39: The New Normal in Catering Design

Tracy Stuckrath [00:00:00]:
Hey, this is Tracy. Before we get to the next episode of the Eating at a Meeting podcast, I have a question for you. Are you ready to make 2021 the year? You never say managing dietary needs is challenging. Listen, I know how hard it is to manage the plethora of requests from attendees who say they're pescatarian, gluten free, dairy free, allergic to this, allergic to that, or combination of all of those. I've been there and I have helped my clients create more memorable experiences for their attendees. And that's why I'm here to tell you that I've actually created a new online course called Every Meal Matters that I will teach you how to meet all these dietary requests and the legal requirements that go with them so you can create delicious menus for all your attendees without having to pull your hair out. Registration is now open@academy.thrivemeetings.com and the course launches on Monday, January 11th. I hope you'll join me for this new class that will empower you to provide more inclusive food and beverage experiences that help everyone feel valued.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:01:07]:
Enjoy the show. Welcome to the Eating at a Meeting podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Stuckraft, Dietary needs expert, Certified Meetings Manager, Certified Food Protection Manager. I have searched the globe to find people and businesses who are are creating safe, sustainable and inclusive food and beverage experiences for their employees, guests and communities. In each episode, you will find authentic conversations about how food and beverage impacts inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health and wellness. I know that sounds like a lot, but we're going to cover it all. Are you ready to feed, engagement, nourish inclusion, and bolster your bottom line? If so, let's go. Hi everybody and welcome to the Eating at a Meeting podcast.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:02:01]:
I'm Tracy Stuckrath with Thrive Meetings & Events and we at this Eating in a Meeting podcast, we talk about all things food and beverage, from farmers to food service providers to eaters and everybody in between and around. And it's so much fun. I've been having a great time the last six months doing this and I'm very excited to talk to today the CEO of Cornerstone Food Service Group, Christine Holtz. She. I listened to her actually a couple of months ago when she was talking to the NACE Team Catering group of professionals and loved her presentation and I immediately reached out to her because I wanted to find out more about what she's doing and how she can help our catering partners with serving food and beverage. So Christine has 25 years of experience in the food service industry and as a former leader at HJ Hines, CEO of Market Day and now the CEO of Cornerstone Food Service Group, which is. Which comprises Spring usa, Lloyd Pans and After Manufacturing. Christine has helped develop leading products and solutions across many areas of food food service.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:15]:
She works alongside and advises leading brands on their food service operations, which we're going to delve into today and shares industry insights to help organize organizations, create guest centered and profitable dining experiences, which is what we're looking for, seriously, right now. Hi, Christine.

Kristine Holtz [00:03:34]:
Hi, Tracy. What a nice introduction. Thank you. And I've been enjoying all of your podcasts. I love the range of topics.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:42]:
Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I chatted with a woman today, which everybody get excited. It's centering yourself with chocolate and we're going to do that in December.

Kristine Holtz [00:03:51]:
Yeah, that for years.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:55]:
Yeah. And she's out of London, so I'm so excited to do that.

Kristine Holtz [00:03:58]:
Interesting.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:59]:
Yeah. Okay. So food service and events and you know, it's. And people are probably wondering why I have you on here. I mean, but you provide equipment for our catering partners.

Kristine Holtz [00:04:13]:
We do. We do both equipment and consulting. Okay. As part of that package. So if you work with Spring usa, we're going to help you think about how do you serve guests? How did you serve them yesterday and then how do you serve them tomorrow and what.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:04:28]:
So, okay, so let's talk about that actually right now. You know, from yesterday now and then tomorrow. How are we going to do that?

Kristine Holtz [00:04:37]:
Yeah, well, the thing I share with people is take a deep breath. We're in the middle of a pandemic. It's not always going to be this way and it's changing every day. We have some stats I can share with you that are sort of heartening as we talk a little bit. But it's possible to serve guests today. And with a few modifications both to your facility and with your staff, you really can get back to serving guests in groups again. In fact, we're seeing some of our clients do it now and others prepare. We just had a stadium come in and buy some induction ranges to prepare for guest services in their suites.

Kristine Holtz [00:05:13]:
Many of our major hotel brands are getting ready to ramp up those breakfast programs again. Some of them are doing them in a modified way, but you can serve guests again safely. And we're finding guests want that. I mean, let's face it, we love to gather. Yes. Eat. And really eating out is a necessity in many cases.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:05:35]:
Yeah. And actually, let's. There's a story you shared with me before the show about you traveling with your son, two different hotel experiences. Explain. Share that with the listener.

