The business mistake McDonald's and Chipotle keep making: Robert Irvine

The menus look like still when I was in school in the late 80s, boiled hot dogs, pizza, tacos. Are, are you kidding me? Are you out ofyour mind?

It, it's, it's ridiculous, but it's exciting at the same time because they told me 23 years of this journey that it couldn't be done and we're proving people wrong. As much as they want it to fail, it ain't failing.

Why are you so passionateabout this?All right. Welcome to a new episode of Power Players. Super excited to welcome in my next guest for this episode, chef, entrepreneur, change maker, TV host, you name it, all those things. Robert Irvine, good to see you in person. Like you're real. Like you're real,

it's great to be here. Look, I haven't seen you since 2016,

right? It's true. Like I was just a young cub reporter. It was like at a Walmart annual shareholder. I'm watching Robert Irvine cook in front of.I mean, I remember you got made the CEOO do like push-ups,

right? That's it. CO CEO and CFO. Yes, yeah, it was fun.

It was great. It's good to see you. I thank you for doing this, and I, what you, the work you do with the military, just take us through that because I, I'm blown away by it.

So for 23 years I've been traveling the globe with our military, right, looking at, at, you know, all the things to do, the, the housing, the living, the food.And food, particularly my sweet spot. 23 years later, actually last year in June, we got legislative change passed for the army, which meant we could update their legacy dining facilities. And when I say legacy, I'm talking about 50 years old, a building.And a law that was built in 1936. I can't believe it. I can't believe this. So, uh, along with uh AMC, the Army Material Command, G4, Michelle Donoghue, Chris Mohan, Gavin Lawrence, we changed. We literally wrote legislation with Jack to change that so we could create what I call AAA schools. You know, if you think of an athletic school and campus style dining.Uh, that's what we've done in, in, in 8 bases. 2 weeks ago, we opened Fort Bragg, and it's already exceeding the numbers that we thought it would not only we've got this great 8 station facility, meaning you can go to 8 stations and get fresh shakes and fresh salmon and, and all this kind of stuff. Nothing is frozen, number 1. But now we're delivering.So we can do DoorDash and you can pick it up or we'll deliver it to your barrack room. I mean, I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. There's no excuse for people not being fed. And we're rolling that out um really fast across the army. The joint forces following that, the Marines.are already looking at the same thing in their bases. And we're also looking at navy ships right now. So, again, 1936, the Secretary of Education was responsible for food in the military. How, you know, I don't know where that came from, uh, but we're we're changing it. There's still a long way to go with that. Um, there's some special interest groups that don't want to see it succeed, but, uh, Robert Irvine doesn't fail.

What, what,what, what were our soldiers eating beforethis?

There's a word I won't use it on air, but not very good food. You get a catalog from uh from uh a DLA Defense Logistics, um, and they buy the food and then you cook it. The Gulf 92s are coached in the, in the army. They trained for 8 weeks and there's nothing against them because some of them are amazing. But then they're pulled from the dining facilities. So you mainly have 2 or 3 people cooking for thousands of people. It, it can't work like that. So the new campus style dining.8 stations of fresh food and what is really cool, if you're in North Carolina, one of those stations, everything that's grown in North Carolina, we use from that state. It's almost like farm to table. It's, it's almost, yeah, we got a station farm to table, literally. The soldiers are are talking with their feet. They're, they're coming through. And I say, we just opened Fort Bragg, and last night I heard that, uh,The commanding general was so impressed that now we've got another 3 going in there.

I saw for years what you did on, uh, and you're doing on Restaurant Possible. What are the logistical challenges to serving fresh food to our soldiers? Because you just mentioned, I mean they were eating frozen food.Which is a totally different thing than cooking fresh.

