Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1156964
Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, CEO, Momofuku Camilla Marcus, founder, West-Bourne Camilla Marcus is seeking to set a new standard for responsible foodservice. Her California-inspired cafe, West-Bourne, debuted last year in New York, and is carving out a niche in terms of its social mission. "We're starting to see conscious capital- ism rise in retail and consumer goods, but no one is doing it quite as integrated and quite as thoughtfully when it comes to dining out or hospitality broadly," says Marcus. West-Bourne's all-day menu features vegetable-forward dishes such as the Mushreuben, which includes roasted maitake mushrooms, sauerkraut, Peppadew pep- pers, Swiss cheese, and a special sauce on toasted caraway rye bread. "We like to say we are accidentally vegetarian, decidedly wholesome," says Marcus, who has a culinary and business background, and was formerly director of business devel- opment for Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group. West-Bourne's mission is ref lected in its operations. It donates 1 percent of revenues to The Door, an organization focused on providing hospitality training for local youth, through which West-Bourne also hires workers. It also has a unique labor structure, in which everyone is cross-trained on every position, and all receive the same rate of pay. The restaurant is also hoping to be the first certified zero-waste restaurant in Manhattan. "My generation looks at philanthropy and community building quite differently than the generations before us," Marcus says. "It's about a need to live our values every day in every decision that we make, and when you think about it, you make more decisions in your life about food than pretty much anything else."—M.H. Beginning as a company intern, Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, 30, rose to the rank of CEO of Momofuku in just eight years. During her tenure with the Asian-American restaurant empire, Mariscal has chal- lenged how things were done, questioned practices like the company's lack of proactive marketing, and done "a lot of jobs that weren't in my job description," she says. Those efforts, including establishing the company's social media accounts, sourcing artwork for restaurants, updating menus companywide, and more, paid off. "No job is too small if you're part of something bigger, and it gave me a good sense of how to operate a restaurant," she says. Mariscal's climb through the ranks included work in design and communications, and she was named brand director in 2016. Last year she was promoted to chief of staff before taking over the helm at Momofuku. Hailing from the iconic Zabar family—the creators of the legendary specialty gro- cery store on Manhattan's Upper West Side—helped her develop a "love of good food," Mariscal says, but under her watch, Momofuku's dishes need to be more than delicious. "We have to provide food that adds value, meaning guests aren't getting it somewhere else," she adds. That can mean pushing chefs and others to stretch their creativity, she says. "Sometimes you even have to kill your darlings because if you keep doing what you did in the past, you're not providing the potential for growth." Being a young executive, Mariscal leads by learning from others, she says. "By staying curious and surrounding myself with people who excel in areas where I may be less knowledgeable, I'm confident we can make the right choices."—R.K. Age: 30 Pushed brand empire to greater heights on a speedy rise from intern to CEO Age: 34 Redefined a foodservice operation based on integrated conscious capitalism PHOTO: ANDREW BEZEK PHOTO: WEST-BOURNE 30 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com 12 under 35