Zach Sherman (00:12)
Hi everyone. And welcome back to Handling the Heat, the podcast by restaurantequipment.bit where we dive into the real stories behind the people powering the food service industry. Today we’re joined by Maya Geshwin, brand director at TSC Hospitality. TSC Hospitality is the team behind MeeseNone and other affiliated restaurants operating in one of the world’s most competitive food scenes, London. Maya shares her unique journey from teenage prep cook in LA,

to strategy lead for a global hospitality brand. We talk about learning the business from the ground up and how she brings both empathy and precision to her work after years of living every role inside a restaurant. From stuffing rabbits at age 15 to navigating cashflow meetings and cultural differences in international operations, Maya’s got range and lessons to match. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to blend strategic leadership with genuine kitchen grit, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Zach Sherman (01:09)
Maya, thank you so much for joining us on Handling the Heat. Super excited to chat with you about your journey and your experience working at the Sababa Company.

Maya Geschwind (01:17)
Thanks so much for having me Zach, super excited to be here.

Zach Sherman (01:20)
So the first question we ask everybody before we get started is what’s something you’ve eaten recently that’s really tickled your fancy?

Maya Geschwind (01:28)
our hummus, honestly. ⁓ It’s the best hummus ever. That’s how we list it on the menu. And it’s literally called the best hummus ever. And I think it’s one of those things where people see that in their skeptical and they’ll be like, okay, well, I’m really the judge of that because I’ve had a lot of hummus in my day, know, the same with best bagel or whatever. And I think it truly is the best hummus I’ve ever had. So.

Zach Sherman (01:35)
The best hummus ever is how it’s.

What

makes it the best hummus?

Maya Geschwind (01:52)
⁓ Quality of ingredients, think you taste the love and the care that goes into it. I know that’s so cheesy to say, but you know, it’s everything from, we’re not buying canned chickpeas, we’re buying dried chickpeas, we’re soaking them, you know, it’s a whole process and you really, the creaminess comes out in that. It’s delicious, it’s creamy. We do a little squeeze of tomato on top so you get ⁓ some acidity. It’s really nice.

Zach Sherman (02:13)
Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds good. I could go for some of that right now. Um, however, let’s jump into a bit of your past Maya, because I think of all the people that, uh, I’ve talked to here on the podcast and of all the people that I work with on a day to day basis, you have a pretty interesting path to where you are today, particularly as it pertains to actually being an operator and like making that jump to more of managerial strategy kind of work. So can you talk a little bit about your upbringing in LA and, uh,

how you first kind of found food and working in restaurants and working as a cook and kind of working your way up prior to going off to university.

Maya Geschwind (02:56)
Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, think I was just a little bit of a weird kid, to be honest. I have no idea how I wanted to, how I even knew what a chef was. Both my parents were doctors and scientists. And I think I must have seen a chef somewhere and thought it sounded cool without actually knowing what it meant. And for as long as I can remember, that’s what I would always say I wanted to be when I grew up.

And it went through phases of that and maybe own a vineyard, which obviously coming from an eight or 10 year old is so incredibly pretentious. My parents are probably I’m not being creative. But I didn’t of course really understand what any of that actually meant. So I think, fast forward after childhood camps and baking camps and cooking birthday parties and that kind of stuff, when I was 15, I sort of decided to

take the jump, and I wanted to get a job. I was a very independent and stubborn child. So I went to the local cheese shop down our road, ⁓ Andrew’s Cheese Shop in Santa Monica, which is a delightful cheese shop. And started speaking with the woman behind the counter who

happened to be married to the maitre d’ at a famous LA sort of institution restaurant called Luke, which unfortunately has now closed, but it was running for over 20 years, which is pretty incredible. So I was asking for a job, essentially, at this cheese shop, where that was my initial intention. I love cheese. I love all things French. I was a little bit of a Francophile. I love Julia Child, all things kind of food and the hospitality in that sense.

