From grilling strawberries as a kid to connecting over a meal with his maternal grandmother (who only spoke Italian) for the first time, Chef Jeremy Ford’s passion for food transcends the ordinary. Now, his restaurant Stubborn Seed is earning Michelin stars and hearts in Miami.

The tide on labor best practices for restaurateurs has turned drastically over the past five years, from increased compensation and boosted benefits to flexible scheduling and gamified training. Restaurant leaders quickly realized just how important human capital is to their operations and the cost of underinvesting in their people and company culture.

Applebee’s President Tony Moralejo is leading the neighborhood bar and grill into the future by staying true to the brand’s value proposition while partnering with franchisees to grow and meet a new generation of diners where they’re at.

Yavonne Sarber has always had a talent for taking care of people, so a career in hospitality seemed a natural direction to take—but her journey to creating and scaling Agave & Rye to 16 locations, plus launching a myriad of other concepts under EPIC Brands, took an untraditional route.

The full-service industry is on the precipice of major disruption. But that innovation is rife with opportunity. Who is leading the charge and where are they taking the sector? Nine NextGen executives get candid on what a post-pandemic picture truly looks like, and why it's a world sit-down operators can thrive in.

The pandemic inspired fast casuals to adopt drive-thrus and delivery, marking the beginning of a new innovation era that has led to new restaurant designs and technological solutions to supply chain and labor shortage challenges.

With the help of new store designs, technology, marketing power, and franchisee support, the burger brand is in its best position to scale nationally.

Claudia Lezcano spent eight years at Burger King in various roles spanning advertising to overseeing all marketing and communications for the fast-food giant. Now, she'll tap into that expertise to give Fuku, David Chang's fast-casual chicken sandwich concept, a top-to-bottom reset that focuses on its origin story.

A look at the 1,400-unit chain's rapid growth and transformation since CEO Wan Kim took the helm, from a challenging menu overhaul to brand partnerships and a recent drive-thru-only prototype launch.

In a new fast-casual prototype, former Jimmy John's CEO Gregg Majewski is slashing Genghis Grill’s square footage from 5,000 to 2,100 square feet. “It made absolutely no sense to be that size and pay that rent factor in today’s world,” Majewski says.

As employers across the restaurant industry continue to battle for team members, some companies are choosing to bolster their benefits programs to attract and retain top talent. Papa Johns expanded its Dough & Degrees tuition benefits program to include all corporate team members who work a minimum of 10 hours per week, which means more employees can choose to further their education debt-free.

Osiris Hoil’s success story exemplifies the classic American dream. Growing up in Yucatán, Mexico, in the small town of Tekax, Hoil sold popsicles and newspapers in the street to help his parents, who he described as poor farmers. At age 16, Hoil moved to the United States and started worked in a restaurant as a dishwasher, rising quickly to assistant kitchen manager.

At 16, Stacy Kwon’s family immigrated from South Korea to Houston, where they slept in the storage room of a corner store. Now, she’s CEO of Snowfox, a sushi franchise with more than 1,300 full-service kiosks in 38 states and counting.

As HOA Brands’ first chief people officer, Cheryl Whiting-Kish is shining a spotlight on the “amazing stories of these powerful women that have worn the orange shorts,” which she estimates totals about 400,000 women in nearly four decades. And Whiting-Kish would know, because she started out as a Hooters Girl herself.

As Caribou Coffee’s first chief franchise officer, Matthew Walls felt it was important to meet the teams that ran the cafes “in their own element” and start building good relationships. He spent a week traveling in Bosnia, Egypt and Turkey while getting to know the leaders of Caribou Coffee multi-unit owner, One Franchising, that just opened a new location in Izmir, Turkey. While there, Walls got to participate in the franchisee group’s Barista Championship in Turkey, where 17 contestants prese

While the “Great Resignation” has been a rude awakening for some companies as employees quit in favor of better opportunities, other companies saw the writing on the wall and chose to revamp pay structures and increase work-from-home flexibility, PTO policies and other benefits in a bid to retain talent.

Designed to cut through the sales jargon and marketing speak, the Franchise Times Zor Awards project provides a top pick and two runners-up in each of 10 categories. We focus on return on investment in this project, which means profitability for the operator rather than top-line sales.

Taco Bell has Lil Nas X. McDonald’s has meal deals with pop superstars BTS, Saweetie and more. But amid fame and fun, QSRs navigate backlash and learn what it takes to work with celebrities.

When James McInnes set out to open one of the first vegan fast-food chains in Canada, he didn’t know his team would struggle to change the recipe for Odd Burger’s plant-based chicken—developed in a two-pound mixer and made primarily from wheat gluten—so it could be processed by the larger equipment in their manufacturing facility.

Nicholas Perkins grew up eating Fuddruckers, and still maintains “you cannot buy a better burger.” So when the opportunity arose this spring to purchase 13 of his own franchise locations, Perkins leaped and closed on the deals under his affiliate Black Titan Holdings.

Before founding Mutts Canine Cantina, Kyle Noonan was an art major at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, while his roommate Josh Sepkowitz studied finance—which ended up being the perfect pairing for business partners. “We’re a very left brain, right brain odd couple, but we get along and we’ve been best friends since we were 18 years old,” Noonan said. Their story is part of a Franchise Times digital series this month featuring founder success stories. They took separate routes a

Michele Henry remembers exactly where she was sitting when she signed the agreement to sell Primp, a cheap-chic boutique she founded in 2010 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her signature was penned at 10:30 a.m. on December 14, 2018, and just five minutes later, appeared again on a lease for a space in Edina’s Galleria to open her next concept, an open-air facial brand called The Face Foundrie.

Davonne Reaves and Jessica Myers created their own path to franchise ownership. Learn about their journey, how the industry is addressing equity and inclusion, and why franchise leaders say there’s work to be done.

Adenah Bayoh was among the youngest IHOP franchisees at 27. She now wants to serve as a mentor, particularly for young people of color and women in the foodservice industry.

Chequan Lewis’s first experience with Pizza Hut occurred as a child through their Book It! Program, which since 1984 has encouraged reading in schools nationwide by rewarding students who meet their reading goals with a free personal pizza. Now, Lewis is the brand's first chief equity officer.

Delta Sky Magazine's February 2020 Hot List

Delta's 30,000 Feet—Boarding Pass opener.

What's new & now from the publisher of Delta Sky Magazine.

A taste of what's happening around the world this month.

For the past 13 years, Forbes has rated the business friendliness of the world’s largest economies annually, analyzing factors from taxes to political risk. Norway ranks 15th overall and first in personal freedom and in quality-of-life ratings.

Seattle's Nordic Museum receives national designation and Norway invests in ocean research labs.

Once the top producer of fox pelts worldwide, Norway is on its way to becoming the 14th European nation to phase out fur farming, following Britain and the Netherlands among others.