Well, instead of using defense logistics now, the campus style dining actually goes to broadline vendors. So the Ciscos of the world, the compasses. So basically there's an RFP and if you bid on the work and you win it, I hold you accountable. We've got an executive chef in there. We've got a nutritionist, a dietitian.So we can literally watch what you're eating in a wholesome way. We're not asking you to eat lettuce and rabbit food, you know, where we used to pay $10 for a frozen piece of salmon. I'm buying fresh salmon for $2. You know, how can that be? There's a long story, that's a whole different show, butThere is nothing. It's made to fresh grilled chicken. We have half roasted chickens in go bags ready to go for these folks if they want to go away and, and do it in the barrack room. We have delivery, as I say, it's like a AAA school. I, I.If you'd have said to me 10 years ago we were gonna get this over the pass line over the goal line, I would have said there's no way. This

seems like

a

no-brainer, like a whole art, all of our special, all of our forces should be eating like this. Well,

specialforces have been eating healthy for a long time and eating and great because we get more money, but a soldier gets $39 a day, right?And we would see that the soldier wouldn't go for breakfast or lunch and dinner in the legacy diner Sir Libby. They would literally have that money taken out of their account and then go and use more money to get food somewhere else, off base or on base. And now they're using their full $39. So if you, if you don't eat breakfast,You can carry your $5 to $6 to lunch and same to dinner, but by the time that day ends, that $39 has to be spent.

What's the logistical challenges to getting this on aircraft?

Well, I, you know, we're just talking about aircraft carriers now. Obviously, we can't have civilians on aircraft carriers because they're forward operating, but we're looking at changing what we put in the catalog for the, for the chefs to buy.So that's the next step of uh the evolution of the joint force feeding is the Marine Corps and the Navy, uh, followed by the Air Force and Space Force, I hope. Logistically, it's really just changing what is ordered from that catalog. There's no reason we can't have the same food on warships.As we do on land bases. And by the way, look, there was plenty of food on that aircraft carrier that you just heard all that noise about. It's just, you know, 11 months at sea, the deployments are long, then we got to take special care of those folks.

I'm thinking about cruise ships. Like cruise ships are getting these deliveries. you,

you hit the nail on the head because 30 years ago I was on Norwegian Cruise Line when we had stack systems. So the food would come in, it would come out of boxes, it would go into the freezer, refrigerator, then a, a, a slacking room before we went to the galley in a, in a stack.If you want an aircraft carrier, we got to go way back out to get the, the food. I'm like, no wonder nobody wants to be a cook. So I actually took the chief of naval operations to Norwegian Cruise Line and met with them a couple of years ago and said, hey, look, this is the way they design their ships, and it works.And I was at Norwegian Cruise Line 30 years ago. This just shows how old I am, um, who do a great job of, of feeding people, hundreds of thousands of people. So maybe I should follow the NCL.

Did youinterview the person that took the executive chef job?

Yeah. Oh, he used to work for me a long time ago. So he knows the.Standards, uh, he opened Fort Bragg last week, uh, 2 weeks ago, and the day I was 2 days early, and I'm like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, I'm gonna beat you literally, not literally, but if you don't change. Um, look, whenever you open a restaurant, it's like family and friends. You come in, you know, you try it.And that's what we do with the with the uh campus style dining. We open it a week before we open it, uh, you know, cutting the ribbon just to get the systems down because most of these contract caterers are not used to cooking aluminum like we do in a restaurant.And I need them to do it, you know, you woke up, you want chicken breasts, and the beauty is you can do your phone, you can order on your phone, you can order on a platform in the restaurant itself, and within 3 minutes you've got it ready to go. So don't tell me that we can't do it because we're already doing it in 10 doses. Why

are youso passionate about this?

Uh, I was in the military in the British Royal Navy, and we made everything fresh on ships. Uh, we, we butchered carcass of beef and, and pig, and we don't do that now. It's already prepared, it's sliced for us because we don't have the skill and labor. AndIn our military, we don't have the cooks. Nobody's joining the military to be a cook. They want to be AI specialists, you know, they want to be flying planes, they want to be doctors, and we've lost the art of cooking. Um, and I want to bring that back. And I gotta tell you, RFK, uh, is doing a great job of, of that.Um, and this is not political. I'm a foodie. I'm apolitical. I care about feeding military, feeding kids, wholesome, real fresh food.

What hasbeen the impact of RFK more broadly in the food industry?

