is on food, Thermalog isn’t stopping there. With potential uses for medicine and logistical functions, the company intends to revolutionize those industries too. According to Khan, “We’re working on expanding our reach globally and developing new solutions for different industries, like healthcare and logistics.” To find out more about Thermalog, read about them on newcastle.edu.au or visit their website at thermalog.com.au.

 

Too Good To Go

In 2015,  Thomas Bjørn Momsen, Stian Olesen, Klaus Bagge Pedersen, Adam Sigbrand and Brian Christensen from Denmark came together and created a brilliant idea and subsequent company. “Toogoodtogo” is a mobile app that “connects customers to restaurants and stores that have surpluses of food”. In other words, if the local bakery makes 10 extra French baguettes than they sell, they can put them on the app and people can buy them remotely at a discounted price. This app was founded as an instrument of “International Day of Awareness of Food and Waste”. I know, isn’t that a creative name? But the founders could no longer stand by watching local restaurants throw away tons of product for the rats to feast on; so they took action. Only in September of this year did this company expand into 17 other countries (including the United States). I have it downloaded but haven’t used it yet, BUT my brother made it very clear how well “Toogoodtogo” has spiced up his rather boring meals; adding an authentic French dessert pastry to the usual chicken nuggets will do wonders.Ht7OXfuYPvtSdFl7PnuX6KisTLgSceF9krOmxof7klTgqNR7UBVc53z63Vm3NuOQ0eo (512×512)

$6 Million…at 13 years old

Alina Morse is an inspiration. Just like the rest of us, she hated it when her parents told her she couldn’t have candy. “It will hurt you teeth!” they would say. Well, 9-year-old Alina had had enough of this and decided to make an alternative. After months of YouTube research, product testing, and sampling, Ms. Morse created the “Zollipop”. These lollipop-style candies are vegan, dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and actually beneficial to the consumer’s teeth. Fast forward four years and one can find Zollipops in Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, and many other stores. Here in the craziest part: Her business is worth $6 million dollars and she only has seven employees. Alina has gotten an audience with ex-first lady Michelle Obama and been on the Today show. Finally 10% of her company’s earnings go to “One Million Smiles” which is a company geared to fighting the rapidly growing tooth-decay epidemic.

Blog Post #2: Jake Cohen

Jake Cohen is a young entrepreneur cook from New York City who has gotten his way on New York’s best-selling book, “Jew-ish.” His first cookbook has a bunch of recipes consisting of unique Jewish dishes. For example, a couple of his Jewish dishes are called rainbow sprinkle babka and challah. Other foods that he makes are Macaroon Brownies, pumpkin Spice Babka, and roasted tomato brisket with many more delicious recipes in his cookbook   Jake knew that the current Jewish cooking market was boring and bland and knew that so much more could be made out of these delicious Jewish customary foods.  Jake Cohen has found a unique niche where there wasn’t much exciting entrepreneurial activity due to a lot of dormancy in this particular market so he decided to take advantage of this opportunity and has successfully marketed his ideas through social media and made appearances on some popular TV shows to become a successful cook influencer online. After publishing his first cookbook, he went on popular TV shows like Good Morning America, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and the Food Network. There are also a lot of articles written about him in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Through TikTok and Instagram, he has made short videos on some of his recipes, which have reached over two million people. His food is so good that even Britney Spears said, “the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” and said, “It’s inspired me to take on a new passion in the cooking field!” Jake reconciles an ancient traditions with our modern times, his recipes become a celebration of a colorful and vibrant Jewish history. He managed to combine Jewish food traditions with more modern American plates to appeal to his customers.

Robert Luo with Mi Terro

Robert Luo is an environmentally aware, three-time entrepreneur. He has sold two of his businesses, and his third is a company called Mi Terro, which began with duffle bags made from corks and plastic from the ocean. The company seeks to change both the fashion industry and the food industry. More recently, the company has started to create and sell t-shirts made from spoiled milk. The milk is turned into protein fiber that replaces plastic, and the fiber is turned into shirts sold online. The beginning of Mi Terro’s new venture in t-shirts was Luo’s visit to his uncle’s dairy farm in China. There was so much spoiled milk because the farm’s buyer had switched to a different farm for supply. Luo’s uncle asked, “is there a way that we can sell this spoiled milk?” and the idea of Mi Terro began to form. Luo’s story seems to be a perfect example of ideas colliding to create a complete idea. Luo was already into sustainable fashion created from waste, and Luo’s visit to his uncle’s farm gave him a new piece of the idea for milk t-shirts, the next venture of Mi Terro. Luo said in an interview, “Leverage the existing connections those that have helped them start a business- either financially, or mentally helped them out. Build connections and be humble. Meet people and be open-minded.” Luo recognizes the importance of networks of ideas, that ideas can come together from various sources and that we can purposefully seek out interpersonal connections to allow these ideas to collide and create a new, whole idea. Luo continues to be innovative and moving on to the “adjacent possible,” the next available innovation: Mi Terro is now beginning to test technology that turns whey protein, a byproduct of cheese and yogurt, into packaging to replace the plastic packaging on products.

