FSR magazine April 2018

SPONSORED CONTENT
COURTESY OF FABIO VIVIANI
Meet Me at NRA Show
Fabio Viviani, celebrity chef and restaurateur
BY PEGGY CAROUTHERS
For Fabio Viviani, a celebrity chef,
former Top Chef contestant, cook
book author, and restaurateur, the
annual NRA Show in Chicago is all about
networking. “This is a business based on
people, and in order to connect with
people you have to be where they are,”
Viviani says. “The NRA show is a great
source of connection. You can meet
vendors, employees, business partners,
and competitors.”
As an established chef, Viviani—
who has attended NRA Show for over
a decade—says that he has built many
relationships there and that the Show
provides him with opportunities to
catch up with his peers and gain a competitive
advantage by seeing what they
are doing. When he was just getting
started in the business, however, the
Show provided him with a valuable
platform on which to build his business.
“When I had one restaurant, I used the
Show to make connections to get better
pricing and discounts,” he says.
Vendors are a big attraction at the
Show for both established chefs and
those just starting their careers. Viviani
says he likes to browse booths to
find new products. “NRA Show is like
Candy Land for a kid,” he says. “I can walk
around for hours. Last year I found a better
system to manage my inventory that
I love, and I wouldn’t be aware of it if I
wasn’t at NRA Show.”
For first-time attendees, though, Viviani
suggests planning specific booths to
visit based on whatever challenges they
have in their businesses. “Go through
the directory and see what interests you,”
he says. “Do you need help with inventory
or beverage and alcohol? Do you
need new menus? What are your problems
in the restaurant today? If you can
figure out what you need, there will be
vendors who can help you with that at
NRA Show. Just go hunt them down.”
Viviani is a self-proclaimed people
person and he says that giving cooking
demonstrations is one of his favorite
parts of the Show. “Demonstrations let
folks break away from business for a second
and sit down to watch somebody
on stage making food,” he says. “The
interactions can get very personal, too.”
Another big reason Viviani says restaurant
professionals should attend NRA
Show is to learn new techniques and
enhance existing skills. “It doesn’t matter
how good you are or how big you
are, there is always someone out there
doing something better than you,” Viviani
says. “It’s a very good way to learn,
stay current, and be humble. Though
Viviani is well-established in the industry,
he says NRA Show provides numerous
opportunities for both experienced and
new chefs. “NRA show is a great opportunity
for people who are starting their
journeys in the culinary business to get
lots of insight and become knowledgeable,”
he says. “It’s a great organization,
and I’m very happy to be part of it.”
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