And I walked out with a phone number of the maitre d of this restaurant. And so I called maitre d and I explained to who I was and what I wanted to do. And he said, well, why are you speaking to me? You should speak to the chef. So then I was passed another phone number and I spoke to the chef, Javier. And Javier said, OK, well, come on in for an interview and let’s have a discussion.

here I am, little 15-year-old Maya, nervous beyond belief, almost to the point of tears, because I’m about to go have a conversation with a real chef in a fancy restaurant. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.

And I have a conversation with him. And what came up during the conversation is I had actually been pescatarian for seven years, between the ages of eight and 15.

why that came up during my interview with Javier was because it expanded the way that I had to eat, that I had to cook, what I had to take into account because my mom was concerned. I played a lot of sports. Are you getting enough protein? Do you have enough energy? Of course, my mom would also say, we’re not having ⁓ to make two meals for dinner. So if you don’t want we’re serving, you have to make it yourself and all this kind of stuff.

Zach Sherman (05:43)
Sure.

Maya Geschwind (05:45)
In a way, was really by limiting my dietary choices at that age, I expanded my worldview and horizon in terms of what spices are, what different cuisines are really great and amenable to vegetarian eating, what’s healthy, what is the literature out there on food and the food system and all this kind of stuff.

Zach Sherman (06:08)
And that’s all

from the ages of eight to five. So this is all in the lead up to the interview.

Maya Geschwind (06:13)
this is me looking back and reflecting on it. don’t think, at 12 years old, I was thinking, ooh, what are spices? ⁓ But I do think that as I’ve sort of, because over the years I’ve had many inflection points of how did I get here? What am I doing? What do I want to focus on next? It sort of starts to make sense, because when you look at someone with my background and you go, cook, Yale University, tech,

what the heck is she doing eating a hummus and working as a GM at a restaurant sometimes, right? ⁓ Or maybe that’s just my own perception of myself. But I think it’s also quintessentially part of the industry is rolling your sleeves up and doing a lot of different things. So anyways, I’ll come on to that later. ⁓ yes, so this interview, Javier says, what’s a girl like you doing here? You’re at a private school in LA. Michael Kors is down the street or whatever. Marc Jacobs.

Zach Sherman (06:44)
Sure.

Definitely.

Maya Geschwind (07:10)
We’re right by Melrose. What are you doing here wanting to work in the back of the kitchen? And he basically said, look, I’ll give you a job, but you have to treat it like a job. If you do not show up, like you’re done kind of thing. You have to be on time. We’re going to depend on you for prep and all this kind of stuff. And here I am 15, can’t even drive myself to the interview. And I’m like, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir.

So I took the challenge and worked as a stage every weekend from 15 till I was almost 16 and a half, 17. So for about a year and a half. And, you know, that was everything from Friday nights to Sunday supper, doing prep, like stuffing rabbits and killing lobsters and all of that kind of stuff, which I was challenged to do as a result of the whole kitchen learning. was vegetarian.

So I was given these, hey, here’s this 15 year old girl, let’s see how tough she is, make her kill the lobsters, let’s have her stuff that, which actually is quite a cool thing to be able to do again in I was learning actual, yeah, which I did do a lot of by the way, of course. But was learning more.

Zach Sherman (08:19)
was going to say not pulling the leaves off coriander or whatever. Yeah. No, I’m sure.

Maya Geschwind (08:30)
technical things because of the challenge, right? And because I was almost being given this sort sink or swim opportunity of, OK, you say you can hang. Let’s see if you can actually hang. ⁓ And I’m not saying that I could hang. In fact, I ended up at one point, I remember, this is what I wrote my college admission essay on, chopping off part of my finger, fainting in the middle of the kitchen, getting blacking out, almost hitting my head on a refrigerator. ⁓

And then basically waking up in the office on a chair with one of the guys holding my hand up like this and him offering me an Asian pear get my blood sugar up. And I just have such a distinct memory of that. Anyways, sorry if I’m jumping all over, but that was such a formative experience for me, I think, being in both…

Zach Sherman (09:10)
Sure.

Maya Geschwind (09:21)
an amazing restaurant in Southern California where it was super produce driven, where, you know, you were, you were working with all the farmers directly and they were, you know, bringing you what was in season. And, you know, you, you had a Sunday supper, ⁓ menu, which was, I think more of that time. Like that was quite a cool thing to have.

