One of the key factors changing foodservice
in B&I is that millennials are starting to take
a more significant role in the workplace,
Keats says. They are more diet aware, and
while health and wellness has already played
an important part in culinary programs, now
it is even more important, though B&I clients
leave the “what and how” up to ARAMARK.
comes in every day. We have to focus on
what the consumers want and not what
we want,” Keats says.
Additionally, as CEOs get older and
begin to experience health problems,
and as they experience the rising cost of
health insurance within their companies,
they are placing more demands on their
foodservice operators to develop health
and wellness programs, Keats says. Some
prefer to take a blended-in “stealth health”
approach by lowering sodium and fat
content without highlighting it so much,
while others want “in your face” nutritional
information on everything. The health
platform ARAMARK delivers is customized
to the account.
CHEFS’ ADVANTAGE
Some professionals, who have already
had a culinary career “after the chef,”
are trading in their restaurants for new
responsibilities. French chef Gerard
Pangaud operated a 2-Michelin-star
restaurant in Paris before moving to
the U.S. He was a chef at The Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, Arlington
County, Va., and for 14 years operated
his own restaurant, Gerard’s Place, in
Washington D.C. In July 2010, he started
a new career as executive chef at the
headquarters of Marriott International
Inc., Bethesda, Md., for contract
management company Sodexo Inc.,
Gaithersburg, Md. His customers are the
3,000 employees in the building. Among
his high-level executive customers is
CEO J.W. Marriott Jr.
During the 14 years Gerard Pangaud
operated his own restaurant, he
improved restaurant sales but his
income decreased. “There’s less
money to be made in the restaurant
business. The winners are the
landlords. Rent doubles, insurance
goes up, but prices stay the same. You
have to contract something.” It ended
up being his salary.
Regional ethnic food trends are magnified
in B&I. For example, in New York, Keats
is seeing a rise in North African and
Caribbean cuisine as second- and third-generation natives of those areas are
starting to take higher positions within their
companies and can influence the food
served in their corporate dining facilities.
This is one of the differentials of cooking
in B&I. A restaurant cooks in the fashion
of the chef. “It’s whatever the chef
wants on the menu. He promotes and
advertises, and guests come in once
a month or so for a special occasion
for that cuisine. We have clientele that
Pangaud still relishes his new life (he’s
home by 3: 30 p.m., most days) and the
daily interaction he has with his regular
customers from the building, who choose
to eat with him rather than run home
for lunch. Among the benefits . . . are
benefits. He gets sick days, insurance
and vacation. “When I had my own small
business, if I was sick, I had to work. The
approach of my life now is that there’s
more balance. I have time to read and
meet other people,” he says. “Some are
interested in food, some are not. They
are all in different professions. It opens
my mind. I feel much better as a person.”
Now he doesn’t have to worry about
that as an employee of contract
management company Sodexo Inc.,
Gaithersburg, Md., working as executive
chef at the headquarters of Marriott
International Inc., Bethesda, Md. Other
differences: Younger chefs in culinary
for the fame wouldn’t like working in
B&I. There is no fame. Also, there is
more time to be spent managing from
an office and less time cooking. “If you
like to cook and you come just to cook,
you’re in the wrong place.”
He develops menus for the varied food
stations two or three weeks in advance
based on Sodexo’s vast library of recipes.
When Pangaud introduces a dish for the
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