Hospitality House of Charlotte’s Post

📣 Life Update (getting personal and vulnerable)…I started a kids cooking school on the side and am now going all in!! Junior Chefs Kitchen provides hands-on cooking classes infused with nutrition education for ages 2-18. Some of you know that I opened the JCK brick-and-mortar Studio in Lincoln Park, Chicago November 2023 while still working full time in tech sales (and trying to be a present mother to my 3 young kids). As of last week, I have decided to go for it and work full time at JCK!!! This is a nerve racking decision but the right one for me, my family and JCK. The demand has exceeded expectations and there are big growth plans so I want to be "all in" (a la Scott Galloway or the sharks on #sharktank).    And in the 9 months we’ve been open, we’ve done some incredible things:  📚 Doubled our after school partnerships - now in 16 north side programs, both CPS and private schools 🎉 Forged a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago 🥑 Created over 200 teaching recipes 👨🍳 Cooked, ate and taught over 150 kids per week in studio classes and after school programs 🌞 Summer camp was 90% sold out (our first summer!!) teaching over 1,250 kids! 🍽 Partnered with 15 restaurants for Field Trips  🍪 Helped a few Girl Scout Troops earn badges (more to come there!!) 🧁 Baked tens of thousands cupcakes for our Birthday Parties.  🥫 Donated over 400 pounds of food via our partnership with Nourishing Hope 🥦 Composted over 815 pounds with WasteNot, Inc. Here’s why you should check us out - in person, on social or subscribe to our weekly newsletter:    💙 We give parents a break from battling with their kids to try new foods!!  💜 Our Junior Chefs learn life skills - like knife safety, cooperation, patience, teamwork, collaboration, math, and science. ❤️ We are the only kids cooking school in Chicagoland that cooks with meat, fish and poultry as young as 2 years old.  🧡 JCK works with a Registered Dietitian that ensures our recipes are nutrient dense and provides the curriculum for staff to share these factoids. And if you’re still reading 🤣, here’s what’s next: scouting two (2) additional studios in Chicago (West Loop, South Loop, Wicker Park) with the goal to start franchising in late 2025. I want to give local entrepreneurs a way to tap their network with a proven, scalable business model that earns 30% + net margin with a powerful mission. Please join me in this adventure: ✔️ Subscribe to our weekly Wednesday newsletter full of recipes, nutrition info and happenings around town. ✔️ Follow us on Instagram / Facebook for daily info & bts reels. ✔️ Join a class! Your first class is 40% off with code JCKFall2024 And there are SO many people that have helped along the way I’d like to thank: Jonathon Cordell Amy Hoffar Cheronis Genevieve Custer Weeks Abby Phelps Philip Rosenzweig Lena Eliopoulos Michael Wexler Michael Chin David Blitz LG Group & many more! Happy Cooking! https://lnkd.in/gN8e8peD

📣 Life Update (getting personal and vulnerable)…I started a kids cooking school on the side and am now going all in!! Junior Chefs Kitchen provides hands-on cooking classes infused with nutrition education for ages 2-18. Some of you know that I opened the JCK brick-and-mortar Studio in Lincoln Park, Chicago November 2023 while still working full time in tech sales (and trying to be a present mother to my 3 young kids). As of last week, I have decided to go for it and work full time at JCK!!! This is a nerve racking decision but the right one for me, my family and JCK. The demand has exceeded expectations and there are big growth plans so I want to be "all in" (a la Scott Galloway or the sharks on #sharktank).    And in the 9 months we’ve been open, we’ve done some incredible things:  📚 Doubled our after school partnerships - now in 16 north side programs, both CPS and private schools 🎉 Forged a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago 🥑 Created over 200 teaching recipes 👨🍳 Cooked, ate and taught over 150 kids per week in studio classes and after school programs 🌞 Summer camp was 90% sold out (our first summer!!) teaching over 1,250 kids! 🍽 Partnered with 15 restaurants for Field Trips  🍪 Helped a few Girl Scout Troops earn badges (more to come there!!) 🧁 Baked tens of thousands cupcakes for our Birthday Parties.  🥫 Donated over 400 pounds of food via our partnership with Nourishing Hope 🥦 Composted over 815 pounds with WasteNot, Inc. Here’s why you should check us out - in person, on social or subscribe to our weekly newsletter:    💙 We give parents a break from battling with their kids to try new foods!!  💜 Our Junior Chefs learn life skills - like knife safety, cooperation, patience, teamwork, collaboration, math, and science. ❤️ We are the only kids cooking school in Chicagoland that cooks with meat, fish and poultry as young as 2 years old.  🧡 JCK works with a Registered Dietitian that ensures our recipes are nutrient dense and provides the curriculum for staff to share these factoids. And if you’re still reading 🤣, here’s what’s next: scouting two (2) additional studios in Chicago (West Loop, South Loop, Wicker Park) with the goal to start franchising in late 2025. I want to give local entrepreneurs a way to tap their network with a proven, scalable business model that earns 30% + net margin with a powerful mission. Please join me in this adventure: ✔️ Subscribe to our weekly Wednesday newsletter full of recipes, nutrition info and happenings around town. ✔️ Follow us on Instagram / Facebook for daily info & bts reels. ✔️ Join a class!  Your first class is 40% off with code JCKFall2024 And there are SO many people that have helped along the way I’d like to thank: Jonathon Cordell Amy Hoffar Cheronis Genevieve Custer Weeks Abby Phelps Philip Rosenzweig Lena Eliopoulos Michael Wexler Michael Chin David Blitz LG Group & many more! Happy Cooking! https://lnkd.in/gN8e8peD