Kristine Holtz [00:05:48]:
I'd love to. I'd love to. So I have a 15 year old son who's a baseball player and they have been traveling with their team, social distancing but playing baseball. And we were on a big zoom call with all the parents, I think 60 of them or something, and deciding where we would put up the teams. And one of the parents said, oh, let's stay at this hotel because they have breakfast. So immediately all of whoops. Immediately all of the parents said great, let's do that one. Well, you can imagine how the parents felt when the next morning their 15 year old sons who were going to play baseball all day were handed a brown bag with a muffin and a tiny bottle water.

Kristine Holtz [00:06:28]:
We all scrambled to McDonald's to feed those fuel tanks and 15 year old boys for the rest of the day. But let me fast forward to a great experience I had in a hotel. They had made some very simple modifications to their breakfast program and the boys were served a hot breakfast. And you can bet that's the brand, every tournament since we booked all those hotel rooms. And maybe let me just share with you some of those modifications. Whether you're an event planner, you're a caterer, you're a hotel, you're in college and education, a lot of these things apply. We of course work with our clients to customize it to what they do. But what this hotel had done is they had put some just protective barriers over some long tables between two staff members and the guests.

Kristine Holtz [00:07:17]:
They had some social distancing cues on where you should stand, had some notes about wearing a mask. And then they had two properly attired attendants, I would say, with masks and gloves, heated food behind them, with blooded shakers, and they safely fed the guests. And I think really what we try to tell people is think about these three things. Food safety. First of all, that's nothing new. Anybody in food service knows how to, you know, we've got to do that, right? Keep cold, cold, hot food, hot, separate foods. The second thing is really guest and employee safety. And that's changed a little bit.

Kristine Holtz [00:08:00]:
Sanitation, masks and gloves. Knowledge. Knowledge is really important. And then thirdly and most importantly is making guests feel safe. And that's really about how you communicate and what they see when they're in your facility and even before they book an event with your planners. So anyway, this, this hotel did it right? And 60 hotel rooms for the next six weeks in their various cities, that's.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:08:30]:
Huge, you know, right now. And you know, for the hotels because we see that so many are going to close down because they don't have the business and the group business is there. You know, for a lot of hotels that is their main business. It's not the transient. But I think we can apply some of that transient hotel practices to the group business.

Kristine Holtz [00:08:53]:
And yeah, and it really starts when the guest is deciding where to go whether you're a restaurant or an event. I mean we're saying people are still going to get married, people are still going to have to, are still going to want to gather whether it's a business event or a social event. So one of the most important things you can do is help people see what an experience would be like if they book an event or facility. And so really work those websites. Make sure you're showing people what are you doing, what can they expect? Why should they feel safe? Just when the pandemic hit and restaurants were scrambling with what what to do and moving to outside dining as a shorter term solution I think is we're in the card of it. I came across a web something on Facebook that was fed to me and a restaurant, local restaurant had done a drone showing what their outdoor facility looked like. That cool. Didn't only show me their social distancing and how the tables would be set up, but it was lovely and it made me want to go there especially having been cooped up like everybody else for a long time.

Kristine Holtz [00:10:04]:
It was an invitation. And I heard that they're doing incredibly well in a very still, very tough market.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:10:12]:
That's a great idea. I mean there's one hotel, I don't remember what it was, but they did a video of you walk into the hotel and this is how the front desk is greeting you. And they all had masks and they did a demonstration of the chef providing food. It was a little daunting with one person walking up to a table and you just getting a pre plated plate. But I think there's ways to do it, especially with the equipment that you all provide, you know, sell that you can do some buffet style or action station style presentations and you're not limited.

Kristine Holtz [00:10:48]:
You sure can. In fact, we just did a survey, we did a survey in May, June and just updated it. We Talked to over 500 people who eat at the feet through leisure and travel. 70% of those people, 70 said they would eat at a buffet. So I think as professionals we're worried about, you know, our customers are on a scale, let's call it of 1 to 10 on how comfortable they feel about a Buffet, we're sort of focused on those that are really concerned. Those 8 to 10. Remind everybody that we need to serve guests on the range from 1 to 10. Yes.

