Red Rabbit is the largest Black-owned K-12 school food management company in the United States. Founded in 2005 by former Wall Street trader and MIT graduate Rhys Powell, the company runs full-service cafeteria programs that cook made-from-scratch, culturally relevant meals for students in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - treating good, diverse food for children as an act of social justice.
Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company that runs more than 1,000 cafés and catering operations for corporations, universities, and museums across the United States. Founded in 1987 by Fedele Bauccio and Ernie Collins, it pioneered cooking from scratch in the contract food world and built a reputation as the industry's sustainability conscience - the first major food service company to commit to sustainable seafood, cage-free eggs, antibiotic limits, and tying food choices to climate change. A Compass Group subsidiary since 2002, it operates from Redwood City, California.
Smith is an Asbury Park-based hospitality group that grew out of a 1990s branding and design studio. Beginning in 2006 with Brickwall Tavern, its partners helped restart a stalled downtown, then built a collective of restaurants and bars - Porta, Pascal & Sabine, Homesick, and Lovesick - that pair scratch kitchens with art-filled rooms. Smith treats hospitality as an instrument of urban renewal, designing, branding, and operating each venue in-house.
Spain Salinas is the chief executive at Global Gourmet Catering, the San Francisco caterer that feeds Silicon Valley's biggest companies and largest events. He started as a sous chef in 2004 and worked his way up to running the company, which Apple, Google, Netflix and Salesforce hire when they need restaurant-quality food at stadium scale.