Zach Sherman (09:45)
the thing that I’m taking away from this is from a very early age, you knew exactly what you wanted to do and you had the gall to go out and just do it, which I think from a lot of the people that we talked to is a consistent through line. Like to, whether it be naive or whatever, like you feel like

Maya Geschwind (10:10)
It

Zach Sherman (10:10)
Like this is something

Maya Geschwind (10:10)
was by the way.

Zach Sherman (10:11)
like you have to do and whether that’s you as an eight-year-old in summer camp who says hey I’m vegetarian now, which I also played that game too, but it was because the vegetarian meals were made individually at the summer camp that I went to versus the rest of it. So it was like my little scheme to try out. ⁓ You know, so what I thought were higher quality kind of things, but so you go you do that you go out to the cheese shop you say hey.

Maya Geschwind (10:14)
Yeah.

We’re both at the end of

Zach Sherman (10:38)
This is something I know I want to do. I’ve been telling people I want my vineyard. I want my restaurant. I want to be a chef. And then you go out and get the job. And I think the fact that, even all the way up through like killing lobsters, right? Like as a 16 year old girl who, you know, I think that for sure is out of the ordinary in terms of the stereotypical 16 year old girl from Santa Monica, what they were doing at the time too. but it all kind of comes from this like level of

Naive. Yes. But excitement about what the next step is. And so much excitement that like it overrides any kind of, ⁓ nerves or whatever around taking that next step, which I think is, is pretty cool. And also I think kind of flows through with what you’re saying also about your journey. And I think I do this too. And I think a lot of people also do this as well, which is you create your story retrospectively, right? ⁓ as well, cause like,

There’s so many inflection points, as you said, that can lead to, you know, what’s the next step, but the next step is the step that you took. So that then gets built out into your story. And I think that’s super cool, especially as like your story starting so much earlier than most at, you know, eight years old, 15 years old, working in kitchens and things like that. What then after your stage was your continuation of your culinary experience? Were you working in other restaurants around LA prior to university? What was the.

Maya Geschwind (12:03)
Yeah, so it’s interesting. I got to a point where I actually needed to make money over the summer, as you do as a teenager. And I will say, actually, it’s not that uncommon in restaurants and in the industry that people do start quite young. Whether they fell into it or whether they intentionally went after it is a question. But I do think that it’s so funny, because where I am now, and I look at myself when I’m 29, I feel behind, even though

Zach Sherman (12:10)
Yeah.

Maya Geschwind (12:31)
by most senses of world, I’m probably not, but in the industry, because of the hours required, you have to be constantly pushing and it’s difficult to do as you get older. anyways, I decided if I was going to open up a restaurant at some point in my life, I needed to know how to do every single role in the restaurant.

and do it better than everyone there or at least be able to muddle through. ⁓ So I did what probably most 17 year old girls would do at that time. And I decided, okay, let’s give front of house a go. So I got a job as a host and then server at a restaurant called Back on the Beach Cafe in Santa Monica ⁓ learned

a lot. each of these jobs was, I think, so formative in that I’ve learned from, you know, a James Beard award-winning chef who was also a badass and a female sort of leader who would be in her restaurant on a Saturday night, despite having run it for 15 years already successfully, which I think was important for me to see at that age, moving over to, you know, a beach cafe that’s all about volume.

and had two hour waits on the weekend and, you know, large family parties and that kind of thing. And so again, sort of not being aware of this at the time, but looking back on it, it really showed me another side of, you know, hospitality in the industry, which is A, dealing with guests, turning tables and what that means in all senses of the experience. And…

and what a crazy large restaurant operation can look like. And it wasn’t even that large, but compared to the other restaurant that I worked at, was.

Zach Sherman (14:14)
Sure,

in terms of total volume, people grabbing sandwiches versus people sitting down for a full meal is a totally different experience. Yeah. And running front of house too for something like that must be very difficult as a 17 year old trying to, you know, herd everybody to their table and herd them out when you gotta get the next table in.

Maya Geschwind (14:19)
Exactly.