If you haven’t heard of Giving Kitchen, please take a few minutes to watch the video below. 😭 Jen and her team are changing the lives of so many food service workers and your support would mean the world to them 🙏🏻 #foodservice #nonprofit #support

Can you relate… hungry kids in school pickup line? Next best phrase is … “what’s for dinner?” Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers makes it easy! They support schools and moms by making easy with their ads on our car pickup tags! #raisingcanes #hungry #restaurants #schoolmarketing

The Best Bakery in Georgia 20 yards from our apartment is the best bakery in Georgia. While that’s not an official designation, anyone who frequents Independent Bakery in Athens will tell you the same. The only baguettes better than theirs are in France. Their sourdough bread is the only bread we eat now. Their pastries are phenomenal. Our balcony is across the street from Independent, so we get to see the comings and goings. On Sunday morning there is always a line out the door to get pastries. On Friday during the school year parents and kids walk to Independent to get a pastry before walking down to Barrow Elementary. They deliver bread everywhere in town. I’m there enough that I know everyone on a first name basis. Their success is not an accident. Kevin, the owner, has assembled a great team. They are skilled at what they do. Some came with skills and others Kevin has developed. When I leave the apartment to workout, usually before 5:30, they’ve already been there an hour getting ready for the day. The front staff get to know their regulars and make you feel at home. Their ingredients make a huge difference. They grind their own flour, and their other ingredients are fresh and aromatic. They are growing because they have built a team that cares – cares about the products they make, the people that buy them, and the priority of fresh bread and pastries. At the end of the day, they take the bread that hasn’t sold (in their shop as well as the other places in town that sell it) and take it to the homeless shelter.  Not only great bread, but a great place to work and a great community partner. #theauxinleader #growthculture #workforcedevelopment #leadershipdevelopment

🎉 ATTENTION K-12 SCHOOLS: You didn’t think meal magic was real? Think again! 🪄✨ At Five Point Kitchen Solutions, we’re all about making dreams come true... for free. That’s right, we’re giving away not one, not two, but THREE brand-new, shiny, Henny Penny combi ovens — one for a lucky school in each of our territories: Virginia, Texas, and Florida. 🔥 “But what’s the catch?” you ask. Oh, it’s simple. First, head over to https://lnkd.in/gp-7NPeS and enter the contest. Then, all you need to do is: 1️⃣ Schedule AND attend a live cooking demo at one of our demo kitchens with your school’s key decision-maker (psst, that means no skipping out!). 2️⃣ Be there in person for the LIVE drawing — because why wouldn’t you want to be front and center when your kitchen is about to get a serious upgrade? Easy, right? Who knew feeding kids could be this fun! And while the contest runs until April 2025 (yes, we’re giving you plenty of time), why wait? After all, the earlier you enter, the sooner you can savor that sweet taste of success… in the form of perfectly steamed veggies and crispy roasted chicken. 👩🍳👨🍳 Hurry, get your entry in now, because once these ovens are gone, they’re gone. ⏰🔥 #FivePointKitchenSolutions #MealMagic #CombiOvenGiveaway #K12Schools #UpgradeYourKitchen #FreeOven #FoodServiceTech

Top 9 Tips for Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week

After a state court ruling upended the restaurant industry by phasing out the tip credit in Michigan, which businesses in 43 states use, there will be enormous consequences for restaurants across the state of Michigan. Here’s what you need to know about the tipcredit: ✅83% of servers support keeping the tip credit ✅94% of restaurants would have to raise prices if the tip credit goes away ✅1 in 5 restaurants would close for good for the tip credit disappears ✅You can take action to #SaveMIRestaurants at: https://lnkd.in/gCi3kZfd

Everyone remembers what food was like when they were students — but now, in California, school meals are changing and it’s the School Food Professionals who are making it happen. California’s School Food Professionals are more skilled than ever before. From scratch cooking and meal planning, to procuring fresh ingredients and educating kids about what to eat, they are leading the effort to bring better quality meals to school cafeterias. Check out how School Food Professionals are improving school food and powering California’s students. ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/gyHn9J24

Everyone remembers what food was like when they were students — but now, in California, school meals are changing and it’s the School Food Professionals who are making it happen. California’s School Food Professionals are more skilled than ever before. From scratch cooking and meal planning, to procuring fresh ingredients and educating kids about what to eat, they are leading the effort to bring better quality meals to school cafeterias. Check out how School Food Professionals are improving school food and powering California’s students: https://ow.ly/GsIJ50Rnue1