Kristine Holtz [00:11:26]:
So we shouldn't assume that only those that maybe feel more concerned or have health concerns, that don't want to eat at a buffet should impact how we serve everyone. And there's some simple things you can do. Hand sanitizing stations at both ends the same. In fact, social distancing, we know now is one of the most important things we can do, ensuring that you have clear communication about what the guests should do. One of the things we're recommending from a staff perspective is make sure you're training your staff to handle these issues. What if the guest doesn't want to do what you want? What if they don't know what to do? One of the things I've always said, Tracy, about being in this industry my whole life is I love it. Because hospitality people are generally hospitable in this industry because we want to serve guests, and that's who we are. And I think with a little training, you can really help your staff be gracious hosts by helping people know what to do, by making sure that they're sanitizing in front of people and wiping down trace guests are watching, wiping down tables.

Kristine Holtz [00:12:41]:
But then also, if somebody perhaps doesn't want to follow what you've asked them to do, have your staff trained on what to do. What do they say? When do they get out? How do they escalate?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:12:50]:
Right, That's a great point, because there are going to be people who want to get out. They may be dressed in their own PPE completely, but they do want the socialization of being there. They just don't want to touch anything or to know, get that close to people. So how can a hotel or catering staff help them?

Kristine Holtz [00:13:11]:
Yes. So have the safety captain, have the signage, have the masking, but then the event itself. If you're serving food. You know, we talked about sanitation, but we've just created a line of portable sneeze guards. I hate that word. We like to call them breath shields. But a portable. You like to call them what? We like to call them breath shields.

Kristine Holtz [00:13:31]:
Okay. Nicer term than sneeze guard, but the industry term is sneeze guard. Created a line of those, and that allows you to perhaps have a lot of flexibility of how you serve food and where you serve it. There's things that aren't that expensive from equip, from an equipment standpoint, like a warming tray, where you can put individual portions. Okay. In fact, our survey told us that guests, that individual portions make guests feel safe today. And there's a lot of ways to do that and still feed people en masse if you're doing that. But I will tell you, their number one concern on our survey was same concern that they had pre Covid, which is food freshness and quality.

Kristine Holtz [00:14:13]:
That was the number one concern about eating at a buffet. Number two was doing so safely.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:14:18]:
Wow. That, I mean, and that still goes to show that they want the quality of the food that, you know, I mean, we don't want.

Kristine Holtz [00:14:27]:
We don't want.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:14:28]:
Nobody wants to eat bad food. Right.

Kristine Holtz [00:14:32]:
They're maybe not as afraid as we think they are. And I think if you present how you can serve food and then you start doing it, I also think people are social animals. And if they see other people, they see good action by the staff and they see other people eating, they will as well.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:14:46]:
Right? Yeah. And, but, but again, you have to be cognizant of that whole spectrum of people that and how. So do you have a bunch of pre plated plates in the back that can accommodate those people who don't want to go through that buffet line?

Kristine Holtz [00:15:02]:
That's right. And maybe you do a guest survey if you're planning an event like a wedding or ahead of time. And this probably touches on what you do, Tracy, is making sure that you understand, does somebody have some extra concerns either from a dietary perspective or just perspective? We all have different situations with our own health issues or those in our family or our guests.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:15:25]:
Okay, So I have an idea based on that conversation. I'm going to get a sticker off my thing. So I've been chatting about how to make food and beverage experiences fun. And one thing with the plexiglass and the bri.

Kristine Holtz [00:15:38]:
What?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:15:38]:
Breath.

Kristine Holtz [00:15:40]:
Just call it. We'll call it a scene.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:15:42]:
Okay. You know, let's have fun. Let's like put stickers. This is an adhesive, an adhesive that fits on to glass. Right. But you can do these peel and remove stickers on those plexiglass shields or use dry erase markers and use those so. So you can brand it and you can have fun with it. You know, I'm all about labeling.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:16:06]:
So do fun with that sneeze guard with the labeling by writing it there. Make sure it has good handwriting.

