July/August 2020

TOP 

CANADIAN PUBLICATION MAIL PRODUCT SALES AGREEMENT #40063470 

Under Thirty 

Introducing the winners of KML’s Top-30-Under-30 Awards 

TAKING 

A STAND 

Restaurant operators 

express frustration about 

lack of government support 

CHINK IN 

THE CHAIN 

The impact of COVID-19 

has put a strain on the 

Canadian food supply chain 

PLANT 

POWER 

Plant-based menu 

offerings are still top 

of mind for diners 

JULY/AUGUST 2020 $4.00

SHOP ONLINE. 

PICK UP IN STORE. 

@ wholesaleclub.ca 

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VOLUME 53, NO.7 | JULY/AUGUST 2020 

CONTENTS 

THE KML TOP-30-UNDER-30 AWARDS 

IN THIS ISSUE 

31 CHINK IN THE CHAIN 

Canada’s food supply chain is facing 

pandemic-related challenges 

34 IN THIS TOGETHER 

Chefs are using their time and talent 

to help their communities 

35 PROFILE: JUNIPER FARM 

10 

36 PROFILE: KING COLE DUCKS LTD. 

37 

FEATURES 

10 A PREFERENCE FOR PLANTS 

Plant-based alternatives continue 

to gain popularity 

15 TOP 30 UNDER 30 

Shining the spotlight on KML’s 

Top-30-Under-30 winners 

23 RAISING THEIR VOICES 

Foodservice leaders weigh in on lack 

of government support during 

COVID-19 

29 COVERING YOUR ASSETS 

Operators need to ensure their 

COVID-19-related losses are covered 

37 CHAIN REACTION 

Suppliers reveal how their businesses 

have been impacted by COVID-19 

43 DELIVERING THE GOODS 

Operators are frustrated with the cost 

of third-party-delivery options 

45 SCORING BIG 

Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment 

steps up to help the community 

49 WHERE TO GO FROM HERE 

Accelerating the recovery of 

Canada’s restaurant industry 

53 THE ART OF PREP 

Operating challenges are driving 

demand for food-prep equipment 

DEPARTMENTS 

2 FROM THE EDITOR 

5 FYI 

9 FROM THE DESK 

OF NPD 

56 PRODUCT PREVIEW 

58 GOOD NEWS 

53 

FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM 

JULY/AUGUST 2020 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 1

FROM THE EDITOR 

A FORK 

IN THE 

ROAD 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, 

never let a good crisis go to waste. It’s a sentiment one 

can only hope we apply to the recent COVID-19 

pandemic. After being in lockdown for more than 

three months, the world is slowly returning to some 

semblance of normalcy. But one wonders if we can ever truly 

return to normal. Based on the events of the past three months, 

it’s a fair assumption that normal will no longer exist — and, 

that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

Every crisis we live through comes with an inherent set of 

lessons. We have the power to apply that learning to our lives 

and grow from it; or choose to ignore it at our peril. Never have 

the lessons been as important, as relevant and hopefully as longlasting. 

This unprecedented pause has given us time 

to reflect and to question whether our accepted reality was 

indeed purposeful. 

The extreme measures we were mandated to follow in recent 

months were meant to protect us, but the repercussions were 

unimaginable and long-lasting. 

Businesses across many industries and around the world have 

been decimated. Closer to home, restaurants were one of the 

hardest-hit sectors. As some restaurants pivoted 

to takeout and delivery in order to eke out some 

kind of existence, others were forced to shutter 

their business. In this ‘Twilight Zone’ of an existence, 

many came to realize just how important 

a part of the social tapestry restaurants are. 

One of the harshest lessons learned for some 

operators was the lack of support from landlords 

and third-party-delivery companies, who 

even through this difficult time were steadfast 

in their conviction to not waive rents and/or 

protect operators from evictions, as well as to 

not reduce delivery fees during this crisis. 

While the world was waging a valiant war 

against an invisible enemy, another war raged 

on, burning more intensely every day — the 

war against racism, exemplified by demonstrations around the 

world protesting the death of American George Floyd, a victim 

of police brutality. The fire it’s ignited is burning brightly and, 

amid the despair, there’s also a new feeling of hope emerging 

that his death will fuel positive change. 

While no one expected 2020 to be eventful, we’re living 

through a watershed moment in history. A step in the right 

direction and we’ll be on the path to true progress; one misstep 

and we plunge into chaos that will set us back forever. 

ROSANNA CAIRA rcaira@kostuchmedia.com 

@foodservicemag 

facebook.com/foodservicehospitalitymagazine 

instagram.com/rosannacaira 

NICK WONG, LOCATION PROVIDED BY VIA CIBO 

2 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2020 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM

EST. 1968 | VOLUME 54, NO. 7 | JULY/AUGUST 2020 

EDITOR & PUBLISHER ROSANNA CAIRA 

MANAGING EDITOR AMY BOSTOCK 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR DANIELLE SCHALK 

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT NICK LAWS 

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DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS 

DEVELOPMENT, U.S.A. WENDY GILCHRIST 

CIRCULATION PUBLICATION PARTNERS 

CONTROLLER DANIELA PRICOIU 

ADVISORY BOARD 

FAIRFAX FINANCIAL HOLDINGS LIMITED NICK PERPICK 

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MTY GROUP MARIE-LINE BEAUCHAMP 

PROFILE HOSPITALITY GROUP SCOTT BELLHOUSE 

SOTOS LLP ALLAN DICK 

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS JUDSON SIMPSON 

THE MCEWAN GROUP MARK MCEWAN 

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH, SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY 

& TOURISM MANAGEMENT BRUCE MCADAMS 

WELBILT MARY CHIAROT 

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MONTHLY NEWS AND UPDATES FOR THE FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY 

LOSING GROUND 

Even as restaurants are re-opening, most 

are still operating at a loss 

AMONG 

RESTAURANTS 

THAT HAVE 

RE-OPENED 

FOR ON-PREMISE 

DINING: 

ISTOCK.COM/NATTAKORN MANEERAT [HANGING OPEN SIGN AT RESTAURANT]; ISTOCK.COM/NATTAKORN MANEERAT; ISTOKC.COM/WEEDEZIGN [BARISTA HOLDING TABLET SIGN] 

A 

recent survey conducted 

by Restaurants Canada 

reveals most foodservice 

businesses across 

the country continue to 

operate at a loss, even as the economy 

is slowly re-starting. 

After months of significantly 

reduced or non-existent revenue and 

now facing months of operating at 

reduced capacity, many restaurants 

need continued support to survive the 

road to recovery. 

“When restaurants thrive, so do 

the communities they serve,” says 

Shanna Munro, Restaurants Canada 

president and CEO. “Our industry 

wants to contribute to re-building the 

economy and reviving neighbourhoods, 

but time is running out. Most 

restaurants have been operating at a 

loss and accumulating debt for three 

31 

PER CENT 

OF SINGLE-UNIT 

OPERATORS AND 

43 PER CENT 

OF MULTI-UNIT 

OPERATORS SAID 

DOING SO HAS 

HAD A POSITIVE 

IMPACT ON THEIR 

OPERATIONS 

47 

PER CENT 

OF SINGLE-UNIT 

OPERATORS AND 

39 PER CENT 

OF MULTI-UNIT 

OPERATORS SAID 

THE IMPACT ON THEIR 

OPERATIONS HAS 

BEEN NEGATIVE 

THE REMAINDER 

REPORTED NO 

IMPACT OR SAID 

IT’S STILL TOO 

SOON TO ASSESS 

months already. If they don’t get 

the help they need to return to 

positive cash flow, many won’t be 

able to last much longer.” 

Restaurants Canada says 

operators will need continued 

support in the areas of labourcost 

assistance; commercial tenant 

protections and rent relief; and 

help with cash flow and rising 

debt levels. 

The survey was conducted 

between June 1 and June 7, 2020. 

Restaurants Canada received a 

total of 940 completed surveys 

from foodservice operators across 

Canada, representing 14,129 

locations (as many respondents 

belong to multi-unit businesses). 

Among survey respondents whose operations are either open 

for takeout or delivery only, or already offering dine-in services 

under new restrictions, six out of 10 said they are operating at a 

loss, while 22 per cent of single-unit operators and 15 per cent of 

multi-unit operators said they’re just breaking even. 



JOE BAKER 

JOINS OTEC 

Joe Baker joined the Ontario 

Tourism Education Corporation 

(OTEC) team in June as Systems 

Leadership and Integrated Strategy 

Advisor. This newly created role 

was designed to support the OTEC 

senior team in its collaborative role 

in tourism-and-hospitality workforce 

recovery alongside numerous 

industry and association partner 

organizations. Baker brings 20 years 

of combined hospitality-operations 

and tourism-education leadership 

experience to OTEC, most recently 

as Dean of Hospitality, Tourism 

and Culinary Arts at Toronto’s 

Centennial College. “Joe’s industry 

and advocacy expertise will be a 

game-changer in terms of our 

ability to provide rapid response 

to this hard-hit sector. The work 

ahead will be critical to the sustained 

recovery of the tourism industry and 

the resilience of the tourism workforce,” 

says Adam Morrison, 

president and CEO, OTEC. 

AUTOMATED EATS 

In June, Paramount Fine Foods launched Canada’s first fully automated 

restaurant — Box’d by Paramount Fine Foods — in Toronto. Box’d 

features a simplified ordering process, so guests don’t spend time standing 

in line or waiting for their food to be prepared. Guests place their order in 

advance via a mobile app or through an in-store digital kiosk. Digital status 

boards within the restaurant update guests when their food is ready and lead 

them to their pickup location. Digital cubbies and shelves identify orders 

and create a streamlined experience. The concept will offer fast, healthy 

options featuring traditional Middle-Eastern flavours and spices in new 

and exciting recipes created by chef Tomer Markovitzs. The menu includes 

Paramount’s famous hummus, salads, Box’d hot dishes, oven-baked wraps 

and smoothies — each with sustainable packaging. “The state-of-the-art 

technology used throughout Box’d will revolutionize and transform how 

consumers experience dining on-the-go and will help our guests feel safe,” 

says Markovitz. “With one chef per meal, all meals are sealed and delivered 

to sanitized, individual cubbies, which simplifies the process and keeps 

cleanliness and safety top of mind.” 

PICKING UP 

THE PIECES 

Ontario-based Facedrive Inc. has entered into a binding term sheet with 

Foodora Inc. pursuant to which Facedrive will purchase certain assets of Foodora 

Canada. Facedrive is Canada’s first peer-to-peer, eco-friendly and socially 

responsible ride-sharing network and identifies itself as a “people-and-planet 

first” business. The company has seen viral success with its gig-economy 

platforms Facedrive Rideshare, Facedrive Marketplace, Facedrive Health and 

Facedrive Foods. Facedrive Foods is a recently launched food-delivery network 

connecting residents to restaurant businesses in the Greater Toronto Area 

and London, Ont. The platform was created to support residents, businesses 

and the driver community during the global pandemic. Through the transaction, 

Facedrive will gain access to Foodora Canada’s customers, subject to 

customer consent, as well as 5,500 restaurant partners previously served by 

Foodora Canada. The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including 

the negotiation of a mutually satisfactory definitive purchase agreement 

and Court approval and is expected to close within 45 days of May 14. 

JOINING 

FORCES 

In June, Just Eat Takeaway.com announced plans to acquire 

Chicago-based Grubhub. Just Eat Takeaway.com will acquire 100 per 

cent of Grubhub’s shares at an implied value of $75.15 per share 

for a total value of approximately $7.3 billion. The deal is expected 

to close in the first quarter of 2021. Just Eat Takeaway.com and 

Grubhub processed 593-million restaurant orders in 2019 and have 

about 70-million users worldwide. Combined, they will be the 

largest restaurant-delivery company outside China. Matt Maloney, 

Grubhub’s founder and CEO, will join Just Eat Takeaway.com’s board 

and will lead the company’s North-American business. 


WE’RE HERE TO 

HELP YOU REOPEN 

PLEASE CONTACT ANY OF OUR DEALERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO HELP YOU. 

The R.E.D. Canada Food Equipment Dealers are stocked and ready to help 

all Restaurant, Foodservice, and Hospitality establishments REOPEN and 

“GET BACK TO BUSINESS”! 

Dealers across the country have both the traditional Equipment, Tabletop, and 

Smallwares you need to operate, but we are now also carrying 

• Personal Protective Equipment – PPE Masks, Gloves, Face Shields etc. 

• Sanitizing Products for guests – Hand Sanitizer, Sanitizing stations for front of 

the house, restrooms, bars, and kitchens 

• Cleaning and Sanitation supplies to ensure your guests' health, well-being, and 

peace of mind – Specific cleaning supplies and chemicals that will eliminate any 

unwanted pathogens for both “front of the house”, and “back of the house” 

Visit us at redcanada.com for our member listing

RESTRUCTURING 

FOR NEW REALITIES 

Starbucks plans to close up to 200 locations in Canada over the 

next two years as part of the company’s “portfolio-optimization” 

efforts. The company noted that some of these stores may 

be re-positioned, as it plans to do with several U.S. locations. 

The company also announced it will accelerate expansion of 

convenience-led formats, such as drive-thru, Starbucks Pickup 

and curbside pickup, in the U.S. over the next 18 months to meet 

changing customer behaviours and shifts caused by COVID-19. 

The U.S. portfolio transformation includes the expansion of new 

Starbucks Pickup stores in dense markets — including New York 

City, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco — and convenience-led 

enhancements such as curbside, drive-thru and walk up windows 

in suburban areas. With customers’ increased use of the 

Starbucks App to order ahead and the national availability of 

Starbucks Delivers through Uber Eats, Starbucks will also renovate 

select store layouts, including the addition of a separate counter 

for mobile orders at high-volume stores, to make it easier for 

customers and delivery couriers to pick up their order. 

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 

KFC Canada has entered a strategic partnership with Manthan, a cloud-based 

AI and analytics provider, to further the brand’s digital transformation. KFC 

Canada has been making digital the priority in every aspect of its business. With 

more than 600 restaurants across Canada and online sales continuing to be an 

exponential-growth lever for the brand, it’s identified speed to insights as critical 

to becoming an agile business. Through the partnership, the brand aims to gain 

deeper insights across all aspects of its restaurant business, including dynamic 

demand; inventory; operations; e-commerce; guest experience; voice of 

customer; marketing/CRM; audit and compliance; and associate 

training and productivity. 

DOWNSIZING 

OPERATIONS 

Nando’s has decided 

to consolidate its 

Canadian business to lay a solid 

foundation for the future. This 

process will see Nando’s Canada 

move to permanently close 21 

of its corporate owned-andoperated 

restaurants. The company 

notes these locations had 

not been commercially viable for 

some time and their losses were 

only exacerbated by the COVID-19 

crisis. Following the closures, the 

company will operate 27 locations 

in British Columbia, Alberta and 

Ontario. The company indicated it is making efforts to shift employees to its remaining 

corporate locations and will provide affected employees with separation packages that 

are as generous as possible. 

CONTINUED 

COMMITMENT 

DoorDash introduced the ‘Main Street Strong’ 

initiative to help restaurants navigate the 

recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, 

launching a suite of products, programs and 

policies to help restaurants grow their business 

and take control of the customer experience by 

building their own digital-ordering solutions. 

This includes launching DoorDash Storefront, 

which enables restaurants to create their 

own online stores; expanding the DoorDash 

Weblinks program for restaurants that would 

prefer to have DoorDash manage their 

digital-ordering experience; and bringing back 

“Local-Restaurant” promotions, which helped 

drive more than one-million incremental 

deliveries. The company will also waive set-up, 

software and merchant delivery fees associated 

with DoorDash Storefront incurred in 2020 

for local restaurants and offering zero-percent 

commission on all Weblinks orders to 

restaurants with five of fewer locations 

through the end of 2020. “Main Street Strong 

embodies our commitment to offer local 

restaurants the tools and services they need 

to serve their customers in this accelerated 

transition,” says Tony Xu, DoorDash cofounder 

and CEO. 

ISTOCK.COM/BENSIB 


FROM THE DESK OF NPD 

ISTOCK.COM/RIDOFRANZ 

LOCAL MATTERS 

Now, more than ever, local means business 

The COVID-19 crisis has changed 

many of our behaviours in a short 

period of time. When it comes 

to the foods we eat, perhaps the 

most noticeable change has been 

the shift in how and where our meals are 

prepared. The NPD Group/CREST reports 

that the commercial-restaurant industry in 

Canada lost more than 300-million visits in 

April. The shutdown of restaurant diningrooms 

across the country and stay-at-home 

orders have forced families to re-discover 

their kitchens and begin preparing meals for 

themselves again. 

When choosing which restaurant to visit 

when dining out, Canadians have always 

had an eye on where their food comes from. 

Choosing a restaurant that offers locally 

sourced foods is a top consideration among 

restaurant visitors, factoring into 15 per cent 

of all restaurant visits in the pre-COVID-19 

data. The most notable difference among this 

group of consumers is age. Local-minded 

restaurant patrons skew to the 45-and-over 

cohorts. Other restaurant-selection criteria 

that are top of mind include demand for 

Canadian-sourced products and ingredients 


with reduced salt, sugar and cholesterol. So, a 

local-centric marketing campaign can appeal 

to this customer base with messaging around 

ideas of healthy dining. 

Local-minded customers are more likely to 

visit full-service restaurants. This is likely due 

as much to their age as their search for local 

sourcing. Regardless, like the rest of 

the population, about two thirds of this 

cohort’s visits are going through quick-service 

restaurants (QSR). Their lives are just as busy 

and they have the same cravings as the rest of 

the population. This creates an opportunity 

for smaller QSR chains to attract this unique, 

older and more affluent crowd with some 

local messaging. The large QSR chains that 

dominate the market do many things well, but 

building localized supply chains is not necessarily 

one of them. Local sourcing is is an area 

where smaller chains and independents can, 

and should, strive to differentiate themselves. 

It’s too soon to say for certain how much 

the demand for local sourcing will change 

due to the current climate, but according to 

the results of The NPD Group’s COVID-19 

Foodservice Sentiment Study, demand for locally 

sourced foods is only going to rise. More than 

one third (39 per cent) of respondents source 

local sproducts because they feel these are safer. 

Moreover, half of all respondents plan to visit 

local and independent restaurants to support 

the local economy once the restrictions are 

lifted. The challenge is that the older cohort 

most likely to support the local economy is also 

the cohort that’s the most concerned about 

returning to restaurants. This will require a 

regimen of physical distancing and hygiene 

measures that I know the industry is already 

looking to provide to a cautious public. 

It’s important to note younger cohorts 

also seek out local- and Canadian-sourced 

food items, just not as much as their parents. 

Instead, they show a propensity towards 

organic, sustainable and cage-free food 

options. They’re also more inclined to seek 

foods that include protein, vegetable content 

and plant-based ingredients. For operators 

and suppliers alike who are interested in 

maximizing their local messaging, it would 

make sense to include any pair of the above 

messages. For example, local foods are often 

considered more environmentally friendly. 

This opens up the option of combining two 

key messages around local and sustainable, 

which will be well received by all age cohorts. 

Local-minded consumers are proportionately 

distributed across all regions of the 

country. This is a rare occasion where all 

Canadians can agree on something — well, 

maybe not all Canadians. Residents in the 

seven largest urban centres are less inclined to 

search for local. It seems the further removed 

we are from the source of our food, the less 

connection we have to its source. 

The industry’s struggles during this crisis 

have been well publicized and, in response, 

consumers are being encouraged by industry 

leaders, governments and influencers to 

buy local. Whether this means support for a 

local independent restaurateur, a local food 

supplier or a local farmer, it makes little 

difference. The message is clear. Being localminded 

is right for the times — and right 

for business. FH 

Vince Sgabellone is 

a foodservice 

industry analyst with 

The NPD Group. He can 

be reached at vince. 

sgabellone@npd.com 


FOOD FILE 

Plant-based 

offerings are 

experiencing 

growing 

popularity 

with a range 

of consumers 

BY DANIELLE SCHALK 

Preferen 

Liberty Commons’ 

Raw Vegetable Salad 

A 

for 

Plan 


FOOD FILE 

Wendy’s formulated 

its pea-protein-based 

Plantiful burger in house 

ce 

ts 

tsPAULINE YU 

Examining menu offerings 

across the country, it’s clear that plant-forward 

offerings have made their mark on the foodservice 

industry. And this is likely to continue, as demand 

for plant-based dining options is fuelled by a 

wider range of consumers than merely those 

who prescribe to a vegetarian or vegan diet. 

