Not sure if there’s a better place to post this, but I wanted to introduce myself in the hopes of connecting with others who might share similar interests!
My name is Mansib, and I’m the CEO of Radish (Radish), based out of Montreal. We’re a restaurant technology and food delivery cooperative that is collectively owned and operated by our restaurant, employee, and consumer members. Our mission is to mutualize the technical needs of the local restaurant sector, including the development of better technology for small and medium-sized restaurants, but also expertise in marketing, HR, accounting, sustainability other areas. Our organization is comprised of nearly a 100 member restaurants, ~60 of which use our delivery services, and the rest either being available on our marketplace platform (wip) or leveraging our SaaS solutions.
We decided to look into CFIN as we’re currently working on some technology-based waste reduction and circular economy initiatives with our restaurant members and they seemed to align with the goals of CFIN and its members.
Personally, I’m also a small-time independent restaurant owner (though previously operated franchise QSRs), as well as a co-founder in Quebec’s first traditional sake brewery (if anyone here has an interest in homegrown Canadian koji, please let me know!).
Eager to learn some names and partake in the collective wisdom of the Canadian food innovation community! P.-S. aussi partant pour en jaser en français !
Radish
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Radish
Une plateforme coopérative pour réunir les restaurants, les livreurs et les gourmands du Québec. Commandez de votre restaurant préféré dès maintenant !
How neat that you are a cooperative and looking to help restaurants address circular economy and food sustainability. We at Flirt Drinks are a circular economy supplier: we provide various R&D solutions to bring in restaurants big and small into the circular economy step-by-step. We started as a circular economy beverage producer (made sodas from recovered fruits), actually, but found that restaurants needed a way to make an impact that did not require completely overhauling their operations. We also knew our role as a producer meant we could supply the restaurants with everything circular food economy, on top of sharing free insights on how to develop circular operations. Our clients so far include the MTY food group (6000+ restaurants), Cookit and some smaller local restaurants. We would be delighted to meet and guide you through circular economy resources.
That’s definitely a compelling argument. One of my businesses produce scraps that we resell to other food processors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake_kasu). I think the opportunity is much larger.
Likewise, I’m happy to learn more about what you have in mind. in regards to collaborations.
Hi Mansib Wonderful to read your introduction and learning about your engagements.
Food waste streams (Precook and post cook items) coming from restuarants can help create circular economy and so spent barley from breweries. Many European countries started banning organic waste going to landfills even from restaurants.
Why send the food scraps to landfill only to cause further landfill stress and emit GHG? Save Money Save Planet!
Mansib, I find your model super interesting. I used to work as a fine dining chef and I am married to a restaurateur so I know how much the foodservice space needs innovation at this point in time.
I recommend you reach out to the folks at Restaurant’s Canada and let Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine know about your work. And, of course, you should connect with @Julie Daigle , your Quebec Regional Innovation Director.
FYI - our comms team may be in touch with you soon. We are working on some plastics reduction content and your interest in waste reduction could offer useful perspective. Look out for a message from @Jamil Karim
In that case, you must totally appreciate how difficult it is for small and medium-sized restaurant businesses to innovate. It’s the last-frontier in my opinion for technology adoption in the greater food serctor.
Is there a point person that you’d recommend I talk to at RC? We’d love to touch base with the greater restaurant ecosystem in Canada.
I’ll definitely take a moment as well to connect with the rest of the CFIN team. cc @Julie Daigle, @Jamil Karim!