FSTEC discusses bleeding-edge technologyFSTEC discusses bleeding-edge technology

Lisa Jennings

The four-day Foodservice Technology Conference and Showcase, or FSTEC, concluded Wednesday with a look at bleeding-edge technologies for foodservice.

In the final session of FSTEC, which for its 15^th anniversary boasted more than 700 attendees including 400 operators, restaurateurs covered mobile technology as the next go-to tech for operators. The session, “Where the Wild Tools Are -- Unique Foodservice Technology Deployment, and What They Yield,” included panelists form Wow Bao, Blue C Sushi, and The Bazaar by Jose Andres.

Find additional FSTEC coverage, including a slide show of the conference, here, and check out NRN’s show blog.

Geoff Alexander, vice president and managing partner of the three-unit, Chicago-based Wow Bao concept, outlined how adding self-serve kiosks helped reduced labor costs while increasing the number of registers from one to three. The kiosk additions paid for themselves within eight months, Alexander said.

“Technology is here to stay,” he said. “This generation expects it. They want it.”

James Allard, founder and chief executive of the Blue C Sushi concept based in Seattle, a six-unit kaiten chain with sushi served by conveyor belt, described how the use of Radio-Free Identification, or RFID, solutions have reduced food waste by 45 percent, resulting in a more than 1 percent drop in total food costs.

The tool allows chefs to better monitor what sushi is on the belt and for how long, giving a signal when a plate has been in rotation for 90 minutes, when it is then pulled.

Boe Trumbull, senior director of operations, logistics and special projects for Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group, outlined how hand-held — actually wrist-held — POS terminals are used at the company’s acclaimed The Bazaar by Jose Andres in the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Worn like large wrist watches, the devises allow servers to spend more time on the floor interacting with guests.

FSTEC, which is co-produced by Nation’s Restaurant News and Robert N. Grimes of Accuvia, was held this year from Feb. 21-24. In 2011 the conference and showcase will be co-located with NRN’s Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference, or MUFSO. That event is scheduled for Sept. 25-28, 2011 in Grapevine, Texas, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center.

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].