RESTAURANT CONSULTING - Key Persons

Jessica Valiant is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist specializing in culinary plant-based, whole, fresh foods. Having grown up in the restaurant biz, Jessica found her niche at age 30 apprenticing with a natural foods chef and developing a special interest in raw food. Soon after, she became a trail-blazer in the healthy food industry by opening Rawlicious; the first Raw & Vegan restaurant in her home-town city of Barrie, ON years before a single Vegetarian establishment existed. Recognized for her efforts, Jessica was awarded "Best New Vegetarian Restaurant" consecutively, year after year while in business. Jessica writes, lectures, facilitates workshops and cooking classes and executes food and cleanse programs for plant-based, raw/vegan food and healthy living. Her work has been featured in print & digital media and TV. Jessica has a keen eye for recognizing up and coming food trends and executing business ideas to capitalize on the growing demands of consumers. In 2014, after 3 years running her restaurant, she spotted an opportunity and without missing a beat jumped on it. Jessica was the key initiator in the growth and development of Boon Burger, Canada's first all-vegan burger café by convincingly co-partnering with the Manitoba owners to bring Boon into the Ontario marketplace; later growing from two corporate stores into a multi-franchise establishment. Jessica is a tireless champion for bringing healthy food to the masses. She travels the world with intentional curiosity as she gains insight into the food landscape of other cultures and regions. This knowledge translates into understanding global consumer demand, providing solutions to meet their needs, while keeping her pulse on the changing industry.

Job Titles:

• Expert Franchise Consultant

A graduate of International Touring University in business administration, Jose Luis began his management career with Holiday Inn - Mexico and El Presidente, another well known and successful national chain. In 1985, he joined the management team at KFC - Mexico as a Franchise Manager. After being promoted to National Training & Development Manager and Director of Operation. Jose Luis has held senior roles in operation and franchise areas. In 1999, he moves to Canada and he began working with various Canadian and American chains including being a Multi-Unit Franchise Manager for White Spot; one of Canada's western largest casual dinner restaurants and start developing non-traditional concepts for their Triple O's burger chain, after that he is heading up to a new development for an American franchise quick service chain; Subway. Jose Luis started developing franchise food concept since 2005 has developed franchisees in more than 30 countries and performing franchise seminars, courses, and stores set-ups. Also developing food concepts models as Zebatta Healthy Bistro, Gogrill, Pure Health, Yogood, Casa Maria, Earth Hand crafted Cold - pressed juices, among others. All this hands-on & operation knowledge is one of his advantages what allow him to understand and provide the assistance what you are looking for in order to take your business into another level.

Job Titles:

• Senior Restaurant Consultant

Tom's passion for restaurants started from the ground up learning the back of the kitchen as a dishwasher and over a short few years, maintained a management position -this is where he immediately got hooked on the pace, hospitality and multifaceted challenges in the business, while working for various independent full-service restaurants all while he was working on completing his education in Business Administration at Humber College. His passion for restaurants and strong business acumen followed after college as he entered into a management role and quickly into an operating partner of O'Toole's Roadhouse (known today as Sir Corp). Four years later, Tom then ventured into the quick service restaurants industry as an owner of two Pizza Pizza franchises. Operating two stores running for over eight years successfully exceeded more than one million dollars in sales per year, while maintaining a ranking in the top five restaurants in operations across Canada. Additionally, Tom was instrumental in implementing the "30 Minutes or Free" delivery initiative. Self-motivated and driven, Tom got back into full-service restaurants, but this time as a savvy entrepreneur. He started up a popular local restaurant and sports bar, Whiskey Jack's Sports Bar & Grill, successfully exceeding more than one million dollars in sales per year. Tom continued his passion for restaurants but this time shifting into the quick service segment, spending seven years with the international brand Wendy's/Tim Horton's. In 2004, Tom joined the Quiznos franchise. At the time, the chain had 150 restaurants and Tom became an integral member of a team that grew to over 400 locations, including opening 100 in a single year.