Food Is Not A Widget, with Mirit Cohen of Adobe

Mirit Cohen was “executive chef” of her family’s large dinner gatherings long before becoming Executive Chef at Google and Adobe, as well as CEO of her own “daily foodservice” business. Now Adobe’s Global Workplace Experience Programs Manager, Mirit shares her advice about the importance of identifying your market, the hazards of scaling too quickly, the right way to shut down a business, and why she believes sharing a meal is the original social networking.

Links and Show Notes

• Adobe
• Gastronaut
• Eat Retreat—“A creative retreat and national community of food leaders”
• Bernal Heights, SF
• Passover—“a commemoration of [Jews’] liberation by God from slavery in ancient Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.”
• Gefilte fish—“a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as carp, whitefish, or pike. It is traditionally served as an appetizer by Ashkenazi Jewish households.…popular on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays such as Passover.”
• Matzah balls (or matzo balls)—“Jewish soup dumplings made from a mixture of matzah meal, beaten eggs, water, and a fat, such as oil, margarine, or chicken fat. Matzah balls are traditionally served in chicken soup and are a staple food on the Jewish holiday of Passover.”
• Purim—“a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, an Achaemenid Persian Empire official who was planning to kill all the Jews, as recounted in the Book of Esther.”
• Kibbutz—“a collective community in Israel… began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism.”
• Fake it till you make it
• Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, founder and CEO of Square.
• Executive Chef—“The very top of the kitchen management structure. Only the largest establishments have an executive chef, and it is primarily a management role; executive chefs are often responsible for the operation of multiple outlets, and thus they do very little actual cooking!”
• Green Monday
• Meatless Monday
• Earth Day
• Plant-based meals
• reThink Food—“brings together a diverse group of thought leaders and innovators at the intersection of technology, behavior, design, and food. Our mission: to explore how areas such as big data, social networking, mobile computing, behavioral economics, marketing, neuroscience, agriculture, and culinary insight and strategy are radically changing food markets, systems, and our understanding of consumer choices.”
• La Cocina—“a nonprofit working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants and people of color.”
• SFMade—“build and support a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco that sustains companies producing locally-made products, encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and creates employment opportunities for a diverse local workforce.”
• AndyTown Roasters
• Eat Club—“a virtual cafeteria that can satisfy everyone’s tastes by delivering personalized, delicious meals to office teams.”
• Amanda Hersh of Mighty Forces
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—“used to study how humans intrinsically partake in behavioral motivation. Maslow used the terms ‘physiological’, ‘safety’, ‘belonging and love’, ‘social needs’ or ‘esteem’, and ‘self-actualization’ to describe the pattern through which human motivations generally move. This means that in order for motivation to occur at the next level, each level must be satisfied within the individual themselves.”
• Microplane (Amazon)
• Immersion circulator (Amazon)

Our thanks to Mirit Cohen for joining us. You can find Mirit's articles on LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening. You can follow us on Twitter:

• Lettuce Wrap (@lettucewrappod)
• Christine Doerr (@christinedoerr)
• Tammy Tan (@spicehound)

or email us at lettucerwrappod@gmail.com.

That’s a wrap!

Amazon and other links may be affiliates. Purchases help support the show.