Inside the Kitchens Feeding the World’s Biggest Events: Jennifer Bargisen of Sodexo Live!
From The meez Podcast · 43:37
Show by Josh Sharkey
#152Josh sits down with Jennifer Bargisen, VP of Culinary Transformation at Sodexo Live!. They recorded at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver after a day touring its kitchens. Jen explains contract foodservice: running food and beverage for stadiums, convention centers, zoos, aquariums, ferry systems and other venues that don’t operate it themselves. She planned to be a lawyer, cooked through school in Atlanta, and chose 90-hour weeks in kitchens over 90-hour weeks at a law firm. Her path ran through 103 West at Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, Fairmont hotels at home and overseas, and MGM in Las Vegas, where the competition was across the street every day.They get into why this side of the industry is really a logistics business on top of an experience business powered by a culinary operation. Planning for big events starts up to two years out, and a Taylor Swift concert at the Colts’ stadium should feel different from a football game. Jen walks through Formula One in Miami and the Paris 2024 Olympics, where custom kitchens were built inside a former movie studio. She explains how one menu gets broken out across suites, clubs and concessions, and why new chefs need three to six months to ramp up. She also says why she thinks the cold kitchen is the hardest station. They cover packaging and robotics in receiving, food waste as stewardship, menus that change every day, and how tools like meez help chefs focus on quality over volume. It closes on what a chef-run supermarket could look like, which brings up Jen’s years at Giant Eagle’s Market District and the day a colleague put her in a potato costume to sell potatoes.Links and resources 📌Visit meez: https://www.getmeez.comFollow meez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getmeezFollow Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlsharkey/?hl=enFollow Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-sharkey-406965b/Visit Sodexo Live!: https://www.sodexolive.comConnect with Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chefjenb/Timestamps02:25 What Contract Foodservice Is05:15 From Law School Plans to Atlanta Kitchens09:56 Why Live Events and What Las Vegas Taught Her12:04 How a Stadium Food Operation Works13:53 Planning a Taylor Swift Concert vs. a Colts Game15:51 Formula One and Food Built for the Moment17:11 Feeding Athletes at the Paris Olympics20:50 Ramping Up Cooks and Why the Cold Kitchen Is Hardest23:35 Her Role Now: Packaging, Robotics and RFID27:20 Food Waste and Stewardship at Scale29:14 What Sodexo and Sodexo Live! Do31:45 What Would Surprise Restaurant Chefs37:28 What If a Chef Ran Your Supermarket?39:24 Giant Eagle, Market District and the Potato Costume
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