“The beauty of plant-based diets is they’re 

applicable to vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians. 

So, all across those types of diets, we can 

implement plant-based alternatives,” explains 

Juriaan Snellen, McCormick Canada’s executive 

corporate chef. “What we’re seeing, especially 

in foodservice, is the industry is [shifting] more 

and more to plant-centric dishes to really tap 

into that growing segment of flexitarians, 

vegetarians and vegans. And, out of those three 

types of diets, we’re actually seeing the largest 

growth in flexitarians — people [largely] 

motivated by health and sustainability to 

[gravitate] towards a plant-based diet.” 

That said, data from U.K.-based marketresearch 

firm Technavio indicates an expanding 

global vegan population base will also be a 

key driver for plant-based protein products in 

the future, with the market poised to grow by 

US$5.67 billion between 2019 and 2023. 

And, beyond alternatives for traditional 

centre-of-the-plate proteins, the plant-based 

dairy category is expected to diversify as consumer 

interest grows. According to a report on 

Top 10 Trends for 2020, from Innova Market 

Insights, about 32 per cent of surveyed consumers 

said they bought dairy alternatives because 

they’re perceived as healthier and 27-per-cent 

said they choose them to add variety to their diet. 

Toronto-based chef Ryan Lister of Oliver 

& Bonacini Hospitality’s(O&B) restaurant 

Liberty Commons, has observed this trend, 

noting an increasing number of diners are 

avoiding dairy products due to allergies and 

dietary preferences. 

Within the last year, there’s been a significant 

adoption of plant-based-protein offerings across 

the quick-service restaurant (QSR) market in 

North America. In Canada, both KFC and A&W 

began testing plant-based chicken products 

from Lightlife in fall 2019. And, McDonalds and 

Wendy’s tested plant-based burgers in Canada 

in fall 2019, with Wendy’s releasing its Plantiful 

burger nationwide early this year. While 

McDonald’s P.L.T. (Plant. Lettuce. Tomato.) 

features a Beyond-Meat patty, Wendy’s formulated 

a recipe in-house for its patty made with 

pea-based protein — a process Snellen notes 

McCormick played a role in. 

“Quick-serve has really adopted what we 



In October, 

Impossible Foods 

(maker of the 

Impossible Burger) 

partnered with 

DoorDash to feature a 

custom cuisine carousel 

featuring merchants 

that offer Impossible 

menu items in select 

U.S. cities. With the 

carousel, customers 

can find all Impossible 

menu items in one 

place. Prior to the 

launch, searches for 

“impossible burger” on 

DoorDash had increased 

by about 300 per cent 

since January 2019. 

...impossible burger 

Vegan 

cauliflower 

queso from 

McCormick 

refer to as ‘first-generation’ plant-based meat alternatives 

— burgers, nuggets, hotdogs and ground 

beef, mostly created with textured soy or pea protein,” 

says Snellen. “Pretty much everyone in the 

industry now has a plant-based offering. A&W was 

one of the first ones out there and everybody else 

kind of followed suit.” 

However, it’s worth noting these products don’t 

resonate with all customer bases. And, as Tim 

Hortons’ Beyond-Meat offerings illustrated, plantbased 

items do not a guarantee success — regardless 

of partnerships with major players in the space. 

The chain completely removed its Beyond-Meat 

products from menus across Canada in late January 

because, as a spokesperson for the brand explained, 

the offerings were not embraced by customers the 

way it had expected. 

The brand had launched burgers and breakfast 

sandwiches with Beyond Meat plant-based 

patties during summer 2019 and the items were 

later cut from menus outside of Ontario and B.C. in 

September, before being discontinued completely. 

“[Casual-dining restaurants] are starting to 

elevate the first-generation plant-based proteins — 

they’re expanding it into tacos, burritos, stir fries,” 

says Snellen. “We’re [also] starting to see some 

plant-based seafood and fish options,” he adds, 

noting this is mainly driven by sushi restaurants. 

While burgers have been 

the main point of entry 

for QSRs, as well as casual 

chains such as Kelsey’s and 

Dave & Buster’s, partnerships 

with meat-alternative 

producers are certainly not 

the only approach being taken. 

And, as the market evolves and matures, Snellen 

expects there will be a greater focus on lessprocessed 

offerings. “The first phase (right 

now) is the introduction of plant based and 

the second phase of that is offering plantbased 

alternatives that are less processed… 

It’s cleaner ingredients that consumers 

are familiar with — it’s more real, more 

approachable,” he explains. “What we’re 

going to see afterwards is plant-based offerings 

made with real food. And then we’re 

going to focus in on the functional claims 

that can be made, so a heavy focus on 

protein counts, the incorporation of good 

fats, organic, cultured, high fibre.” 

He notes that, in the fine-dining segment, 

plant-based offerings largely focus 

on whole ingredients already. “The biggest 

difference is the fine-dining sector is really 

using whole, real vegetable ingredients, but 

they’re being prepared in a way that a meat protein 

normally would,” he explains, pointing to cauliflower 

steaks, smoked-watermelon ham and jackfruit to 

replicate pulled meats as prime examples. “That’s 

ultimately what we’re going to see across the board.” 

At Liberty Commons, Lister is dedicated to using 

fresh, local ingredients to create plant-based offerings. 

This approach has involved “working with a lot 

more vegetables, lentils, rice, barley and grains.” 

As Lister explains, the brewpub concept is “a very 

meat-forward restaurant,” but trends toward healthy, 

sustainable and plant-based eating make it important 

to incorporate plant-forward options. “About 

one third of the restaurant’s menu is vegetarian or 

vegan,” he explains. “We have appetizers that are 

completely vegetarian or vegan, we have a whole 

salad section that’s completely vegetarian/vegan and 

we also have vegetarian main courses mixed in with 

our regular main-course dishes.” 

And, while it’s common to call-out or mark 

KFC also joined the plant-based movement 

with its meatless chicken offerings 

12 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2020 

FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM

McDonald’s 

P.L.T. features 

a Beyond-Meat 

patty; butternutsquash 

tacos 

from McCormick 

(right) 

vegetarian and vegan offerings on menus, 

Liberty Commons has opted not to go that 

route. “We don’t want it to seem like it’s almost 

a hassle or anything, cooking like this for 

people,” Lister explains. “We like it to be a part 

of our [main] menu because, even if you’re a 

meat eater, hopefully you’ll get enticed by how 

delicious [a dish] sounds.” 

While it’s been restricted to offering takeout 

and delivery, Liberty Commons has been offering 

REVISION: FA DATE: JUNE 4, 2020 

a reduced menu. Current vegetarian/vegan 

offerings include 

two salads — a Caesar salad 

and a Raw Vegetable Salad with 

ginger dressing ($11/half salad 

for $6) — as well as a Black 

Bean Burger featuring a black 

bean, quinoa and sweet potato 

patty, guacamole, tomato and 

Sweet & Smoky Aioli ($14); 

and Vegetarian Mushroom Mac 

& Cheese with aged cheddar, 

roasted mushrooms and rarebit 

cheese sauce ($14). 

However, Lister says the restaurant’s 

most popular plantbased 

dish is “a barbecued sweet-potato salad” 

with peanuts, candied peanuts, slow-roasted 

sweet potato and endive, finished with honey 

and fresh herds. 

Looking ahead, Snellen foresees continued 

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“We’ll continue to see [expansion] into desserts, 

pizza, side dishes, ready meals or even meal kits,” 

he says. “The important thing is that we need to 

deliver [these offerings] without sacrificing on 

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Because plant-based 

alternatives are developed 

to appeal to a broad, mainstream 

audience, they’re 

often not overly seasoned, 

which McCormick Canada’s 

executive corporate chef, 

Juriaan Snellen, says 

creates an opportunity 

for bold condiment pairings. 

“Whenever we’re 

developing plant-based 

concepts, we pair it with 

strong condiments,” he 

explains, adding Frank’s 

RedHot sauce has become 

a popular ingredient for 

plant-based dishes. 

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taste, indulgence or enjoyment. That’s 

key, especially since the majority of 

plant-based items are being consumed 

by flexitarians. Their focus is on health 

and sustainability, but they’re not willing 

to forego taste indulgence or enjoyment.” 

Pizza chains, including Pizza Pizza, 

have already expanded their offerings 

to accommodate a range of dietary 

preferences with plant-based offerings. 

Last June, Pizza Pizza introduced 

plant-based pepperoni from Yves Veggie 

Cuisine and plant-based chorizo crumble 

from Field Roast Grain Meat Co. to 

its menu. The chain also offers vegan 

cheese produced by Violife. 

Also impacting this market is the 

growing significance of takeout and 

delivery sales in restaurants — 

especially of late — making it top-ofmind 

for many to ensure menus are 

designed to travel well. 

“The challenge with plant based, 

where we are today, is that if you compare 

it to the meat [equivalent], it has 

a lower fat content, which makes it dry 

out faster,” says Snellen. “It’s something 

we’ll have to continue to work on, to 

make sure that plant-based meat alternatives 

have the same shelf life as a 

normal meat or protein [item].” 

“All chefs are going to have to start 

to re-evaluate their menus and come up 

with dishes that do travel well,” agrees 

Lister. “We’re all going to be trying to 

create vegetarian/plant-based dishes 

that travel well…There’s nothing worse 

than getting a bunch of vegetables that, 

by the time they’ve been in a hot box 

with a bit of humidity, [have] no 

texture to them anymore.” FH 

Liberty 

Commons’ beet 

salad; Liberty 

Commons’ kale, 

goat cheese and 

cranberry Salad 

(inset) 

PAULINE YU 

Hospitality 

Headlines 

Would you like foodservice news 

delivered directly to your inbox? 

Sign up to the Hospitality 

Headlines today and find out 

everything you need to know 

about what’s happening in 

the foodservice and 

hospitality industry. 

For more information, please 

visit kostuchmedia.com

TOP 

Under Thirty 

Introducing the winners of KML’s Top-30-Under-30 Awards 

In April 2019, KML announced it would take over stewardship 

of the Top-30-Under-30 program. Previously operated 

by the Ontario Hostelry Institute (OHI), the program is an 

annual initiative that recognizes and celebrates the top-30 young 

professionals across all sectors of the foodservice and hospitality 

industry. The high-profile program celebrates and recognizes future 

generations of hospitality leaders who are and will continue to make a 

difference. The brainchild of Bruce McAdams, assistant professor of the 

University of Guelph, and Charles Grieco, former president of the OHI, 

the program was launched 14 years ago and, during its history, hundreds 

of individuals have been recognized — many of whom have gone on to 

stellar hospitality careers. 

With the passing of Grieco last year, the torch has been passed to 


KML to take hold and move it forward. “We’re thrilled and humbled to 

have the opportunity to do so and we’re proud to continue recognizing 

tomorrow’s leaders who undoubtedly will make the industry more 

vibrant, more successful and more socially and ethically relevant,” says 

Rosanna Caira, editor/publisher, KML. “We look forward to keeping our 

readers updated as to how the program will evolve in the future, but one 

factor will remain constant: by strengthening the Top 30 Under 30, we’ll 

continue to honour the memory of the man who made it all possible — 

J. Charles Grieco.” 

KML is proud to present the winners of this year’s Top-30-Under-30 

Awards. Not only are these individuals great at their jobs, but they’ve also 

shown leadership or leadership potential and have sought to better the 

industry through their professional and/or industry-related volunteer work. 

JULY/AUGUST 2019 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 15

TOP 30 UNDER 30 

Tina Tang 

Pastry Chef, Predator Ridge 

Gold Resort Vernon, B.C. 

Credited as an energetic, highly skilled and ambitious young chef, Tina 

Tang began her career within the foodservice industry during high school, 

working in kitchens part time and joining the North Vancouver Island 

Chefs Association as its youngest member. She went on to complete the 

Professional Cook program (Levels 1, 2 and 3) at North Island College on 

Vancouver Island before receiving Red Seal Certification. She’s worked 

in a number of kitchens throughout B.C., including The Breakwater 

Restaurant, Quails’ Gate Winery and The Grapevine Restaurant at 

Gary Monk Winery, before taking on her current role as pastry chef at 

Predator Ridge Golf Resort. Tang has received a number of accolades 

during her career, including Okanagan Chefs Association’s Junior Chef of 

the year (2014 and 2015) and Chef of the Year (2018); the Fred Rose Award (2012) 

from the North Vancouver Island Chefs Association; and Tang is the youngest chef to receive 

the Canadian Culinary Federation’s Western Chef of the Year award (2018). She has also 

competed in a number of competitions, including the most recent IKA Culinary Olympics, 

where she won a bronze medal in the Pastry Arts category in addition to competing as part of 

Culinary Team British Columbia. 

Rafael 

Covarrubias 

Executive Chef, Hexagon Restaurant 

Oakville, Ont. 

Mexican-born chef based in Ontario, Rafael Covarrubias discovered 

his love of cooking at a young age in his family’s kitchen and earned 

his first ‘Cuisine Diploma’ at Le Cordon Bleu shortly after finishing high 

school. After honing his craft in a number of leading Calgary restaurants, 

he moved to Oakville, Ont. to lead the opening team at Hexacon 

Restaurant prior to assuming the role of executive chef of both 

Hexagon and 7 Enoteca. His leadership led to Hexagon being ranked 

among the top Best New Restaurants by Toronto Life magazine in 2018. 

Most recently, Covarrubias won the North America San 

Pellegrino Young Chef competition in New York City and 

will now represent North America in the Grand Finale in 

Milan next year. 

Dan Angus 

Erin Rolanty 

Assistant Winemaker, Rosewood 

Estates Winery Beamsville, Ont. 

Sous Chef, Langdon Hall 

Country House Hotel & Spa 

Cambridge, Ont. 

Dan Angus began working in the restaurant industry in high school as a dishwasher 

at East Side Mario’s. At the age of 17, he was made a certified trainer in 

recognition of his drive and professionalism. While completing the Culinary 

Management Program at George Brown College, he completed the placement 

portion of the program with chef Marin Kouprie at Pangaea restaurant in Toronto’s 

Yorkville neighbourhood. After five years studying and working in Toronto, Angus 

worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York before taking on the role of 

garde manger at Langdon Hall. Angus has since worked his way to senior sous chef 

and, in this role, has contributed to the development of the upcoming Langdon Hall 

cookbook. He also mentors and trains young cooks and is recognized as a driving 

force behind Langdon Hall’s sustainable- and ethical-sourcing initiatives. 

Wine is in her blood and Erin Rolanty has become a sponge 

for knowledge in the wine industry over her six-year career. 

Rolanty has worked as a cellar hand at wineries around 

the world, including stints in Germany and Australia, and 

spent years refining her skills before becoming the assistant 

winemaker at Rosewood Estates Winery. She’s a become a 

Swiss-army knife in the viticulture world, obtaining a certificate 

of merit from the Wine Appellations of Ontario for an 

introductory wine knowledge course, as well as an Ontario 

Certificate Diploma Certificate Winery and Viticulture 

Technician. Her experience with every facet of viticulture, 

coupled with her determination to grow and learn, makes 

her a force to be reckoned with in the workplace. 


Megan 

van der Baars 

Social Media & Project Manager, 

Fairmont Royal York Toronto, Ont. 

Megan van der Baars’ credits her career in hospitalty 

to a passion for travel, hospitality and culture. She 

majored in Hospitality Management/Business at 

Florida State University before moving to Toronto 

to take part in the leadership-development program 

at the Fairmont Royal York. The program led her 

to the Sales & Marketing department, where she 

excelled in the role of public-relations coordinator before being promoted 

to Social Media & Project manager. Van der Baars pursued additional 

education while working at the hotel, completing a post-graduate PR 

Certification from Ryerson University. She’s credited with increasing 

engagement across Fairmont Royal York’s eight social-media accounts by 

45 per cent since taking on her current role in 2018. She also played an 

integral role in projects such as the hotel’s recent multi-million-dollar 

renovation and the creation of the hotel’s Vision Labs — an interactive 

colleague townhall aimed at creating internal engagement. She’s also 

involved in committees such as Accor’s Planet 21 and RiiSE initiatives, 

holding the role of co-chair for the latter. 

Emily 

Robinson 

Undergraduate Research 

Assistant, University of 

Guelph Guelph, Ont. 

Robinson’s career path has been fuelled 

by a lifelong passion for food and the 

environment, leading her to leverage 

industry connections and experiences 

to become a change-maker within both 

fields. She completed a Bachelor of 

Commerce, Hotel and Food Administration 

(Co-op) at the Gordon S. Lang School of 

Business, where for her co-op placement, 

she worked at Four Seasons Resorts and 

Residences, Whistler, B.C., in its food-andbeverage 

department. In her current job, 

Robinson’s work has focused on single-use 

plastics, including working with Dr. Simon 

Somogyi on a paper on single-use plastics 

in restaurants. Robinson founded and organized 

the Forward Food, Sustainable Food 

Systems Student Conference in Guelph. 

Marvin Palomo 

Chef de Cuisine, 7 Enoteca Oakville, Ont. 

There are few things Marvin Palomo hasn’t already accomplished 

in the foodservice industry and, at just 25 years old, the sky is the 

limit. After completing his Culinary Management diploma from 

George Brown, he enrolled in the Culinary Arts, Italian, postgraduate 

program, where he was placed in La Contea Ristoranate, 

a one-star Michelin restaurant in Italy, as the stage/garde manger. 

After graduation, Palomo returned to Toronto to work at DaiLo by 

Nick Liu, earning respect and admiration from his 

colleagues and bosses with his kitchen acumen. After three years, 

Palomo packed his knives and moved to Hong Kong to work in 

one-star Michelin restaurant, VEA Restaurant by Vicky Cheng, 

where he took over as senior chef de partie /meat and saucier and showcased his 

already well-demonstrated leadership skills. After further honing his culinary skills, 

he moved back to Toronto to become the chef de cuisine at 7 Enoteca, where he 

oversees a staff of 25 and is responsible for day-to-day operations. 

Events Manager, Andrew Peller 

Ltd. Grimsby, Ont. 

Madison Vine has always been passionate about 

the hospitality industry. As the events manager at 

Andrew Peller Ltd., Vine has planned and executed 

more than 250 events annually across four properties, 

including strategizing, managing budgets, assisting 

with marketing and promotion and working with 

business and tourism partners. In 2019, she began 

teaching at the School of Hospitality, Tourism and 

Sport at Niagara College in addition to her duties 

at Andrew Peller. She’s also active on a number of 

committees. 

Madison 

Vine 



Amanda Lemos 

Assistant Director of Human Resources, 

Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel Toronto, Ont. 

Amanda Lemos began her career in hospitality as a summer hostess 

at JW Marriott The Rousseau Muskoka Resort & Spa’s restaurant. She 

went on to complete a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Hospitality 

and Tourism Management at Ryerson University, with a minor in 

Human Resources. She furthered her education while working in the 

industry, achieving a Certified Human Resources Leader Designation 

(CHRL). Her career path led Lemos to work in several Toronto hotels, 

moving up the ranks in human-resources departments, before joining 

Sheraton Centre Toronto as supervisor, Human Resources. In her 

current role as Sheraton Centre’s assistant director of Human 

Resources, Lemos leads recruitment initiatives, while managing 

hiring and onboarding processes. She also supports the hotel’s 

senior management team in driving employee engagement. 

Peter 

Keith 

Co-Owner and GM, Meuwly’s Ltd. 

Edmonton, Alta. 

Dedication, volunteerism and a profound focus 

on community are just some of the qualities seen 

in Peter Keith. After graduating with a Journeyman 

certificate/Red Seal/Blue Seal from Northern 

Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in 2012, 

Keith joined the culinary team at NAIT as a volunteer 

coach, where he stayed for five years. Since 

2017, he’s been the presiding officer on the Edmonton 

Cook Apprenticeship, the director of the 

Canadian Culinary Fund and the secretary of the 

board on Edmonton’s Chef’s Association. In 2019 

he added Board Chair of the Culinary Program 

Advisory Committee at NAIT to his résumé. Keith 

is currently the co-owner and general manager of 

Meuwly’s Ltd., where he designed, implemented 

and managed all aspects of Meuwly’s Artisan Food 

Market, growing the start-up to $750, 000 in 

annual revenue by its second year. 

Justin 

Daniel Tse 

Sous Chef, Atelier and THRU Ottawa, Ont. 

Justin Daniel Tse grew up working in his father’s Chinese restaurant. 

