Authenticity and community are the drivers behind Compass Group’s new Heritage Kitchen program

Authenticity is, in part, the reason for the success of Compass Group’s Heritage Kitchen. The program debuted recently with a week packed with events at different Compass Group sites throughout the U.S. The events were a success both from a customer engagement perspective and through operator and employee feedback. And the secret to the program’s success? The authenticity of the food that emerged from this program.

“The key is making it authentic and I think that's what a lot of these food partners bring into our spaces, the authenticity and then you layer in the rich and deep and meaningful stories that they have, you know, kind of been able to articulate through their food and through their culture and thereby share their stories through these events,” said Susie Weintraub, CEO of Envision, Compass Group’s foodservice solutions company.

The mission behind Heritage Kitchen is to support local communities by engaging people through food, with a focus on women- and minority-owned businesses, said Weintraub, who noted that the program felt like a great opportunity to introduce both clients and diners to local partners in their markets.

“We wanted to feature also women- and minority-owned and you know, just kind of all of those things that were true to who we were and our core values uniting people through food and connecting people through food,” she said. “We just really felt that, hey, this is our opportunity to kind of bring this whole concept to life.”

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The program started with a week of events at Compass Group sites, however the team intends for Heritage Kitchen to stick around, in ways that look different depending on the operation.

The idea for this program was sparked about a year ago, through a partnership between Restaurant Associates, Compass Group’s chef-driven hospitality company, and Food Fleet, a mobile food management company. The goal behind the partnership was to introduce clients to small and diverse partners, so Food Fleet would feature different Food Fleet partners on premise or on site.

“And the idea was really rooted in showcasing the partners and the incredible authentic food experiences that they could bring to the site while really sharing stories of culture and tradition. And creating kind of these meaningful experiences,” said Weintraub.

Envision, who works alongside Compass Group’s partners on implementing new initiatives, heard about the partnership and thought it would do well on a larger scale.

“And we're really inspired by kind of how they were delivering this authenticity and these stories to all of the clients and guests and we kind of said, wow, wouldn't it be cool if we could do something like that nationwide and look to scale it across the country?” said Weintraub.

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So that is exactly what they did. After about a year of work, the program came to life the week of Oct. 14.

Throughout the planning process, the team realized that Heritage Kitchen might look different at different sites, depending on the needs and demands of the operation. So, the team allowed operations to have a say on what sort of Heritage Kitchen event they wanted to feature.

Different operations hosted different types of Heritage Kitchen events.

“We allowed locations to design their event based on really what makes the most sense for their population. So, it could be a food truck on campus, it could be a station takeover, a teaching kitchen, a pop up, you know, a lot of kind of just traditional options like that,” said Laura Moore, director of communications for Envision.

And overall, the team has received positive feedback from both diners and the culinary teams at the operations.

“We would deem it a success just based upon the feedback that we've received from our operators, our clients and guests alike,” said Weintraub. “I think like one of our big measures of success is always client and guest satisfaction along with hearing feedback from our operators that, yes, we want this back, we want to do it again.”

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And the team has heard that positive feedback from operators as well as noticed trends of client and guest satisfaction. Some teams noted that the Heritage Kitchen event was a great experience not only for the guests but for the dining team as well. Through the programming the dining teams had the opportunity to work with local partners and some feedback so far has been that the local partners had excellent culinary skills, and many employees were excited to work with them.

One client, KKR, a corporate client managed by Bon Appetit, noted especially positive feedback from the dining team.

“So, I just love that story because you know, of course you want the client and the guest’s happiness, right? That satisfaction is paramount, but I love that it trickled down to also the associates. Working together and having such a great experience there as well,” said Moore.

And there does appear to be demand to continue on with Heritage Kitchen, said Moore. At Quinnipiac University, for instance, the Heritage Kitchen event was such a success the team has decided to create a permanent Heritage Kitchen station on campus. Quinnipiac University’s event focused on food trucks—the team had a series of food trucks come on campus. The permanent Heritage Kitchen station will allow for an ongoing rotation of food truck operators. The station is also set up with digital screens that will allow the operators to share their stories with the students.

Other operations invited local businesses in for a station takeover. Morrison Healthcare at Northside Hospital in Atlanta invited the owners of Six Pack Subs in to take over one of their dining stations inside the hospital. The team served up Vietnamese street food and told stories of childhood visits to the open-air market which inspired some of the ingredients in the recipes.

“So really bringing their story, but also their excitement and their enthusiasm for these opportunities to the locations,” said Moore.

Other operations hosted visits with global concepts. At the Washington International School, CulinArt, which manages foodservice at the operation, invited fast-casual Indian concept Raza to come visit. The owners of Raza look toward food as an opportunity to connect and nourish the body and explore other cultures, so the Raza team brought that perspective in to share with the students.

Dish from Raza served up at Washington International School.

“The students would line up and after they ate their food, they actually went back in line. And a group of them said that they loved it so much that they asked when they're going to be back again,” said Moore.

The students gave such a positive response to the event that the team is already in the process of planning the next event.

The idea to focus on global and local food for this program was a result of recent demand Compass Group has noticed throughout the different segments.

“For us, Heritage Kitchen was kind of born out of what we were hearing as demand from our operators that authenticity I think is a keyword here that it needs to be whatever culture it represents,” said Weintraub.

When it comes to local foods, the focus is on building community, both Weintraub and Moore agreed.

“We're seeing a mainstream demand for more local products, local ingredients, sourcing and building you know, really using the opportunity to build community through food,” said Weintraub.

Weintraub’s favorite part about Heritage Kitchen is that it presents the opportunity to leave an impact on diners and tell stories through food.

“Just the impact that we're making by being able to share these stories and cuisines and cultures and traditions. We've always said, like, food unites people,” she said. “And I think feeling the energy and seeing the excitement and just the kind of the overall good that it brings into our locations, our spaces and our community. To me, that was probably one of the most inspirational takeaways.”