Well, it was very demanding because it was one of the only restaurants that had seating on the beach where they could serve alcohol in Santa Monica. I think it actually still might be one of the only ones other than like the, you know, I won’t say anything bad about the Perry’s Beach Cafes, but like they don’t really serve

I’m gonna actually be a bridesmaid and one of my other hosts with me at that time’s wedding in September. So it just goes to show like the family and the people that you meet and you build along the way and hospitality really kind of become that because of the trenches that you end up sort of ⁓ working together. mean,

Zach Sherman (15:03)
Yeah.

the shared experience of ⁓ a lunch rush on a Saturday.

Maya Geschwind (15:09)
Yeah, I wish I had sort of actually kept it journal and documented, I mean, the of times you would have someone slamming their hands on the table or being rude or disrespectful, but also the amazing moments that you get to make for people surprising them with the birthday treat or whatever. As cheesy as it sounds, so many people would be so awestruck coming to the restaurant because of how unique the setting was. ⁓

know, where else in the world there’s not that many other places outside of California in the US at least that you can kind of have that kind of that experience. So, so yes, I went front of house ⁓ is sort of what followed from from that, which, which again, I wouldn’t change it, change it for the world. But I think that it definitely shifted my view of

the operations of restaurants and hospitality as a whole. ⁓

Zach Sherman (16:02)
Sure. And so you’re seeing

both sides of this. You’re seeing back of house, you’re seeing front of house, you’re dealing with the high highs and low lows of both as a pre-university student, know, young woman. And I think for me in particular, the way that I kind of see it is the people who are like going through it are molded by the fire of it all. You know, I mean, that’s the reason why the

podcast is called Handling the Heat is because the people who are able to succeed in those experiences that are difficult and do view them as learning opportunities or do like appreciate the takeaways that they get from it, I think is critical and is a, you know, another through line for a lot of the people in the industry of like, it sucks sometimes, but when you’re getting through it with people that you want to get through it with, and you know, you’re able to kind of get out on the other side and see it for what it was.

outside of the actual experience. think that’s, you know, very important learning opportunity for, think for anybody to be honest, but it happens. feels like more frequently within the food service industry for sure. Just by way of the fact that it’s customer facing and it’s tough and you know, you’re killing lobsters in the back and whatever else it may be. What?

Maya Geschwind (17:21)
No,

100%. Yeah, it’s interesting because I look back at that experience. again, hindsight is 20-20 and all this kind of stuff. But to your point about handling the heat in the podcast, it’s a through line. Truly, in the kitchen, when you’re cooking something, controlling the heat and how it’s cooking your food is so important. And so it’s taking that heat and being like, all right, cool, this is way too high, or this is way too low. And how do I sort of…

Zach Sherman (17:31)
Sure.

that’s cool.

Maya Geschwind (17:51)
To use that analogy further, actually use it to my advantage. That’s how you have to look at it oftentimes.

Zach Sherman (17:58)
Yeah, no, that’s great.

I feel like the heat is usually talked as like this negative thing, like I’m going through it, but it can be bolded to be something so positive, like, you know, a nice saute or, you know, a good, a good takeaway from, you know, I said Saturday lunch rush before, but let’s skip ahead a little bit, Maya, because you have had so many experiences in and around the food service industry. And I think one of the things the, the, what you’re doing now with the Sababa company is

Maya Geschwind (18:09)
Exactly.

Zach Sherman (18:25)
super interesting, especially because it is such a brand that’s, that’s known across the world and in such I say difficult city as London to operate in and to bring a brand into talk to me a little bit about your journey into the Savaba company and kind of what you’re doing now, straddling the line between operator and you know, more kind of

not even back of house, but back, back of house in the office, sometimes working with caterers and things like that.