He graduated from the Culinary Management program at St. Lawrence 

College in Kingston, Ont., before moving to Ottawa to work in a number 

of restaurants, including Social Restaurant. He then spent two years 

as a consulting chef, working with Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality on restaurant 

openings. Prior to joining the team at Atelier and THRU in 2018, 

Tse spent five years at Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge on Somerset 

Island in Nunavut, as its executive chef. In his current role as sous chef 

of Ottawa fine-dining restaurants Atelier and THRU, Tse is credited with 

bringing the level of professionalism in its kitchen to an all-time high. 

Nick Yuli Lin 

Sous Chef, Constantine; F&B director QJD 

Peking Duck Restaurant Toronto, Ont. 

Nick Yuli Lin has worked in kitchens his entire life, spending more than 11 years in some of the 

finest restaurants in Guangzhou, China and in Toronto. His love of cooking led him to George Brown 

College, and during this time, Lin worked at Toronto’s fine-dining restaurant Alo. Since graduating 

in 2016, Lin has represented Canada three times on the world stage as part of Bocuse d’Or Team 

Canada, finishing as high as second place at the Continental Selection in 2018. Lin’s passion, work 

ethic and knack for learning on the fly have guided him to new heights, working as a sous chef at 

Constantine in Toronto, cooking specialty dishes and helping run a kitchen comprised of 20 peers. 

18 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2019 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM

Jane 

Suh 

Ryan Zanette 

Business Manager, Nicholas Pearce 

Wines Inc. Toronto, Ont. 

Passionate about wine, sales, business, travel, 

wine-making trends and food, Ryan Zanette is the 

perfect fit for his current role of business manager 

for Nicholas Pearce Wines. After graduating with 

a Bachelor of Finance from Gulf Cost University, 

he pursued his winemaker and viticulture technician 

training at Niagara College. He also achieved 

his Level 3 WSET (tasting only) in 2017. Zanette 

joined Nicholas Pearce Wines Inc. a year ago as the 

youngest and newest member. His job requires a 

significant amount of multi-tasking, working with 

the LCBO monopoly, more than 400 restaurants, 

more than 1,000 private consumers, 100-plus 

winery partners and local couriers. 

“We know Ryan will be an integral member 

of our team for years to come and help define 

the next generation of hospitality leaders,” says 

Nicholas Pearce, managing director, Nicholas 

Pearce Wines Inc. 

General Manager, Canoe Restaurant 

& Bar, Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality 

Toronto, Ont. 

Many mentors have helped shape Jane Suh’s career 

and the greatest lesson she learned from them is 

to always act in a guest-first manner. Described by 

her peers as intelligent, warm, well organized and 

well respected, Suh began her restaurant career 

with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) 

as a Food & Beverage supervisor following graduation 

from Toronto’s Liaison College of Culinary 

Arts. After working her way up through the 

ranks at MLSE, followed by a stint at the Chelsea 

Hotel, Suh joined the team at Oliver & Bonacini 

Hospitality, first as the bar manager at Jump 

Restaurant in 2016 and then manager at Canoe. In 

2019, Suh was named general manager of Canoe, 

where she helped lead the well-known restaurant 

through a full renovation and re-opening. 

“When you work in hospitality, you’re lucky 

to be able to name a handful of people who have 

affected you personally and professionally,” says 

Tracy Tucker, director of restaurants for Oliver 

& Bonacini. “For me, Jane Suh is in that handful. 

When Jane is in charge, I don’t worry. I know 

things will get done and they’ll get done the right 

way — with conviction and a sense of doing the 

right thing by her managers, staff and guests.” 

Adam Haick 

Director of Asset Management, 

InnVest Hotels Toronto, Ont. 

Adam Haick is a 

director of Asset 

Management at 

InnVest Hotels. As a 

key member of the 

asset management 

team, he directly 

oversees a large portfolio 

of Canadian hotels, working closely 

with operations, capital, legal and finance 

teams to maximize asset values. Prior to 

InnVest, Adam held progressive roles at 

Carpedia Hospitality, where he worked 

with hotel senior leaders to optimize labour 

management and improve processes. Haick 

holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree 

from Ryerson University and a Business 

Administration Degree from Fleming 

College. 

Lukas 

Vallee 

Valletta 

Director of Front 

Office, Royal Service & 

Reservation, Fairmont 

Le Manoir Richelieu 

Malbaie, Que. 

Lukas Vallee Valletta began his hospitality 

journey at the tender age of 15 as a dishwasher 

at Quebec’s Château Vaudreuil 

Hotel & Suites. Inspired by the strong 

work ethic of his parents, Valletta put in 

12-hour shifts at the hotel. At the age of 

17, he moved to the 152-room W Montreal 

as a bellman and later as night auditor. 

Two years later, he moved to the Hôtel 

Le Crystal where he took on the role of 

receptionist and concierge. That’s when 

he realized he’d found his true 

passion for the hotel industry and 

enrolled at l’Institut de tourisme et 

d'hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ) for 

advanced studies in International Hotel 

Management. Following graduation, 

Valletta joined Fairmont Hotels and 

Resorts, first at the prestigious Queen 

Elizabeth in Montreal as Housekeeping 

supervisor, followed by the Fairmont Royal 

York in Toronto as assistant front-office 

manager. During a 14-month stint as 

department head night manager at the 

Royal York, his front-office team achieved 

a 50-per-cent increase in upsell, almost 

doubling the total from 2016. At the age of 

26, Valletta moved on to new adventures, 

taking on the role of director of Front 

Office, Royal Services & Reservation at the 

405-room Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu in 

Malbaie, Que. In his role, Valletta ensures 

service standards are met and exceeded 

while actively seeking feedback and following 

up on guest comments. 



Pallavi 

Misra 

Restaurant Manager, Imago 

Restaurant Inc. Toronto, Ont. 

Pallavi Misra has worked in a number of 

dynamic food-and-beverage environments. 

She began her career as a management 

trainee with Taj Hotels & Resorts in Mumbai, 

India before coming to Canada. A graduate 

of University of Huddersfield (U.K.) with a B.A. 

(Honours) in Hotel Management, in 2017 she 

took on the role of restaurant manager for 

Imago Restaurants Inc. in Toronto. 

Karla 

Gomez 

Food and Services Manager, 

Chelsea Hotel Toronto 

Toronto, Ont. 

In her current role as Food and Services 

manager at Chelsea Hotel Toronto, Karla Gomez is credited with 

driving improvements and departmental efficiencies, as well as 

service consistency within her department. She joined the hotel 

(then the Delta Chelsea) as a customer-resolution agent in 2013 

and went on to hold a number of roles within the F&B department. 

As Food and Services manager, Gomez is responsible for inventory, 

hiring and training, scheduling, payroll, monthly reports, forecasting 

and budgeting for the department. She also monitors all 

aspects of F&B outlets — including menu development, food prep 

and presentation — to ensure guest experience and service and 

prepares assistant managers for the next step in their careers. Prior 

to joining the Chelsea, she completed a degree in Culinary Arts at 

Universidad Regiomontana (Monterrey, Mexico). She continued her 

education, completing a diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Operations 

at New Brunswick Community College, as well as an MBA Global 

Management from Universidad Regiomontan. 

Landon 

Logie 

Event Manager, Culinary Tourism 

Alliance Toronto, Ont. 

Landon Logie’s path to becoming event 

manager at the Culinary Tourism Alliance 

is sprinkled with success. Since graduating 

from George Brown College in 2017 

with a Bachelor of Business in Hospitality 

Operations Management, she’s been at the 

helm of some of the Culinary Tourism 

Alliance’s biggest events. Logie’s hard work, 

dedication, exceptional creativity and 

planning skills have been put on display 

at events such as the Terroir Symposium 

— including periphery events such as the 

Welcome Reception, After-Party and Rural 

Retreat. She’s also responsible for the planning 

of Feast On events across Ontario. More 

recently Logie was elected as a member of 

the board of directors for Festivals & Events 

Ontario (FEO), where she undertakes the 

handling of special events and acts as an 

ambassador for the organization. 

Paul van 

der Merw 

Commercial Winemaker, 

Arterra Wines Canada 

Mississauga, Ont. 

Paul van der Merwe’s knowledge of and passion 

for viticulture has fuelled his early success in 

his field. During his time at Brock University he 

excelled, winning the Academic Achievement 

Award and Cuvée Golden Ticket Award in 2016, 

both of which are handed out for academic 

excellence, leading him to UC Davis to pursue a 

Master of Science, Viticulture and Enology. His 

research project on winery tank cleaning and 

sanitization earned him $33,000 in research 

grants from UC Davis, a research project which 

he would soon bring with him into the workplace. 

Hired in 2017 as an assistant winemaker 

by Arterra Wines Canada, van der Merwe has 

ascended the ranks of the company. As a cellar 

supervisor, he obtained more than $100,000 of 

investment for different capital projects, one 

of which will save an estimated five-million 

litres of water annually. Now, as commercial 

winemaker, he’s designed a top-sampling and 

tank-verification protocol to maintain a wine’s 

integrity, resulting in the saving of 80,000 litres 

of wine, He’s also responsible for the blending of 

up to one-million litres of wine per week in his 

current position. 

Raffael Ventrone 

Chef de Cuisine, Bar Buca Eglinton 

Toronto, Ont. 

Raffael Ventrone is recognized as a respectful and innovative 

leader with a natural ability to mentor others. As chef de cuisine 

for Bar Buca Eglinton, he created opening menus and protocols 

for the restaurant and is responsible for inventory, costing, 

hiring and training. He completed the Culinary Management 

Program at George Brown College and the school’s Italian 

Postgraduate Diploma — during which he worked at Relais La 

Fontanina in Italy for several months. 

20 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2020 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM 

ASH NAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY [LANDON LOGIE]

e 

Suraj 

Gupta 

Chief Investment Officer, 

Easton’s Group of Hotels 

Markham, Ont 

Suraj Gupta spent several years as an advisor to his family’s business, 

The Easton’s Group, before joining the company officially in 2017. 

With a strong background in finance and strategy, Gupta overhauled 

Easton’s Group’s capital-allocation structure and investment strategy 

to allow the company to experience its most-successful period 

to date. With Gupta’s help, Easton’s Group has grown to become 

Canada’s largest private hotel developer and one of Toronto’s most 

prominent real-estate developers. He also launched Rouge Insight 

Capital to diversify his family company outside of real estate, to add 

value to his community and help build out further technology and 

innovation within the hospitality industry. Gupta is also passionate 

about giving back to the community and volunteers a significant 

amount of his time to tackle global issues regarding education, youth 

empowerment and inequality. 

Isabelle 

Herington 

Revenue Manager, Fairmont 

The Queen Elizabeth Montreal, Que. 

Isabelle Herington had spent years refining her hospitality 

skills around the world before coming to Canada. A 

graduate of Northwood University with a Bachelor of 

Business Administration in Hospitality Management, she 

moved to Quebec City in 2014 and spent a year in the 

leadership-development program at Fairmont Le Château 

Frontenac. During this time, she stood out from her peers, 

showcasing her already polished management skills. Upon 

completion of the program, Herington stayed on at Le 

Château Frontenac as an assistant front-office director for 

two years, leading a team of 18 employees and supervising 

daily front-office operations. Her success there led to a 

transfer to Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal 

where she serves as the hotel’s revenue manager, 

collaborating with in-house and distribution teams — 

earning her the respect and admiration of her peers. 

CLINT CALDER [SURAJ GUPTA] 

Jessica Colvin 

Sales + Event Specialist, Drake Hotel 

Properties Toronto, Ont. 

As a Film and Media Studies student, Jessica Colvin didn’t get to really flex 

her entrepreneurial muscle until she was accepted into a condensed business 

and entrepreneurship program, after which her start-up secured $30,000 

in venture capital from investors at a pitch competition and $16,000 from a 

Kickstarter campaign. In 2017, she joined the Drake Hotel Properties team as 

a special-events coordinator. In her first year with the company, she was 

promoted to the Drake’s first-ever on-site sales representative and was able 

to increase fall business from $208,565 to $468,367 — surpassing the overall 

property sales target by 73 per cent. Colvin’s relentless work ethic, eye for 

detail and interpersonal skills have garnered her the respect of her peers. 


Steven Gambee 

Assistant General Manager, Oliver & 

Bonacini Hospitality Toronto, Ont. 

Hospitality runs in Steven Gambee’s blood. His great-grandparents were a 

part of Toronto’s hospitality scene in the 1930s and it was their accomplishments 

— and sheer passion they had for their craft — that led him to want 

to be in the industry. In 2013, Gambee enrolled at George Brown College for 

the Food and Beverage Management Program. Coming from a family of chefs, 

Gambee always assumed he’d become a chef, but he soon realized his path led in a different 

direction. After working at Fabbrica Restaurant, he moved to the Shangri-La Hotel, where 

he took on a bartender role. His next job at Red’s Wine Tavern was Gambee’s first taste of 

management. Starting as an extern student and ending with a full-time position, the road 

was not easy but the skills he acquired prepared him for his next role as part of the opening 

team for Antler. As bar manager, he conquered many challenges and picked up a number 

of new skills. Currently, Gambee is the assistant general manager at Oliver & Bonacini, Café 

Grill. His task is to re-invent the wheel. With a restaurant that has been open for 10 years, a 

lot of staff are set in their ways and he’s been tasked with taking charge of the bar 

program — making it inviting without being pretentious. His current general manager is 

guiding Gambee into the GM role in the next few months. 


Tina Chan 

Meghan 

Pratt 

Human Resources Manager, Omni 

King Edward Hotel Toronto, Ont. 

In her role as Human Resources manager at Toronto’s Omni 

King Edward Hotel, Meghan Pratt is known for her commitment 

to building relationships and developing people. 

She’s also credited with improving the hotel’s overall 

on-property results. The hotel recently recognized her 

efforts, naming her the ‘Leader of the Third Quarter’ in 2019. 

Pratt completed a Bachelor of Commerce in Hospitality and 

Tourism Management at Ryerson University and previously 

held a range of food-and-beverage positions at Fairmont 

Hotel Vancouver, before joining the King Edward as a Human 

Resources generalist. She was promoted to her current 

role after only six months and, 

in this role, shoulders a wide 

range of responsibilities, including 

recruiting and onboarding 

management-level positions; 

counseling employees on their 

personal development; managing 

WSIB cases and the hotel’s 

WSPS Safety Group Program; and 

coordinating organization-wide 

projects, including town-hall 

meetings, associate-engagement 

surveys and its health-and-wellness fair, 

as well as employee events. 

Duncan Chiu 

Director, Lodging Development – Western Canada, 

Marriott International Vancouver, B.C. 

Events Manager, Westin 

Harbour Castle Toronto, Ont. 

After enrolling in a tourism course in grade 11, Tina 

Chan knew she wanted to pursue a career in 

hospitality. She moved from Richmond, B.C. to 

Ontario to enroll in University of Guelph’s Hotel and 

Food Administration program, graduating in 2012 with 

a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Since 

graduation, Chan has been part of Marriott 

International (legacy Starwood Hotels & Resorts), progressing 

through various roles at the company’s 

different properties. Her roles have included group 

reservations co-ordinator, co-ordinator of catering 

and events, project specialist and most, recently, 

events manager at the Westin Harbour Castle in 

Toronto. Since assuming the role in 2017, she’s 

progressed from looking after small meetings and 

room blocks to serving events and conferences of 

all sizes. In 2019, Chan handled 140 groups, bringing 

in $6.9 million in revenue for the hotel. And her hard 

work has been noticed — Chan made the Marriott 

Brilliant-Top Performers Leaderboard as part of the 

top-25-per-cent performers for Americas-Canada 

Event Manager for Q2 and Q3 2019. 

Anish Taneja 

Senior vice-president, 

Palm Holdings Toronto, Ont. 

Duncan Chiu, who joined Marriott in March as director, Lodging Development – 

Western Canada, completed a Bachelor of Commerce, Hotel and Food Administration 

(Co-op) at the University of Guelph, as well as certificates in Commercial Real Estate 

and Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management Certificates at Cornell 

University. In his previous role as director, Development, Coast Hotels, he contributed to 

company’s growth strategy, developing quality franchise-management and partnership 

agreements and identifying potential acquisition opportunities. During 

this time with the company, he contributed to the development of four 

Coast franchises, as well as a third-party hotel-management agreement. 

As senior vice-president of Palm Holdings, Taneja has spent a 

little under a decade managing Palm Holdings’ CAPEX division, as 

well as founding a new wing of the company, Palm Construction. 

Taneja’s leadership skills and knowledge of the industry has led 

to Palm Construction receiving many awards for its services. 

Taneja is also quite active in the industry, holding positions 

on multiple boards through Palm Holdings. He most recently 

became a founding board member of the UHN Impact collective 

in support of Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation. 

Thomas 

Beckett 

Vice-president, HVS Canada 

Toronto, Ont. 

Thomas Beckett’s career has burned 

brightly thus far and it’s only just 

begun. Beckett graduated from the 

University of Guelph’s Hotel and Food 

Administration program with honours 

in 2014, where he was awarded the 

Bachelor of Commerce Leadership 

prize for the School of Business and 

Economics and the HTM/HAFA 

Alumni Associations Recognitions 

of Achievement Award. Following 

graduation, he started his career at 

HVS Canada as an associate in April 

2014. He was tasked with completing 

valuation studies for hotels and 

hospitality-related income-producing 

real estate across western Canada, as 

well as conducting market analyses. His 

prowess in the office shone through as 

he climbed the ranks at HVS, becoming 

a senior associate and ultimately 

being named vice-president of HVS in 

April of 2018. Beckett has progressed in 

his career with swiftness and efficiency, 

showcasing his true talents in the 

hospitality sector. 

BRIIAN LIMOYO [ANISH TANEJA]; WENDY D [THOMAS BECKETT] 


Q&A 

Restaurant leaders are running out of patience 

with government response to COVID-19 

ISTOCK.COM/DICKCRAFT 


TAKING A 

STAND 

INTERVIEW BY 

ROSANNA CAIRA 


Panelists 

Nick Di Donato 

president/CEO, Liberty 

Entertainment Group 

Charles Khabouth 

CEO, INK Entertainment 

Ryan Smolkin 

founder/CEO, Smoke’s 

Poutinerie 

Ken Otto 

CEO, Redberry 

Michael Doyle 

president, Toptable Group 

Ramy Sallal 

president/CEO, The 

Arlington Estate 

Domenic Primucci 

president, Pizza Nova 

Jason Brading 

COO, MTY Group 

Mike Hancock 

COO, Tim Hortons 

Alex Rechichi 

CEO, Crave It Restaurant 

Group 

Mohamad Fakih 

CEO, Paramount Fine 

Foods 

Rosanna Caira: 

There’s an increasing 

sense of frustration 

about the 

lack of detail as 

to when the restaurant 

industry can 

re-open in Ontario 

and other parts of 

the country. What 

are your thoughts 

on how the different 

levels of 

government are 

supporting the 

industry? 

Charles Khabouth: 

I feel we’re being put aside 

for now. I went to Canadian 

Tire yesterday and there’s 

people everywhere and most 

people are without a mask. 

[Retail stores] are open and 

people are lined up to get in 

inside. [Restaurant operators] 

run the safest part of the 

industry because of the level 

of training our staff have 

and the amount of scrutiny 

we’re under from the health 

department and inspectors. 

We would be the safest [place 

to be] because people would 

be in a restaurant seated 

and not walking around — 

unless they have to go to the 

bathroom, they really have 

nowhere to go. 

When you come into a 

restaurant, you’re taken to 

your table, you’re seated and, 

if you’re there for two hours, 

you’re not moving from that 

table. We are, by far, safer 

than having a few hundred 

people walking around stores, 

bumping into each other, 

walking this way that way. 

So, I’m not sure why we’re 

being penalized by not being 

able to open and not even 

being given a date or timeline 

or some kind of an idea — 

there’s no mention of timeline 

whatsoever. 

And restaurants are not 

like a clothing store — a 

clothing store can just dust 

off its merchandise and open 

up. We’ve now been closed 

[more than] three months — 

it will take us a week to prep 

to be able to open. You have 

to have staff and you have to 

have your kitchen ready — 

it’s like opening from scratch 

at this point. Also, why hasn’t 

the government given us the 

opportunity we have with 

you today with this roundtable? 

It should be done in each 

province and city. Why hasn’t 

[Toronto mayor John] Tory 

asked us to sit at a roundtable 

and give them advice and 

our professional opinion on 

how and when to [re-open]? 

