Impact & Insight: Entrepreneur, Author and Restaurant Industry Insider Faith Wheeler

Faith Wheeler is known as the "Restaurant Doctor,” and is the creative force behind icons like The Slanted Door, Town Hall, and Salt House. She now has added author to her impressive bio, publishing Chickens Don't Fly. 

The gorgeous book is part memoir, part cookbook and part love letter to living fearlessly and loving what you do.

Faith knows the power of the pivot and the importance of redefining your career at any stage.

Find Chickens Don't Fly at the following retailers:

⁠www.chickens⁠⁠dontfly.com⁠⁠

⁠hudsongrace.com

Find more at www.thealexandergroup.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

I think it's beautiful to encourage people to eat new food and get them excited and make dining a part, one of the greatest parts of life. So I intentionally included the people that either inspired me to make the dish or showed me the first version of the dish. And then not just making a little long pa book, but making a beautiful ashylene quality 220-page coffee table book that I call a kitchen table book.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Hello, I am Jane House, and one of the reasons we started our podcast was to give us as a firm the opportunity to talk to leaders, people who have had influence on us, and people we admire. And I've never been more happy to have my friend Faith Wheeler on today. Faith is an entrepreneur, she's an author, and she's a what people would call the restaurant doctor, in that her career in hospitality has impacted and set many a restaurant on its path to success. Faith, welcome to Impact and Insight. Thank you, Dave. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Well, Faith, I want to talk about your career in the hospitality industry. Can you talk about how you started and how you got to where you are today? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

So my career started in my 20s in advertising. And while in advertising I wasn't in the food space, I had always loved food. So somewhere in the back of my brain, I always wanted to work in the food space and yet in marketing as well. So when I moved to the Bay Area way back in 1987, um, I went from working at Dole Foods for a little bit as a marketer to Spectrum Foods, which was a $60 million white tablecloth restaurant company. Anyone from the Bay Area knew their brands, um, MacArthur Park and Chow Prego. These were really iconic brands of the 80s. And my job was to pump life back into them. So I had 16 different restaurants, and I just loved that job so much. And I think to be young and to be so enthusiastic about your job that you can work all day and all night and never complain, you know you're in the right industry. Um, so that that would have gone on forever had I not chosen to have a baby. And um, as my husband aptly said, there was a new sheriff in town, and so it was time to reconsider my nights in the restaurants. So I started my own company, and Faith Miller and Company was fortunate to pick up all the general managers that were ready to start their own stores, and the reputation I had for bringing Spectrum to life really carried on, and one by one, um, I was able to grow the brand and find some pretty iconic clients along the way.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Well, where did I mean, if you talk to people in San Francisco, Faith Wheeler, the restaurant doctor, how did that moniker come about?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Um, I think a chef might have said, Hey, doctor, to me once because there's a wonderful story from Town Hall where Mitchell Rosenthal had hired me to do PR. And meanwhile, the general manager, Doug Washington, had asked me to look at the menu because I was very good at analyzing menus. So I came back and I said, you know, this menu doesn't have any cheese on it. And I think that's a mistake. The public loves cheese. You know, I had learned you could melt cheese on a shoe and someone would eat it. Um, so the chef was angry at me, he didn't want to hear my edits. And meanwhile, he went back to the lab and he put on a dish. I think he named it after me. He called it like Faith's melted cheese toast, and it became the number one selling item on the menu. So that piece made him say, Okay, doctor, let's talk. Um, I did, I knew what the public wanted, and I think my empathy for people and what they wanted was really my secret sauce.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Oh, ask so leaning off of that, what makes a restaurant great? Um, knowing what people want.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

You know, restaurant managers open thinking if we build it, they will come. And they learn that's just not true. And sadly, they spend a lot of money learning that the hard way. Um, understanding your customer is so important that no matter how much research you do, you learn that the number one thing that a customer wants, do you want to guess? Service recognition. Oh, that's very interesting. Yep, recognition. So if you go to the same restaurant many times and no one notices that you're there, you're less apt to care for the place versus if you get a warm embrace, if someone brings you your favorite cocktail, if someone touches your table when you arrive. Honestly, that is a successful restaurant's key qualifier to stay in business. Because as trends come and go, it's essential that you have what I would call the nucleus customer that sticks with you through thick and thin. And the only way to get that customer is to embrace them and give them a little mini vacation of being pampered for the one and a half hours of service that they are there.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Interesting. Um, can you have mediocre food with great service and still have a successful restaurant?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Probably not over time, although mediocre is interesting. Um, you certainly can't have stale food. You certainly can't have things coming back, you certainly can't have inconsistency. The word mediocre to you might be very different than the word mediocre to me. Um, you know, I'll use Houston's as an example, or you know, the old Houston's brand, which has done enormously well. Um, and I would argue they've done well because of their value and their consistency and all the pieces of the puzzle they've really pulled together, but they won't astound me with what they serve. Now, is that mediocre? Well, to someone like me, I would like to learn a little bit when I go in. I want to find something new, I want to discover something a little different. So everyone's taste is going to prevail, but all the pieces of the puzzle do need to come together for a restaurant to outlast its competition. You know, they say restaurant years are like dog years. So it's hard for a restaurant to really outlast the competition competition. You need all the pieces together: consistency, good strong food program, um, that warm embrace, that terrific service, comfortable chairs, you know, it all comes together.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Well, I'm curious because obviously we're in the recruiting business and we talk about culture and turnover. Does a restaurant success hinge on the longevity of the white staff, the cooks, the chefs?

