(Below is an excerpt from the November/December Issue of el Restaurante Magazine.)
el Restaurante: Who creates the new LTOs?
Goldman: Well, that would be me. One of my hats is corporate chef, so I develop all the menu items and LTO ideations. That’s kind of my passion. I love creating food that people crave and want to come back for. “I look for trends that have been around for a while, that seem to be sticking. That’s when I jump in and say, ‘OK, let’s do one of these.’ I think people have to be familiar with it, have to have heard of it somewhere.” – KEITH GOLDMAN
ER: How do you come up with LTO ideas?
Goldman: I look for trends that have been around for a while, that seem to be sticking. That’s when I jump in and say, ‘OK, let’s do one of these.’ I think people have to be familiar with it, have to have heard of it somewhere. [For example, we did a Korean barbecue taco LTO many years ago] when people were starting to hear about Korean barbecue and lots of Korean barbecue restaurants had opened. So, there was some recognition of what a Korean barbecue was. Sometimes we just do kind of classic Mexican stuff, which people usually take to right away, they understand what that is. I also like to capture what I think is new and relevant out in the market, what fine dining restaurants are doing on a full scale. I like to see how can we do our version of that in a fast casual setting.
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