Kristine Holtz [00:16:11]:
But yeah, but menu has to do the sneeze guard.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:16:16]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, let's have fun with that one. One of the questions that I ask everybody and I really do like your answer. So I'm going to ask you here so you can share it with everybody, but what does a safe, inclusive and sustainable food and beverage experience look like to you? And you've touched on it briefly, but I, you know, one thing that I've also seen a lot of too is, you know, pathogens and salmonella. And in this, in a study that I did on one of my presentations is that 71% of the planners had never asked about food safety practices of their catering partners in the past. And to me, that's twofold. It can say, hey, we really trusted them, you know, and that's a great thing to do. But I think Covid has opened their eyes to what food safety is and what it can mean.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:17:14]:
And so I think we're going to be getting a lot more people on that. So can you just explain again, you know, what your answer for safe and inclusive and sustainable is?

Kristine Holtz [00:17:25]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I, my focus, of course, is how to serve with in a post Covid environment. And when, I mean post, I mean, now that it's happened and I going to continue to evolve, but we're probably in the worst of it. I hope it will continue to get better, but I think that it is. There's really three things again, that you have to really balance. Employee safety is one of it. In fact, we have a client, a large hotel group that's come out and said we're going to have standards for employees, period, because we have to ensure employees are safe. But then we're going to take the guests feedback and offer them a variety of options.

Kristine Holtz [00:18:07]:
Okay, they feel safe. But again, a safe environment to me means that you've got food safety and then you've got guest and employee safety. And I think of three things there, space. So you had, you have the space set up, you have the sanitation plan, and then are you communicating that both to your staff and to your guests? And then of course, those things that make the guests feel safe. And again, I think that we are seeing people, you know, it depends on what's happening in the municipality, but we're seeing some people return to dining again. And I think that's only going to grow as we know more about the virus and we learn how to handle it. And then people find a way to get comfort in their own way. And we have to help them see that.

Kristine Holtz [00:18:52]:
Yeah, let them see how they're going to be served. I think many people don't know what to ask you. They don't say, I don't know What I want, I just, but I want to feel safe so that you can do that. And how you're sending proactive information out to your guests on your website when they visit, what sign issue they see, how are your employees acting, that's what's going to get people coming back again and again.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:19:18]:
And that I was chatting with a caterer the other day offline and you know, it's, it is really about being proactive about it. So I have lists that I've given meeting planners on. These are the food safety questions that you should be asking your catering partners. And some of them are saying, well, what are the answers? So I have to, I'm working on that. But the, the thing is, is the hotel properties need to take those same questions and find the answers and go ahead and hey, here are the answers to these questions. So you don't even have to ask me. I mean, go ahead and ask me. But I do have the answers.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:19:53]:
And that means the salesperson should know the answers. The food and beverage director, the banquet captain, the servers, maybe not so much they should know the basics, but being proactive to sell that. And I love the drone and LA gave us somebody to do a drone for you. But those, answer those questions in some unique ways to teach planners and you know, your guests what you're doing.

Kristine Holtz [00:20:20]:
Yes. And if you're doing, if you're a caterer and you're doing off site catering or I mean, even if you're welcoming college kids back, layout of what your buffet is going to look like and have those safety features for your customers. I think I'm a mom of a college kid also. I'm in the business, of course, but if I wasn't, I would have loved it if they would have said, here's how we're going to make sure your son's and say, here's how we're going to handle the cafeteria. You know, here's what we're going to do.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:20:52]:
Right.

Kristine Holtz [00:20:53]:
And I think that there are easy answers. They don't have to be incredibly expensive. You know, we do mobile cooking stations, we do mobile serving stations, but we can even help you just modify your current setup in a very simple way with some modest investment to get you to safe serving again.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:21:13]:
Now, you know, and I've talked about buffet stations and bars stations and you know, to help spread out the, and I, I try to use the word physical distancing instead of social distancing because we are social but you know, to limit the number of people in your lines, bars and things It's. I mean, we're gonna. Planners are gonna have to pay for the staff to staff those extra bars and those extra buffets. But for the property, they can roll, you know, hopefully. Well, not hopefully, but you just said the modest cost to add additional buffets and have fun with that. Are you, besides Action Station, kind of an induction burner kind of things, do you have anything that is. Does like the vertical buffets and fun things that can be done that way?

Kristine Holtz [00:22:06]:
We sure do. And there's a lot of ways to do that. Physical distance, seeing as you say. So it can be splitting up your buffet and be perhaps something as simple as stickers on the floor. We offer those to kind of help people know where to stand. It can be. Again, I love the idea of a safety captain that sort of greets guests and graciously directs them on where to go. But yeah, we do all of those things and can custom customize putting together a buffet for any type of environment healthcare to a caterer to help them do that with just some recommendations.

