Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Chef Patrick Mulvaney started his culinary career in 1985 apprenticing with renowned European chefs. Since then, he has worked in numerous restaurants throughout the country before settling in Sacramento, CA where he opened Mulvaney's B&L in 2006. In addition to leading the "farm to fork" movement in Sacramento, Mulvaney is a leading advocate for Domestic Violence, Mental Health, and Suicide Preve...

After graduating from Stanford, Will decided to go to culinary school instead of medical school. From there he went on to join the opening team of Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York City. Following NYC he would come back to California to cook at The French Laundry in Yountville. Eventually, Thomas Keller saw Will's talent for tech and asked him to run all of IT for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Gro...

Chef Staffan Terje was born, raised, AND trained in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1982, after working in Stockholm for a few years, Staffan was offered a job in Sarasota, Florida. His plan was to work for a year in the states. He never left. In 1988, the lure of Italian cuisine called and Staffan joined Piatti Ristorante in Yountville, Napa Valley. Promoted quickly, he was soon responsible for new restaur...

New Jersey native, Andrew Freeman, Graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in Marketing. Freeman went on to learn the restaurant business by working through the ranks at several legendary New York venues including Windows on the World,  the Russian Tea Room, and the Rainbow Room. This experience set Andrew up to serve as Vice President of Public Relations and Strategic Partnerships...

In 2004 the Young family bet it all to purchase the Squeeze In restaurant in Truckee California. Business advisors told the family to run away from the deal but they had a passion and a whole lotta grit and have now grown the company to 8 figures with 12 locations in 4 states. With parents now retired, daughters Shila and Kay run the company and continue to build the brand with aspirations for mor...

The Cheese Board in Reno, NV was founded in 1981 by Debbie Branby. Nearly 40 years later, in 2017, after about a decade of working at the Cheese Board for Debbie, sisters Krista Kintop Phillips and Caitlin Kintop Fletcher purchased their place of employment. The transition from employee to owner hasn't been easy, but they have handled it with grace. Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: "W...

Raised outside Sacramento, CA Chef Brad Cecchi is a graduate of the Culinary Arts program at American River College and the Culinary Institute of America. He would go on to spend the next 7 years working between Sacramento's Mulvaney's and Grange restaurants. Next, Cecchi made the move to Cleveland, OH where he held the executive chef position at Urban Farmer and the Westin Downtown. In 2016 Cecch...

Umberto Gibin was born in Venice, Italy and began to learn the hospitality trade at several prestigious European restaurants and hotels. In 1979 he took his hospitality career to California where he got to work for a handful of leading restaurants in the Bay Area and LA. With this experience, he went on to serve as one of the founding team members of Il Fornaio , which he helped scale to six locat...

A University of Waterloo dropout, leveraged his software engineering skills for both Facebook and Google before he co-founded  Zenreach , a wifi marking platform, in 2012. Today, in addition to being a co-founder, Umezawa serves as Head of Product for Zenreach . Our focus: the current state and future of wifi marking.  Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: "The future is not something that...

Chef Patricio Wise was born and raised in a large family in Monterrey, Mexico, where cooking for big parties was an everyday social affair. After a successful career in finance, Wise, who is self-trained in the culinary world began hosting pop-ups at local Farmers' Markets and Breweries. It was so successful that he secured and established a brick and mortar location, Nixtaco Mexican Kitchen , wit...

Jessica Marshall is a talented restaurant designer with 15 years of experience. Her company, Brass Rose Studios , is based out of the Sacramento, California area. Today will be a deep dive conversation regarding the 3 most common restaurant design mistakes . Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: "Live it!" The 3 Most Common Restaurant Design Mistakes are: Getting into a lease and not under...

Chef Oliver Ridgeway, was born and raised in Sussex, England. For Ridgeway, life in the kitchen began in his father's restaurant, where his own passion began to emerge. After studying cooking at Crawley College, Ridgeway worked in multiple hotels and even a cruise ship before landing in U.S. where he held multiple chef positions and even cooked for VIP's during the Olympics. In 2011 Ridgeway made...

Boulder City, NV, native, Chef Michael Thiemann, got his industry start in the city that raised him, Sacramento, CA. He went on to work all over the world, including New Zealand, Hawaii, and San Francisco. After Serving as the right-hand-man to Chef Tyler Florence, Thiemann returned to his home city of Sacramento, where one year later he opened his first Restaurant Mother , which was followed by E...

