Profile: Micah Cavolo, Executive Chef, Bon Appétit Management Company
Micah Cavolo is the Executive Chef with Bon Appétit Management Company @ Intel Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Background
Micah has been with Bon Appetit for the past 15 years and at Intel for the past six. He has a long history in corporate foodservice and has been in the culinary industry for 20 plus years. His first job with Bon Appetit was at a small college in Scotts Valley, California. He then moved on Stanford University, where he became interested in the impact of food scraps on the environment. He started a composting system there as well as at his next two accounts, Pacific University in Stockton, California and at Intel in Oregon.
Experience with Waste Tracking
Chef Micah has been using LeanPath’s ValuWaste system for about a year. He reports that the system has raised awareness in the kitchen of how much product was being wasted. It has allowed his team to focus on problem areas and implement traceable results. In fact, he believes the best part of the program is the traceability back to underlying waste causes.
Initial Expectations
As with many chef customers, he was not sure what to expect from ValuWaste at the onset, but “has been very pleased with the information that I was able to get from the program”.
His biggest surprise about automated food waste tracking? “I was surprised at the steady lowering of waste as it was projected over the duration of the program. It is still going down, which makes me wonder where the bottom will be… zero waste?”
Recommendations
His advice to managers starting or already using the program is to “Be diligent at the scale. Make sure your staff understands the importance of weighing everything that goes in the trash/compost. Use positive reinforcement to get the staff involved.”
Takeaways
Chef Micah believes that they “made great strides in reduction of batch cooked foods and beverages that would have gone unnoticed into the compost. But thanks to the ValuWaste program it made us examine and come up with a solution that in the end saved us money and time.”