I canonly talk about what, what I've worked with him on, and that's, that's the dyes and the and the and the, um, we're looking at 176 schools right now in Dawiya, Department of War. Hopefully before Christmas or shortly after Christmas, we'll have aUh, a test menu there in Port Bragg, and if that works. And, and here's the thing, they talk about Brian, they talk about making healthy food. It's not about healthy food. It's about healthy food that kids want to eat.If we look at the, the campus style dining, we put bulgur, we, we put, we put ancient grains and people think, oh, and they're eating it, you know, they, they don't even know it's good. They don't even know, they don't even know what is good is good for you. But they're eating it. Um, and I wanted to do the same thing with, with kids because 1 in 4 of those.Department of War Education kids at those 176 schools is gonna be a pilot, a doctor, maybe the president of the United States one day, and we owe it to them. And that's a test site before we go into state schools.

Can you do thousands of them? Because I see them, what the kids are still eating today. The menus look like still when I was in school in the late 80s, boiled hot dogs, pizza, tacos. Are you, are you kidding me? Are you out of yourmind?

It, it's, it's ridiculous. And, and can you do it at scale? Yes, but you have to understand that.Unlike Dewia schools, they're all in one contract and, and like the, uh, West Point, I can fix that in one go. The state schools are all individualized and they take money from HHS. They take money from, from, uh, a lot of different places to supplement their food. Are they trained? Some are great, some are not. Do I think we can do it? Yes, I do.

Boiledhot dogs should not be on the menu anymore. Thisshould not be a thing.

No, no. So I do, I, I believe.There's a radical shift in feeding across the joint force across the whole nation, you know, kids want better food, and I'm not saying they have to be eaten like rabbits either, because that doesn'twork.

It's like they have two lives. They eat the crap in school, they go home and they eat ancient grains that the parents are serving them. Yeah,

it's crazy. It's, uh, but it's exciting at the same time because they told me 23 years of this journey that it couldn't be done.And we're proving people wrong. As much as they wanted it to fail, it ain't failing. Yeah,

I, I've been ordering food too much and I always enjoyed cooking, but to your point, I've lost.I don't know, my desire to cook because everything's available so on demand. Like, what do you think about that?

Well, I look, it's, it's tough because now two parents are working, right, to make a living.Uh, inflation is high, kids are playing and football and swimming and, and gymnastics and, and the parents are doing all those things. When you come home, it's, it's simple, it's easy to open something and, and cook it. I believe if, and I, and I want to bring this back, not only to schools, I want a garden in, in a school. I want kids to know where vegetables come from. I want them to cook. I want.Uh, home economics classes that we got rid of. That's, I'm a product of a home economics class. I want to, to be able to cook at home. Why put your phones down, get the kids in there, let them buy the food with you and cook with them. It's called bonding. In the military, it saves lives. I don't want people or kids going in the bedroom, playing on games.And having these ideations that you see a lot of, I think suicide rates are 164 a day or something like that. 66% or 64% of them are are military, you know, and I'm talking kids through adults. So I want people to be, be bonded back together, get away from the phones, get away from the games, and do something that that puts us face toface.

It's almost like we need aLike a, a, a detox from ordering food on demand. I mean, I, I, I order my Starbucks now, and by doing that, I'm missing the human interaction with the person who just made my coffee. I'm admitting I'm doing this, and we all do it. Yeah,

but, but that's gonna change, and that, and I think that's, you know, RFK started a cooking class, five-minute cooking class. OK, that's his way to get people.Um, you know, we, we have this big event tomorrow, right? We have a lot of people trying to figure out their, their issues, overcoming a possible life. Same kind of thing. I overcame the military, CEOs and, and, and companies, uh, uh, coming tomorrow for the day here in Brooklyn just to figure out how do we help them.With with their impossible things, their solution providing. So, it's everywhere. It's not just the military, it's not schools, it's everywhere in life. We're so busy, we pick up something to go. We don't communicate with our husbands, wives and kids or significant others.And we go to bed and we get up and we recycle everything. Yeah,

it's true. Youmentioned home ec. Isn't that where your love of cooking came from? Yes,

I was 11 years old and I joined a cooking class at school and the only classes I loved at school were history, uh, sports, and woodwork.I hated maths and English and you'll see that if you go on my social media, it's 140 characters, no, no punctuation. It just keeps going on. But I fell in love and this is a true story. I went to a cooking home ec class because it was 30 girls and me and I thought, oh, maybe I get a girlfriend. I made a cook keith Lorraine and the girls went out the window and the love of food came and I was so amazed, and I'm still amazed that we put a couple of things together.And it changes somebody's mood. It gives them hope. It gives them life. It gives them excitement.And the will to continue, you know, food is the international language of love. And if we could put every head of state around the table and take their national dish and eat one bite and pass it to the right and talk about the culture and why those foods are on that plate and they can't touch each other and all these other things that go on, we wouldn't have half the problem in this world that we have. Food is a great connector.

