"How's Your Food?"

I ask this question over and over again within the confines of my own kitchen... How IS my food? Did I blow this dish up? Do I need more salt? Are my time & temps accurate? Did I work clean with proper technique? More importantly though, will my family & friends approve such that they wont stop at In-N-Out Burger on the way home? After all, this is why we tirelessly manufacture, distribute AND prepare food, right? To serve others?

Assuming the above; service... Please allow me to introduce you to Anonietta's (Maria's) Kitchen" on the corner of Optimized & Someplace in La Puente, CA. You see, Maria, legally immigrated to the United States from Mexico quite a few decades ago in pursuit greatness. In Maria's case, greatness included a warm place to sleep, running water, food in the frig and a safe sidewalk for her daughter/my wife to play. A vehicle to the above, not so amazingly, was the kitchen where Maria spent the next 45+ years of her life washing, prepping, chopping, mixing, blending, slicing, braising, grilling, sautéing AND baking in order to survive. It goes without saying that she often worked in two different kitchens each day in order to make ends meet. By a show of hands, how many of you would work 12-16 hours a day in a kitchen for decades? Mad Respect...

Here's where my story takes culinary flight... Maria, a bored 71-year-old retiree & dog watcher, (my dog) took it upon herself to fully equip and open her own Menudo stand on the corner of Optimized & Someplace because she missed the satisfaction of serving others. She missed the buzz of a kitchen. She missed the instant gratification of serving great food. And, finally, she missed "her" guests. #Hospitality. As you would imagine, I was incredibly pessimistic as she went about sourcing all of her own equipment, smallwares, paper & packaging, A TENT and her own food. "Your Mom is absolutely crazy" I told my wife... "There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that people will line up in front of your Mom's house to buy Menudo & Tamales every Saturday morning." Worse, I was worried sick that she would buy pre-sliced, pre-shredded and pre-cooked everything at retail price points. Imagine??? No Sysco ??? No FreshPoint, Inc. ??? No ONSA Agreements??? No Foodbuy USA ??? No ArrowStream ??? No Gartner ??? (It still gives me heartburn)

Fast forward to present... Maria, God bless her, is immensely profitable with a food cost of roughly 25% while selling out each and every week!!! Cash money. When she's out, she's out. Donezo. Eighteen pages of menu who??? A step further, she has outsourced tamale production to her neighbor so that she can concentrate elsewhere. The amazing business case here is that Maria has truly optimized her offering, her COG's AND her operational footprint while in pursuit of serving others. It goes without saying that she makes a few bucks, but there's a MUCH larger story taking place on the corner of Optimized & Someplace in La Puente, CA. where we as an industry would be wise to take note.

Maria...