After attending the Scottsdale Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Chef Justin Brunson Scored an internship with Chef Michael DiMaria at Michael's at the Citadel. In 2004 Brunson made the move to Denver, CO where over the next 4 years he worked with key mentors Richard Sandoval, Frank Bonanno, and Alex Seidel. In 2008 Brunson opened Masterpiece Delicatessen to rave reviews. The Delicatessen w...

Originating from Denver's Five Points Community, Matt Selby got his start in the restaurant industry at the once-popular, Rattlesnake Grill. His skill in the kitchen and ability to lead others was quickly recognized by those in the industry. It was clear opportunities were inevitable. Those Opportunities came in 1997 when Selby was approached by Josh Wolkon to Join Vesta, a Secret Sauce restaurant...

As a teenager, Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson starting working in restaurants St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from Colorado State University, Mackinnon-Patterson set out to fulfill a dream and moved to Paris in 1999. He obtained his Certificate d'Aptitude Professionnelle at the renowned Ecole Gregoire-Ferrandi. Upon returning to the states in 2001, he worked at Thomas Keller's The French Laundr...

Born in San Diego, Eric Skokan was raised in Virginia and is a graduate of The University Virginia. Upon graduation Skokan traveled, working in some of the nation's greatest kitchens. In  2006, Skokan, and his wife, Jill, opened Black Cat Farm Table Bistro , which was following by the 130-acre, Certified Organic, Black Cat Farm , one year later. In 2012  the couple opened their second restaurant,...

In this episode, I went solo! What a year it's been! I had some big plans and frankly... I fell short. I'll take you through how through the last year, what I've learned from my experiences, and how I want the future of Restaurant Unstoppable to look. Additionally, I share my vision for the future. I' d like Restaurant Unstoppable to grow beyond just myself. The way you grow anything is by injecti...

Over the last two decades, Robert Thompson, has opened more than a dozen restaurant concepts, experiencing a number of successes and a few failures. At one point, Thompson was ready to get out of the restaurant industry completely. However, his irrational stubbornness had other thoughts. Thompson decided to give everything he had – personally and financially - to develop a new dining and entertain...

Triplets Jessica, Jill, and Jennifer Emich came into this world, in that order, by way of New Jersey. All three would go on to attend the University of Nevada- Los Vegas. Two of the sisters got degrees in Hotel and Restaurant Management while Jennifer focused on Elementry ed. Eventually, the sisters found their way to Boulder, CO. In 2000 they opened their first restaurant Trilogy Wine Bar, which...

As the founder of Rudy Miick consulting group, Rudy has thirty years and more than 1,600 successful projects under his belt. Rudy's focus is on leadership development, sales building, and profitability. His methodology is driven by the creation of vibrant, values-based business cultures, no matter the industry. Today we're here to discuss the inevitability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how y...

Chef Steve Redzikoski caught the industry bug slinging pies in New York's Long Island. After graduating from culinary school, Redzikoski got to work in some of NYC's best restaurants before making the move west for an opportunity at Little Nell, in Aspen, CO. He spent the next 4 years further refining his skills at Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, CO, as well as Cyrus Restaurant, in Napa Valley, CA,...

Albuquerque native, Tanya Sanchez, developed a passion for food at a young age while cooking with her father. Her dreams of becoming a restaurant owner began to bubble up during her years as a college student working in both corporate and independent restaurant settings. Fast forward through 10 years in marketing, design, and as a small landscaping business owner, and it was time for Sanchez to ta...

French-born Damien Watel got his start in the restaurant industry at the age of 25 working for his uncle's two Dallas restaurants. In 1999 Chef Watel opened Bistro Vatel, which had an 18-year run and earned Watel recognition as one of the great chefs in the nation, before closing in 2017. Chef Watel's most recent project, Bistr09 ,  is the ninth restaurant project Chef Damien Watel has undertaken...

Chef/Owner Lisa Astorga-Watel grew up in Santiago, Chile, before moving to Houston, Texas where she attended The Culinary Art Institute. Astorga-Watel's ambition started early wit the opening of her own catering business to cover her expenses while in school. Following her formal training, she served as a private chef for celebrity, Tommy Lee Jones. It was during this time in her career she was ab...