Nobody’s reached out to 

us — it’s the weirdest thing 

ever. If we don’t hear from 

the minister or the city, I’ve 

made the decision with my 

partner to open at least one 

or two restaurants the week 

of June 15 and we’ll deal with 

the consequences. Somebody 

has to take a stand and move 

forward. This is unacceptable 

at this point. 

Nick Di Donato: I have 

to concur with Charles and it 

seems that we, as operators, 

have been ignored. I want to 

use a very specific analogy 

— a couple of weeks ago, the 

city [of Toronto] decided to 

draw circles in a park and 

allow people to sit in the 

park, within a circle and with 

social distancing. I look at that 

and say, ‘what are we doing 

here?’ I understand that people 

want to be outside, but 

we’re inviting them in areas 

that are not controlled. It’s 

not a natural course of action 

in those places. They’re 

not going to stay in place. 

There’s nobody to check their 

temperature. And now the 

city has to police it, so they 

become the police of the 

system they’ve created. Now, 

if they had allowed every 

restaurant in Toronto to open 

their patios, operators would 

be responsible [because] 

this is our livelihood. We’re 

accustomed to being under 

supervision or control from 

the government, with health 

regulations, with capacity 

controls — all those things 

I’ve been doing for 35 years 

in the business. 

Michael Doyle: The 

most important thing we’ve 

been pushing in Vancouver 

is to meet with our local 

government and provincial 

government to try and 

impact change and get 

things moving. Vancouver’s 

mayor did meet with us, as 

an industry, and some of the 

senior restaurant operators 

in city. We’ve started opening 

and people who want to go 

out know restaurants are the 

safest out of all the industries 



that are trying to re-open — 

we’ve been doing this for a long 

time with health and safety. 

People are excited about going 

out and the restaurants are busy. 

The capacity is an issue — it’s 

not going to help us make a 

lot of money with 50-per-cent 

capacity — so we’ve been working 

on increasing the size of the 

patios. A lot of cities have agreed 

with the restaurant industry 

about expanding the footprint 

of the patios, closing some of the 

streets down in certain areas, like 

Whistler, where they’ve expanded 

to give us more space to try and 

get back to a normal capacity. 

But I couldn’t agree more that 

we have to get the government 

to understand what the issues 

are. The rent is an issue and the 

government needs to realize that 

rent piece is a huge one. And then 

the people have an issue with the 

subsidy when that ends at the 

end of August (on June 17, the 

Federal government announced 

an eight-week extension). That’s a 

huge issue and we’ve talked about 

how we can help push the government 

to realize these issues. 

Governments 

working with landlords 

to protect 

small businesses is 

clearly what needs 

to happen. And it 

needs to be a longerterm 

approach that 

people know, if they 

invest the time and 

energy, will have a 

reward at the end 

of it. We’ll have a 

business at the end 

of it. Right now, 

people who have 

to keep investing 

are going to stop 

because they’re not 

clear on what the 

future holds. that’s 

the biggest risk 

we’re facing. 

Mike Hancock: We’re 

in a pretty unique position 

since nearly 70 per cent of our 

restaurants have a drive thru, so 

almost all those restaurants were 

able to maintain operations. The 

majority of our restaurants were 

able to do takeout as well, if they 

didn’t have a drive thru. We now 

have dine-in services opened up 

in [some provinces] — we have 

about 800 stores that actually 

have their dining-rooms open 

at a limited capacity. Obviously, 

similar to everyone in the industry, 

[restrictions] had a substantial 

impact to our business. We’ve 

really tried to go into new sales 

channels. Delivery has grown for 

us — we’ve pushed hard with the 

delivery [and gone from it] being 

almost non-existent to now being 

one of the biggest delivery players 

in the country. 

Curbside is a big opportunity 

for us as well. Out west — 

Vancouver in particular — they’ve 

been pretty good in terms of 

getting permits approved quickly 

for patios and have been turning 

them around in a very short period 

of time. That’s probably a best 

practice that could be adopted 

everywhere because it’s going to 

be more important than ever to 

have patios at our restaurants during 

this time. Having that type of 

flexibility and expedited process 

is going to be really important for 

the entire industry. So, I would 

share that and encourage all 

provinces to give that a look. But, 

similar to everyone else, we’re 

now sort of in the recovery phase. 

As a corporation, we ultimately 

decided we weren’t going to take 

the subsidy, but it has helped our 

franchise owners tremendously 

and it allowed them to maintain 

operations during this difficult 

time. Again, I’d say we’re in a different 

position than some of the 

other operators here but we’re 

starting to get into the recovery 

phase, especially in the markets 

that have already opened up their 

dining-rooms. 

Jason Brading: I support 

all the voices here today. It’s obvious 

we have a lot of intelligent 

people in our industry speaking 

today who understand the basic 

needs of our industry. At the worst, 

we were down in revenues, we 

laid off a third of our workforce 

and had a third of our restaurants 

completely closed, with the other 

ones working at a fraction of their 

capacity. Obviously, if we’re speaking 

to Ontario, we’re being unfairly 

punished in Ontario. I’m not sure 

what the political backdrop is 

that’s driving that decision. Even 

Quebec, [which] had some major 

COVID-19 issues [in May], has 

managed to re-open sections of 

the province, including enclosed 

malls which nobody [else] has 

mentioned yet. But, in Ontario, 

enclosed malls are still an issue, 

along with full-service [dining]. 

The Ontario government needs 

to take off its conservative hat 

and start supporting small business. 

Canada, everybody knows is, 

driven by oil and small business — 

those are the two major economic 

engines that drive Canada. We 

know what’s happening to oil; we 

can’t control that for the most part, 

but governments can control and 

help small business and, if they 

want to protect their economies, 

they really need to start looking at 

it. And Ontario is the worst culprit, 

in my opinion, to date. 



Mohamad Fakih: [The 

Ontario] government needs to put 

an eviction ban in place. A lot of 

people are handing in keys [to their 

landlords] daily — there are 30 to 40 

restaurants, good restaurants, handing 

keys, because the bottom line and 

the financial statements will never 

make sense if the governments do 

nothing and leave it to the landlord, 

who is not the little guy. We need to 

really speak loud, all together. I’m 

not against the Premier, but I am 

with our industry; I am with our 

staff, who have a job and the right 

for us to survive to give people a 

job. And I find there’s only one way 

we can do that — we need to get 

together and become louder. More 

than 80 per cent of our restaurants 

are going to be gone — landlords 

are blackmailing us. Honestly, what’s 

going on? Where is the leadership in 

this [Toronto]? Let’s take it into our 

hands; let’s take back our industry; 

and let’s tell these leaders that no, 

we’re not going take the punch and 

say nothing. 

working harder and getting nothing 

out of it. It’s been a challenge, on 

many fronts, because the government 

needs to make a decision. 

In some instances, they’ve made 

decisions quickly and haven’t 

thought about all the ramifications. 

If you look at the rent program 

that’s been put in place, even the 

wage-subsidy program, at one point, 

our sales were down 20 to 28.6 per 

cent, so it doesn’t let me qualify 

for the wage-subsidy program. But 

there’s no way I’m making money if 

my sales are down 25 per cent, even 

20 per cent. In the restaurant industry, 

our margins are so thin and, when 

you look at the rent-support program, 

for businesses that are down 

70 per cent in sales and have to 

have revenue of less than $20 million, 

well, that takes a lot of us out 

of the equation. There needs to be 

a more scaled approach. We’ve got 

to get open, get this to some level of 

normalcy and they have to trust us, 

because we are a closed supply chain 

— it’s not like grocery stores where 

people are touching everything and 

going through aisles. The reality of 

it is we have a more controlled environment; 

we’re under greater scrutiny, 

we put more measures in place 

and we adapt faster and quicker than 

any other industry out there. And we 

need to start understanding that our 

voices need to be heard. 

Taking 

Action 

Leaders share input into action plan 

to re-open the restaurant industry 

1 6 

RESTAURANTS NEED TO OPEN 

NOW/PUT IN MORE PATIO 

AREAS 

2 

BAN EVICTIONS IN 

ALL PROVINCES 

3 

CAP THIRD-PARTY- 

DELIVERY FEES FOR THE 

SHORT TERM 

LONG-TERM 

PROGRAMS ARE NEEDED TO 

SUPPORT THE FUTURE OF 

THE INDUSTRY 

7 

GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO 

CONSULT WITH INDUSTRY AND 

TAKE THE ADVICE OFFERED 

8 

INDUSTRY NEEDS 

CLARITY FROM GOVERNMENT 

ON EMERGENCY MEASURES 

EXTENSION 

4 

9 

Alex Rechichi: We’ve been 

fortunate that we’ve been able to 

stay open. A lot of our brands have 

been well positioned for off premise 

and, in some instances, we’re actually 

seeing sales increase over last year. 

But, the model itself, when you look 

at all the different layers that we’re 

dealing with, the profitability has 

pretty much been pulled away. We’re 

Ken Otto: We’ve been very lucky 

from the get go. We rely on our 

drive-thrus and our takeout being 

open, but watching what’s happening 

in the industry is very concerning 

because we, as an industry, have 

done a poor job communicating 

everything that’s been said [in 

this call]. We are one of the most 

controlled, compliant industries in 

OPERATORS NEED TO 

RECLAIM CUSTOMERS 

FROM THIRD-PARTY- 

DELIVERY COMPANIES 

5 

INDUSTRY NEEDS TO BE 

LOUDER AND PUSH HARDER 

SCALED APPROACH TO 

WAGE-SUBSIDY 

PROGRAMS IS NEEDED 

10 

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES 

NEED TO GET IN FRONT OF 

PROVINCIAL AND FEDERAL 

GOVERNMENT IN ORDER TO 

BREAK THROUGH THE CEILING 

OF MISUNDERSTANDING 


Canada, between alcohol service, 

health and safety, food safety and 

supply-chain management. There 

aren’t many industries that get 

more inspections than a restaurant, 

so we know what right looks like 

— and we have to get that point 

across. We could provide our 

guests a safer environment than 

most retail. Then there’s a fallacy 

that restaurants can survive 

off takeout and delivery. There’s 

so much news on takeout and 

delivery, which has been great, 

but there’s a great misconception 

amongst governments and 

Canadians that it can last in 

perpetuity. But that’s not a model 

to sustain ourselves over summer. 

And this notion that there is just 

a moving target — let’s get out 

there and say, ‘what does government 

need to see for restaurants 

to get open again’ — that needs 

to be part of the dialogue. But the 

best subsidy in the world is our 

guest’s money — we don’t need 

government money, we need our 

guest’s money coming in. 

Domenic Primucci: First 

and foremost, we’re quite lucky to 

be deemed essential. We were able 

to stay open for the most part 

— we have a few locations that 

did close because of their location 

in malls and non-traditional 

types of locations — but we got 

hit hard as well and didn’t know 

where we were going. Our system 

is franchise based and we have 

franchisees who are panicking, 

so the mental state was a challenge 

with all our people and that 

played a huge role with us. We 

even took off the royalties for a 

month, so we had no revenue [as 

a company], but we tried to help 

out as much as possible because, 

at that time, there was really no 

program yet from the government. 

[The government] is great 

at announcing things, but nothing 

really gets accomplished with 

announcing things with a lot of 

programs. We need, as an industry, 

some voice with the governments 

because the industry needs 

to get going. And that’s going to 

benefit everybody — not just the 

takeout and delivery [operators] 

— because it’s going to get people 

out. We need to get our voice out 

to say we’re done [waiting]. 

Ryan Smolkin: I’ve got 150 

locations coast to coast and the 

majority of those are in sports 

and entertainment venues, as well 

as university campuses. Those 

are all shut down and they’re 

not coming back in September 

— I’m going to be lucky if I’m 

back in January — so I’m focusing 

on my bricks and mortar, my 

franchisees, and trying to help 

them keep their doors open. I’ve 

had a lot that have closed permanently 

— I’ve only got one 

location that’s left open right now 

in Toronto — and a bunch of 

them have handed the keys over 

because of a bully landlord. There 

has to be some changes made 

on the rent-subsidy program. 

It’s a joke, it doesn’t help any of 

my stores. I’m struggling to have 

them stay open from noon to 

eight, solo shifts, per day. So that’s 

my owner/operators doing that 

— they’re not getting any help 

on their rent. I have some good 

relations with some great landlords 

who have helped and have 

stepped up to the plate, so I can’t 

put them all under one category, 

but the majority are not helping 

— they’re doing the threatening. 

Then there’s the fact [franchisees] 

can’t get any subsidies on wages 

because they’re owner/operators. 

They’re not benefiting from any 

of that. 

Rammy Sallal: We’ve been 

shut down since March and have 

cancelled events up until the 

end of August — and there’s no 

end in sight. So, we’re burning 

through money every day, every 

month, with the opportunity to 

make zero dollars and the government 

support they put out 

completely missed our sector. We 

can’t even go to our landlords 

for help because we don’t qualify. 

Everybody’s rent, in my industry, 

is way over $50,000 — well over 

$100,000 — so we can’t even ask 

for help. We can’t get the simple 

$40,000 loan because they made 

the payroll [threshold] $1.5 million 

and we all supersede that. 

And the 75-per-cent subsidy 

would be great if we can hire 

people to work. So, right now, 

nothing applies to my [sector] 

at all — and the biggest problem 

is the fear. The media needs 

to change the message, it’s this 

fear that’s affecting us. Even if 

the government told us to open 

today, guests will not come; they 

won’t show up to a wedding. It’s 

impossible to do my business 

with social distancing. 

To watch the 

full webinar, 

click here 

Deferment doesn’t help, 

more debt doesn’t help. 

the industry can’t support 

more debt. So the solution 

doesn’t come through debt 

and deferment, it comes from 

supporting those that can’t 

reach their maximum sales, 

eviction protection and a 

provision that says [the 

government is] going to 

get you through the next 12 

months [is needed]. Other than 

that, you’re going to see a 

drastic turn in all small business, 

all bricks and mortar. 

- Mohamad Fakih 



CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST 

TABLE TALK 

HOSTED BY ROSANNA CAIRA 

AVAILABLE ON APPLE ITUNES AND SPOTIFY

INSURANCE 

COVERING 

YOUR 

ASSETS 

As COVID-19 interrupts restaurant 

business, operators need to determine 

if their losses are insured 

BY ALLAN D.J. DICK 

ISTOCK.COM/Z_WEI 

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the 

interruption of business for most Canadian restaurants. 

Naturally, many restaurant owners have 

turned to their policies of insurance, which provided 

“business-interruption” coverage as a means 

to recover a portion of their losses relating to the 

interruption. Unfortunately, restaurant owners who 

have submitted claims under their policies have 

been met with resounding responses that no coverage 

is available for their losses under their policies. 

Surprised and bewildered, restaurant owners are 

seeking advice as to whether their insurers’ position 

is correct and what, if anything, they can do to 

challenge these responses. 

As most restaurants operate from leased premises, 

they’re aware of the requirement upon them 

to secure insurance on the terms specified by the 

landlord. The requirement to obtain business-loss 



coverage is a standard coverage required by 

leases. In the usual course, a restaurant owner 

will submit a landlord’s requirements to its 

broker and request — and expect — the broker 

will procure the necessary policy 

of insurance. 

An insurance policy is primarily a contract 

between an insurer and an insured. Certain 

legislative requirements may be incorporated 

into the policy. As such, whenever an insured 

suffers a loss or becomes exposed to a claim, 

the first place that needs to be considered is 

the policy itself. Commercial policies issued 

by the different insurers do contain significant 

differences, so each restaurant owner must 

consult the specific policy they purchased. 

Various insurers made changes to their 

business-interruption coverage following 

the SARS and MERS epidemics. Specifically, 

some excluded claims relating to the impact 

of viruses. In the cases of policies that have 

this specific exclusion, it’s unlikely an insurer’s 

position for denying coverage based on this 

express exclusion will be successfully challenged. 

In other cases, some insurers sold 

policies that specifically provided coverage for 

losses for such diseases. 

Insurers are also relying on a second 

ground for denying coverage, where provided 

for in their policies. This relates to express 

exclusions for damage caused by “pollutants.” 

It’s my view that a denial of coverage is illfounded 

if based on a pollution exclusion. In 

the case of COVID-19, the virus itself does 

not “pollute” or change the character of the 

underlying substrata. As such, it doesn’t meet 

the normal definition of a pollutant. 

Assuming these exclusions are addressed, 

the most common denial is based on the 

lack of “physical damage” to the restaurant 

premises, which is the primary pre-condition 

in most policies for business-loss coverage to 

apply. Insurers are denying that restaurants 

are being closed due to “physical damage.” 

Although the COVID-19 virus does not cause 

a typical form of damage that the policies 

were addressing when providing coverage, 

the term “physical damage” is not typically a 

defined term in a policy. It’s urged here that 

even if it cannot be proven that, on any particular 

date, the virus was present in a restaurant 

premise, which resulted in damage and 

a subsequent closure of the restaurant, the 

government orders forcing closures are themselves 

premised on the contagious nature of 

the virus. The underlying assumption is that 

a dine-in restaurant is a hot spot for the contagion. 

By its nature, the virus will be present 

in the physical premises if brought into the 

restaurant. It’s for this reason that restaurants 

have remained closed by government order. 

The damage caused by the virus, therefore, 

is certainly physical in nature. This damage 

prevents the use of the physical premises 

because of the virus. There may, 

therefore, be merit in challenging a 

denial based on this ground. 

Class actions have been 

launched by groups of restaurant 

owners in the United 

States, as well as in Canada, 

to have it determined if the 

insurers have wrongly denied 

these claims. There may 

also be governmental pressure 

placed on the insurance 

community at some point for 

their losses being suffered by the 

restaurant industry. It’s therefore 

important for insured restaurants 

to file their claims and proofs of loss 

to assert their entitlements. 

The calculation of the business loss may 

be limited by the policy to a specific period 

of time, such as one year. The loss may cover 

fixed costs and lost profits. Proving these losses 

can be a challenge under 

any business-loss policy. 

Businesses that have accessed 

government programs will 

also need to consider those benefits in 

calculating their losses. 

Lastly, it can be expected that business 

owners will be asking questions of their insurance 

brokers to understand why they didn’t 

have the requisite coverage if their claims 

are denied. There is a potential for a broker 

(typically covered by professional-indemnity 

insurance) to be exposed to a claim by its client 

for failing to either secure the requisite 

coverage or failing to advise the client of the 

available possible options in the marketplace 

for obtaining that coverage. 

In summary, despite the well-publicized 

general position of denial being taken by 

the insurance industry to avoid paying out 

significant sums to cover COVID-19-related 

business losses, every restaurant owner should 

seek advice on whether there is, or may be, 

coverage under its applicable policy and 

whether there may be other claims it may be 

advised to consider. FH 

Allan D.J. Dick is a 

partner with Sotos 

LLP. With more than 

40 years of experience 

and as Canada’s 

largest franchise-law 

practice, Sotos LLP is 

actively involved in 

crisis-management 

planning and advisory 

for the hospitality 

and franchise industry. Our lawyers help 

industry participants make the best decisions 

in their fight with COVID-19 and to be ready 

to hit its other side running. The writer may 

be reached at adjdick@sotosllp.com or by cell 

at 416-805-8989. 



SUPPLY CHAIN 

Chink 

in the 

Chain 

ISTOCK.COM/SUMMERPHOTOS 

The pandemic 

has put unique 

stresses on 

the food 

supply chain 



The pandemic, along with the 

restrictions and challenges 

it created, has reshaped 

the food supply chain. 

Disruption of labour, transportation 

networks, processing 

and demand have rocked 

the system and many businesses have 

been forced to pivot to new models in 

order to keep the lights on. However, 

the long-term impacts of these shifts 

remain to be seen. 


“This will likely be the biggest 

impact to our industry that most 

of us will see in our lifetime,” 

says Dan Lafrance, president of 

Kitchener, Ont.-based foodservice 

supplier Flanagan Foodservice. 

In the face of dramatically 

decreased demand from restaurants, 

many suppliers turned 

to new channels to supplement 

their revenue streams. Large 

foodservice suppliers, including 

Flanagan and Sysco Canada, 

launched online-grocery offerings, 

making their products 

available to the general public 

for next-day contactless pickup. 