I study a lot of publicly traded restaurant companies, whether it's a Chipotle, a McDonald's, Starbucks.There's a lot going on with these companies right now. What mistakes are these leaders stillmaking?

I think that the the mistakes of, of these major companies, and there are some that are getting it right, by the way, they're trying to put profit over people.You know, and that's, that's, that's the business way, right? What I'm trying to do is say, hey, look at people because they're the forward-facing.If you listen, you know, God give us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen twice as much as you talk. By the way, I've just learned that. But I think if you listen to the people, and we start to change habits, instead of thinking about profit, thinking about people, profit will come. You do the right things, profit and money will always come to you. But again, they're fearful, and this is, this is why I started overcoming impossible, that this thing tomorrow here is because fear is crippling decisions.And they're fearful of, of their shareholders. They're fearful of making a decision because, oh, it goes against the grain. Guess what? I've been going against the grain for 30 years. And I don't wear a uniform, but it helps me. I'm, I'm OK with, we can disagree and agree, uh, but how do we get to that point? And that's hopefully what I'm gonna teach these, uh, 300 people tomorrow, like,I've got Gary Vee, I've got Megan Thee Stallion. I, I've got a whole bunch of mentors. Jason, the, the, um, they have the editor in chief of Entrepreneur. It's gonna be amazing to, to really break down the problems which I faced in the military segment, in the food segment, in the restaurant segment.Into all the other segments in the world, right? How do we break down a problem? Because we're fearful and we say, we say automatically no to change because, oh, it means we've got to work harder. No, you don't have to work harder, you just have to work

smarter. Ifyou were starting a restaurant today, let's call it a fast food restaurant.Would you have dynamic pricing? This is one of the hottest debates right now in the fast food space. I think, you know, having a menu change in real-time based demand is, it's a little much. It's a little much. Well, it puts profits over people. Like you're

just, yeah, people, look, people come to your restaurant because you make them feel special, right? You know the name, you know the preferences.And, and big companies like Four Season, Ritz-Carlton and the one Hotel, right? They know when you walk in the door, this is what you like, you know, you got tea in the room and restaurants are like that. We go to them because they're safe, comfortable places that we get consistent food.Autonomy is, is taking over in a lot of it, and you know that, you know, McDonald's has Flippy and, and Chipotle has Chippy and you know, all these other things that are going on avocados in the, in the, in the world of, of that. But nothing can, nothing can, can do this. The human interaction. I sat in the restaurant last night, just watching an open kitchen and I was fascinated about the conversation between the cooks.And how the food came out. It was, by the way, it was excellent. So I think if I opened a restaurant, it will be with people that care about people.And not about money. Look, I had one in, I had a restaurant in the Hilton Head that did $3.5 million a year with 70 seats. I thought it was great, but is it a 3-star mission? No, it was just great consistent food that people would come to and just sit there all night and, and eat because it's a community. Food is community. Food is, is connection. Yes, we got to make money, you gotta pay bills, butYou know, I'd rather take you out for a beer or a cup of coffee and a dinner.And, and more gets done business wise than than on the golf course in a restaurant.

If you have someone came out of the blue today, gave you $50 million and Robert, open three amazing restaurants in an era of GLP1s. Inflation is not, it's not going anywhere. What do you open and why? And then like, what does the menu evenlook like?

