The Tech Chef, Restaurant, Hospitality and Hotel Technology Business Podcast Skip Kimpel

Joining the show today, I am excited to have Troy Hooper, Chief Executive Officer at Hot Palette America. Troy Hooper joined Pepper Lunch as one of the three global business unit CEO’s for the brand, and oversees Pepper Lunch’s parent company in North America, Hot Palette America. Troy brings 30 years of unparalleled experience in hospitality, operations management and executive leadership to this role, which has fueled Pepper Lunch’s infrastructure development, growth efforts, and brand deliverables, creating a fruitful franchise model for the North American market.
Throughout his career, Troy has successfully built new concepts, rebranded existing restaurants, and improved well-established venues for iconic brands. Troy’s decades of experience and business acumen brings a breadth of knowledge to the rapidly growing global brand, Pepper Lunch.
By the way, I have some breaking news for you at the end of this episode so make sure you listen all the way through to make sure you don’t miss it!
How To Contact MeWebsite: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)Website: https://ConStrata.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpelTwitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpelFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consultingYou can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.ioEmail me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io
What’s up next?Next week is the one and only Geoff Alexander from Wow Bao. We all know both of these names very well. A man who had a vision, assembled an amazing team and has taken his vision to a whole new level! You think he is passionate about virtual brands? Well, you will have to tune in to hear him tell us what he REALLY thinks about the future of that side of the industry. 
So, check out Hot Bytes on all of my social media channels and let me know what you think.  I am very curious to see the reaction and see how sadistic you all really are!

Back with us today is Managing Director of ConStrata Consulting, Mr. Toby Malbec. This episode is dedicated to the two hospitality shows that recently happened, the industry standard, HITEC, brought to you by HFTP, which was held in Toronto and the brand new Hospitality Show put on by AHLA in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Both of these shows happened at the same exact time, so Toby and I decided to divide and conquer as so many others did as well. Today’s recap will highlight overall arching themes, similarities as well as differences between the two shows. Enjoy!
How To Contact MeWebsite: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)Website: https://ConStrata.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpelTwitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpelFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consultingYou can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.ioEmail me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io
What’s up next?Next week I am excited to share the time I had to chat with Troy Hooper, CEO of Hot Palette America, best known for their outrageously popular and delicious restaurant, Pepper Lunch. Troy has quite a bit to share with us regarding the growth of the organization including building out a tech stack for an international operation.  How is he going to pull it off? Tune in and find out!

Joining the show today is our special guest, Nabeel, CEO and Co-Founder of Lunchbox. Nabeel was born in Bangladesh, moved to Kuwait 7 years later, and to Queens, New York 7 years after that. Nabeel began his career as the first busboy at the Bareburger flagship store in Astoria, and spent his free time devising marketing objectives for the CEO. In 2019 he founded Lunchbox, a next-gen online ordering company, that was built out of the frustration of trying to build his own digital ordering system at Bareburger. In just a short period, Lunchbox has established itself as the premiere product in the digital ordering space, partnering with industry leaders such as Firehouse Subs, Papa Gino’s, Clean Juice, Wings Over, Bareburger and more.
Today’s show is NOT about Lunchbox. It is about AI and the new, free AI application that can be found online to allow restaurants generate food pictures for their online ordering guests.  We take this much further into the legalities around intellectual properties, regulation and the future of this technology.
We have some fundamental differences of opinion around the IP side of things but, at the end of the day, we are all trying to figure out where this all lands and are in it together.
How To Contact MeWebsite: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)Website: https://ConStrata.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpelTwitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpelFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consultingYou can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.ioEmail me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io
What’s up next?Busy and crazy times in our industry right now. This also happens to be a very timely subject today, especially around the online ordering and virtual kitchen side of things as we are starting to see a slowdown in online ordering and a significant shakeup in that side of the industry. I would also love to hear your thoughts on where YOU think the digital restaurant is headed. I will be out at the new a href="https://www.thehospitalityshow.com/"...

Joining the show today is Aaron Hoffman, Co-Founder & Head of Strategy at DeliverThat - a white label, last-mile delivery platform focused on catering delivery and setup. Aaron and I break down what a successful delivery operation looks like for your business: best practices, process changes, considerations for success and so much more.  We will also dig deeper into the catering side of the restaurant business and how this can be a game changer if you not spending much time and effort to perfect that side of the business.
You will get lots of great juicy nuggets from this show. Bon Appetit!  Oh, and by the way, Alan Hickey…. I hear Aaron is a better golfer than you. Just sayin’,..
How To Contact MeWebsite: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)Website: https://ConStrata.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpelTwitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpelFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consultingYou can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.ioEmail me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io
Next Week’s ShowNext week, I have Nabeel from Lunchbox joining us to talk about the new AI Food Generator application they developed, and we go pretty deep into the AI in general.  Nabeel is a well known industry expert that people look up to and it was a privilege to have him join me.  Certainly, an episode you won’t want to miss.

Carl Orsbourn and Meredith Sandland join the show to talk about their new book, "Delivering the Digital Restaurant: The Path to Digital Maturity." Don’t worry, this episode is not just a sales pitch for the book. We dig much deeper in conversation about things like figuring out what “digital” means to the restaurant industry, order throttling, dynamic pricing, converting 3rd party to a 1st party customer, the gig workforce and even talk about the good and evil of AI.

I have an unbelievable treat for you today with another industry rockstar; the man, that I have heard many times before, to have the Midas touch because he has the reputation that everything he touches turns to gold. Chris Artinian joins us to talk about technology through the years and his personal formula for a successful organization. Chris serves as President & CEO at Condado Tacos and Tequila, an emerging NextGen growth brand that specializes in tacos, margheritas and tequilas, with expansion plans to expand up to 100 company owned and operated restaurants by 2026, as it expands to many new markets. Chris has over 30 years of restaurant and retail experience, with both private and public companies, and has extensive experience in restaurant and consumer services.