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FAT Brands names Ken Kuick, formerly of Noodles & Company, chief financial officerFAT Brands names Ken Kuick, formerly of Noodles & Company, chief financial officer

The multi-concept franchisor also appointed Rob Rosen as executive vice president for capital markets and Allen Sussman as general counsel

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 18, 2021

2 Min Read
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FAT Brands named Ken Kuick its chief financial officer on Tuesday. The Los Angeles-based parent company of Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Buffalo’s Cafe, Buffalo’s Express, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Elevation Burger, Yalla Mediterranean and Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses also announced that Rob Rosen was its new executive vice president for capital markets and Allen Sussman was its general council.

Kuick most recently was chief financial officer of Noodles & Company, and before that he was chief accounting officer of real estate investment trust Vici Properties. He also was chief accounting officer for Caesars Entertainment.

Ken-Kuick.jpg“FAT Brands has an impressive portfolio of brands, tremendous growth potential and a dedicated team,” Kuick said in a press release announcing the executive appointments. “Along with joining the strong FAT Brands team, I am equally looking forward to working with the amazing franchisees and serving as a resource for them.”

Sussman, the new general counsel, was previously at the law firm Loeb & Loeb LLP in Los Angeles, where he was a partner in the capital markets and corporate practice groups and worked with FAT Brands through its initial public offering and recent acquisitions.

Rosen is a Wall Street veteran who has held a variety of management, board level and advisory positions Black Diamond Capital Management. He also worked at Fleet Bank, Kidder Peabody and Bank of Tokyo.

Related:FAT Brands agrees to merge with controlling shareholder Fog Cutter Capital

“FAT Brands has experienced remarkable growth in spite of the pandemic, opening new restaurants around the world, and we’re not done yet,” FAT brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn said in a statement. “Bringing these three talented professionals on-board will bring additional intellectual capital and practical expertise to our executive team as we explore new opportunities and consider other acquisitions.”

FAT Brands franchises around 700 restaurants worldwide.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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