Maya Geschwind (18:58)
Sure. So I found my way. So we actually call ourselves TSC hospitality, stands for this at the bottom of name, but TSC hospitality. And look, I think it was very fortuitous. I had been at a company called Reef Technology, which is what brought me to London, doing a lot of restaurant franchising and expansion in dark kitchens or ghost kitchens, as a lot of people know them. And my passion really

lied in the quality of food and hospitality as I had sort of started out with and I had then been to the Nomad Hotel and a few other places. And I think that in the world of franchising and expansion at that scale, particularly in dark kitchens, there’s a phrase that I heard not so long ago that really resonated with me is you can sometimes taste the spreadsheet

I felt like when I was on these partner calls saying, how do we optimize the supply chain? Let’s make things as efficient as possible. It was also at odds with my philosophy about food and the way that I like to enjoy and serve food and experience in hospitality. So I won’t name names, but bringing another fast food burger closer to someone’s doorstep.

is great in a lot of ways because you’re giving the consumer what they want at a given time and fulfilling a need, if that’s what they so desire. But it wasn’t what I wanted to, what my story to be. So, I had been looking for a number of other roles and the way that hospitality works in the UK is very different than in LA. I felt,

When you grow up in a certain place and you start building your career in a certain place, you not only build a network, but you also have a sense of the way things work. From getting an alcohol license for a restaurant to ⁓ signing a lease, to hiring people and HR laws. All of these things that encompass what hospitality and restaurants are.

but are the things you don’t necessarily see or talk about because they’re not the sexy fun part of the industry, right? And so I knew I would have a big, big learning curve to basically be now in this new market having been in more tech expansion, spreadsheet-y sides of restaurants and franchising. And…

Zach Sherman (21:06)
Right.

Maya Geschwind (21:26)
I wanted to get back into what I loved doing, which is speaking with customers, cooking food, serving food, and having that interaction ⁓ with high quality ingredients and, you know, ⁓ a chef philosophy that I aligned with. So it took a while. I was searching quite a bit ⁓ within the UK. ⁓ I had a number of obstacles also because I’m sponsored, so I don’t think that that helped anything.

You know, I was put in touch with a family. And again, who would have thought that going to Yale was something that would actually help me in hospitality, if anything. When I was starting out, and I think the world has shifted slightly, but like, at least when I was starting out, it was almost like, okay, well, prove yourself. You think you’re some big hot shot. Like, let’s see where Yale gets you in the kitchen kind of thing, right? ⁓

Zach Sherman (22:14)
Sure, it’s the same experience

as, oh, you’re a vegetarian, go kill that lobster back there. Yeah.

Maya Geschwind (22:18)
Exactly, And

so,

A friend of a friend of mine’s mother was put in touch with or was getting lunch with one of the owners of this group. And they knew I was in London and looking for something else and mentioned me and sort of one thing led to another. And I ended up having a conversation with the MD last August. And it was really just positioned as, hey, I heard you might be in the restaurant space looking for your next.

role as a restaurant manager was the email that I got, ⁓ to which I was like, yeah, absolutely always happy to have a chat. Like let’s get a coffee. And the coffee chat sort of it very quickly and clearly became, ⁓ we should work together. Not only because I think that my skill set is uniquely suited to actually do a little bit of everything, which at this moment in the industry, everyone needs to do. I think that culturally, at least in the UK, I’ve noticed that

People tend to like to have their box, their job description, and stay in that job description. And that’s quite culturally how it is. But I think particularly in hospitality, globally, you need to have a roll your hands up kind of attitude. And that, yes, you might be sous chef today. But if the KP, the kitchen porter, calls out, you might be the kitchen porter tomorrow. And again, as cheesy as it sounds or as cliche or you know,

trite, you know, those things are, it’s the reality. And so I think…

putting your ego aside and saying, okay, here’s what I can do, here’s what I’m good at. And then also being honest about the, look, I don’t have a hundred percent, like if we were in California, I could say I can do your hiring, can do your HR, you know, all this kind of stuff. But there is a skillset, there is gonna be a learning curve for me because I can, I’m happy to do it. And my attitude is I will do it and I will muddle my way through, but you have to be willing to take the chance on me making mistakes as I’m doing that.

Zach Sherman (24:03)
Sure.

Maya Geschwind (24:20)
which again is sort of how I’ve learned and how I’ve gotten my degree in hospitality is just by doing it and having people who will take a chance because, yeah.