Kristine Holtz [00:22:43]:
And, you know, we recommend not only the equipment side, but just how do you make all that work? Right. We actually published a white paper too, that's on our website@springusa.com if somebody wants to look at that. We have some different buffet spec setups that you can look at. And you know, while we certainly offer tables and things like that, we can show you how to use some simple banquet tables and modify those as well. Well, some pictures out there for your customers so that they are not afraid to book with you.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:23:13]:
And I think that's kind of really important because then the meeting planners can then show it to their guests as well or their attendees to say, this is, you know, the concept that we have. Yeah. One event that was held in Savannah a couple weeks ago, the Georgia Society of Association Executives, I loved one of the things that they did is they put red, white and blue linens on the tables. And then they put a blue sign or red sign next to one buffet and a red sign. So it directed the people on the red tables to go to this buffet and the ones in the blue. Yeah. And that makes it a little bit fun. And you don't have to look at your name badge.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:23:51]:
You just have to look at the linen and, you know, to make it a little bit different.

Kristine Holtz [00:23:55]:
Yeah. And guests want to know what to do when you're at event business or for a party. You don't want to feel like you don't know where to go. Nobody wants to feel awkward. So again, I think it's part of that gracious hosting of guests to really think that through. And then do, you know, as you're just getting back into this, if you haven't already been doing that, do a dry run with your staff.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:24:17]:
Yeah.

Kristine Holtz [00:24:17]:
You know, go. How does this work? You know, make sure your staff knows what to do. And again, you just need your staff. You have to invest in a little bit of training and it might just be a meeting. Right. You're really helping them think about those things. If a guest hands you their phone and says, take my picture, what are you supposed to do?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:24:39]:
That's a good point. Yeah.

Kristine Holtz [00:24:43]:
You say no. Do you say yes and sanitize your hands afterwards? You know, what. Do you. But all the other guests are watching how you're handling it, so.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:24:51]:
Or you hate. Or you give. This is actually a prime opportunity to get a sponsor of selfie sticks.

Kristine Holtz [00:24:56]:
There you go. You know, I love it.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:25:00]:
Yeah. We're not. Nobody's going to take pictures for you, so here's your selfie stick and use those. Oh, my God, I love that idea. Actually, the. With the clients that you've been working with, do you have any other best practices that you've seen that fun ways that they've been doing it?

Kristine Holtz [00:25:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. So individually wrapped is very big. Although again, we think with sanitation at each side of the banquet line, someone's sanitizing their hands and then walking through enhanced sanitizing after. And if you don't think the person sanitized well enough, you could sanitize at the end and you know, you're sanitized that you don't have to do individual portions. But people have been. I mean, individual portions are interesting food anyways. Very chic.

Kristine Holtz [00:25:43]:
And, you know, a simple warming tray with a warm cookie is a beautiful and easy thing. Focaccia. Many things can be served on a warming tray at individual portions composed salad, you know, that can be made ahead of time and help you with staffing and still give people perhaps choices through a buffet line. I think that's a great idea, sort of mixing what you're preparing ahead of time and what you're offering. The guest choice up in really like choice. And I think part of what you do is ensuring that people have choice too, so that it meets various dietary needs. So I think that's still an important part, but you can mix that up so that you're thinking thoughtfully about staff. And then action stations are huge.

Kristine Holtz [00:26:33]:
Those have not slowed down at all.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:26:35]:
Okay, that's good to know.

Kristine Holtz [00:26:37]:
That's growing. You know, it has not only the theater of cooking, which we all love. Right. And why the Food Network so popular, but it also allows guests to see exactly how their food's being prepared. And it hits both of those two highest checkboxes in our service. And you know that it's fresh and you can. And secondly, you know it's safe because you see the person preparing it for you.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:27:03]:
Now, on that note, one of the things with action stations and with what I do is that you need to have multiple areas. You need to have multiple plans. Pans, or the towels and the aprons. Because if somebody's, you know, hey, I'm allergic to shellfish, and you just put fish, you know, in that pan, I need another pan.

Kristine Holtz [00:27:24]:
Right.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:27:25]:
So thinking about how you can also incorporate that into it is. Is. Well, with. With those action stations, do you all. Have you seen anybody doing plated events or is it really just kind of maintain that buffet?