Meanwhile, small, specialized 

suppliers such as Leavoy Rowe 

Beef Co. and Daily Seafood, 

which typically supply restaurants 

throughout the Greater Toronto 

Area (GTA), began offering 

direct-to-consumer delivery. And, 

a range of restaurants across the 

country introduced grocery and 

pantry offerings as they adjusted 

their business strategies to suit 

COVID-19 restrictions on 

their operations. 

The situation has also spawned 

unique partnerships as industry 

stakeholders strived to support 

each other while creating new 

Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality 

partnered with suppliers such as 

Leavoy Rowe to offer for its O&B at 

Home grocery offering. Pictured here 

is the Shakshuka kit 

sources of revenue. “We’ve had a 

great relationship with [Leavoy 

Rowe],” explains Andrew Oliver, 

president, Oliver & Bonacini 

Hospitality (O&B). “When they 

had to pivot to make up for the 

lack of demand needs on the 

restaurant side, they started doing 

home delivery.” And, seeing this, 

O&B saw an opportunity for the 

two companies to support each 

other. Through the companies’ 

partnership, O&B sells products 

from Leavoy Rowe as part of its 

‘O&B-at-Home’ grocery offering 

and also processes the raw 

product into frozen meals, such 

as tourtière and chicken pot pies, 

which can then be sold by both 

companies in an effort to help 

increase the basket size of 

online orders. 

“For us, the grocery side has 

been very successful, but I’d say 

the reason it continues to be 

successful is we continue to add 

more and more on the preparedmeal 

side of things,” he shares, 

explaining the company aims to 

make it as convenient as possible 

for customers to plan and 

create meals. “We’re not providing 

a full restaurant experience by 

any means, we’re doing the next 

best thing…You do have to make 

more effort than if you’re at the 

restaurant, but we try to make it 

as simple and easy as possible for 

you to get what you would get at 

the restaurant at your home.” 

Looking ahead, Oliver notes, 

“We’ll probably continue to 

do the prepared meals because 

there seems to be the demand 

for them.” However, he’s unsure 

whether suppliers that had 

pivoted their business models 

will continue with new direct-toconsumer 

channels on a full-time 

basis. “I think it’ll depend on how 

PAUL YU 


FOODSERVICE DISTRIBUTORS 

MUST ALSO CHANGE TO REFLECT 

THESE NEEDS. THE KEY IS TO 

BECOME SLIGHTLY MORE 

DIVERSIFIED WITHOUT LOSING 

FOCUS ON OUR CORE BUSINESS 

AND CUSTOMER 

busy they are on their normal 

core business, which is doing 

larger drops. Leavoy Rowe [usually] 

drops off $2,500 worth of 

meat at one of our restaurants, 

three to four times a week. That’s 

a very different business model 

than dropping off $200 [orders] 

at many different locations to 

hopefully get up to that same 

amount.” 

But, ultimately, he points out 

that how long the unique conditions 

caused by COVID-19 

continue could have an impact 

on how and how much the supply 

chain will be changed for the 

long-term. “The longer people 

are willing to do online delivery, 

online grocery, the more likely 

they are to stick with it,” Oliver 

explains. As he points out, 


grocery delivery isn’t a new 

concept, “[the pandemic] just 

expanded the products and the 

demand for it.” 

As the country and the 

industry begin to move past the 

current crisis, it’s clear there will 

be lingering impacts. The stress 

on the Canadian economy and 

significant media attention on 

the shock to our food system 

have served to galvanized buylocal 

sentiments (see story p. 9). 

In fact, a recent article in the 

Canadian Journal of Agricultural 

Economics (Food Supply Chains 

During the COVID‐19 Pandemic) 

identified the growth of the 

online grocery-delivery sector 

and consumer prioritization of 

“local” food supply chains as key 

shifts that could contribute to 

long-lasting impacts. 

“The sentiment to rebuild our 

economy by supporting Canadian 

companies and keeping the revenue 

in the country is strong,” 

says Lafrance. “Consumers want 

to support their local restaurants, 

help rebuild the economy in their 

communities and bring people 

back to work. As long as they are 

confident that we, as an industry, 

are diligent about food safety 

throughout the entire supply 

chain, Canadians will be there 

for us.” 

For restaurants, Oliver predicts 

the most significant lasting 

impact on the supply chain will 

be “new pricing realities.” “It’s a 

matter of pricing of products that 

become scarce based on shutdowns 

of plants and manufacturing. 

On the other side, lobster’s 

not going to cost as much as it 

used to…there are going to be 

products that go down in price 

as the export markets get a little 

bit tougher.” 

“The pandemic has shown 

everyone we can’t be dependent 

on one single source of revenue 

or supply. Operators will likely 

take this opportunity to enhance 

their offerings with more takeout, 

meal kits and even grocery 

items. Whether the grocery items 

are local products or perhaps 

something unique to their establishment, 

it will provide a new 

ENGAGING 

CONSUMERS 

revenue channel and help their 

brand story,” notes Lafrance. 

“Foodservice distributors must 

also change to reflect these needs. 

The key is to become slightly 

more diversified without losing 

focus on our core business 

and customer.” 

“The food supply chain and 

the entire industry — society in 

general for that matter — will 

come out of this being much 

more aware of the importance 

of health-and-safety precautions 

in every aspect of our jobs 

and our lives,” Lafrance adds, 

“Information and reputation will 

be critical in order to survive and 

thrive in the new world.” FH 

The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI) launched ‘It’s Good, Canada,’ a 

national campaign designed to connect Canadian consumers to the food system, 

in May. The campaign features personal stories of Canadians working in the food 

system, on both the front and back lines along the food supply chain — from 

farming, transportation, retail, processing,and production. It’s Good, Canada aims 

to provide credible resources for Canadians to source fact-based information on 

Canada’s food-supply system. Additionally, the campaign will support a unifying 

effort to help launch a stronger economy led by a sector that feeds Canadians 

and exports more than $50 billion in agri-food products annually. “This campaign 

will initiate a substantial conversation regarding the Canadian food system,” 

explains John Jamieson, CEO of the CCFI. “Consumers may be surprised to learn 

just how many moving parts are involved in the production, processing, packaging 

and delivery of food. At a time when consumers want to understand how 

they can ensure food is available to them, now presents an opportunity to have a 

conversation with Canadians.” 


COMMUNITY 

Together 

BY JOSHNA MAHARAJ 

Chefs continue to support food 

security during the pandemic 

IN THIS 

Before the COVID-19 

pandemic hit, more 

than four million 

Canadians were 

living with food insecurity. Since 

quarantine began, this number 

has been steadily climbing. 

Community food organizations 

are seeing spikes in the number 

of people walking through the 

door in need of emergency food 

support (dining programs and 

food banks), while also dealing 

with losses in revenue due to 

cancelled fundraising events. 

Restaurant operators are taking 

some of the hardest hits in this 

pandemic, but they’re also some 

of the most generous, with many 

simply donating the contents of 

their fridges to community food 

organizations. We’ve also seen 

many kitchens pivot to start 

making meals for community 

groups on both large and 

small scales. Catering 

kitchens are producing 

hundreds of meals 

a day, but even 

small, local restaurants 

are donating 

meals to their 

neighbours or running 

a simple sandwich 

takeout operation, 

just to meet the growing 

need for food. 

Other kitchens are sharing 

their sourdough starter 

and offering up their now 

quiet restaurants as pick-up 

spots for local producers. 

This is social gastronomy — the 

practice of using our craft and 

skills as cooks to support need and 

create change in our communities. 

About two weeks into my own 

quarantine, I was feeling really 

restless and saw a chef friend was 

donating baked goods to a community 

organization that was delivering 

fresh food to isolated seniors 

in apartment buildings. I reached 

out to offer help and found they 

needed litres of soup in addition to 

the baked goods. I knew I had chef 

colleagues who could be pulled in 

to help, so I put a call out for soup 

prep and we’ve been delivering 

about 35 litres of soup weekly to 

Building Roots TO for the past six 

weeks or so. These soups are simple 

— often vegetable purées — but 

they’re made with local ingredients 

and all the loving care that will fit 

into that litre container. I continue 

to be so proud and touched by 

how instantly my chef friends were 

ready to help and it’s reminded me 

that chefs need to cook — we need 

to feed people. And, while our restaurants 

are down, opportunities 

such as this are gold. 

To swing from a very local, 

community effort to a much 

larger, city-wide view, the MLSE 

team at the Scotiabank Arena 

have been cranking out about 

10,000 meals a day to feed medical 

staff and support shelters and 

other community agencies (see 

full story on p. 47). It has every 

kitchen onsite running at full 

capacity and has taken over the 

court space to portion and pack 

thousands of meals every day. 

And they’re cooking from scratch, 

which is certainly more work 

than other options, but if ever 

there was a moment to get good 

meals into people who really need 

them, it’s now. 

While there’s plenty of innovation 

and generosity evident in 

chefs’ responses to support their 

communities through the pandemic, 

it feels really important 

to also say this has been 

incredibly hard. 

Watching so many 

parts of our 

industry crumble 

and facing so 

much uncertainty 

about our own 

futures are stressors 

that are wearing 

us all down. So, 

to see my colleagues 

still ready to offer help 

when they themselves 

are struggling has really 

touched my heart and 

I know every recipient of 

soup has received a little 

taste of that kindness. FH 

ISTOCK.COM/IMARINA BOGACHYOVA 


JUNIPER FARMS 

Q&A 

JUNIPER 

FARM 

Interview with Juniper 

Turgeon, owner 

BY AMY BOSTOCK 

What was the breakdown of 

your business pre-COVID-19? 

Seventy-five per cent of our 

sales are restaurant and retail 

clients. Of that, probably more than half is 

to restaurants. 

What have been the immediate impacts to 

your farm’s business since COVID-19? 

We faced the obvious reality that the 

majority of our clients were out of business 

for the time being. Upon further thinking, 

we wondered what would happen to the 

restaurant/entertainment industry in general 

with COVID-19 realities. We do have restaurants 

open for takeout, but we’re selling a 

fraction of what we used to sell to them. The 

ones that are able to open, though, are trying 

their best to support local farms. 

We’ve had to open an online store to sell 

to individuals and families to recover some 

of the secure sales we had to restaurants. 

We’re taking on more items [from other 

suppliers] in the store so we can offer a more 

complete delivery and pick-up service to 

our clients. 

How has this impacted 

staffing levels? 

We have actually had to 

hire more staff. Everything is less efficient 

when operating at a six-foot distance from 

each other. We also have many new systems, 

such as an online store and extensive packing 

and processing hub, where new and different 

staff are necessary. We’ve outsourced our 

delivery routes to private companies and our 

administrative team is working overtime to 


figure out the logistics of software and constant 

individual pickups. 

Were you able to pivot to different 

revenue streams? The online store is our 

new revenue stream and we were ready for it, 

as we’d been considering this option before 

COVID-19. So, when the lockdown came, 

we already had a template to work from. We 

are also lucky in that we’d been working on 

forming a co-op with fellow farmers called 

Farmhouse Food, that distributes food to 

surrounding cities. 

To date, what have been the challenges 

and the opportunities of this pivoting? 

The challenges are that we’re working 

more than we ever have, our kids are 

home full time and there are just not 

enough hours in the day to take care of 

everyone’s needs (including the farm, 

our staff, family and ourselves) that are 

heightened due to this pandemic. The 

opportunity is that now, more than ever, 

local food is important and people are 

doing their best to support small farms. 

What lessons have you learned 

through this process? 

That the present moment is the best 

place to operate from when things are 

changing fast. Resiliency in the face of 

adversity is important and that we are a 

blessed bunch of people living out here 

in the fresh air on a beautiful farm. 

How do you anticipate your business 

may change moving forward? 

I don’t really know. Our online store is 

successful so far. Perhaps our garden will get 

smaller, not bigger, and we’ll grow differently 

for individuals and families, not specifically 

for restaurants. We hope we can have a 

profitable, sustainable business that can also 

offer food to people who need it. 

What’s your advice to other farmers during 

these challenging times? My advice would 

be that we need to just keep doing what we 

do, which is grow food, with happiness and 

joy. Try to get it to the people who want and 

need it and the rest will follow. What else is 

there to do in these times? FH 


Q&A 

KING COLE 

DUCKS LTD. 

KING COLE DUCKS LTD. 

Interview with Patti Thompson, 

vice-president Sales and Marketing 

BY AMY BOSTOCK 

What was the breakdown of 

your business pre-COVID-19? 

Seventy-five per cent foodservice 

and 25 per cent retail. 

What have been the immediate impacts to 

your business of COVID-19? 

We have a strong customer base within the 

Asian-style foodservice world, which was 

impacted far sooner than traditional western-style 

restaurants. Consumers stopped 

frequenting Chinese-style restaurants and 

supermarkets, so our daily fresh business 

stopped overnight. We did, however, begin 

a response plan immediately; it gave us a 

chance to get ahead of a very devastating 

curve in starting a reduction in production 

to adapt to the drop in demand everywhere. 

How has this impacted your staffing levels? 

Our business is a farm-to-fork operation 

and therefore we’re farming every day. It’s 

not a business where we can simply close the 

doors and wait out the pandemic. We have 

now taken advantage of the government 

work-share program to run our business 

at reduced volumes and still keep our staff. 

If low sales continue into third and fourth 

quarter, we’ll be reassessing every division of 

our company for staffing adjustments. 

Were you able to pivot to different 

revenue streams? 

Not as much as we hoped; we have retail business 

but retailers were so overwhelmed that 

adding new SKUs or even allotting space to 

existing SKUs that were not a “staple” was 

challenging. We prepared boxed programs, 

such as our duck dinner party, for our foodservice 

distributors who were doing home 

deliveries and offered them support to teach 

consumers how to cook duck. 

To date, what have been the challenges 

and the opportunities of this pivoting? 

The challenges are that our protein remains 

unfamiliar to consumers who have typically 

enjoyed duck through the talents of chefs. 

The education of the general public and 

pipeline to ensure easy access are both 

challenges, while at the same time providing 

new opportunities. 

What lessons have you learned? 

We’ve reassessed every area of our business, 

from operations to human resources, product 

development to sales processes; [COVID-19] 

gave us a pause to look at 

what we do, why we do it 

and how we can continue 

to be better. It’s tough love 

for continuous improvement 

and a sustainable future. 

How do you anticipate your business may 

change moving forward? 

We have swung many staff over to focus on 

product innovation. We have a team that’s 

been willing to wear many different hats to 

ensure our business not only survives, but 

thrives. We may simply need a more-balanced 

customer base in retail and foodservice. 

(L-R) Robin Kelly, 

Debi Conzelmann, 

Patti Thompson 

and Jackie Fisher 

What’s your advice to other farmers/ 

suppliers during these challenging times? 

Network! We’ve had the most amazing intel 

and help by contacting other companies, 

colleagues, industry associations, listening 

to webinars, talking to strangers and friends 

to gain as much insight as possible ─ from 

[issues such as] the best place to source PPE, 

how to best courier frozen/fresh food, who in 

government can stop the import of product 

from countries that don’t meet Canadian 

standards… and so much more. FH 

36 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2019 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

CHAIN 

REACTION 

In a recent KML podcast, experts weighed in on how 

COVID-19 is impacting Canada’s food supply chain 

INTERVIEW BY ROSANNA CAIRA 

Rosanna Caira: How has this 

pandemic impacted your 

business? 

Steve Kampstra: COVID-19 has 

had a dramatic impact on the 

foodservice industry. As most of 

us know, we’ve had shuttering of 

dining-rooms across Canada and 

this means restaurant operators 

and other away-from-home meal 

destinations have lost an 

incredible amount of their revenues. 

And, with those operators 

being the primary customer base 

of Gordon Food Service, this 

crisis has had that same proportionate 

impact on our sales. Many 

of our customers have become 

creative and innovative, trying to 


find new business opportunities 

and survive, either through takeout, 

delivery, curbside pickup or 

even by selling groceries to home 

consumers. So, although the 

impact has been significant for 

us, we’re waking up every day and 

working with our customers on 

these new and innovative product 

formats and new channels as we 

try to help them drive sales in 

these extraordinary times. 

RC: What have you had to do 

differently to ensure all aspects 

of your operation are safe? 

The Participants 

SK: Under normal operating conditions, 

we live up to food-safety 

inspections that are not only selfimposed 

by Gordon Food Service, 

but also undergo a 

multitude of inspections from 

many of our larger customers 

that send teams in to inspect our 

facility. So, living up to a high 

Sylvain Charlebois 

professor at Dalhousie University 

and director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab 

Steve Kampstra 

president of Gordon Food Service, 

Canada (GFS) 

Mike von Massow 

professor and food economist at the 

University of Guelph 

level of food-safety and cleanliness 

standards is something we’ve 

been accustomed to for many 

years. Obviously, with the onset 

of the COVID-19 crisis, we have 

to step that up. The first thing we 


had to look at was how to stem 

any human impact of infection 

that could come into the facility. 

Like a lot of businesses across 

Canada, the first guideline we 

set up is that any team member 

who has any symptoms at all has 

to stay at home. Or, if they’ve 

had a family member who has 

been infected, they have to stay 

at home. The second piece is for 

non-production staff — people 

involved in the actual picking 

and delivery of our product. 

We’ve gone to a work-from-home 

format to limit the number of 

employees in our facilities and, 

on the equipment side —whether 

in our warehouses or in our 

trucks — we’ve ramped up our 

cleaning and custodial regimen, 

making sure our employees have 

access to sanitizer and in cases 

where it’s required, we’re supplying 

employees with personalprotection 

equipment. We’re even 

implementing — depending on 

location — screening questions 

that are in line with local provincial 

health authorities, as well as starting 

temperature checking at some 

of our facilities. We know our 

customers, and the public in 

general, are concerned and we 

take that very seriously. Food 

safety is one of our primary 

foundations we have an obligation 

to live up to. 

RC: With so many restaurants 

closed, you’re not delivering at 

the same pace as you were. How 

many people do you still have 

working and how much is still 

being delivered to restaurants? 

SK: It’s hard to give numbers, for 

competitive reasons, and we don’t 

like to disclose our sales numbers 

or how many employees we’ve 

laid off under these very difficult 

conditions. But you can imagine 

the dramatic decline in restaurant 

traffic that has happened and any 

other away-from-home meeting 

destinations — whether it be 

hotels or education. Given that 

sharp decline, since the middle 

of March, there’s been a direct 

impact on our sales as well and 

we’ve had to make the very 

difficult decision to temporarily 

layoff (with benefits) a significant 

portion of our workforce. But we 

still have a lot of great operators 

out there that are open. They’re 

being innovative, converting to 

new formats in order to sustain 

their business and we continue to 

deliver to those customers on a 

day-to-day basis. 

RC: How is this pandemic 

impacting our food supply? 

Mike von Massow: Our food 

system has shown some amazing 

robustness and resilience and we 

should be pretty proud and happy 

with how it’s performed. The 

shortages we’ve seen in the grocery 

store have been demand-based 

shortages rather than supplybased 

shortages. The way the 

system works is ‘just in time’ and 

product is produced and packaged 

and shipped to expected demand. 

And expected demand has been 

higher because people have been 

buying extra. They’re also buying 

more in the grocery stores because 

they’re not spending money [in 

restaurants] anymore. We’re also 

seeing bigger individual shops as 

people go to the grocery store less 

frequently. So, all of those things 

provided a short-term shock 

to the system and we saw some 

shortages on shelves. But, because 

supply has been good and we continue 

to see product moving, we’re 

seeing shelves replenished every 

day — even though some days 

they run short — and we’re seeing 

the system catch up. 

RC: So, this really isn’t a 

supply issue as much as a 

replenishment issue? 

MV: That’s exactly right. It’s not 

just diverting product from one 

supply chain to another, which 

is what we’ve done. It’s also 

recognizing that some of those 

products are in a different form. 

For example, we’ve heard stories 

about 40-lb bags of flour, which 

are not usually [available] at 

grocery stores. Those are the 

sorts of packages that Steve sells 

to bakeries. So, we’ve not only 

had to change the customers, but 

we’ve also had to change, in many 

cases, the form. It’s about adjusting 

the packaging and the nature 

of the of the products we’re shipping. 

So, to me, it’s a demandbased 

issue, not a supply issue. 

SK: We’ve had some challenges. 