Zach Sherman (24:23)
Interesting.

doing.

There’s a lot of similarities. I feel like in the way that you’re describing your, ⁓ culinary experience with people who are entrepreneurial and go out and like start a company and the ability to roll up your sleeves and no job is too small. And let me make sure that everything runs as it needs to run and taste how it needs to taste and, whatever else. And I think that that, you know, mentality is what separates out.

the successful people in the hospitality space from the people who are not as successful. I think honestly, it’s applicable across the board too, because if you’re not willing to roll your sleeves up and get something done, you’re kind of just like pigeonholing yourself to be whatever, whatever you are and waiting for that kind of opportunity to come around. And I think what I love about your story, Maya is like, you’re seeing something, even if the opportunity is not exactly apparent in front of you and you’re

putting your neck out there and if it hits it hits and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But when it does hit, it is good. And it gives you that kind of step up opportunity to use the like MBA kind of terminology to, you know, get to where you ultimately want to go and to do the things that you ultimately want to do.

Maya Geschwind (25:47)
100%. And I mean, yeah, it’s, whether it’s an entrepreneurial attitude or, know, I think it’s also just making sure that you’re staying humble every step of the way. Like, just because you know how to run one restaurant, like you might know how to do a fried chicken restaurant really well. That means nothing when you’re looking at another kind of restaurant. And it’s so funny because I do think that there’s a lot of industries, and I think that’s what makes hospitality and restaurants so beautiful.

Zach Sherman (26:07)
Definitely.

Maya Geschwind (26:14)
is because even within that, you have such varied experience and you have such varied ways of working and doing things. And while every experience builds on and helps you with the next thing, it’s not like being a doctor, a surgeon or something where it’s like, okay, I’ve learned these skills, I know how to operate and do these procedures and I will now go do it henceforth. And I’m sure many surgeons…

Zach Sherman (26:37)
Yeah, forever.

Maya Geschwind (26:39)
who will also say, actually, it’s much more nuanced than that and there’s a lot of art to it. And yes, I’m not saying that there isn’t, ⁓ according to my FD PhD, just kidding. But I do think that there is expertise in every single variation of a restaurant. And

Zach Sherman (26:49)
Yeah.

Yeah. Why do you,

Maya Geschwind (27:03)
So I mean, that’s all I think that’s just what makes it so beautiful is like that’s how your experience that’s why there’s so many restaurants, however many there are in the world, you know.

Zach Sherman (27:12)
What do you think, I guess, of the varied experiences, the experience that you’re having right now, I think is unique because there are very few people that have both the boots on the ground, opportunity and background, and also the kind of 30,000 foot view and opportunity and day-to-day tasks as well. What would you say in terms of your specific experience is your biggest challenge that you’re working through right now?

Maya Geschwind (27:36)
⁓ boy, that’s a good question.

You know?

I think with anything, the biggest challenge is always figuring out where to spend your time. There’s never going to be enough hours in the day. And how do you prioritize? Because again, there’s no day where the answer is ever the same. So one day, your chef is having a terrible time and someone’s walked out on them and they’re a man down, and maybe the most important thing for you to do is to take them for a drink that night. And screw the financial model that you promised to someone the next day.

And similarly, because at every level in the business, there’s different things that need to get done, right? It’s this little wheel and every, it’s a watch almost, right? You have all these little gears that are working and then making the whole thing run. And when one of them isn’t working properly, it really has a knock-on effect. And so oftentimes it’s just trying to find a way to make it so that the watch can keep.

moving and working, even if it’s not optimal, right? It’s, okay, we are so short staffed. We are like six people down, but like we need to be open this weekend. So how are we going to do it? Right. And I think it’s just figuring out what those things are always. That’s, that’s what you have to be doing. And I’d love to be in a place. And I hope that we’re in a place and there are days where we are where it’s not as reactive.

Um, but I think that just the nature of the beast at the moment with, you know, the margins and, and, uh, post COVID and all this kind of stuff is, is such that you have to be reactive and nimble and flexible and sort of be like, okay, cool. Well, I’ve just been hit in the face with this thing, whatever it is, the shelf walking out or, and I need to solve it. And it’s just every day figuring out what that problem is, solving that problem, and then being ready to do it again. yeah.