Tom Bilyeu – Quest Nutrition

Tom Bilyeu is a young entrepreneur from California who co-founded the extremely popular health and wellness food company, Quest Nutrition. Tom Bilyeu’s story to uprising is very inspirational. Instead of creating his company solely for profit making, Tom wanted to create a product that would allow others to live a healthier lifestyle. For a good part of Tom’s early adult life, he was overweight and lived an unhealthy lifestyle. However, he was still motivated to become a successful entrepreneur and wanted to incorporate health into a business idea. Tom ended up having an amazing weight transformation, and simultaneously initiated Quest Nutrition, a health food company that offers a variety of protein snacks, most notably their bars. In the fitness industry, Quest protein bars are one of the most well-known product in their field. Almost every gym, convenience store, and grocery store that I have been to has some form of Quest Nutrition product. Quest Nutrition has a great variety of snack products with very good flavors and a great macro/nutrition label. In 2014, Quest Nutrition ranked No. 2 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing U.S. companies in 2014. A few years ago, Tom and other co-founders of Quest sold the company to Simply Good Foods Co. for $1 billion. Leading up to the acquisition, Quest was generating revenue over $300 million in that year. Tom’s story is a perfect example of a young entrepreneur using a problem and a need of inspiration in his own life to create a product that not only helps himself with that, but countless others.

Fit Fuel

Sean Kelly had a very intriguing idea with his business Fit Fuel. He took an idea that was already invented and made it his own. Vending machines are very convenient for people to grab a quick snack or a quick drink. They even have vending machines in gyms which can defeat the purpose of a workout. When he was in college he came up with Fit Fuel. His business sold healthy foods to be put into vending machines. Eventually, by 2007, he was able to sell vending machines filled with healthy foods. This business was called H.U.M.A.N Healthy Vending. He partnered with Andy Mackensen to help fund this business along with Fit Fuel partners. Within the vending machines consisted of protein bars, yogurt, gluten-free products, and other healthy food options. Sean’s plan was to be the leading anti-obesity company in the country. To also help this cause, 10% of the proceeds are given to obesity-fighting and malnutrition charities. It is very clever how he built his idea from other ideas and that he is also giving back. He first came up with this idea by watching a women grab a coke before going on the elliptical. This shows that ideas can come from anything and anywhere. It is important to know that any idea can make a difference. In this instance, Sean just needed to observe in order to come up with something that could improve the product in this situation.

Jaequan Faulkner – Old Fashioned Hotdogs

Jaequan Faulkner, age 13, did not mean to make the news. He just wanted to make some money on the side like lots of kids his age. He was selling old fashioned hot dogs for $2 and $1 chips and sodas from his front yard. How did this blow up?

Someone sent a complaint to the Minneapolis Health Department because Faulkner’s side hustle was operating as an unlicensed vendor. Faulkner became the latest case of a stream of kids trying to make side money just to be shut down by suspicious/angry adults. Talk about someone being a Karen… expecting a kid to have a vendor’s license.

Anyways, the officials didn’t immediately swoop down on Faulkner’s endeavor and shut it down. Instead, they tried to figure out how they could help the kid. When checking the business out, they were impressed by Faulkner’s drive and decided to teach him how to get his business up to code. In fact, once Faulkner’s stand passed inspection, the inspectors paid for the $87 fee!

Faulkner’s uncle helps him run the business, which serves customers from 11AM to 3PM. Faulkner is very on top of running his business, and estimates sales of 100-150 dogs sold a day. He plans on starting his own restaurant once he gets out of school.

As Jaequan Faulkner said himself, “My auntie always told me, ‘Can’t nobody stop you but you.’ If you say ‘I can’t do that,’ well, then you just set yourself up for failure.”

Vinusha MK

Vinusha, who started her own baking business at nine years old, decided that she would make her mother a birthday cake. After using countless resources, videos, and friends to help her bake the cake, she was able to surprise her mother, all while realizing that baking was something she was good at and wanted to pursue. Four Seasons Pastry, sells exclusively cupcakes, and despite it being a new business, Vinusha has achieved significant success.

She landed an internship at a five-star hotel café, while also selling over 600 cupcakes since 2019, which she makes in her free time at home. Covid-19 did cause Vinusha’s business to struggle, but she felt lucky to have many supportive influences around her, like her parents and her three mentors. Suresh Chinnaswamy, Lakshmi Reddy, and Geethakrishnan Sir, her three mentors, have excelled in fields of baking, and made names for themselves in the world, much like Vinusha is doing.

Being a young entrepreneur is a difficult job on its own, but Vinusha takes it a step further by juggling her own business, her schooling, and baking lessons. She practices new Indian recipes with her mother in the free time that she does get, where she’ll practice making dishes such as Butter Chicken, Gobi Masala, and Paneer Butter Masala. Baking truly takes over Vinusha’s life, and she mentions that her entrepreneurial goals do sometimes clash into her academics. She will often finish her studies, then go straight to her kitchen to practice more baking.

Her dreams for Four Seasons Pastry are limitless, although she does also dream to pursue an education at a prestigious culinary school in either France or Switzerland. She hopes to develop a way to make her desserts healthier, and then develop a website to advertise and sell her cupcakes.