Inventory and waste management continue to be crucial in managing any foodservice operation. This webinar will touch on inventory management and how to deal with product shortages while still attempting to follow standards of published menu offerings. Scenarios covered in the webinar will include how to modify standardized recipes with the closest match ingredients. By targeting a use first mentality, the webinar aims to offer cost effective practices while maintaining customer satisfaction scores and adherence to advertised or seasonal menu offerings.
Webinar Overview
Chef Sonja Kehr, CEC, CDM Chef Sonja Kehr wears many hats in the General Mills Culinary Center, but one of her favorite roles is teaching and training others, giving them confidence in the kitchen. “I love seeing people have that ‘aha’ moment when they realize they can bake and be successful in the kitchen,” said Chef Sonja, who has worked at General Mills since 2006 and currently leads product knowledge workshops and training sessions for General Mills sales and marketing teams. Beyond her contributions as a valued trainer, Chef Sonja’s expertise spans troubleshooting recipes and product performance, trend forecasting, catering, recipe development, recipe standardization and menu engineering. She is also passionate about mapping flavor combinations with a focus on global flavors and concepts.
Chef Gilles Stassart Chef Gilles Stassart is a man on a mission—always searching for ways to help make the lives of foodservice professionals easier and support their efforts to serve the food that will delight their customers. As Senior Corporate Chef for General Mills Convenience and Foodservice, Chef Gilles works with national customers, government institutions and leisure facilities to leverage the latest trends and provide training to help them make the most of products from General Mills. He enjoys the privilege of working closely with customers in positions he once held throughout his own extensive career working in fine dining, hotels and catering and healthcare foodservice. A native of Belgium, Chef Gilles was chosen to be part of an international program from Hilton that brings prospective Executive Chefs from around the world to different hotels to further develop their skills. After graduating from the Culinary Art Institute of Namur, Belgium, he completed the Sous Chef Trainee Program in Minneapolis and later worked for the prestigious Minneapolis Club and the Marquette Hotel before joining French food management company Sodexo as Executive Chef for a large network of healthcare facilities. He is also an active member of the American Culinary Federation and various international culinary groups.
Chef Jessie Kordosky During her time on the Global Culinary Team, Jessie has touched nearly every activity in the culinary center as she managed the kitchen operations for 3 years. Currently, she is leading the culinary digital content strategy for the team’s foodservice social media and website. This includes leading the content development of the seasonal culinary trends newsletter which includes not only recipe development but overseeing the overall art directing and food styling for the recipe photoshoots. Her love for recipe development brings her into the kitchen to create fun recipes for customers, standardized recipe writing/editing, menu development and she’s always on the hunt for food trends. Her team knows if there’s a new funky ingredient in the kitchen, it’s something Jessie is playing around with to learn more about and inspire her recipe creation. Prior to joining General Mills in 2011, Jessie previously worked as a Corporate Chef in corporate airline foodservice and catering management. In addition, she worked in independent and corporate casual restaurant foodservice as well as independent catering and test kitchens. She has also served in product development and marketing roles. It was during a marketing internship overseas where she found her passion for food.