I don’t know if that answers.

Zach Sherman (29:32)
So it sounds like

stick to itiveness, you know, a genuine, I think interest in the space is something that’s interesting, but both of those things and, you know, many others I think are applicable to getting in and staying in the industry and being successful. What advice would you give Maya to somebody who is interested in either, you know, starting up their first job as a stager, as a, you know, cook at a restaurant or front of house at a restaurant operationally.

Or, you know, as interested in working in maybe a more corporate environment in the hospitality space, is there like any specific advice you think that’s substantial and helpful for somebody who is going into hospitality?

Maya Geschwind (30:14)
My most valuable experience always has been and will be working in restaurants. So I think even if you want something corporate, even if you know that you’re not cut out for, or maybe not cut out, but you don’t want to long-term be operational, you need to be able to do it because will earn your stripes that way.

and I also think that

When I like today, I told you, I started this call saying I was on a four hour meeting about cash flow this morning, right? And that was not a fun way to start my day. To understand what it means to go from a 30 % labor to a 29 % labor and how many hours is your skeleton crew and what threshold of labor you need to hit to then be maximizing sales. It can be quite simple, right? All of this, you break it down, can be simple. But to be able to say we can

go to 29 % or to back up your thought process of, actually, no, we can’t. We are at the bare minimum. What other levers do we have to pull? You need to know what that means on the floor. You need to know what that means in the kitchen. You need to know, OK, well, if we have one chef working in the evening and our typical Friday night is 100 delivery orders, let’s think about that for a second. Right? Who’s packing them?

what happens if someone else comes in and is signing off the regular menu, right? So it’s really just about, there’s the spreadsheet, right? And this probably, again, applies to every industry, whether it’s manufacturing or what have you, knowing the context is so, so, so key. The best experience I will ever have is always working in restaurants, on the floor, in venue, during service, because you are faced with the real…

problems and are forced to solve them in real time constantly.

Zach Sherman (32:13)
Yeah, I think that’s.

You know, it, it, it sounds so easy, but I think people don’t necessarily like feel like it’s maybe as important as I agree with you. It’s like the context and the real world aspects and the empathy that you have from actually living that experience. And you have, you know, a lot of that lived experience now from your career. And it really brings it to life in a way that, you know, it’s really easy to dismiss if you’re just sitting at a computer all day. So I think.

you know, getting out there.

Maya Geschwind (32:44)
Yeah, it’s credibility.

It’s truly, it’s it’s getting your degree in your field or becoming an expert in that field. Sometimes you just have to put in the hours. You’re not going to get to be a doctor or to get your driver’s license if you don’t drive a certain number of hours or go to med school. It should just be a prerequisite. I do feel like a lot of people because restaurants or something and hospitality is something

Zach Sherman (32:50)
Yeah.

Maya Geschwind (33:09)
everyone interacts with or most people love to interact with, right? It’s a fun thing to do. It’s a social thing. It’s a cultural thing. It’s a way that people come together. For a lot of people, it’s like, how hard can this be, you know, ⁓ which look, sometimes I honestly wish I could rewind, no, nothing and just go completely blind into opening a restaurant. Cause at some level it’s ignorance is bliss. And like maybe that fresh eyes and that

Zach Sherman (33:22)
Pretty damn hard.

Maya Geschwind (33:38)
sort ability for me to remove my voice thing, like that’s not smart, or I know what that’s done before, would maybe give me a fresh perspective in a way to do things that hasn’t been done before. mean, yeah. So sometimes I’m like, maybe you should just give it a

Zach Sherman (33:57)
Well,

that’s what started your journey too. So I think, you know, there’s definitely some optimization between the jump right into it and, and think it through, but ultimately you got to start somewhere. Awesome. Well, Maya, thank you so much for your time. think your, your journey, your story is super interesting and I appreciate you sharing it here with us on handling the heat.

Maya Geschwind (34:17)
No problem, thanks so much for having me, Zach. Appreciate it.