Plant-Based in Food Service

With Buddy Gillespie of JBH Advisory Group

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About This Episode

This episode features Vincent "Buddy" Gillespie, Director of Culinary at JBH Advisory Group. He was previously the Vice President of Culinary Operations for Dean & Deluca in the US. He developed the menu and all recipes for Dean & Deluca’s first restaurant, Dean & Deluca Stage, which opened in NYC’s meatpacking district in April 2019. He also was part of the development and oversaw the building of Dean & Deluca’s second 12,000 SQFT commissary in NYC for all the retail markets and catering department’s operations. He was one of the creators of Bonmi Restaurant, a fast-casual Vietnamese/Banh Mi sandwich shop with two locations in Manhattan. Bonmi was voted #8 on FastCasual.com Top 100 Movers & Shakers list for 2016. While growing Bonmi’s locations, he opened four Bonmi units within four different Whole Foods Markets locations in NYC and New Jersey.

Buddy has thirty years of experience in restaurants and hospitality markets with past projects that include fast casual restaurant development, kitchen design, creation of operational policies and procedures, financial assessment, menu and recipe development, operational assessment, manager recruitment and manager training. Much of his career has been involvement with new store openings and research & development of recipes for restaurants, high end retail markets and food production commissaries. He has worked for restaurant and consulting companies including Dean & Deluca, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Houston’s/Hillstone Restaurants, Dave and Buster's, Chop’t Creative Salads, Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten, Wychmere Harbor Beach and Tennis Club and Little Caesar's Pizza.

Topics Covered

  • Buddy's thirty years of experience in restaurants and hospitality markets.

  • When he noticed the plant-based eating trend and started to take it seriously.

  • How Buddy helped restaurants craft menus and operations to meet the shifting supply side innovations in plant-based and increased consumer demand.

  • Tips for foodservice operators looking to create more plant-forward menus (from culinary ideas for menu integration, to branding and marketing).

  • Tips for food service buyers looking to identify and select the right products.

  • Trending product categories and new innovations that show great potential to change the food landscape via foodservice.

  • Why Buddy is excited about participating in Plant Based World Expo 2022.

Plant Based World Expo

The only 100% plant-based show for retail and foodservice professionals, Sept 8 -9, 2022, NYC. 

Reserve your Free Expo Pass with VIP Code: EFTP.

TO REGISTER AND LEARN MORE VISIT PLANTBASEDWORLDEXPO.COM