In the high-pressure environment of a professional kitchen, communication is the invisible thread that prevents a service from unraveling into chaos.

A "call and response" system ensures the front-of-house servers and the back-of-house line cooks remain perfectly synchronized; when a lead expeditor calls out an order, the collective "heard" from the kitchen staff confirms that every component, from the medium-rare steak to the allergy-sensitive salad, is being tracked in real-time. Beyond the verbal, non-verbal cues like a simple nod or the strategic placement of a physical ticket are essential for maintaining a rhythmic flow during the "rush," turning a group of individuals into a singular, cohesive unit.

For QSR and fast casual employees, there's help in the communication department. Zenzap is an app allowing communication that can be controlled by management and works between staff members.

In this podcast, Editor Mandy Detweiler talks to Guy Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Zenzap, and Shawn Walchef, owner of Cali BBQ in San Diego.

Walchef uses Zenzap at Cali BBQ. "I think one of the most important things for a modern restaurateur, a modern business owner is to have tight communications with your teams, knowing that there's so many different apps that you need to be on. You have to make sure that the most important communication that you do with your management, that you do with your front of the house staff, back of the house staff happens seamlessly and preferably it happens in a secure environment," he shared during the podcast.

Weiss points out that when an employee leaves the company, he or she can be removed from the app so as not to take proprietary information with him or her.

"I think that onboarding and offboarding is a huge challenge," Weiss said. "And when using group chats, it's just impossible to onboard and offboard, as Shawn mentioned. And there is also risk from a business perspective. Think about one of your cooks, a chef, is leaving and going on his journey. And he's basically taking all of your IP, all of your recipes, all of your knowledge.

"You can leverage it in somewhere else because he's still a part of the group chats. And even if you ask him nicely to leave those group chats, all the data until that point of time stays with him, back to his private cloud, and he's there forever. ... I think to top the productivity side of it is you will never open many group chats for different contexts, even with the same team, because it's already overwhelming."

To learn more about Zenzap and how it can help your restaurant, listen to the podcast in its entirety.

With beef prices climbing — up nearly 60% in the last decade, according to industry veterans —fast casual operators are facing a margin squeeze. The solution to stabilizing food costs while meeting consumer demand for variety may lie in an under-leveraged protein: pork.

In this episode of the "Restaurant Operator Podcast," host Cherryh Cansler sits down with Dr. Kristin Hicks-Roof of the National Pork Board and Eddie Flores Jr., co-founder of the 235-unit franchise L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. Together, they explore why pork is emerging as a strategic pivot for brands looking to differentiate their menus and protect their bottom lines.

Flores shares real-world insights on how items like Kalua pork and Spam have acted as economic stabilizers for his franchise system amidst market volatility. Conversely, Hicks-Roof breaks down the nutritional science, explaining how operators can market pork to health-conscious consumers looking for nutrient-dense options.

What listeners can learn:

• The Margin Opportunity: How substituting or blending pork can alleviate the pressure of rising beef and chicken costs.
• Global Flavor Trends: How to leverage pork’s versatility to tap into popular international cuisines, from Hawaiian "Lau Lau" (pork wrapped in taro leaves) to Filipino "Pork Tocino."
• The "Carrier" Concept: Strategies for using pork—like bacon or crumbles—as a flavor driver to increase sales of high-margin vegetable sides.
• Combating Menu Monotony: How introducing new cuts helps operators avoid "protein fatigue" among regular customers.

“Pork fits smack dab in the middle,” Hicks-Roof said during the episode. “It not only provides that nutrition, but it also provides that traditional deliciousness.”

Click here to listen to the full episode and learn how to rethink the center of the plate.

Dirty Dough owner Bennett Maxwell knows cookies. After all, his brand has 50 flavors and a simple model.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Maxwell about his operations, the cookie wars he battled and the marketing strategies that make Dirty Dough a success.

When asked what advice he would give to another restaurant or hospitality start up that might face unexpected legal or PR crises early on, Maxwell said he would be as open, transparent and authentic as possible.

When he was slapped with a lawsuit by a competing brand, Maxwell recommended to "get business advice from business people, get legal advice from legal people. But, if you're in that scenario, I would just be as open and transparent about everything."

Hear the cookie wars story and how Maxwell came out victorious by listening to the entire podcast.