Q&A with Entegra Chef Lynn Hay

How can you keep your menu and foodservice appealing, efficient and profitable? This is Entegra culinary services' sweet spot: helping operators succeed on all levels.

Chef Lynn Hay gave her insights, sharing how operators across industries can balance their need to maintain healthy margins with fulfilling their guests’ expectations.

Q: How do you approach working with a potential new client that comes to Entegra for advice to improve their foodservice?

A: “Our approach begins with an operational review to understand the current workflow, allowing us to identify areas for improvement,” said Chef Hay. “We may recommend a product cutting to explore cost-saving opportunities using Entegra-contracted items. From there, we tailor our recommendations to each client's specific pain points and business goals, ensuring our solutions drive both efficiency and profitability.”

Q: How are you advising clients who want to save money? Become more efficient?

A: “To help clients save money and become more efficient, Entegra Culinary Consultants provide a wide range of services tailored to meet each client’s business objectives.”

These services include:

• Product matching and cutting, which ensures clients are using the most cost-effective and high-quality products
• Menu cost/pricing analysis and menu mix analysis to optimize profitability
• Operational evaluations to ensure efficiencies
• Food waste reduction strategies to streamline processes and reduce unnecessary costs
• SKU rationalization and time and motion studies help clients identify areas where they can enhance productivity and cut expenses

Explore more solutions in Entegra’s operational efficiency guide.

Q: Are there any trends you’re seeing in foodservice that operators should be leveraging in their businesses?

A: Ethical sourcing: Operators are focusing on sustainability and identifying products along the supply chain that have a lower impact on the environment and communities.

Savory and fat-infused cocktails: Mixologists are stirring up new and interesting flavor profiles that go beyond your traditional Bloody Mary.

AI assistance: Operators are using AI for everything from menu creation to marketing campaigns. It’s an exciting time for businesses that may be struggling with staffing; AI is helping to fill that gap.

Waste Reduction: 80% of consumers say reducing food waste/food loss reduction is an important sustainability issue.* Operators who pay attention to this issue can appeal to guests and achieve cost savings.

Q: You recently attended The Food Experience tradeshow. What impressed you in terms of new products, approaches to food prep or operational efficiencies that could benefit operators?

A: Attending The Flavor Experience was a fantastic opportunity to engage with trend-forward flavors and network within the culinary community. The show highlighted how flavors are evolving in food service and what that means for the industry moving forward. A few of my favorites:

• Hearing from social media influencers Jack Goldburg and Liam Henning of Jack’s Dining Room. They shared how showcasing flavor-forward food to Gen Z has not only helped them amass over a million followers on social media, but also positioned them as key voices shaping the future of the industry.
• Mixology featured at the evening events, where inventive cocktails and mocktails evoked flavors and textures that engaged all the senses.
• Attending a presentation of the impact of GLP1’s in the future of foodservice

Q: What inspires you as a chef?

A: “My favorite part about being a chef is the ability to create. I'm not inherently artistic as it relates to drawing or painting, but I really enjoy taking ingredients and creating something that evokes joy in others.

“My passion is pastry and baking, using ingredients that provide a hint of the unexpected. I enjoy using savory or spicy in a sweet dish or a dash of liqueur or concentrated tea in a frosting to provide a pop of flavor that elevates a dish.”

Chef Lynn, along with the entire Entegra culinary team specialize in using their unique blend of cooking, procurement and supply chain knowledge to solve your most pressing challenges.

Contact us to start your journey to operational and culinary success.

_{^{* According to Technomic’s Journey to 2030: Forecasting the Future of Foodservice, presented by at the 2024 National Restaurant Association Show}}

September 03, 2024