If you were to be ordering gloves, 

sanitizers and disinfecting wipes 

from us, we’d be scrambling to 

source those products because 

there’s been high demand. If you 

go back to pre-COVID-19 times, 

we ran fill rates around 99.5 to 

99.7 per cent, with customers 

ordering today for tomorrow, 

on a regular cycle. Now, if I look 

at fill rates last week, even with 

a major change in our demand, 

we’re still running at about 

98-per-cent fill rate — a very 

minor dip given the enormity of 

the change. What we’re seeing is a 

shift as restaurants have moved to 

takeout and delivery formats, to 

to-go packaging, plastic spoons, 

forks and knives, and we’re seeing 

high demand in areas where we 

hadn’t seen it before. That’s probably 

caused a little dip, but we’re 

catching up very fast. 

RC: Has your ability to deliver 

goods to customers been 

impacted? 

SK: As you can imagine, with the 

number of restaurants currently 

closed or moving to a takeout 

format, and with the volume 

impacts, we’ve been the ones rescheduling 

delivery times to be 

more conducive to putting more 

volume into fewer trucks to try to 

mitigate this large-volume impact. 

There have been some deliveryprotocol 

changes we’ve had to 

deal with, but, all in all, it’s been 

pretty seamless, as we keep good 

open channels of communication 

between us and our customers. 

ISTOCK.COM/SANTIMA.STUDIO 


RC: Sylvain, as an expert in this 

area, what are your thoughts on 

how the food crisis during this 

unusual time has been handled? 

Sylvain Charlebois: It’s hard to 

plan for something like this. This 

is probably the first, and last, 

time the food industry will have 

to deal with something like this, 

but I’ve been overly impressed. 

This massive demand-driven shift 

has disrupted the system, but the 

system has responded very well. 

I’ll be honest with you, I was 

actually quite surprised to see so 

many Canadians being nervous or 

anxious and feeling food insecure. 

[Now that consumers] understand 

how the food industry 

actually works, they should feel 

confident. It has been strategically 

well executed. 

RC: Based on what we’re 

experiencing, what should the 

priorities should be for the food 

supply chain moving forward? 

MV: Given this unprecedented 

shock to the system, the system 

has responded profoundly well, so 

the first lesson is, we’re in pretty 

good shape. Areas of concern or 

[priorities] we need to think about 

are at the processing level. We’re 

starting to hear about some plants 

closing and the concentration of 

businesses at that level are probably 

cause for the greatest concern. 

We saw a plant close in Quebec 

and then re-open two weeks later, 

albeit with some constrained 

output. The integration in meat 

processing across the U.S./Canada 

border means we’d have to see 

shutdowns in a significant number 

of plants for a significant amount 

of time for us to feel it at the retail 

or foodservice level, in terms of 

availability. That’s not to say we 

won’t see pain at the farm level, 

because it’s much harder to divert 

those products. But, I would say 

the biggest lesson is that our 

vulnerability is probably at 

that processing step in the 

supply chain. 


SC: Even before COVID-19, 

Canada’s weakest link in food 

distribution was processing 

because it’s not actually modern 

enough. But also, it’s not 

regionalised enough — we’re 

a very big country with few 

people so, if you really want to 

design an efficient distribution 

model, processing has to be at 

the heart of it. And, frankly, 

over the years we’ve undermined 

the value of processing 

[and now we’re paying] for it. 

RC: What is it going to take 

to make that shift in mindset 

about processing and what 

happens if more plants are 

forced to shut down because 

employees are sick? 

SC: In meat processing, right now 

we’re in the middle of the worst 

of it. COVID-19 is teaching great 

companies such as Cargill and 

Maple Leaf that risks have to be 

managed outside the plant as 

much as inside. These companies 

are very good at managing risks 

when it comes to food safety, 

internal protocols and workplace 

safety for employees, but they’ve 

never really thought about worker 

mobility and how that could 

represent a risk. So, you’re seeing 

now that managers have to think 

differently about risks as a result 

of COVID-19. 

MV: I’m going to agree wholeheartedly 

with what Sylvain has 

just said and it highlights two 

points. The first is that we 

frequently have an issue with 

labour in processing plants and 

the same is true for big packing 

plants. In Western Canada, 

they’re built outside of the city 

because of water storage and 

other requirements. But, in order 

to get people to work at them, 

they’re bussing people from 

Calgary for these jobs. So, 

physical distancing may be practical 

inside the plant, although it’s 

not always easy, but it’s very difficult 

to physically distance on a 

AREAS OF CONCERN OR [PRIORITIES] WE NEED 

TO THINK ABOUT ARE AT THE PROCESSING 

LEVEL. WE’RE STARTING TO HEAR ABOUT SOME 

PLANTS CLOSING AND THE CONCENTRATION 

OF BUSINESSES AT THAT LEVEL ARE PROBABLY 

CAUSE FOR THE GREATEST CONCERN 

bus. Those sorts of concerns will 

probably be what [plants] consider 

as they come up with protocols 

to reopen. The other point 

I’d like to make, relative, to what 

Sylvain said, is I agree we’d like to 

expand our processing capacity 

and that’s independent, frankly, 

of the challenges we’re experiencing 

now. It’s important we add 

value and it does also provide us 

some buffer, but we shouldn’t do 

that at the expense of the type of 

market integration we have now. 

Because, in addition to the types 

of risks we’re seeing now, there 

are other risks in production. 

And, if we said, ‘oh, we’re going 

to make a completely regionalized 

economy and we’re not going to 

import or export anything,’ then 

we’d have issues such as weather 

and production risks. There’s 

some value in diversifying the 

processing portfolio, but not at 

the expense of integration that 

provides us with some safety net 

when we see either processing or 

regional problems arise. 

SK: Our job remains to fulfill the 

needs of our customers through 

the distribution channel, so, with 

the current concerns around 

protein processing, we’re already 

working with U.S. manufacturers 

to set up supply lines in case we 

don’t have the normal Canadian 

protein supply we’ve have in 

the past. When I think about 

integration, from the distribution 

perspective, and I look at 

what happened in the retail supply 

chain as we had this massive 

shift from foodservice, nobody 

could ever keep that type of latent 

capacity in their supply chain. But 

[something] I’ve thought about 

as we’ve partnered with many 

retailers across Canada, although 

there’s a lot of pack-size differences 

(for example, the 40-lb bag 

of flour sitting on your shelf at a 

grocery store that’s pretty tough 

for someone to carry home), 

we’ve moved some product 

through to retail that made sense. 

But the bigger solution we’ve 

been able to work out with retailers 

across Canada is becoming 

their logistical arm. So, as we’ve 

had capacity with our trucks 

and drivers, we’ve been able to 

go in and become a supplement 

to their supply chain, pick up 

the retail products from their 

distribution centre or have them 

deliver their products to our distribution 

centre. 

When you talk about integration, 

one of the [initiatives we 

could launch] between retailers 

and foodservice is advanced planning 

in case the industry is faced 

with this type of crisis again. 

Although it sounds easy, there are 


a million things you need to get 

right to ensure you don’t make a 

mistake, so with advanced planning, 

we could create a roadmap 

of how we could accommodate 

a crisis in the future. The other 

thought that’s coming to mind is 

not just integration, but maybe a 

distance-integrated supply chain. 

If you think about food supply 

going to restaurants and consumers 

right now, we’ve distanceintegrated 

some of those retail 

channels already. We’ve seen the 

growth in meal-kit concepts such 

as HelloFresh and we’ve seen 

groceries being delivered direct to 

home from restaurants, so one of 

our companies, Fresh Start Foods, 

which is a products company 

owned by Gordon Food Service, 

has taken protein products from 

our meat company, Inner City 

Packers, and combined them with 

the Fresh Start produce items 

to create new meal kits, which 

we’re delivering to restaurants for 

pickup and delivery. [It’s about] 

different ways to get product to 

consumers. [We also had a] popup 

store at our Milton, Ont. distribution 

centre to do retail sales 

to consumers in the community. 

[The first time we ran it] we had 

173 grocery orders and delivered 

them to the trunks of cars as they 

pulled up. 

RC: Would you consider doing 

those pop-up stores in different 

parts of the city? 

SK: We haven’t gotten that far. 

Right now, the kind of the pop-up 

store that’s close to our distribution 

centre is the easiest and lowest cost 

for us to start. If early indicators 

are that there’s a pent-up demand 

for products to consumers, then 

maybe we’d look at doing pop-up 

stores in other geographies. We 

don’t have a plan today, as we’re 

launching this across Canada at 

our distribution centres first, but 

it’s a pretty easy model to launch 

at other locations once we get our 

format established. 

RC: We’ve also seen a lot of 

farmers selling direct to the 

consumer during this time. Do 

you think this is a trend that will 

continue post-COVID-19? 

SC: At our lab, we partnered 

with Angus Reed and have been 

monitoring perceptions since the 

beginning of the crisis, looking 

at what people are doing, as well 

as what people intend to do once 

the pandemic is over. Obviously, 

online shopping is the big [trend] 

we’re monitoring closely and 

grocers have [been moving] into 

the e-commerce space, reluctantly, 

since 2017 when Amazon 

acquired Whole Foods and they 

didn’t necessarily embrace that 

concept. And, frankly, eight weeks 

ago, most Canadians felt buying 

food online was a far-fetched 

idea, let’s be honest. Now, when 

we ask Canadians if they intend 

to buy food online on a regular 

basis, that’s up to 29 per cent 

compared to three per cent five 

weeks ago. That’s huge and while 

I don’t think it’s going to be 29 

per cent, once we’re done, it’s not 

going to be three anymore. Once 

e-commerce becomes a reality in 

people’s minds, you can actually 

see the entire supply chain being 

more democratized and it won’t 

be just about Sobey’s and Metro 

— anybody has a shot. And, to 

Steve’s point, you can create that 

channel between yourself and a 

consumer much more rapidly 

and efficiently. 

RC: Do you think the local-food 

trend will get stronger post- 

COVID-19 or has this crisis 

shown us some of the dangers 

of relying too much on local? 

MV: There will continue to be 

interest, on behalf of consumers, 

in where product comes from, 

IF YOU THINK ABOUT FOOD 

SUPPLY GOING TO RESTAURANTS 

AND CONSUMERS RIGHT NOW, 

WE’VE DISTANCE-INTEGRATED 

SOME OF THOSE RETAIL CHANNELS 

ALREADY 

what the attributes are, where and 

how it’s produced and local has 

been an important part of that. 

That will likely continue, but we 

have to balance it, obviously, with 

costs, particularly based on time of 

year. Some things work and some 

things don’t. One thing we need 

to remember is, as a country, we 

export a significant volume of our 

agriculture and food production 

and perhaps we should be adding 

a bit more value to it — celebrating, 

enjoying and supporting local 

foods, but not at the expense of 

closing our borders and not looking 

broadly. One of the real benefits 

of having a broad-based food supply 

chain is the diversity of foods 

we get to enjoy. So, we’ll continue 

to see people look at, as Sylvain 

called it, the democratization of the 

supply chain and we’ll see closer 

linkages between some producers 

and people. We’ll also see companies 

talk more about where and 

how the product is produced and 

celebrate locality, but while still 

offering the full range of options. 

SC: I share Mike’s concerns. In 

fact, going back to the monitoring 

we do at Angus Reid, the 

number-1 thing people intend 

to do after COVID-19 is buy 

local. In Quebec, they’ve started 

a campaign called The Blue 

Basket to encourage people to 

buy local. And, it’s great, but to 

Mike’s point, we have an open 

economy here where most of 

our wealth comes from trades, 

including agri-foods, so we have 

to be careful. In the case of this 

year, in terms of the planting 

season, farmers should be starting 

to plant as we speak, but with 

everything going on, that’s obviously 

going to be impacted in a 

big way, which is going to put our 

produce at risk for the next two 

months as we get into the warmer 

season. 

MV: I spoke to a dairy farmer the 

other day and she said to me, ‘you 

know, Mike, the cows don’t notice 

that there’s anything different 

at all.’ And if anything, there are 

fewer salespeople coming into the 

yard, so [farmers are] even happier. 

She said, ‘Mike, we’ve been 

social distancing for 100 years 

on the farm.’ To me, where the 

pinch point is, and we’ve heard 

a lot about this in the news, is 

with the temporary foreign workers 

and the fruit-and-vegetable 

industry — getting people on 

the ground doing the planting. 

We’re hearing that we’re falling 

behind in Ontario’s asparagus 

harvest because [foreign] workers 

aren’t here or there’s not as many 

here. So, to me, food production 

is, for the most part, proceeding 

as normal, with the exception of 

us being sure we get these temporary 

foreign workers in to get 

crops in the ground and begin 

harvesting the early season crops. 

And I would say we’re seeing 


progress towards that goal. So the 

onset of Canadian produce may 

be delayed a little bit because the 

planting is get getting delayed a 

little bit. 

SK: GFS has always been a strong 

proponent of the local trend for 

foodservice operators. It’s already 

entrenched into specific menu 

offerings they have and that’s going 

to continue. Mike and Sylvain have 

pointed out some of the growingseason 

challenges in Canada, but 

operators are still going to be looking 

for innovative local offerings 

for their menu. One of the things 

we’re doing right now on, the 

innovation side, is partnering with 

a company called Square Roots to 

create ultra-local urban farming 

by converting sea containers into 

modular hi-tech farming environments. 

So, imagine a sea container 

that’s completely mobile — you 

can place it anywhere, maybe even 

in the back premise of a restaurant 

— where we’re able to grow herbs 

and greens in them. We’re piloting 

creating these high-tech farming 

environments and selling them to 

local restaurants and communities. 

The bigger [concern] is if international 

trade was to ever shut down, 

Canadians would be in a tough 

spot when it comes to local supply, 

particularly for produce items at 

certain times of the year. 

RC: What will this crisis do to 

food prices? Once the pandemic 

is over, should we expect a huge 

increase? 

SC: In December, we actually 

predicted a food inflation rate of 

four per cent, with meat showing 

the biggest increase at six per 

cent. We released a COVID-19 

update two weeks ago and we’re 

sticking to our forecast, for a 

couple of reasons. One, retail 

prices are going to go up and 

they’ve gone up already since 

January. But, on the foodservice 

side, we’re expecting, based on 

our models, a bit of a price war 

on the other side of the pandemic. 

In fact, we’ve already seen 

discounting across the country if 

you order takeout, as much as 15 

to 20 per cent sometimes. If we 

only order takeout once a week as 

a family and every time there’s a 

discount, you can see the industry 

will get aggressive, probably by 

the end of this year at least. We’re 

expecting food and pleasure to be 

higher than average, but we’re not 

talking 710 per cent. 

MV: I agree wholeheartedly with 

everything Sylvan said. The one 

thing we need to be aware of 

in the restaurant sector is, first, 

the restaurant sector may be the 

slowest to rebound in terms of 

demand, just because people 

may have concerns about gathering 

and dining-rooms. And so, 

we need to be aware that might 

actually push some of the competition 

that Sylvan spoke about, 

but we also know restaurants are 

relatively low-margin businesses 

and if they have to implement 

lower densities in dining rooms, 

we’ll see costs go up and so those 

things will have to be balanced. 

It’s not clear to me, particularly 

with some of these delivery companies 

that were bleeding money 

even before COVID-19, if some 

of these discounts are sustainable. 

RC: How can suppliers work more 

effectively with operators through 

possible operators through 

possible price increases?? 

SK: It’s going be a tough path 

post-COVID-19 for restaurateurs 

and foodservice operators. From 

our perspective, we have a lot of 

tools we provide to operators. 

The best resource we have 

available to operators right 

now is our coast-to-coast sales


force, who can help in areas such as menu 

reengineering — what items on your menu 

are making a profit, what items are making 

the highest profit, what items may not be as 

profitable or on creating to-go menus. What 

is the best packaging and delivery methodology 

for getting those foods to consumers as 

hot and palatable as possible? How do you 

reduce labour costs inside your restaurant? 

So, there’s a lot of areas within the restaurant 

model that our team can work with our restaurant 

operators on in order to figure out 

how we get more efficient within our business 

as we look at a post-COVID-19 recovery. 

The one piece that I would bring up is that 

this focus on cost savings is only one part 

of the issue. And for me, it’s the last part of 

the issue. The real problem is restaurateurs 

and operators have never gone out of business 

because of costs; they go out of business 

because they don’t attract enough [customers], 

there’s not enough revenue. For me, it’s 

about how we use the marketing effort, the 

educational effort, to get people coming back 

to restaurants? If I was an operator today, my 

number-1 focus would be how am I going 

to get those consumers to beat a path to my 

restaurant versus going somewhere else? 

Because that’s the reality of success. The cost 

is only one element of it. I would start with 

the consumer, how are we going to get them 

into our operators, and then focus on cost at 

the same time. And I would say that coming 

out of COVID-19, the restaurateur’s greatest 

competition will be our own kitchens because 

we’ve spent a lot of time in that kitchen and 

now we’re getting comfortable. We’re saving 

money and that’s an attractive proposition, so 

for restaurateurs to get us out of there is going 

to be very difficult. 

RC: What advice would you offer to 

restaurant owners and operatorss? 

SK: We’ve been dealing with thousands of 

customers throughout this challenging crisis 

and the one thing we’ve observed at GFS is that 

the restaurants who had a strong digital and 

social-media strategy have fared better than 

those that [didn’t]. And those that were already 

pivoting to new customer trends around digital 

ordering, and had a website with digital-ordering 

access for their customers and already had 

delivery formats were able to move faster into 

the new environment that we faced. If I had 

one piece of advice, it’s that foodservice operators 

must really think about having a more 

robust digital strategy, [including] marketing 

digitally, digital-ordering space a takeout, pickup 

or delivery model that can augment their 

traditional in-house dining experience. 

MV: I know it’s really tough and these people 

are struggling right now, but this is probably 

the first time many of them have been out 

of the weeds of the day-to-day pressures of 

running a restaurant and getting their head 

up and looking around. In addition to thinking 

about their digital footprint, they should 

think more broadly about what is it they do, 

who their customers are, who or what their 

community is and what they’re going to do to 

make sure they’re the best business that they 

can be once they reopen. 

SC: You have to think about your business 

broadly and, instead of just waiting for the 

money to show up, you have to go to the 

money. Some operators don’t have that in 

them and they need to think differently about 

the marketplace. FH 

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JULY/AUGUST 2019 $4.00 

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THE TOP 

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BY ROSANNA CAIRA 

ISTOK.COM/NADZEYA_DZIVAKOVA 

TOP TORONTO RESTAURANT COMPANIES VOICE FRUSTRATION 

AGAINST LANDLORDS, DELIVERY COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENT 

AS 

COVID-19 continues to 

wreak havoc around the 

world, businesses are being 

forced to deal with repercussions 

of a lockdown that has no end in sight. 

For the restaurant industry, that reality has 

translated into huge declines in revenues and 

a continuing fear of what the future looks like. 

Large restaurant companies and small operators 

alike are dealing with the stark reality that 

this problem is not ending any time soon. 

For Janet Zuccarini, founder and visionary 

of Gusto 54, the effects of this pandemic 

are not just about a few months, but rather 

years. Speaking on KML’s Table Talk podcast 

recently, she said from day-1, she realized she 

needed to have a two-year plan in place. 

“We’re going to need a vaccine or we live 

with a virus. So, we’re going to find a way to 

live with the virus and we’re going to operate 

in a safe way when we’re allowed to open our 

restaurants to be sit-down restaurants. Yes, 

everyone will be wearing masks and gloves 

and [using] sanitizing stations and taking 

temperatures and everything that we’re going 

to do. But everyone’s going to need to be vaccinated. 

So, it’s going to take 18 months for a 



It just blows my 

mind that all of this 

pressure is put on 

to the restaurant 

or small-business 

owner. And we’re 

essentially the 

heart of the body, 

right? Without us, 

no one else exists 

or gets paid 

vaccine and then how long is it going to take 

to vaccinate a couple of billion people,” she 

asked rhetorically. 

Her challenge specifically, she explained, is 

that “My restaurants are mostly volume restaurants 

where people are elbow to elbow. When 

are people going to feel comfortable like that?” 

Almost immediately, her group pivoted to 

takeout and delivery where it could, but she 

acknowledged the limitation of doing that. 

“Italian food is terrible for takeout, it doesn’t 

hold well.” In an effort to fight that, she i 

ntroduced pasta kits where in three minutes 

you have a Felix- [her critically acclaimed L.A. 

restaurant] like quality meal in your home.” 

With barbecue season fast approaching, she’s 

also looking to introduce barbecue kits. 

She’s quick to point out that “If I’m going 

to be making 50 per cent of my revenue, my 

landlord cannot be collecting 100-per-cent 

of rent. It’s just not going to be. You have to 

renegotiate all your leases,” said the restaurateur. 

