Page 108 - Entrepreneur - USA (January - February 2020)

T
THEHE F FRANCHISERANCHISE

Sous vide—that’s vacuum-sealing food in a bag for us. Think about this. Food lasts three times longer. No open
and cooking it in water, right? proteins. Rather than weeks of training in the kitchen, I have
I can take a beautiful steak, or any protein. I can season it. I can hours. I don’t have the prep. I don’t have the cleanup. Don’t have
wrap it in a sealed, airtight, sous vide plastic package. I then ship it. the grease. I realized, wow, I found an incredible franchise model.
It’s still fresh, with unbelievable quality and consistency. The season-
ing is done by me, not the franchisee. Now that Now you need franchisees to buy into a new
package of steak lasts three times longer on idea. What’s that been like?
the shelf. There’s no exposed protein. There’s We’re not open yet, and we’re close to selling more
“You’re still going to
no blood dripping anywhere. There’s none of than 50 locations! I partnered with Fransmart.
have a human being
the cleaning or sanitation risks associated with They took Five Guys from four restaurants to
come up to you
protein. And then the food is prepared in water 2,000. They took Halal Guys from three stands to
and tell you what
ovens. It can’t be overcooked. It’s simply put on 400. They took the concept to market for me, and
ingredients are in
a grill to sear when it’s done. We’ve taken back- every person we’ve sold it to has millions of dol-
the food. We’re just
of-house labor costs down almost 60 percent. lars of liquidity, has food-and-beverage-operation
putting a lot of tech
Our kitchen will never run with more than two experience, and is a franchisee for another brand.
around that human.”
people, two and a half people. That way, we’re with people who know how to
respect franchise standards, know how to operate
But now aren’t you running lots of off-site within a franchise envelope, how to respect food
locations to prep the food, which you’ll have to staff? standards and recipes, and have the financial wherewithal.
There are three massive sous vide companies in the country. One
of them creates the sandwiches you see at Starbucks and produces As experienced franchise operators looked at your concept,
a million a day. So we spec the product, we spec the seasoning, and what questions did they have that surprised you?
they produce the product and then handle the supply-side logistics The premise of robotic cooking—of sous vide—raised their eyebrows. f