878: Donald Moore Partner DOM Food Group

With excitement allow me to introduce to you today's guest Former Chief Culinary Officer and EVP Kitchen Operations at The Cheesecake Factory and Current Partner at DOM Food Group, Donald Moore. Donald found a passion for cooking and the kitchen early on in his life because of the parallels he found between teamwork in the kitchen and on the soccer field. After college, he worked in kitchens all around the country before joining The Cheesecake Factory in 2001 as a kitchen manager. He quickly rose through the ranks and by 2010 he was the Chief Culinary Officer for the entire organization. In 2020 Donald left the Cheesecake Factory to form DOM Food Group. a Los Angeles-based venture studio that incubates, invests in, operates, and consults the leading scalable food businesses of the future. Check out The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande as highly recommended in today's episode by both Eric and Donald. Donald says this is the best book for multi-unit leadership: Multi-Unit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building Profitable Stores Across Multiple Markets by Jim Sullivan Today's feature affiliate: Bentobox. In need of a restaurant website? Click this link to find out why so many of my guests use Bentobox! Show notes… Calls to ACTION!!! Join Restaurant Unstoppable Network and get your first 30 days on me!  Connect with my past guest and a community of superfans. Subscribe to the Restaurant Unstoppable YouTube Channel Join the private Unstoppable Facebook Group Join the email list! (Scroll Down to get the Vendor List!) Favorite success quote or mantra: What you do in the dark puts you in the light." In this episode with Donald Moore we will discuss: Early key mentors Go out, travel, get new experiences High standards What Donald Moore learned at Cheesecake Factory Working as a kitchen manager Importance of checklists Multi-unit leadership You have to demonstrate your values Specific recognition to staff is key Today's sponsor: This episode is brought to  you by Plate IQ, your Accounts Payable Automation and Expense Management solution. PateIQ works with 20,000 restaurants across the country. Plate IQ uses OCR "Optical Character Recognition" and Deep Machine Learning to eliminate manual data entry from the AP process. Automate the full life cycle of your invoices from General Ledger coding to bill payment via PlateIQ's VendorPay network. With PlateIQ's VendorPay you can seamless flow from invoice upload to paying your bills. You can earn cashback on invoices from over 180,000 vendors. With Plate IQ Vender Pay, you can see what is due when. Schedule payment by check/ACH/or Plate IQ Card. Lastly, VendorPay is also FOR Vendors. Keeping your vendors happy will give you leverage in negotiating your terms. Vendors participating in Plate IQ's VendorPay network LOVE it because it shortens Day Sales Outstanding by 25% - AKA: Vendors get paid 25% faster. To learn more head to plateIQ.com/unstoppable to get at least 25% off implementation.   Through the combination of innovative bar and restaurant inventory management software and highly-skilled inventory management experts, Sculpture Hospitality uses drilled-in reporting functionalities to find opportunities in your inventory management processes where you can drive real profit growth. Are you interested in learning more about how you can use data to improve your restaurant or bar's profitability? Get in touch with Sculpture Hospitality today.   Over 20,000 restaurants trust ChowNow (chownow.com/unstoppable) for their online ordering. With ChowNow, you'll take control of your online presence, connect with more local diners, and keep your hard-earned profits. Join the free ChowNow Marketplace to reach new customers without commissions. Want to go big? Put your restaurant in the spotlight with ChowNow Direct—a full suite of branded ordering and marketing tools, including your own app! For a limited time, Restaurant Unstoppable listeners save 30% on a ChowNow Direct annual plan. Knowledge bombs Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success? Constantly hunting or talent What is your biggest weakness? Can't shut it off, mind is always racing What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview? Write the job description of what they want to do 100% of the time What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it? Be hard on standards and easy on people Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team. Prioritization What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff? Let people swing at you? Hear people out What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner? The Four Disciplines of Execution (multiple authors) Hungry by Jeff Gordinier Shoe Dog by Phil Knight GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM  What is something restaurateurs don't do well enough or often enough? Collaborate What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influence operations? Hyphen for kitchen robotics Curb Mobility for efficient curbside pickups and delivery routing Acelerate helping mom and pop restaurants be more profitable Name one service you've hired. Have conversations with the people who are providing your business with services If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be? Hard on standards, soft on people Gratitude Tune in before you turn on Contact info: Email: [email protected] Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you'd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post. Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And finally, don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Huge thanks to Donald Moore for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!   Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!