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Oh, that's an interesting question. Um I would say that one can't count on all of those people as being lifers unless they're part owners of that store. I do think the front of the house especially turns over often. You might have a GM who kicks around for a long time, but I wouldn't, if I were building the brand from scratch, I would only expect my partners to stick with me forever. Um that's kind of the nature of the business. Now I would hope I could um grow the business within. So for example, if my chef leaves, I would hope my first in-line cook would take that role. And therefore, to the consumer, um, hopefully they wouldn't notice the difference if the exact same dishes were being made night after night with some new tweaks. Um, it's terrific when everyone stays in place, but it is rare. Yeah, it really is rare. It's a hard business, it's long hours, and to work for someone else, sometimes you you rethink um how you want to divide your time or start your own thing. Right, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Well, I want to talk about the power of the pivot. We talk to executives many times who say, Oh, I'd love to do something different, I'd love to use my talents in a different way. And you have done just that. Can you talk about how your book, Chickens Don't Fly, came about and what influenced the pivot?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

That's so good. Um I guess I I listened carefully when you said that, and you said others you speak to say I'd love. That's the first problem.

unknown 10:21

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Because if you say I would love, that means somewhere in your brain, you don't think you can. It's a conditional I would love, like Drats, if I could only. So I think my version of how I go from one idea to the next is I will. Not I would love, but I'm going to somehow, somehow. Um, I'm not even sure I see my career moves as pivots. I see them as the new bloom on the plant. So they're all kind of interrelated, but they become the next piece that forms from the piece before. Um, you know, writing a book was something that was in my brain for 30 years, and I got kicked around a lot because I didn't want to be an internet star. And I thought those days were long gone. I mean, I did have a production company before there was an Instagram, so I was producing things, but I just said I will. I don't know how, but I will. I can't find a publisher, but I will. Um I think pivoting, as you call it, or even realizing your dreams, starts from an undying feeling that you must.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah. Well, you know, Faith, the one thing that I love about the book is there's an underlying resonance of courage on every chapter, of courage to try something new, courage to move to San Francisco. And I think a lot of people are going, well, I'd really like to, and maybe they don't think they can. And you thought you could, and it is a pivot, but a pivot using your talents in a different, more a different creative way, which is which is, I think, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah, you know, if someone says I'd love to do something, what it probably means is they can, it's in them somewhere because they're having a wish, and they're not going to wish on something that they probably can't do. Something else in their brain, probably the rational side keeps them back. The courage comes from the heart. If you read the book, I'm very big on the word courage. It starts with cure, which is French for heart. Yes, and you know, heart, and as you know, me and my green, the first chakra to the heart. Um, I think your heart drives, and I let my gut and my heart drive. That separates me from many rational people.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Well, and so what did you do first? Did the recipes come first? Did the history and the pictures are just stupendous? Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Um, well, the recipes have been kicking around for a very long time. Um, so yes, I had been modifying recipes forever and ever and ever. Some of those recipes beg back to my childhood, which is why you could call the book an evergreen book. Um, some of the recipes have been iterated from chefs that I worked with, and uh, etc. etc. So the the bank of recipes came first. The stories are based on the seven locations um that I either lived or places that influenced my cooking. And each of those locations I found a real good food story, I think, to go with it. And so it was easy to break the book up in locations and let the recipes follow the stories.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Well, I really like the way you included people in the stories. And I must admit that I love the piece about fried rice and me because I've never eaten fried rice in my life till you, and it's it is the best thing. It's my favorite food of all time now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Oh, so sweet. Yes, I have Jane's fried rice. I have a picture right there. Yes, I um I think it's beautiful to encourage people to eat new food and get them excited and make dining a part of one of the greatest parts of life. So I intentionally included the people that either inspired me to make the dish or showed me the first version of the dish. And yeah, I begged back to college where you know Dabney's pumpkin bread. I mean, I I had so much fun asking Dabney if I could put that in there and sending it off, and then not just making a little lawn paw book, but making a beautiful acine quality 220-page coffee table book that I call a kitchen table book.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Well, how long did it take once you started and you found the publisher? How long, how long did it take? Um, about a year.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Start to finish, which is really something. I I had started writing it before that, of course, but the assembly, the editing, the art direction, um, it took about a year, months to print, of course. It's printed in Italy in Faenza, and it's high quality, so it's all linen-bound. I'm very excited about it, actually. It's it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

