Using Meal Garden as a Chef & Consultant

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Angela Argentina is the founder of Kindred Kitchens where she works as both a vegan chef, as well as a consultant. Angela draws upon her a very diverse background, which includes over 10 years in the food industry, integrative nutrition, recipe creation, and branding and design to the restaurant evolution. 

While working with local small to medium-sized restaurants, her job is to optimize their menus with delicious, healthy, always plant-based options so that they can grow their revenues, expand their market share, and grow their customer base. 

Show Notes

3:04 - What does ‘restaurant evolution’ mean?

I feel like there needs to be a shift in the restaurant industry in general, but even now more so because restaurants are so hard hit with COVID.

The idea behind it is to optimize many menus of these restaurants. So even if they're not vegan or plant-based, making them more so, so that they can actually reach out to these people that would never even pay attention to them. As well as taking the restaurant’s best sellers and vegan-ising it, but also optimizing it so that it caters to diverse food populations too. 

A lot of people can't go to an Italian restaurant because there's not enough gluten-free stuff. So this being said, you know that they've had the training, you know that this stuff might be low-glycemic and all being itemized, so people can know before they go.

Another thing is, too, everyone's shifting now to take out and delivery, and styrofoam and plastic, disposable plastic, is just so damaging to the planet and nobody. With restaurant evolution, that means getting them eco-friendly or more sustainable packaging or gatewaying them to that without making them surge in prices. So that makes it easier, more accountable or economical, and environmentally friendly.

So I  help them increase their revenues, also reduce their impact, and also make their menus healthier and more accessible to people who have diverse needs and apartments.

4:16 - And you are using Meal Garden as a tool!

Yes! I'm starting a meal-delivery kit system with a client and it's going to be called CRISPR. It’s not meal kits that are pre-cooked, but it's going to be like letting the people cook it. 

But for the restaurant evolution, I can actually just modify the menus and recipes with Meal Garden without having to make the recipe and see how it fits into all these different categories. I can then get the profile for the nutrients and all that other stuff before I even made the recipe. So it's a time-saving thing, it's an organizational thing, it's an inspirational thing, and a  mechanical thing.

5:49 - You always use Meal Garden in such a progressive way

Because for me as a chef, I don't really plan my meals because I'm very spontaneous and I like to buy stuff when it's seasonal and on sale. So, I enjoy how Meal Garden categorizes everything! You can literally search for something, like a vegan keto recipe, and then you'll get all these things that pop up and you might not have even have known about it.

And so, you have people who actually do the meal planning for you, and they've already organized all of this stuff. And for me, I really liked that. It allows you to find the macronutrients, the micronutrients, and make recommendations. 

I think it's such a great tool for that.

8:04 - Growing challenges

Right now it's mainly just the COVID and they're herding for business. It's a kind of an uncertain and scary time for people, so opening them up to spending any money is always scary, but showing people the benefits of it is very important. 

There are so many benefits of restaurant evolution because people are more concerned about eating health-conscious food. So I'm really finding them to get them off that styrofoam thing and that “cheap money-saving” mindset and actually doing something that people respect and is necessary for the planet.

10:37 - How can Restaurants start working with you?

It's a three-step process. 

The first step is kind of the assessment, we go over everything in a consultation. We talk about what it is that they buy because you obviously don't want to make them go out and buy all these new products. You want to work with what they do. You don't want to raise their food costs. It doesn't have to be physically going.

Then we'd like to make a little separate menu. So it doesn't interfere with anything, it's basically plant-based and healthier. And then it's branded to their they're style, so it comes with the consultation and then the actual training and the menu. 

And then it's like a little soft opening. So we promote it and receive feedback and analyze the reviews. Then there's a little bit of room to make adjustments and stuff like that. But then they can get set up onto the delivery network and vegan, healthy channels, that is a bit of it.

15:16 - Tell us about your catering expertise

Angela Argentina:

I'm still open to doing catering, but I'm more interested in catering retreats or special events. It is a lot of work, but it's really rewarding if you enjoy it. And creativity!

And it is fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work. A lot of planning, I recommend to people to probably have help. The first few ones, I literally did by myself. And you're cleaning, you're doing all this stuff and you feel like you got beat up afterward. It makes everything so much easier.

16:39 - What’s in store for the Wellness Food space?

Whether or not people go vegan, I feel things are definitely heading more plant-based. 

What I would like to see is people learning how to cook for themselves because a lot of that is trying to replace something because they're trying to make the shift. I'm actually starting a cooking channel. So really trying to show people how fun it is to cook at home and to forgive themselves, because a lot of people get intimidated because they're like, "I don't know how." 

The best thing you can be doing is nourishing yourself. You can get some turmeric and ginger and garlic and eat that every single day. I guarantee you you're going to be healthy.

Listen to the full conversation on the Making It Real Podcast, and be sure to head over to the Meal Garden Instagram and follow us so you get regular updates on practitioner stories and interviews.

Connect with Angela :

Instagram: @kindred_kitchens

Website: Kindred Kitchens

Further Reading for Wellness Professionals:

Interesting Ways You Can Help Clients Reframe Their Mindset Shifts with Jonathan Thomas

4 tips on how to create meal plans your clients will actually follow

This Feature in Meal Garden Lets You Get Laser Specific With Your Recipes & Meal Plans