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Tune into Menu Feed, a culinary-centered podcast hosted by Senior Editor Patricia Cobe. Menu Feed is produced in collaboration with FSD’s sister publication, Restaurant Business.

Qdoba chef Katy Velazquez taps her travels in Mexico to innovate the chain's menu—but will never touch its signature queso

Velazquez uses her experience working with chef Rick Bayless to add authenticity to dishes, balancing that with a sense of fun.

Patricia Cobe, Senior Editor

April 13, 2023

This episode of Menu Feed is brought to you by Tock.

Katy Velazquez, executive chef at Qdoba Mexican Eats, claims that she got her Ph.D in regional Mexican cooking while working with chef Rick Bayless in his celebrated restaurants, on TV shows and throughout his travels in Mexico.

Those experiences influence her menu R&D for 735-unit Qdoba, but she balances that authenticity with a good dose of fast-casual fun.

Although Velazquez has innovated the menu with on-trend items such as birria tacos and breakfast burritos, there’s one item she can never change: the chain’s queso. It has a cult following, and every menu item has to go through one important test before it’s launched: Does it go well with the queso?

katy velazquez
Katy Velazquez

Listen as Velazquez talks about her exciting culinary journey, why beverages are now an important focus for menu innovation and where she plans to take Qdoba’s menu in the year ahead.

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About the Author

Patricia Cobe

Patricia Cobe

Senior Editor

Pat plans and executes the menu sections of Restaurant Business and FoodService Director, covering food and beverage trends, Menu R&D, profiles of chefs and restaurateurs and Technomic research. She also contributes to the digital content of both RB and FSD and is editor of two weekly e-newsletters, Recipe Report and On the Menu. Pat’s weekly podcast, MenuFeed, covers a wide range of menu topics through interviews with chefs and operators.

Pat came to Winsight from Hearst, where she was an executive editor. She is the co-author of the Mompreneurs series of books as well as two cookbooks. She graduated from Cornell University and earned a Masters in Journalism from Boston University. She is active in several professional organizations, including Les Dames d’Escoffier and the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC), and serves as a judge for the James Beard Media Awards.

See more from Patricia Cobe
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