We're gonna show our viewers pictures of it when we play this back and the paper in the book, the book, it's just something you look at again and again. And I'm curious, what have you learned now about publishing a book and being an author and your wally successful book tour? What have you learned about it that you'll do for I'm hoping, your next book?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Okay, let's see. That's just very promising. Um, I've learned how much work it is to write a book, how granular it is to sit in front of that computer, especially when they're working with recipes, the detail, no matter how many times you read it over and over and over, ensuring that every little detail is meticulous. That was a lot, and I think no one should enter into publishing um willy-nilly because it will upend the rest of their life. They will have to be focused very diligently on that piece. Now, if I did another book and let's say it were a novel or something, it would be a different set of tools you would need. But to turn my kitchen into a test kitchen, and there were times I did six setups in a day, which is just crazy. Flying all over the place to get the right shots, a lot of um organization. And my fantastic photographer, Clay McLachlan, who lives in Italy, you know, who got a call in October. We don't have enough assets, we've got to go to New York and Nashville. And what? We've been working on this for six months. How can that be? And there he was meeting me in New York and Nashville for a three-day turnaround to get more photos. So, you know, it's a it's a big project when you're working on a four-color book with over a hundred photos and recipes. Uh if I did it again, um, I would sure have well, first I did another vision because this was everything I thought of in one. Um, but I would probably have a lot more knowledge of the commitment.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah. Well, you had such uh I saw some of the pictures of your book signings, and the books flew off the shelves. I know that's true. They flew off the shelves, and I'm wondering the people that came to your book signings and bought the book, were they cooks or were they book lovers or were they both?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Great question. So the reason I call it Chickens Don't Fly a Kitchen Table Book is I created that moniker because this is a coffee table book, cookbook, and memoir in one. It's for readers, browsers, and makers. So not everyone cooks. And yes, they don't. Yes, that's true. People sit in the kitchen, people love to sit in the kitchen. Why were there coffee table books but never a kitchen table book for your counter? So I intentionally made a very soft colored, neutral color book that you could keep in your kitchen so people could browse, read, or maybe take a shot of a recipe and bring it home and make it. And I think my success has been based on that broader audience. Um, it's a fantastic gift item. And as we head into the holidays, I look forward to I have three more signings coming up. I've had, I think, eight, and I love the signings because I get to meet people and take them through my journey and encourage them to dream and follow their dreams. So this book is less about food in the end, although food is my muse, and it is more about courage.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Well, that leads me to asking you what where are your next book signings? And I hope New York or the East Coast because it's so prominent and so beautifully photographed in the book.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Thank you. Um, yes, New York City. I'm all lined up at Hudson Grace there on the 17th of September. The 18th of September, I'm in Greenwich, Connecticut. Another Hudson Grace opportunity. And the first of October, I'm in a brand new store for me called Books by the Bay, which is a Sauce Alito bookstore, which is terrific. They also have a wonderful 501 C food called Literacy by the Bay, um, which is a wonderful cause. I'm very excited about that. So, yeah, I keep the best part about the book signings is the chance to meet people, to talk to them, to learn about them, to learn about what their dreams are. And just like you opened and said, Some people said, I would love to, or whatever you said, I will.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yes, so well, you're you're kind of the person who said I would love to, and I will. Then I think people are attracted to people who've done that, who've turned I could to I I will, and I it's just so wonderful. And I will tell you that um talking to some of our staff today, um, they bought the book um for a belated Mother's Day. Um, they bought the book for birthday. Uh, they bought it for somebody who loves to cook, but also someone who likes to travel and see beautiful pictures.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah, that's great. That's the best news of all. Um, I it thrills me to pieces that people are loving this and they're willing to share their love of it with friends and family. Um, because I I guess my dream is to find it all over the world somehow, you know, to be in a random place and say, wow, I'm just learning. Yeah, here's my book.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Oh, that's wonderful. So is there a recipe in the book that you have cooked in the last month?

