November 8, 2014 – This week, restaurant brokers Eric and Robin Gagnon interview the popular Restaurant Impossible host, Robert Irvine. For a radio show that promises its listeners to Satisfy their Appetite for Acquisition, Feed the Need for Restaurant Reality and Serve up a recipe for Business Success, Irvine proved to be the ideal guest with his colorful observations on saving failing restaurants.
Chef Irvine frequently works with family restaurants. When the restaurant brokers observed that the business is a lifestyle business with far reaching implications for the family, Irvine bluntly observes, “Unless they’re strong they don’t last.” The Restaurant Impossible format features a rapid turnaround of a restaurant ranging from the menu to décor in a matter of days. The restaurant brokers asked Irvine to share what happens after the cameras close down. What does Robert Irvine tell the restaurant owners? According to this Chef and turnaround artist he says, “Do exactly what I told you, keep your inventory low and your finger on the staff.”
What are some keys to success in the restaurant industry? Robert Irvine says “You need to work two years for someone else and get to know the business.” Restaurant Broker Eric Gagnon agrees telling the star that he often gives would-be restaurant owners the same advice. Does that mean they always take it? According to Gagnon, “No.” Changes impacting the industry today include ever increasing levels of technology. Irvine remarks that “technology is a HUGE buzzword; it’s changing our industry”
The highly acclaimed Food Network show, Restaurant Impossible is in its eighth season. Chef Robert Irvine and his team have traveled to more than a hundred locations across America, in hopes of turning around some of the country's most struggling restaurants with two days and only $10,000.
According to the Restaurant Impossible star, he and his team saved over 87 percent of the businesses he’s filmed though the number is constantly changing. Restaurant broker Robin Gagnon asked Irvine if he has encountered a restaurant he can’t fix. His response, “No such thing as I can’t save it; I believe anything is possible.”
Join the Eric and Robin this Saturday for the full interview with one of Food Network’s biggest stars, Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible. The restaurant radio show is broadcast on Atlanta radio station WGKA, TALK 920 on Saturday at noon and rebroadcast Sunday at 1 PM on Biz 1190.
This Week’s Guest:
Chef Robert Irvine
With more than 25 years in the culinary profession, Chef Robert Irvine has cooked his way through Europe, the Far East, the Caribbean and the Americas, in hotels and on the high seas. Robert brings his experience to Food Network as host of Restaurant: Impossible; he has been previously seen on Dinner: Impossible, Worst Cooks in America and Food Network Star's Star Salvation, an original, exclusive Web series on FoodNetwork.com. In 2012, he appeared on the special Wedding: Impossible, in which he and his now-wife, Gail Kim, said "I do."
Now in its eighth season, Restaurant: Impossible continues its successful run as one of the network’s most popular shows, with Robert attempting to save America’s most desperate restaurants from impending failure in just two days with only $10,000. During the course of each extreme mission, Robert assesses all of the restaurant’s facets and then overhauls its weakest spots by updating menus, retraining staff and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team, before hitting the streets to tell the community about the improved restaurant.
A native of England, Robert joined the British Royal Navy at the age of 15, and his skills in the kitchen soon came to the attention of his superiors. As part of his service for the Royal Navy, Robert was selected to work aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, where the royal family and its entourages regularly dined. During his time training U.S. Navy chefs as part of a guest chef program, Robert worked in the White House kitchens, and his creations were served to high-ranking government officials. During his career, he has also had the opportunity to serve 6,000 servicemen and women on a U.S. aircraft carrier and plan the menu for a celebrity-studded after-party at the Academy Awards. Robert is the author of two cookbooks, Mission: Cook! (Harper Collins, 2007) and Impossible to Easy (Harper Collins, 2010), and he owns and operates two restaurants in South Carolina, Robert Irvine's eat! and Robert Irvine's nosh.