restaurant business

In todays weak economy, consumers are cutting back on frills such as eating out. Not good news for restaurants hoping to fill their tables.

At the recent Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival sponsored by American Express I talked with Roy Yamaguchi, Head Chef and Founder of Roy's popular restaurant group about how he views the recession. Yamaguchi says its all about location.

"For us we have locations in a lot of different cities so some of the cities of course have taken a bigger hit than others. For instance in Honolulu our restaurants are still doing quite well but on Maui with the failure of two airlines and the lack of tourism on that island our business is tremendously down."  read more »

The state of the economy has devastated many industries but what about food. Can the restaurant business survive this recession?

At last weeks Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival sponsored by American Express, French Chef and TV personality Jacques Pepin told me that while the food business is doing fine now it the time for more people to learn their way around a kitchen.

"I think the business of food is as great if not greater than it has ever been even with the recession. Actually it may be a catalyst for people to cook even their own stuff, or do a little gardening or cook at home and this is less expensive than any restuarant."

His daughter Claudine Pepin is also a chef and says one thing her father forgets is that business depends on talent.  read more »