Kristine Holtz [00:27:43]:
We're both. We're seeing both like we were before COVID I would say plated has increased post Covid or individual servings, but I think that from. There's no more efficient or economical way to feed gas than a buffet. So that's why I think so many people are thinking about, if it's not now, as that path comes back, how do we get there and be prepared? Because that really is the answer and guests like it. So again, as long as we can get them there safely, they're going to come back to that. I do want to mention too, about your note about different pans, and one thing we've developed post Covid is a mobile sink that can be put in a room for the staff to be washing their hands in between if they need to. Also.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:28:32]:
Yep.

Kristine Holtz [00:28:32]:
Are often used, but in the old days, we wouldn't want that seen by our customer. Today we do want it seen. I used to laugh and say if I saw a bottle of cleaner sitting on a counter, I would be, you know, thinking, pulled together. And now I'm happy when I see it.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:28:53]:
I ordered these really pretty spray bottles. They're. They're glass. And it was to use for essential oils to spray in the wash and all of that or in the dryer and things like that. But you don't have to use that black, that standard white plastic bottle. You could use something nicer in that presentation out front. But.

Kristine Holtz [00:29:17]:
Right. But I still want our guests to know that it is sanitizer, because.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:29:21]:
Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's very, very true. And, you know, having worked at food for former food and wine festivals as well, those portable hand stations for customers for the attendees as well as the chefs is really important. You know, the health department requires you have, depending on which one you are or what jurisdiction you're in, requires how many hands washing stations per table or square footage for those chefs to utilize. So understanding that is really important too. And. But now we're going a little. I think we're gonna have to go back inside with the cold weather coming.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:30:01]:
Yeah, but we're. That makes our rooms much more expansive as well. So the. Okay, so resources that you had, you mentioned the survey results. Right. And that's easily right. On the Spring USA website, we're just publishing those.

Kristine Holtz [00:30:20]:
So they're not up yet, but they will be insider peak. They just, they just were delivered, but yeah, we'll have those up. Okay. We have our white paper which really just talks about some of the. This came out, you know, I think maybe May or June. So it's got a lot of information about COVID and some of the best practices, but then some different buffet setups. Okay. A lot of our clients have enjoyed looking at that and those could be modified.

Kristine Holtz [00:30:47]:
They just start to give you an idea of some different ways to handle it. And you know, we can work with different numbers of attendance depending on how much staff you have. You know, is equipment easier for you to implement? Is more staff easier for you to implement? There's a lot of questions to ask, but they can reach a conclusion pretty quickly. And you know, we're working with clients in health care cruise lines. I just saw an order for pans come through for one of the cruise lines and I looked at it as a beacon of hope that they'd be sailing safely again soon.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:31:26]:
Yes.

Kristine Holtz [00:31:28]:
Because I know they won't sail unless they're safe. And hotels, colleges and universities just a cater. Lots of caterers, so brought really broad range of customers, which is why on this, on this call I can only give you some generality. But I just want to encourage people. It's not as daunting of a task as you may think. And again, if we show people how to do it, I think if we show the customers how to get it done safely, they're going to come back to our businesses. They want to. They're dying to.

Kristine Holtz [00:32:01]:
They really want to.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:32:03]:
Well, and LA said it earlier, just training, training, training. And I think that has to be from the food service provider side and the planner side and. And everybody being together in that communication of what's being done. Somebody sent me A food. You know, I've been talking about the food code, and I want people to understand and. And ask about, you know, hey, what's your health inspection score? But, you know, and we have to. I didn't think contracting is good and putting it, you know, putting some clauses to make sure that people are responsible for what they're supposed to be doing. But I think asking a lot of questions and communicating those answers out to everybody is a big solution to all of that.

Kristine Holtz [00:32:48]:
I work on the contract, but I always think of this. So once that's done, you've dotted across the T's. At the end of the day, as hosts, what we need is for our clients to say, I had a great time, whether it's business, and I had great food, I had great service. That's what brings people back to your business again and again. And, you know, we know that old adage and social media even more. So when you do it well, they tell people. Yes. Poorly, they tell people.

Kristine Holtz [00:33:16]:
So our goal has to be an event where everybody has been safe and we get only good press from our clients. It has been done in a gracious way. And like food service always has been, we're able to get the work done while sort of hiding all the nuts and bolts and making it look like it's easy. And again, I think with just a little bit of planning and then that good marketing, it really can be for your clients.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:33:42]:
Yeah. And we can have events that are safe and for everybody involved.