I’m on calls around the clock. I’m renegotiating…if 

I have landlords that will not 

play ball, then I’m walking; I’m handing them 

the keys and I’m walking.” 

The issue of rent has certainly been the 

albatross around restaurateurs’ neck from 

day-1. As an example, Grant van Gameren, 

chef and owner of 10 different concepts, 

including famed Bar Raval and Bar Isabel, 

had his bar, Pretty Ugly, padlocked by his 

landlord. The experience has left him disheartened 

and disillusioned. 

“I own none of my buildings and they’re all 

across the map here. So, you have some that 

are [fully] waiving rent during the closure, even 

backtracking to March 15, even though discussion 

started in April; and then you have other 

landlords looking to defer rent for one month. 

At that point, I might as well just give you three 

months now,” said the award-winning chef. 

Van Gameren asked all of his landlords to 

“adopt the mentality of short-term loss and 

long-term gain” and while some were receptive, 

others, such as the owners of Pretty Ugly 

on Queen St. West, chose to padlock the unit. 

“It just blows my mind that all of this pressure 

is put on to the restaurant or small-business 

owner. And we’re essentially the heart of 

the body, right? Without us, no one else exists 

or gets paid.” 

The anger and disillusionment cuts across 

all sectors. Charles Khabouth, whose concepts 

range from the Bisha hotel in downtown 

Toronto, several restaurants and three more 

under construction, to three music festivals in 

Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto and a restaurant 

in Miami, can’t understand the lack of 

support. “We’re probably the biggest industry 

in Canada and maybe globally,” he pointed out, 

and the trickle-down effect to other industries 

is significant — farmers, fisherman and myriad 

others. We need to be taken care of.” 

Though he thinks the politicians have done 

a good job, he says some of the legislation 

they’ve passed doesn’t work for the operators. 

“Our rents are high; our payroll is higher; 

so, we’re left in the cold. I feel bad for all the 

staff that’s laid off and not sure who’s going to 

come back to work,” said Khabouth. 

Nick Di Donato of Toronto-based Liberty 

Entertainment Group, which operates the 

Cibo brand in Toronto and Florida, finedining 

restaurant Don Alfonso 1890, the 

Liberty Grand event space and tourist attraction 

Casa Loma, is equally frustrated by the 

lack of government support. In fact, he thinks 

the U.S. government has done more south of 

the border to help the restaurant community. 

“In the U.S. I don’t have any concerns whatsoever 

about surviving and being able to stay 

afloat and keeping my restaurants and venues 

going for the next year,” said Di Donato, 

explaining the federal government there has 

“given us loans that we desperately needed, 

not to run our business today, but to be able 

to run it for the next year. Without those 

loans, without liquidity, I would not be able 

to keep those restaurants open for over a year 

without making the revenue stream that we’re 

accustomed to making. So, having a federally 

backed loan, within 48 hours of the 

application from the banks, that’s phenomenal. 

That’s what we need here,” he said, adding 

the $40,000 loans in Canada, with $10,000 

forgivable, just “doesn’t get you very far.” 

Though he was quickly able to pivot many 

of his units to takeout and delivery and sell 

essential retail items as part of his market 

concepts, he’s particularly frustrated by what 

he calls exorbitant commission rates being 

charged by some third-party aggregators 

during this huge crisis. “It’s very challenging 

to make money on the delivery, which is our 

only source of revenue right now, when some 

third-party companies, such as Uber Eats, are 

charging 30 per cent. “ 

He’s currently on a mission to see what 

other options operators can come up with to 

ensure they don’t continue to lose a large part 

of their revenue to third-party aggregators; or 

at minimum have governments set up some 

caps for delivery companies, similar to what 

exists in jurisdictions such as San Francisco, 

which has a cap of 15 per cent. “We need to 

figure out how to make money on those deliveries. 

That’s going to be crucial for the survival 

of many restaurants,” said Di Donato. FH 

To listen to the full 

discussion entitled 

“The Road to 

Recovery” 

click here. 

44 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2020

PROFILE 

Scoring 

BIG 

When the World Health 

Organization declared 

COVID-19 a pandemic, Maple 

Leafs Sports & Entertainment 

pivoted to helping the needy 

BY ROSANNA CAIRA 

Early on March 12, Chris Zielinski, 

culinary director of Maple Leafs Sports 

& Entertainment (MLSE), was gearing 

up for a hockey game later that night, 

busy doing what he does every day, going 

through the myriad daily rituals of 

preparing thousands of meals for sports 

fans attending the Scotiabank Arena. On 

that particular day, the Maple Leafs were 

scheduled to play the Nashville Predators. As 

usual, the Scotiabank Arena’s restaurants, 

as they typically are, were fully booked and 

Zielinksi’s team of 22 chefs were cooking up 

a storm to satiate Toronto’s hockey fans at 

various different touchpoints in the arena — 

88 concessions, 125 corporate suites and the 

company’s four restaurants, as well as 

81 concessions and 44 suites at BMO 



But as the seasoned chef recalls, “There was 

something hanging in the air after the NBA had 

cancelled their season” the day earlier, impacting 

the other sports tenant of the Scotiabank Arena 

— the NBA champion Toronto Raptors. “But we 

couldn’t not cook should we be open.” 

By noon that day, the team at the arena 

got word that the World Health Organization 

(WHO), had declared COVID-19 a pandemic 

and the decision to cancel that night’s game was 

made, quickly and without fanfare. “I had already 

discussed with my staff what that drill might look 

like because we had some inkling we might get 

that news,” says the culinary director. “We broke 

open an emergency plan where we shifted everybody 

we had here into rescue mode and donated 

27,000 lbs of food on that day.” 

The next day, the NHL followed the NBA’s lead 

and cancelled the hockey season and suddenly the 

question for many at the Toronto landmark was not 

only how long might this crisis last, but when would 

games resume and, more immediately, what could 

be done with the huge volume of food on hand. 

The same situation was unfolding across the 

city at restaurants and shelters, explains Zielinski. 

“All of a sudden there’s all this partially cooked 

food but nobody to cook it, nobody to serve 

it. That’s where the idea sprung out of,” says 

Being community 

minded is not a 

foreign concept 

for MLSE — it’s 

actually part of 

its DNA 

Zielinski. “Once I heard that, I said, we have 

something here that most of the city doesn’t 

have and that is space. We have the space to actually 

social distance in the kitchen and out in the 

arena,” explains Zielinksi. 

Without skipping a beat, MLSE created a 

large-scale meal program to produce and deliver 

between 10,000 to 12,000 meals a day to community 

agencies to support the city’s most vulnerable, 

as well as to thank Toronto’s frontline health 

workers and their families for their efforts. 

The idea received buy-in from MLSE’s top brass. 

Michael Friisdahl, president & CEO, was not only 

supportive but he also moved quickly to bring in 

key sponsors, such as Scotiabank, Tangerine Bank, 

Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, to help 

facilitate the huge undertaking. “They brought 

a lot of money to the table and it was up to us 

as to where to spend it,” says Zielinski. “We had 

a week’s worth of very in-depth conversations,” 

recalls Zielinski, adding that “you could find a way 

to cook the food, but you have to do it in a way 

to get food here and get it out of here to the locations,” 

he says, pointing out that MLSE doesn’t 

own a truck “so we had to figure out how to 

deliver the food.” The problem was quickly solved 

when industry suppliers such as Sysco and Bondi 

Produce stepped up to the logistics challenge, as 

Lending a 

Helping Hand 

Donations from partners: 

Sysco 

has logged hundreds of hours, both 

picking up and delivering food for 

this program 

Nestlé 

Graciously had donated in the 

background 800K worth of products to 

Second Harvest for the food program 

here they have donated 1,200 lbs 

of cooked pasta 

Campbells 

has donated 3,000 litres of Alfredo sauce 

MARS 

donated close to 15,000 lbs of rice 

McCain 

has provided 30,000 lbs. in potato products 

Maple Leaf 

has donated 1,000 lbs of plant-based 

proteins — over 58,000 lbs of chicken 

Unico/Primo 

has donated 18,500 lbs. in canned goods 

and 7,200 lbs. of pasta 

Smuckers 

donated more than 1,000 liters 

of vegetable oil 

McCormik/French’s 

donated 600 lbs of BBQ Sauce and 250 lbs 

in herbs and spices, more than $6,500 

in sauces and herbs 

Pizza Pizza 

donated $10,000 in assorted products 

DFO 

1,500 lbs in cheese and 3,000 liters 

of fluid dairy 

Lindt 

donated chocolates at a value of $4,000 

Hellmann’s 

10,000 portion packs of dressing 

Weston Foods 

countless bread racks, for transporting food 

ACE 

Donated thousands of rolls 

Nestle 

donated to Second Harvest $50,000 

in coffee or 33,000 lbs of coffee 

Other important supporting partners 

include Sobeys, Sysco, Maple Lodge Farms, 

Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Maple Leaf Foods, 

McCain Foods, Unico/Primo, Mars Wrigley, 

Coca-Cola, Weston Foods and 

Pinnacle Caterers. 


MLSE created a 

large-scale meal 

program to 

produce and 

deliver between 

10,000 to 12,000 

meals a day 

to community 

agencies 

did courier company, FedEx. 

“Every day we’d wake up to a laundry list 

of what we can’t do and we had everyone out 

there just going and chasing the answers.” 

From a supplier perspective, companies such 

as Maple Lodge, McCain’s and Maple Leaf 

donated as much product as they could, 

supplemented by additional food as needed, 

funded by the sponsorships. 

Being community minded is not a foreign 

concept for MLSE — it’s actually part of its 

DNA. The company’s efforts to support the 

community are well known through its relationships 

with various social agencies throughout 

Toronto, including Second Harvest and La 

Tablée des Chefs, whose programs have allowed 

the arena to increase the number of pounds 


of rescued food in one year from 20,000 lbs to 

50,000. “A lot of our staff were already super 

engaged with Second Harvest. A lot of them 

hate seeing food thrown out, like I do. We 

instantly had cheerleaders all over the building.” 

In short order, Scotiabank Arena was transformed 

into Toronto’s largest meal-production 

facility, with access to six restaurant kitchens 

through the building, as well as the kitchen 

at BMO, which is also operated by MLSE. As 

Scotiabank Arena had to lay off all its part-time 

staff, a team of 75 full-time F&B managers, 

were “the ones who’ve been carrying the load 

on this,” says Zielinski, adding the initiative 

gave the employees a purpose during a difficult 

time. It was “very refreshing when they come in 

as it provided a sense of normalcy.” 

In the kitchen, “the biggest challenge,” says 

Zielinski “was to go through [and], decide 

how many people can stand in each kitchen, 

because we have to use multiple kitchens, and 

then set up a porter system to eliminate the 

need for chefs to go to the fridge to get their 

stuff. You call a porter and they’ll bring it to 

you…to minimize any crossover of crews. 

Our group of 22 chefs very much worked in 

conjunction — together and apart at the same 

time,” quips the chef. 

As organized as the initiative was, various 

limitations surfaced. For example, MLSE didn’t 

have enough ovens for this daily volume, so it 

reached out to Higgins Party Rentals to source 

additional ovens. Not surprisingly, producing 

such a high volume of food daily meant the 

culinary team exhausted its supply of various 

prep items, including rolling racks, carts and 

sheet pans. “So I call up George Brown College 

and say, ‘John can you lend us some carts?’ and 

he said no problem. Then I called the Rogers 

Centre and said, ‘can you lend us some carts 

and some trays?’ And then the Metro Toronto 

Convention Centre also stepped up. But we 

had to get someone to go get all that, so Bondi 

Produce said we’re not busy, send us there.” 

Despite the challenges that popped up 

along the way, Zielinski says the buy-in 

from the industry and the city was amazing. 

“A lot of people wanted to help,” he says, 

pointing out the fact “this was truly a Team 

Toronto effort.” 

Cooking up huge volumes of meals 

required a huge production area, which shifted 

to the floor of the arena, where employees 

and volunteers worked alongside each other 

(respecting physical-distancing parameters) to 

package up the meals, with about 250 dishes 

assembled hourly. “We set up tables, roughly 

12 feet apart from each other; eight people 

just put food in containers…then moved 


further down the line where staff put 

lids on containers and then labels and 

stickers,” while another packing team 

at the end of the line put labels on the 

boxes directing volunteers as to where 

they would need to be delivered. “It’s 

a very fluid system and it’s working 

fantastic,” boasts Zielinski. 

Of course, to ensure food-safety 

regulations were followed, access to 

refrigeration was key. “We had to 

think about how many refrigerators 

we have, how much space and then 

you can’t put a bunch of warm food 

in a refrigerator because, obviously, 

that changes the temperature of the 

food so we had to rent one freezer 

tractor trailer and one fridge tractor 

trailer to make sure we’ve got enough 

places to cool things quickly and to 

keep them cold. There’s a cold chain 

that goes on with food as it moves 

from one location to another. It’s 

never out of the fridge for very long. 

We tend to work on one aspect of 

the meal for two hours, put it in the 

fridge and then we move on to something 

else. We are never disrupting 

the cold chain through all of this,” 

says the chef. 

When all was said and done, Second 

Harvest has been one of the larger beneficiaries 

of this initiative, as it deals with more 

than 300 locations where the food ends up. 

“We have hubs, so we know that we are 

going to send 700 to this hub…Scott Mission 

may be a hub. From there, smaller agencies 

can come and pick up the meals they need. 

There’s a ton of coordination involved. We 

have a great system and the agencies are good 

about keeping on top of it.” 

In terms of meals, the team produced 

single-serve meals, such as roast chicken legs 

with Cajun spice and mixed greens with feta 

cheese, zucchini, peas and carrots,” as well 

as a veg alternative. “That changes every day, 

but we always made sure that meals are on 

the healthier side of things,” says Zielinski. 

Additionally, MLSE also reached out to hospitals 

to examine how it could also provide food to 

frontline staff. “We wanted to make sure we 

could roll up at the time when there’s multiple 

shift changes and then literally just hand them 

a dinner for two that literally could be popped 

into the oven, with no work involved,” explains 

Zielinski. Schedules were set up with 12 hospitals 

a week, on a three-week schedule, hitting each 

hospital every 10 days. “It’s been extremely well 

received. It’s been heartwarming to see.” 

Being able to feed the needy has been 

gratifying and heartwarming at the same time. 

But it didn’t come without its challenges —─ 

first and foremost, there was no playbook for 

this kind of endeavour. As Zielinski says, “No 

one has ever had to do this.” There’s been 

crises that have spurred similar initiatives. 

For example, after something like a hurricane, 

explains Zielinski, “but we really don’t have 

those here. With all the social-distancing 

measures, it really changed the way we had 

to think of every single part of this,” says 

Zielilnski, explaining “we had to keep all the 

bathroom doors open so nobody would touch 

handles. A staff meal now has to be individually 

plated — we couldn’t have a buffet for 

everyone. We talk a lot about all the big stuff, 

but then you peel back the layers of the onion 

and you see, oh yeah, how are we going to do 

this? Planning the space, through the routine 

of PPE, washing hands, wearing gloves; keeping 

everything clean; cleaning the kitchen, 

the decontamination of everything at end of 

night…a lot of things that we would never 

do in a regular day, we had to add to it.” But, 

as the culinary director told his staff, “This is 

good training for what’s coming next because, 

when we open our restaurants, we have to 

consider all of these things. It’s not going to 

change quickly. Customers are going 

to expect this.” 

As for the future, at time of 

interview, Zielinski was uncertain 

when the NHL would resume and 

whether fans would be allowed to 

watch games, but recently the NHL 

announced playoffs would start in 

September. Whether the scenario will 

include no fans, minimal number 

of fans or a full building remains to 

be seen, but one thing Zielinski does 

know is that, moving forward, “there 

will be tons of great creativity coming 

out of this.” He points to a host 

of possible new options Scotiabank 

Arena will have to consider: from 

safety shields to switching all the taps 

to sensors, customers ordering from 

tablets, to pre-packaged concession 

food. “This will create extra costs,” 

says Zielinski, but he adds, “there’s no 

choice. And, on the restaurant side, 

we still have to maintain some sort of 

non-clinical sense.” 

As for continuing to feed the 

needy, when MLSE launched this 

initiative, the initial deadline was 

tentatively set for June 15th, but it 

looks as though that date might be extended, 

least until the social agencies can resume 

their efforts. “For me, we’ve gone through all 

this work and developed this great system; 

we’ve got a lot of people helping us with 

donations, if the need is there, we’ll continue 

doing it for some time to come. The other 

part is to help people to transition to an 

older model because the whole apple cart is 

all upside down.” 

Still, he’s thankful for the lessons this 

experience has taught him. “We have a lot 

of caring people at this company; we get the 

devotion of the entire city. The number of 

people who want to give back, who want to 

be part of something great, blew me away. 

You don’t know it until it happens.” 

Additionally, he says this crisis has taught 

him “you can’t take a lot of things you normally 

do for granted.” He’s looking forward to 

seeing what the post-COVID-19 period will 

look like. “Whenever there’s’ been challenges 

in the world ─— whether it’s a war or conflict 

of any sort — some of the best creative minds 

and leaders come out of that. We’re going to 

see a period of great learning and creativity 

that’s going to be incredible. Our business will 

be smarter and infinitely better because of the 

challenges we’ve been through.” FH 


FEATURE 

Accelerating the recovery of Canada’s restaurant and foodservice industry 

BY ADAM MITCHELL AND MIKE SHERWOOD 

ISTOK.COM/GUSTAVOFRAZAO 

The sun is starting to 

shine, summer is here 

and the re-opening 

of restaurants and 

patios across the 

country appears to 

be within reach. But 

none of this seems 

to have come soon 

enough for anyone within the supply chain of 

the restaurant and foodservice industry. 

“Our industry is ready to re-open, with 

the realization that guest-safety remains paramount. 

The sad reality is many will not reopen, 

as the need for working capital remains 

a challenge. Those restaurants that do re-open 

need to take advantage of summer weather, 

expand patio operations and drive customers 

back. We need the support of our local communities 

and continued access to the 75-per- 

cent wage subsidy,” says Michael Sherwood, 

vice-president at recruiting firm AIP Connect. 

The harsh impact of COVID-19 and its 

emergency protocols have put an incredible 

burden on the global restaurant and foodservice 

industry, yet serendipitously reaffirmed its 

significance and importance with consumers 

worldwide. 

A recent global study of 54,000 people 13-plus 

years of age, conducted by Toronto-based 

marketing consultancy IMI International, 

revealed the most-missed activity among consumers 

globally since the start of COVID-19 

is “going to restaurants.” From a list of more 

than 115 total activities measured, going 

to restaurants out-ranked watching sports, 

travelling for pleasure and even celebrating 

birthdays — confirming just how important 

the dining experience has become worldwide. 

As of April 23, 2020, future intent to visit 

cafés, restaurants, bars and clubs globally had 

increased 10 per cent — an ounce of positivity. 

Some markets that are further along in the 

pandemic cycle, such as Italy, showed an even 

greater future intent to visit these establishments; 

however, that narrative has yet to 

present itself in Canada. 

Although 47 per cent of Canadians state 

they miss going to restaurants and 32 per cent 

miss “supporting local restaurants,” the study 

also revealed some concern among Canadian 

consumers about returning to dine at their 

favourite spots. Canadians’ intent to visit 

cafés, restaurants or quick-service restaurants 

post Coronavirus was flat, no more or less 

than before the pandemic began. However, 

for bars and clubs, family-style and buffetstyle 

restaurants, future intent to visit has 

decreased, suggesting a need to re-imagine 

those experiences. Regardless of the establish- 



Ghost kitchens 

represent an emerging tech-enabled business 

model that’s had a significant effect on the 

food-delivery industry during the pandemic. 

Ghost kitchens enable existing restaurants to 

outsource all aspects of food delivery to 

centralized locations, where deliverymanagement 

services can be scaled across 

numerous restaurant brands. This vehicle 

will continue to grow post pandemic 

ment, for those who have been 

able to hold on this long, the 

industry will need to determine 

how it can drive consumer confidence 

to accelerate recovery from 

the past few months. 

IMI International’s study 

looked at more than 30 unique 

actions that restaurants could take 

and how effective they would be at 

driving consumer confidence and 

reassuring guests of their safety. 

Among those actions, there were 

six that 25 per cent or more of the 

population agreed would bring 

them one step closer to returning 

to restaurants or consuming food 

and beverage at events. 

