Two senior living food service veterans have launched a new culinary services company with a goal of using technology and other practices to change senior living culinary programs for the better.

The new company, Restaura Hospitality Group, officially launched Tuesday. Leading its launch is Richard Schenkel, the founder and former CEO of Unidine; and former Sodexo senior executive Joe Cuticelli. The company is taking a technology-centric and employee ownership approach to its business to shake things up in senior living food service contracting.

Richard Schenkel and Joe Cuticelli via Restaura Hospitality Group

“Think of a restaurant approach to dining, and not the typical, ‘Well, we’re going to provide great meals in a dining room,” Schenkel told Senior Housing News.

Restaura is launching with an emphasis on new technology from the start. The plan is to automate whatever the company can from a quality assurance and safety standpoint, such as recording food temperatures, most of which is still done manually, Cuticelli said.

Schenkel and Cuticelli have spent the last 17 months preparing for the launch, and during that time they have developed a system to record consumer sentiment. The system uses five major data points to track dining performance, such as whether residents finished a meal or sending out notifications directly to residents. That approach allows operators to quickly pivot to new dining practices if residents aren’t satisfied, Cuticelli said. Typically, operators collect info on the satisfaction of food delivery on an annual basis.

“On average, a 400 bed continuing care retirement community will get 400 responses annually,” he added. “Our goal is to get at least that per month and to roll up all of that information, and then change our program in real time to reflect the needs and the changing needs of the consumer.”

Cuticelli said the plan also includes utilizing point of sale (POS) system data to identify purchasing patterns using a predictive analytics tool to better understand what consumers are enjoying.

“It’s not just about the food, it’s about the consumer experience as well, and we’re going to measure that in real time,” he said.

The dashboards Restaura utilizes will be shared with clients, which Cuticelli states can share exact resident satisfaction rates.

The goal of taking a technology-first approach when launching the company comes from both Shenkel’s and Cuticelli’s previous experiences within the industry, where new technologies would be accepted, but would be difficult to roll out across the entire organization, largely due to costs and training purposes.

Restaura is also taking a more unique approach to lowering turnover within its company from the start by offering an employee ownership model. According to a press release, employees will have a 30% ownership stake in the company.

“I think it’s the right thing to do to be able to exceed the guest and the client’s expectations,” Schenkel said. “Can you imagine that when a chef or a cook looks at food waste differently and says, ‘This is my money. It’s not their money. These are my customers. They’re not the company’s customers.’ I just think it sets a very different DNA.”

Employees will earn additional money as the company grows, similar to owning stock, Schenkel said.

Alongside the ownership stake, employees will receive additional education and training on how to manage their ownership within the company. Additionally, technology plays a factor into employee engagement as well, with Cuticelli noting all employees will have direct lines of communication to executive leadership in order to let their voices be heard.

While Restaura doesn’t have any clients currently lined up with the launch, both Schenkel and Cuticelli said they see a need the company can fit for senior housing.

“This is very personal for me and Richard,” Cuticelli said. “We really saw that there was a gap and a need in the marketplace, and we are trying to meet a consumer need. We have spent a lot of time, energy and money building something, because we think the market desperately needs a new player.”