Fast Casual

Solving problems, driving growth and creating scalable solutions for the Fast Casual industry is one of Chef Steve Petusevsky’s specialties.

Whether he’s creating complete food service programs from scratch or re-engineering and updating existing menus to be more appealing, profitable, and healthful, Steve’s expertise is sought by some of the nation’s largest fast casual restaurant groups. Steve doesn’t just bring Big Ideas to the table and instruct culinary teams or large companies on what to do to make them successful—he shows them. By activating those Big Ideas every step of the way, Steve creates custom programs that are uniquely tailored to individual visions and needs and provides rigorous on-site training to ensure that the those visions are executed to the highest standard. When developing food service for clients, Steve often works in partnership with a marketing team, corporate management, and a dietician or nutritionist to create a delicious, memorable master menu matrix and recipes that are both mainstream and healthful. Steve’s recipes are based on lasting trends, not current fads— in fact, many of the recipes Steve created for the largest chain of natural food markets in the country are still being served today!

Spotlight: Native Foods Café

As Director of Culinary Innovation, Steve helped strategize and grow America’s premier plant-forward restaurant company from 25 units to 300 stores nationally. Steve continues to work closely with R&D to redevelop existing recipes with a future-forward mindset—creating beautiful, bold vegetarian and vegan food with wow-factor and strong seasonal appeal. By establishing new training manuals, videos and SOPs for all kitchens, Steve ensures that the original vision is brought to life consistently every store across the country.
  • Healthful recipe development
  • Procurement chain evaluation and SKU rationalization
  • Updated all current recipes to meet new USDA guidelines
  • Created video training models for nationwide rollout
 

Spotlight: Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises FoodLife ™

Now a Chicago icon in the mezzanine level of Water Tower Place downtown, Foodlife™ is one of Richard Melman’s most iconic Lettuce Entertain You concepts— a hybrid amalgam of creative global restaurant cuisine and a food court market. Steve developed all the healthy recipes for the urban modern eclectic food court, which contains 14 unique food venues
  • Concept development
  • Healthful recipe development for all venues