Within restaurants, the topsix 

actions in descending order, 

from the most effective, included: 

cooks and chefs wearing gloves 

and masks; servers wearing 

masks; offering sanitizer at the 

table; servers wearing gloves; 

offering a menu board instead 

of physical menus; and offering 

packaged cutlery that guests can 

personally open. 

Within food-and-beverage service 

at events, the top-six list differs 

slightly, including: reducing the 

number of tables to ensure they’re 

six-feet apart; providing wipes to 

further clean tables; limiting the 

number of seats at the bar; not 

allowing any communal tables; 

individual food pick-up and offering 

a mobile menu option. 

The implementation of some of 

these actions may be simpler than 

others, but if communicated effectively, 

all promise an opportunity 

to drive confidence and get people 

back to where they want to be. 

“Canadians want to be back in 

restaurants, so it’s more critical 

now than ever to act and over communicate 

to provide reassurance of 

what’s being done to create a safe 

dining environment and experience,” 

says Don Mayo, global managing 

partner of IMI International. 

Perhaps one of the most incredible 

feats of this resilient industry 

is the community within it and 

its willingness to support others 

through these difficult times. From 

coast-to-coast-to-coast, there have 

been numerous instances of the 

restaurant community coming 

together to help support frontline 

workers — and Canadians have 

taken notice. IMI International’s 

study revealed 37 per cent of 

Canadians feel better about restaurant 

brands that have donated free 

meals to frontline workers. 

“Beyond the pent-up demand 

to visit restaurants, we expect the 

active role the industry took to 

support others will lead to a positive 

impact on takeout, dine-in 

and other forms of support to 

help restaurants get back to their 

feet, particularly as personal- and 

financial-health concerns begin to 

normalize,” adds Mayo. 

As of May 10, 2020, 35 per 

cent of Canadians stated they 

were severely concerned for their 

personal health and 30-per-cent 

severely concerned for their 

financial health, yet those marked 

significant improvements of 11 

per cent and 25 per cent respectively 

compared to April 20, 2020 

— a positive indication. 

“Although the level of concern 

is still high among Canadians, the 

improvements we’re seeing are 

encouraging and, as this positive 

trend continues, we expect consumer 

spending to start to pickup,” 

notes Mayo. 

As the industry awaits reopening 

its doors and the 

arrival of guests, the situation has 

brought on a spur of innovation 

and diversification of revenue 

streams through ghost kitchens, 

identifying more open-air foodand-beverage 

venues and mealdelivery-related 

revenues. 

“Ghost kitchens represent an 

emerging tech-enabled business 

model that’s had a significant effect 

on the food-delivery industry during 

the pandemic. Ghost kitchens 

enable existing restaurants to outsource 

all aspects of food delivery 

to centralized locations, where 

delivery management services can 

be scaled across numerous restaurant 

brands. This vehicle will continue 

to grow post pandemic,” says 

Sherwood of AIP Connect. FH 

Mike Sherwood and Adam 

Mitchell are part of AIP 

Consulting, a Toronto-based 

recruitment firm serving all areas 

of the foodservice and hospitality 

industries. 

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Whether you’re looking for daily news on the foodservice or hotel industry, searching for resources to help you improve 

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operators to benchmark and measure 

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Hotelier magazine, celebrated its 30th 

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industry’s leading national publication. 

Published eight times a year, the 

magazine features timely stories on the 

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rends toward healthy eating, 

plant-based lifestyles and 

Tfarm-to-fork philosophies 

have continued to push a shift 

away from the use of preprocessed 

food in the foodservice 

industry. Such changes 

are leading restaurants to do an increasing 

amount of food-prep fresh on site and 

driving demand for equipment to streamline 

the process. 

As Lance Brown, sales manager for 

Dynamic Mixers explains, since the early 

2000’s, “as the industry [has been] transitioning 

incrementally from ‘pre-packaged’ 

to ‘fresh’ there has been a spike in demand 

for all equipment that can enhance ‘fromscratch’ 

preparation.” 

For example, Todd Clem, director of 

Product Management for Globe Food 

Equipment, says his company had seen a 

surge in operators making gourmet burgers 

onsite, which has driven demand for equipment 

to grind and mix the meat, as well as 

patty presses to finish the process. 

“We’ve [recently] added a few smaller 

food-prep items that were relatively inexpensive 

to meet some new demand,” says Clem. 

“We came out with new accessories that 

would actually go onto the hub of a mixer to 

make the mixer cross functional, but we also 

created a tabletop power-drive unit for those 

that don’t have a mixer, but still like all those 

attachments.” Attachments include a meat 

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FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM JULY/AUGUST 2020 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 53

He also notes tools that can be used for a 

variety of tasks have seen growing interest — 

particularly with catering operations. 

Hot-ticket items 

The suppliers agree, immersion blenders 

have become hot items. Robot Coupe’s 

The Robot 

Coupe CL 50 

vegetableprep 

machine 

international sales manager, John Zuga, credits 

this to the equipment’s versatility, which 

can be applied to a wide range of operations 

— whether it’s for dressings, sauces or soup. 

As Brown explains, “20 years ago this 

particular product segment was considered 

‘very European,’ but that mindset in North 

America has changed dramatically with the 

industry quickly understanding the benefits. 

As everyone knows, efficiency has a positive 

effect on cost savings, whether it’s labour or 

food and beverage.” 

Their popularity recently led Globe to add 

immersion blenders to its lineup. “There’s a 

lot of people that use immersion blenders, so 

we [looked for] a way that we could create 

a product that was near the price point of 

the lower-priced units and actually has the 

durability and reliability of the higher-price 

units,” Clem says of the new five-model line. 

At Robot Coupe, Zuga says its vegetableprep 

machines, such as the CL 50, are in 

demand across a variety of segments, including 

multi-unit restaurant operators such as 

Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters and Sunset 

Grill. “These machines are used by a lot of 

multi-units for everything from cutting fresh 

fries, to dicing tomatoes, onions, peppers 

and salad prep,” he explains, noting the CL 

(Coupe Legumes) line is engineered to run at 

a speed that ensures precise cuts. 

Players in the grocery segment have 

also turned to this product to help meet 

demand for pre-cut produce and prepared 

meals — offerings that exploded during 

COVID-19 lockdowns. “It’s been a big 

driver for our business and we see that 

as something that’s going to continue,” 

Zuga explains. 

The pandemic accelerating shifts to 

takeout- and delivery-focused models, 

Clem notes that certain market 

segments, such as, pizza were well positioned 

to succeed, impacting equipment 

demand. “The pizza industry has flourished 

[during this time] and, therefore, our mixer 

sales have flourished because they just 

haven’t slowed down. If anything, they’ve 

been able to grab market share where others 

were closing stores or struggling to figure 

out how to do carry out or delivery,” he says, 

adding that Globe’s ship-now business model 

was especially appealing to customers during 

this time. 

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Equipping the 

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Dynamic’s 

Dynacube dicer 

Clem notes that, post-pandemic, 

there will likely be fewer people 

dining in restaurants, at least until 

customers get more comfortable being in 

public spaces. “That means restaurants 

need to be a lot more discerning in their 

offerings than they were in the past and 

[consider] how you differentiate yourself 

from the six other restaurants down the 

street from you. Fresh prep on site has to 

be part of that,” he explains. And, in the 

pursuit of this, pieces of equipment that 

lend themselves to the prep of a number of 

different items may be of greater interest. 

“Some of the restaurateurs are going to 

be really strapped when they come back 

and their biggest expense is labor,” Zuga 

says. “We can — I hate to say — replace 

employees…As the restaurants reopen, it 

remains to be seen how many employees 

are coming back,” he adds noting that, 

with the right equipment, food 

prep that takes hours by hand 

can be cut down to a 

matter of minutes. 

“We see it as an 

opportunity for us to 

add to our business 

and help the restaurant 

operator increase 

his bottom line by having 

fewer employees and 

being just as productive 

with our equipment,” 

Zuga explains. And, 

when it comes to the 

staff that do return to 

BlendPro 1 blender work, “if they have the 

from Dynamic right tools to work with, 

people are more satisfied 

with their jobs, tend to stay in one place 

and are happier and more productive.” 

And, when it comes to cleanliness and 

safety, “We’re of the mindset that we’re 

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CUT 

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our machines to produce a lot of food with 

just one person using it, rather than a lot of 

people having touched something [when 

doing] prep with a hand [tool],” shares 

Zuga. He also notes, that Robot Coupe’s 

products are designed to be easily disassembled 

for sanitizing. 

“Food-and-beverage service establishments, 

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down the road will be efficiency, 

sanitation and safety, [as well as] how 

best to absorb the added costs of these, 

while understanding the demands from 

customer will grow. That’s the balancing 

act that will inevitably be the reality of 

the industry in the years to come,” says 

Brown. “Sanitation equipment, safety 

equipment and any other foodservice 

equipment that can help streamline 

an operation will benefit from these 

inevitable changes in the industry.” FH 

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‘Courtesy-Slice’ option allows you to hang your 

fruit from the side of the glass. 

supracut.com 

RE-OPENING 

SUPPORT 

FOODSERVICE SUPPLIERS CONTINUE 

TO INNOVATE AS THE RESTAURANT 

INDUSTRY BEGINS TO 

RE-OPEN 

CAMPBELL’S 

FOODSERVICE 

Restaurant operators play an essential 

role in our communities and COVID-19 

will continue to present an incredible 

challenge. Our industry has always 

shown the ability to rebound from hard 

times and will look to industry partners 

for support. Campbell’s Foodservice is 

supporting operators through these 

challenging times by helping ease 

restaurant-operation cost with a $5.00- 

per-case rebate valid on purchases 

made between June 1 and 

September 30, 2020. 

campbellsfoodservice.ca 

Piller’s 

Fine Foods 

Made using authentic European recipes, 

Piller’s is an expert in dry-cured 

specialty salami and hams. Piller’s 

Speck Smoked Prosciutto is dry 

cured, naturally wood smoked and 

air dried to perfection for more than 

80 days. Available in inter-leaved 

portions for your convenience, it’s a 

delicious addition to any charcuterie 

board, sandwich, pizza or pasta. 

pillers.com/foodservice 

56 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JULY/AUGUST 2020

POLARA STUDIO ORACLE MICROS SIMPHONY] 

ORACLE FOOD 

AND BEVERAGE 

CAMBRO 

Camshelving Premium Series Flex Stations offer five configurations 

to meet takeout, delivery and curbside staging needs. It can be accessorized 

with food pans, food boxes, GoBags and GoBoxes to maximize 

capacity and food quality. Included ID tags allow for easy labelling, 

organization and a reduction in handling. Shelf plates can be run 

through a commercial dishwasher to achieve a deeper cleaning. 

cambro.com 


Oracle Food and Beverage helps restaurateurs 

remain resilient and prepare for recovery in 

the current economic climate. Thousands of 

operators use the Oracle MICROS Simphony 

all-in-one restaurant management systems to 

run their front-of-house, back office and kitchen 

from a single, easy-to-use cloud-based platform. 

Oracle can help analyze current 

operations and define a path forward to 

implement new models. 

oracle.com/food-beverage 

SAN JAMAR/RABCO 

The San Jamar Germ Guard Face Shield with 

Foam provides a simple physical barrier to help 

protect the face from debris. One size fits most 

and the product is available with an elastic 

headband and foam for added comfort. The 

minimum order for the face shield is 200. 

sanjamar.com 

WHOLESALE 

CLUB 

Wholesale Club has added eight new products to 

help operators expand their meat-free offering. 

Create meatless variations on classic menu items, 

such as burgers, dogs, tenders, pizza and subs, 

with Wholesale Club’s meat-free protein lineup. As 

plant-based meat alternatives continue to rise in 

popularity, operators need to be prepared to meet 

the growing demand. 

blog.wholesaleclub.ca/product_ 

inspiration/meatless-alternatives 

METRO/W.D. 

COLLEDGE 

The Metro CR243033-CKST PPE Check-In 

Station provides mobile and secure storage 

of PPE for employee check-in or shift access, 

as well as convenient access to sanitizer and 

PPE. Additional supplies and high-value items, 

such as infrared thermometers, can be stored 

and secured in the unit. The unit can be rolled 

to entry points or stored out of the way when 

not in use. It’s reconfigurable and can be 

repurposed as needs change. Locks, sanitizer 

and PPE not included. 

metro.com 

EEMAX 

Eemax tankless electric water heaters 

provide safe, efficient, code-compliant 

handwashing solutions and can be 

installed at the point-of-use for endless, 

on-demand warm water for handwashing, 

helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

LavAdvantage is a thermostatic tankless 

electric water heater with a flow activation 

of 0.2 GPM for multiple sensor or metering 

faucets, which can be made code compliant 

for public handwashing with an ASSE 

1070 rated mixing valve or if the fixture 

already has an integrated mixing valve. 

eemax.com 

VAL 

RESOURCES INC. 

CV-19 is made of 100-percent 

recyclable plastic 

designed to fit most 

hard-brimmed hats 

as a safety barrier 

against airborne 

particles and flying 

debris. CV-19 is fog 

resistant, reusable and 

easily cleaned with most 

standard disinfecting liquid 

cleaners. When personal distancing and 

a social barrier is unavailable, CV-19 Face 

Shield is the effective alternative. 

cv19faceshield.com 


FEEL-GOOD STORIES FROM THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 

The Liberty Entertainment Group, has opened its kitchens to 

give back during these unprecedented times. Each weekday, 

the Liberty Entertainment Group, along with its partners, 

will provide 500 meals a day from Cibo Wine Bar to frontline 

healthcare workers at Sinai Hospital and Bridgepoint Active 

Healthcare as part of its new FOOD-to-FIGHT initiative. 

This initiative is supported each week by generous partners 

who have stepped up to help make FOOD to FIGHT 

possible and help give back to the true champions. 

Rallying 

Support 

Glass Half Full 

In the shifting world of marketing and storytelling, Walter 

Craft Caesar is leaning into its fun, quirky and lighthearted 

branding to uplift Canadians and create small (and much 

needed) moments of celebration. 

To help people celebrate National Caesar Day from home 

this year, the brand got crafty, re-engaging Paul Mason (aka 

Fashion Santa) to raise funds for Canada’s largest food-rescue charity, 

Second Harvest.In the campaign video, Fashion Santa challenged 

people across Canada to get dressed up, fashion themselves a Caesar 

and share photos on social media using the #CaesarSelfie hashtag. 

Walter Craft Caesar and Fashion Santa collectively donated $5 to 

Second Harvest for the first 600 photos shared on social media using the 

hashtag and tagging both @waltercaesar and @fashionsanta. 

Walter Craft Caesar also employed the help of out-of-work bartenders 

from across the country to design their own spin on the classic 

Caesar. The bartenders are compensated for their time and their recipes 

are shared on the brand’s Instagram page along with a Q&A that highlights 

the bartender and their local employer. 

Seeing Red 

As social distancing and self-isolation become the norm, a nostalgic 

favourite is back and trending in social feeds: the puzzle. Now, Heinz 

Ketchup has released a puzzle of its own, dubbed the world’s slowest 

puzzle, with 570 pieces, all in identical Heinz red. 

“Heinz is known for its iconic, slow-pouring ketchup. In a period when 

everyone has a little more time on their hands and puzzle popularity has 

skyrocketed, we wanted to help pass the time by connecting the two,” 

says Brian Neumann, senior brand manager, Kraft Heinz Canada. 

Heinz is giving away 57 puzzles to ketchup lovers in 17 countries 

around the world through its Instagram page @Heinz_ca 

Carlsberg recently launched a new campaign 

aimed at helping low-income communities’ 

access healthy food during this time of need. 

For the entire month of June, the brewer 

donated $0.20 for every bottle and can of 

Carlsberg Danish Pilsner and Carlsberg Lite sold 

in Canada to the campaign, Buy a Carlsberg and 

support The Good Food Access Fund. The 

charitable donation will be made to Community 

Food Centres Canada (CFCC). 

In March 2020, The Good Food Access Fund was 

established by CFCC to ensure its partners working 

on the frontlines across Canada can provide 

much-needed food and supplies to support the 

most vulnerable. To date, The Good Food Access 

Fund has granted almost $10 million to more than 

400 organizations across Canada. 

“The Coronavirus pandemic is affecting everyone’s 

way of life, but is significantly felt among those 

already in vulnerable situations. We’re driven by 

our constant pursuit of better, which not only 

entails our mission to zero and the creation of 

more-sustainable packaging solutions, but we 

also strongly believe that during this unprecedented 

time, we can do better to ensure every 

donation and act of kindness can make a 

difference,” says John Porter, managing 

director Carlsberg Canada. 

58 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY JUNE 2020 


LIMITED TIME OFfER: $5 OFf A CASE 

Valid only in canada 

June 1 st - September 30 th , 2020 

Valid only on purchases made between June 1, 2020 - September 30, 2020. Maximum redemption 100 cases. 

Offer subject to terms stated below*. All rebate claims must be postmarked or received by October 31, 2020. 

Product Description Pack / Size Product Code # of Cases Purchased 

Pacific Barista Series Almond 12 X 946 mL 4312 

Pacific Barista Series Unsweetened Almond 12 X 946 mL 4319 

Pacific Barista Series Coconut 12 X 946 mL 4313 

Pacific Barista Series Hemp 12 X 946 mL 4325 

Pacific Barista Series Oat 12 X 946 mL 4320 

Pacific Barista Series Rice 12 X 946 mL 4314 

Pacific Barista Series Soy Original 12 X 946 mL 4292 

Pacific Barista Series Soy Vanilla 12 X 946 mL 4294 

MAIL MY REBATE TO (please print clearly): 

NAME OF OPERATION 

FIRST NAME LAST NAME TITLE 

STREET ADDRESS (NO PO BOXES) CITY PROVINCE POSTAL CODE COUNTRY 

BUSINESS PHONE (EXT) 

EMAIL ADDRESS 

DISTRIBUTOR CITY 

PROVINCE POSTAL CODE COUNTRY 

* TERMS & CONDITIONS 

A Offer expires September 30, 2020. 

B This rebate offer applies only to foodservice operators located in Canada. 

Not applicable to distributors, chains, buying groups or contract accounts. 

C Checks will be made payable to corporate entities only, and not to individuals. 

D Applies only to eligible Pacific Barista Series products purchased between 

June 1, 2020 – September 30, 2020. 

E Limit of one rebate claim per operator location. 

F Operators should save copies of distributor invoices (showing eligible products 

purchased) for submission with this original claim form. Handwritten invoices 

will not be accepted. Must submit either original invoice or copy of original 

invoice. 

G All submissions must be postmarked or received by October 31, 2020. 

Campbell’s Foodservice is not responsible for lost, late or misdirected 

submissions. 

H Offer good for Operators located in Canada only. Void where prohibited, 

taxed or restricted. 

I This rebate offer may not be combined with any other offer on the same 

items during the same period. 

J Discontinued products are not eligible for rebate offer. 

K This rebate cannot be assigned or transferred by an operator. 

L Distributors may not redeem on behalf of operators. 

M Rebate is valid for purchase made from Foodservice Distributors, Coffee 

Roasters and Specialty Coffee Distributors only. 

N Allow 4-6 weeks for receipt of rebate. 

Send this original completed form and proof of purchase (see terms & conditions) to: 

Barista Series Rebate, PO Box 39, Brampton, ON L6V 2K7 or email to solutions@campbellsfoodservice.ca. 

For questions regarding this rebate or products, please call your Sales Rep or call 1-800-461-7687. 

For a printable version, visit: www.pacificfoods.com/canada/en/food-service 

BS-52020-B-11 

©2020 PACIFIC FOODS OF OREGON, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Consumers are 

looking for meat 

alternatives 

100% PLANT- 

BASED PROTEIN 

Tofu, meat and dairy alternatives 

are the fastest growing 

FMCG category 

$ Growth 

1 

+28% 

Delicious Breakfast 

Saus’age Patties 

The perfect way to start your day. 

• Great taste and texture 

• 12 g of protein 

per serving 

• Always Vegan 

• 

• 

Non-GMO Project Verified 

Excellent source of 

vitamin B12 and iron 

• Kosher 

www.conagrafoodservice.ca 

© CONAGRA BRANDS CANADA INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

The Best New Product Awards logo is a trademark of Best New Product Awards Inc., used under license 

Source 1 :The President’s Report Q4 2019, Nielsen, MarketTrack, National Grocery + Drug + Mass Merchandisers, 52 weeks ending January 4, 2020. FMCG stands for fast-moving consumer goods.

July/August 2020

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