Restaurant resilience: From off-premise challenges to engaging a changed consumer

"Brooke Brantley has been a chef for more than 20 years, having led kitchens in restaurants, resorts and private clubs around the country. He is currently the Director of Culinary for McCain Foods, the world’s largest producer of frozen potato and appetizer products. In addition to developing new items with McCain’s innovation group - from early concepting through marketing and commercialization - his culinary team also works closely with restaurant operators on menu applications and operations once those items are in the marketplace.

Brooke is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, sits on the school’s Alumni Council and the Society of Fellows and is a member of the Research Chefs Association. Before following his passion for cooking, he was an award-winning videographer, editor and television director."

As Director of Consumer & Industry Insights, Robert manages Ignite Consumer, Technomic’s ongoing chain brand health and foodservice consumer attitude and usage tracking program. Since joining Technomic in 2012, he has worked closely with both operator and supplier clients to tackle tough business questions and help shape their strategy and approach through data-driven insights. Robert has led efforts to incorporate and overlay multiple Technomic data sources to identify correlations between guest experience and financial metrics, and to derive consumer opportunity assessments across distinct restaurant user groups.

Heather Lalley is an editor with Winsight's Foodservice Group, covering emerging restaurant concepts for Restaurant Business magazine and RB Online. She also works with Winsight's sister company Technomic to produce research-based reports on emerging restaurants and chains.

Heather spent nearly a decade as a reporter for the daily newspaper in Spokane, Wash. She is the author of "The Chicago Homegrown Cookbook," about chefs who work with area farmers. She holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the two-year baking and pastry program at Washburne Culinary Institute in Chicago.

She is the mother of two children and rarely passes up a chance to eat tater tots.