What if you could spend your days in a 2000 square foot, fully equipped kitchen, coming up with new ideas on what to cook and how to market them? Well, that sounds like my dream job. Welcome to "3"ā€¦three insights in about three minutes, and today's guest gets to do that every day! He's Jim Lombardi of Wolf Peach Culinary, where he's the Chief Culinary Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Chef Jim, tell me about the skill set of chefs; where do you see marketing and culinary work intersect?
Jim Lombardi: Chefs have to promote products and menus - that sometimes it's an individual menu item - and that promotion sometimes is very effective in telling people that this dish is going to be great - to connect them to the romance and the story behind what's happened. And when people come into that, and when they understand the passion that a chef has about something, it makes the food taste better.
Drew: Passion just makes everything better. I'm well familiar with the skill sets needed to run an efficient marketing department. What are the key skill positions to run a top notch kitchen?
Jim: An Executive Chef - who creates the menu, hires staff and trains the staff on that menu. The sous chef is responsible for the daily execution of that menu and some of the more micro-training for each staff member. And under the sous chef are cooks, and many cooks are working in pastry or working in protein or vegetables. But the most important position of all is the dishwasher.
Drew: Well, somebody has to do the dirty work, and it's usually vitally important. Jim, how has your perspective developed through the years about the culinary experience?
Jim: Early in my career, I was really focused on the other side of the kitchen, when that dish leaves and it goes in front of someone, how they experience that, how they're satisfied, and the feedback that I receive. Looking back, it's such a revelation. It's not about a box of food or a can of food, but it's about creating that special moment with one person that means so much to me.
Drew: Creating that special moment...food has that unique ability, but I would suggest that, say, even in a somewhat cold world of B2B manufacturing, marketers can help create those kinds of special moments as well. "3" is a production of MarketingAccelerator.com, and is just one of the resources we provide for marketing and business leaders. I'm Drew Dinkelacker.