Chef and TV personality Robert Irvine shares everything he’s learned from a lifetime in the hospitality industry and where he sees it going in the future.
What inspired you to pursue a career in hospitality, and what do you find most rewarding about it?
Putting a plate of hot food in front of someone and getting to see them share it with people they love and enjoy it. That’s an incredibly rewarding experience. It fulfills a primal need for community in a very tangible, immediate way, and it simply never gets old. I think I noticed at a young age that food had this power, and I wanted to be in a position to wield that power. That, and I wanted to meet girls in home economics. Never did work out for meeting girls, but luckily I fell in love with cooking.
How important are education and real-world experience in building a successful hospitality career?
I by no means want to tell people that they don’t need formal education, but I can’t tell you how many culinary geniuses I’ve come across who never went to culinary school or how many people running successful, profitable restaurants I’ve met who didn’t go anywhere near a business school. Again, this is not to disparage formal schooling, because there are also countless examples of people with no training who fail spectacularly. However — and I will stand by this to the end of time — working on theory in a classroom is so far removed from the day-to-day rigors of this industry, that doing well in school is not an indication of future success. It can help, and it can give you a good base in the fundamentals of the business, but a better indicator of future success is a person’s attitude. If they’re undeterred by difficulty, stress, and a constantly shifting business landscape and they’re willing to learn from their mistakes, those are the people that always wind up on top.
Can you share an example of how education has directly influenced your approach to managing or leading in the hospitality industry?
I think it’s good to know how everything ought to work in a perfect world. You know, “Here’s how to make the perfect souffle, and here’s how your books ought to balance at the end of every month. Your labor ought to be x percent of your total overhead, and food costs should be this, and utilities should be that.” Those rules are important to know, if only so you have a reference point for how far away from the standard you are when things go off the rails, which they inevitably will. Having that grounding in the business and culinary fundamentals is good because it allows you to recognize when things have gone wrong much quicker than someone else who doesn’t have that training. Having the grit and determination to keep a business on the rails, well, that’s something they can’t teach you. But if you’ve got that instinct, then the educational fundamentals only make you that much better.
How can educational institutions better prepare students for the real-world challenges of the hospitality industry?
Students should be exposed to the real conditions of the industry as frequently as possible. Not only to better prepare the ones who will continue on but also as a fair warning to anyone who might not be cut out for it. For the folks who do not thrive in a pressure-packed environment, we do them a disservice by not showing them how hard it will be very early on so they can use their own judgment and decide if it’s really the life for them.
What emerging technologies should the hospitality industry invest in to stay competitive?
Any tasks that can be automated without negatively affecting the customer experience should be automated as soon as you’re able to do so. Self-ordering kiosks are one thing. Automatic fry chefs, which they’re working on, will be another in the near future. One exciting development: I recently went through an automated Taco Bell drive-thru and I ordered with my voice, and it captured the order with 100% accuracy, right down to “no lettuce”. These are all things that everyone in the food industry will need to stay on top of in order to stay competitive.
How do you see technology influencing guest experience and operational efficiency in the future?
I’m very bullish on this, hence my investment in GRUBBRR, which brings self-ordering kiosk technology — of the kind you see at McDonald’s and Taco Bell — to small-scale and mom-and-pop operations, custom tailoring each kiosk for that unique restaurant. Labor costs have spiraled to the point where it’s impossible for restaurants to stay in business without raising prices. When your prices go up, you lose some of your customer base. It becomes a lose-lose situation because there’s only so much money anyone is willing to pay for a cheeseburger.
I think the personal, human touch is vital to great hospitality, but I think you also have to be smart and cut overhead where you can, and automate thankless, repetitive tasks. Another thing we’ve noticed with the GRUBBRR kiosks is that a human taking your order might neglect to mention available add-ons, sides, and desserts, but a kiosk never does. Further, say someone is offered bacon on their burger for an extra dollar. They might say no, but when they see a picture of that crispy bacon on the kiosk, they’re more likely to get it. This adds up, and rather quickly. GRUBBRR increases the average ticket cost by 25%. So, you’re saving on labor and you’re selling more food. That’s a win-win.
What strategies do you recommend for hospitality businesses to prepare for economic uncertainties?
I think one of the things the pandemic taught us was that we need to be able to serve our customers in any circumstance. The moment we faced the shutdown, restaurants without drive-thru or walk-up windows were left in the lurch because no one was allowed inside of buildings. One of the things I’ve been preaching to restaurateurs is the fact that you never know when the next similar situation might come up, so be prepared to serve your customers regardless of circumstances. Besides that, you want to carry good insurance, save up, and build yourself a rainy day fund.
While we’re on the topic of all this technology, be prepared and ready to revert to taking pen-and-paper orders for a few days or a week and only accepting cash. Half the airline industry was just crippled by a software update, so as much as technology makes our lives easier and more efficient, it also introduces problems that can go global in the blink of an eye. You’re never putting the genie back in the bottle, but you also can’t get caught flatfooted if a credit card company suffers a cyberattack or DoorDash is knocked out for a week. Have the attitude that you’re going to get the job done regardless of the circumstances. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
How can the industry address the growing concerns around sustainability and environmental impact?
I think it’s incumbent upon every responsible citizen to eliminate waste wherever possible, and that’s doubly true for businesses, which consume resources at scale. Single-use plastic cups and utensils contribute a massive amount of waste. Obviously, you need those things for take-out and delivery customers, but for diners who eat in your restaurant, it’s better for the environment to serve their food and drink on real plates and in real cups. This doesn’t just eliminate waste, it also creates a better, more memorable dining experience. Looking to the back of the house, running your restaurant on renewable energy is becoming a more and more attractive option. Solar has never been cheaper or more efficient, so if you have the space to adapt to that, you should.
What is one of your craziest stories, either working in a restaurant or during the making of one of your shows, and what did you learn from it?
Not a lot of people know that one of my first jobs in the United States back in the 90s was as the executive chef at Trump’s Taj Mahal in New Jersey. When I was brought on board, the restaurant was losing money. I had to find out why and turn it around. What I discovered was there were a lot of shady characters working in the kitchen; whole purchase orders would be signed for but wind up at a different restaurant down the street. Employees who were clocked in couldn’t be found half the time. Their friends would say, “Oh, he’s in the bathroom.” Well, everyone was always in the bathroom. Once I was able to root out the corruption and cheating, we became profitable. It was sort of the first-ever episode of “Restaurant: Impossible”, though no cameras were around the capture it.
