TB9 – Team Business is Delighted to Welcome Chef of the Year Brad Wise

In today’s episode of the Team Business podcast, co-hosts Mike Fusco and Ray Ramirez interview Brad Wise, the Executive Chef and Owner of Trust Restaurant Group. San Diego’s Chef of the year in 2019, Brad talks about his journey in the culinary industry, how their company survived amidst the pandemic, and how their campaign has helped small businesses and the local economy.

Episode Highlights:

Mike introduces Brad Wise. (7:20)
Brad shares that when he finished culinary school, he moved out to San Diego in 2006 and worked at Eat, Drink, Sleep Hospitality Group for 10 years. (8:18)
Brad mentions that when he decided to step up his career, he partnered with Steve Schwab and built the Trust Restaurant Group. (8:45)
Brad mentions that they opened Cardellino on February 7, six weeks before the shutdown. (10:24)
Brad shares that he’s a risk-taker and he always encourages his team to try new things and new projects. (11:29)
Brad shares that his job is to bring out the best in every employee and let their talents be recognized, and make them successful. (12:02)
Brad mentions that in this industry, everyone has an opinion, and if you hire the right people, they’re going to have educated opinions. (14:21)
Brad shares that gathering ideas and information from his team is where a lot of inspiration and creativity comes from, and they make sure that each dish hits all the elements. 14:45)
Brad shares that when they reopened due to the shutdown, they followed the necessary guidelines and put measures in place that they felt comfortable doing to make their workflow easier. (19:22)
Brad mentions the biggest element that helped them is their teamwork. (24:31)
Brad shares that they try to be optimistic as much as possible, and complain as little as possible because everyone is in their worse positions than they were. (25:23)
Brad explains how they created the event with the help of their wine director and how he became a huge part of the team. (26:06)
Brad shares that Trust Restaurant Group was built off of industry people that are near and dear to their hearts. (28:17)
Brad explains how the Rare Society Industry steak night donations have been helping a lot of people amidst the pandemic. (29:49)

Key Quotes:

“I can’t do anything without the people that are working for me. But with me there, everyone is individually talented in their own ways. They all have great strengths, trustworthiness, and the name of why we got into this.” – Brad Wise
“My job is solely to extract the best in everybody, recognize their talents, and try to use that as best as I can to make them successful, and we always like to use your success as our success. So, a lot of times people don’t even know their strengths until they’re shown what they are.” – Brad Wise
“If you put the time and effort, I’m going to let you work on ownership, I’m going to let you work on all these things that are going to eventually make you successful. So, we kind of have that common goal and it’s a two-way road, people want to be here, as much as we want and need them to be here.” – Brad Wise
“I always say, this is the best. The best way of creativity is when your back is up against the wall, right? Oh, yeah, you have to fight your way out to make sure you survive.” – Brad Wise

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