I think you got to look at what can people afford. So I would do a, a, a low, middle, and a high end. Why? Because I want, I don't want.Anybody that's in the lower bracket of income to feel that they cannot experience the same as a guy that's making 20 million, 30 million a year. And I've always felt that, you know, there's no reason that we can't give.Great food to all three, right? It's the same menu pretty much, except you're paying more, right? There's, there's little bits of, of fluff on there and there and there, but differently, you know, and it doesn't have to be burgers and pizza, by the way, because I, I put number one, I don't, I eat a burger once a year and I hate pizza. Yeah, looking at you, I don't can't imagine. I hate pizza. So, um, I'm a man of the people. Uh, I, I will tell you, Brian, I, to me, how do we change.Everybody's focused. How do we get closer together and food is the only way that does that. It's the only, it's the only thing that does that. You know, we're always politically divided. I told you I'm apolitical because I just care about feeding kids and people. I don't, I don't want to fight over there and a fight over there. I've got enough fights with getting food. Um, so for me,Um, education of people is a big thing too, because I grew up in England, you know, England's not known for the, the best food in the world. It's fish and chips, steak and kidney pies, and, and, andbeef,

right? I don't need to be dragged on social media at all.

I, I said it. I'm English. I can, well, I'm, I'm, I'm British by birth, but American by choice. So I can say that. Whereas, you know,The top 10 restaurants in the world are in England. They're just not English, they're French.But you know, it it's fun to me. But the education, again, I go back to when we did Restaurant Impossible, I could do one restaurant a week. So I wrote a book called Openning Coming Impossible.So you could read it and and do the same things that that I'm teaching on TV in any business. That's why again I keep mentioning it, but we're doing this amazing thing tomorrow, overcoming impossible. 300 people from all walks of life who are gonna come in, get amazing information, and, and not be fearful of making a a choice or a decision.Jason, editor in chief of of entrepreneur, and I are gonna do a couple of lectures and then we breakout sessions. And the way we do the breakout sessions is because we've already done the homework to know the issues that you have and she has and they have, and then we put you together and you come away with this whole and light, it's not a rah rah party, right? Restaurant.Possible. It's not rah rah, it's getting in there and changing your identity. Oh, I, I have no patience and I think you know that. I have learned to listen over the last 5 years. But when we put these people together, they've got, they've got an idea just like the restaurateurs have an idea of what, what they wanted when they first opened the restaurant, but they could never achieve it because they thought differently. And I'm now going to change the way you think and the way you attack problems.When you break it down in segments and you go, oh my God, I didn't think about that, I didn't think about that. Why are we not doing that? And I think that's life in general. So your impossible situation is you go and buy everything, right? And think about that, you go into a store, as, as many people do, and they have a list of things.The list of things in the first aisle goes like this, and you buy whatever you want up and down the aisle.

I'llhave my AI agent do it. Now she's gonna go shopping at Whole

Foods.AI is taking over the world, but AI can't cook.

No, it can't cook. Lastly though, before I imagine over the course of your career, for lack of better terms, you've seen a lot of shit. Um, what has been the hardest business lesson you've had to learn?

Number one personally was me listening because I would go in like a bulldozer and just, no you got it wrong, you're, you're silly, and now I've learned to listen a lot more. I have no patience for foolishness, so.When we started with the military and we started with big companies, I'm like, guys, uh, you're doing it the wrong way. You're you're attacking problems the wrong way. And I have no, I have no patience for stupidity.

Isn't it nice to get to a place like that in life?

Yeah, I'm 61 years old and I've been like that, by the way, since I was 30, except I've learned at 50 to listen a little bit more and, and talk less until you've talked and then watch out. But yeah, I, I, I feel very comfortable and confident in.If I say something, it can be done.But I need the backup to make it happen. Meaning, if you're the CEO I need full support to make change because there are people in, in these big companies as well, you know, they don't like change because it's more work or it's

bonuses are tied to some earnings per share figure.

Yeah, and by the way, if you listen to Uncle Robert, he's gonna take you to a different level of, of your bonus. Uh, but a lot of people don't want to do that.

Robert, good to see you. It's been a while. I appreciate you doing this.

Well, I appreciate you, and, uh, you're not

61. Stop it.Get out of here. What are you talking about?

61 years old. Look at me. I look. I look, I look like I'm 20,

don't? You're a man.All right, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Please stick around. Much more ahead on power players.