Kristine Holtz [00:33:49]:
That's right. Yeah. Both the employees and the guests.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:33:53]:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Kristine Holtz [00:33:55]:
Because the employees. The employees have to feel safe. We need to take care of our associates. Definitely hard to find, don't we?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:34:03]:
Yes. And, you know, and when at the very beginning of this whole thing happening and, you know, big conventions were canceling, it wasn't necessarily my first thought went to all those people, those hourly workers who do. Who are behind the scenes producing these events.

Kristine Holtz [00:34:18]:
Yes.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:34:19]:
Just as much as we are not bringing our groups to that property. All of those people that make our experiences so awesome are out of work as well. Yeah. So if we can do it right.

Kristine Holtz [00:34:32]:
Yes. Devastating. Happily, we're starting to see some of those numbers recover just a little bit, I think very near where we need to be for employment. You know, who knows what will come down the pike as far as assistance or not. But, you know, again, I don't think any of us want our world to change. Eating and gathering is too big a part of our lives. So, again, I think it's sort of a circular reference we have to market how we're going to do it and make people feel safe so they can come back. Exactly.

Kristine Holtz [00:35:04]:
And then we'll get our people working, too.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:06]:
Yeah, yeah. Bring back our industry.

Kristine Holtz [00:35:09]:
Oh, absolutely.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:11]:
Okay. So to. I loved your question or your answer to this. So I ask all of my guests, you know, what is your favorite food or drink? And I love this. So share with everybody.

Kristine Holtz [00:35:26]:
My favorite food is anything I can have with champagne. Okay. Of course. I think you can have anything with champagne. One of my favorite quotes is Napoleon, who says, I drink champagne when I win to celebrate, and I drink it when I lose to console myself. So that's my answer. And I love to cook, so I can't pick one meal.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:54]:
Okay, well, that's good. And I'm going to throw you another one in there.

Kristine Holtz [00:35:57]:
Okay.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:58]:
If you invite anyone over to dinner, who would that be, living or dead.

Kristine Holtz [00:36:04]:
Okay. Okay. I think six is a good number for dinner party. Okay. And I would invite Abraham Lincoln.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:12]:
Okay.

Kristine Holtz [00:36:14]:
Of course. Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Isn't she in all of our minds?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:17]:
Oh, my goodness, yes.

Kristine Holtz [00:36:19]:
The Pope and my mother.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:23]:
Okay. Because your mother would be really mad at you that you didn't invite her to meet those people.

Kristine Holtz [00:36:30]:
Really fun and interesting, too. So she'd probably keep the party going.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:34]:
That. That those would all be really. That would be a really cool conversation.

Kristine Holtz [00:36:39]:
I'd have to think about managing the conversation. What would the seating chart be? I don't know. I'd have to put some thought into that.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:45]:
Yeah. That's so fun. Oh, well, thank you so much for being here with us today. I really appreciate it, and thank you for what you're doing to inspire and educate and provide for our industry in getting us back to work and providing safe experiences.

Kristine Holtz [00:37:06]:
Thank you. Right back at you, Tracy. Well, thank you with you. And we're here to help, and thank you for that.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:37:12]:
And I think, you know, meeting planners, listening to Christine, who's a. Who's a vendor of our catering partners and sees what they're doing, is really valuable insight into what we can look forward to. But, you know, go check out. I. This. I went and Googled it, but this is the food service evolution guide. The ad for that, and then the survey results will be up soon.

Kristine Holtz [00:37:37]:
And they will.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:37:38]:
And let me know when they are, because I would love to share those out.

Kristine Holtz [00:37:42]:
We will. We will. Tracy, thank you so much.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:37:47]:
Thanks for listening to the Eating at a Meeting podcast where every meal matters. I'm Tracy Stuckrath, your food and beverage inclusion expert. Call me and let's get started right now on creating safe and inclusive food and beverage experiences for your customers, your employees, and your communities. Share the podcast with your friends and colleagues at our Eating at a Meeting Facebook page and on all podcast platforms. To learn more about me and receive valuable information, go to tracystuckrath.com and if you'd like more information on how to feed engagement, nourish inclusion, and bolster your bottom line, then visit eating@ameeting.com.