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Jane, I I'd be blind to you. I have not cooked that much in the last month. Oh, you've been traveling. You traveled so much, yes. I have been traveling. Um, I would say possibly the most recent may have been maybe shrimp and grits. I love shrimp and grits.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Oh even you might oh no, you're not. Uh the grits, yes. The shrimp, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

No, that's almost. I almost died, PJ. Oh my gosh. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

I hope to find something else. And so um, if you I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Um, you've got a final meal that you can have in New York. Where is it going to be?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Oh, so I'm gonna die. This is my last thought of it.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Well, yeah, well, let's say this you get to choose. Um no, you're not, you're gonna write more books. You're not gonna die. You're you're gonna you should get a TV show. You're not gonna die. But um, where's the one place that you go in New York that you that is first on your list?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

No, I just don't have an answer, and I'll tell you why. Throughout my entire career, people have asked me, what is your one favorite restaurant in this particular location? New York, San Francisco, LA. And I've always pushed back because I think, what is it that you want when you go to that restaurant? Because for me, if I want to show up in shorts, the answer is going to be different than if I want to get all dressed up and look fabulous. Like the girl in New York is so fun. If you want to feel like you're in the thick of this, you know, beautiful, glowy, expensive restaurant. But it might not be your Monday night idea. You know, you'd rather go downtown and go to King, which is a cute little spot in the village, and then you can just roll in in a t-shirt. So there can't be a sing or Raul's one of my all-time favorites, which is in the book. Um, yes, I'd love it to be that, but it's hard to get in. So, you know, I don't I I can't um live and die by a single restaurant solution. I think for me, I can always pivot and have several solutions because I do love great food all over New York City, and there is so much of it, and they're always new places I want to try.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Well, and that leads me to how, and you know, the times I've eaten out with you, you've never not done found some jewel of a even if it's takeout food, you just have a gift of sniffing out good food. How do you find some of the places because you you aren't just going to the folders and looking at the best restaurants, you are sniffing out fine, discovering places. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Um, I do read a lot um in the food space for sure, and um probably I I look for signatures, so I'm the sort of person that will go back to the same restaurant over and over for that one dish I love. You know, it cook in in St. Helena. He makes the best eggplant parjan, and once I find it, that's all I want when I go there. So I think what I do is I ask myself what flavor I feel like, you know, what genre, and then probably do some digging. You know, it's kind of fun sometimes when you have a specific dish in mind to try to go on that Odyssey to find the best version of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

And what um what city is next on your travel list?

SPEAKER_00 26:56

As far as just where am I going? Yeah, good yeah, yeah. Um, well, let's see. I guess my next trip is to Italy. Oh, so my next city will be Rome. And I am so cut, in fact, thank you, Danny Meyer. I asked him his favorite restaurants in Rome, and his list is longer than my nights there. Um I I I will be very sad not to have enough evenings in Rome to eat at at least 10 restaurants. We're only there a few nights, but there is not a lot of Italian food in this book, which is really ironic. I had so many Italian restaurants over the course of my career, and I had so many Italian general managers and owners that I didn't even understand because they had such thick accents. And the reason I didn't touch Italy is because it's so vast. So if I did another book, I joke, it'll be called I Forgot Italy.

unknown 28:00

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

I love that. When you were sitting and talking about Italy, I was thinking, oh, that would be your that would be a great book.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

I forgot that there well but there's so much, there's so much. I mean, each region has such a different cuisine, and so many great authors have covered Italy that it's not the most original idea.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

So yeah, but the your pictures, the whole uh discovery would be great. And if people watching the podcast want to buy the book, how do they order the book?

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Um, so there are two ways, two easy ways. One is I do have a website, chickensdon'fly.com, which is the funny name of the book. Um, and it doesn't look like this. I might show it, but it does look like this. Oh, excellent. And it is beautiful, I must say. Anyway, um, the other way to order it is Hudson Grace.

unknown 29:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Um, and Hudson Grace also has an internet. Not only can you go in the store, but uh Hudson Grace sells it online as well. So if you want to buy more than just a book, you can go to Hudson Grace, or if you want me to fulfill it personally, you can go to chickens.com. And if you'd like, I can sign those. If they oh, that would be wonderful. On the website, I'll sign those. So that'll be a signed copy. So we shall see.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Excellent, excellent. Well, and I know when when you come to Houston next time, people will want they'll want their own little um autograph session at the office. So that would be wonderful. Well, Faith, this has been so nice, and I'm I'm we just we all know you, and we are so thrilled and impressed with you. You're thrilled with the book, impressed with what you've accomplished. You've really made a map for a lot of people in doing so.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Oh, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here, and you inspire me every day because talk about someone who says, I will. Your ever-ready battery way of doing anything you set your mind to, it blows my mind. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Well, and I will close with I will eat your fried rice every day, and and be very, very happy. Well, thank you again, Faith, for being on Impact and Insight.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Okay, Jay, thank you.