From the kitchen to tech land

In my younger days I had big rockstar dreams. I wanted to become the best chef in Sydney. I wanted to travel the world working in the most revered restaurants in the world. Every year I would wait for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list to be released with the same fanaticism as people who watch the footy finals. I was obsessed. Now I have traded the hard yakka and dirty apron for a cushy office chair and laptop. What the f**k happened to that young gun with stars in her eyes?

That young gun is still here, still a part of the industry, just in a totally different way. I now work in the hospitality tech startup space for a company called Foodbomb, a wholesale ordering platform and order management tool (and I couldn’t be happier!).

We all know that the hospitality industry has always been a manual industry. An industry that historically has had no technology reliance- everything is done via pen and paper and perhaps the odd menu costing spreadsheet. This has always come at a great labour (and sanity) cost to hospitality professionals alike.

Enter Disruptive Tech. Disruptive Tech is technology that significantly changes the way consumers, businesses and whole industries operate. Think Spotify for the music industry, Uber for the consumer transport industry and AirBnB for the tourism industry.

The hospitality industry has shifted more in the past 5 years than ever before thanks to disruptive tech.

Blending tech into existing workflows is an obvious value as for any business. But for an industry operating on the slimmest of margins, any improvement is wholeheartedly welcomed. In fact, many hospitality business owners will happily preach to you about the benefits they are seeing from adopting disruptive tech. In Tech Land these people are called advocates.

The likes of rostering platform company ‘Deputy’ has optimised staff scheduling, table to kitchen ordering like Me&U, Mr Yum has streamlined customer ordering and reservation technology like Resy has improved the reservation process for venues.

Order Management tools are another disruptive technology making itself known in the hospitality industry. Platforms like Foodbomb are re-jigging the way chefs and bar managers are ordering their produce. Foodbomb helps save on the cost of goods by displaying up to date pricing in one place where you only need to perform one checkout. We also offer a one stop shop for ordering needs - No more texting your fish guy, emailing the dry goods supplier and faxing your meat order. This also means all invoices and paper are in one location on the platform!!

My role here is on the customer experience team. I chat to chefs and suppliers each day finding out how Foodbomb can make their lives even easier.

My drive and hunger to be the best is still there, just in a different way and with a fantastic team by my side. I am consuming knowledge day in, day out still learning from mentors, podcasts, books, webinars, courses but not a recipe book in sight! Now I focus my days on solving problems for business owners, chefs and bar managers rather than serving delicious food to patrons and I am more in love with this industry than I ever have been before.

Jessie Ellison is our Customer Support champion here at Foodbomb.