Bon Appétit Management Company

One wonders how we ever ended up where we are today. We never voted or ever had a conscious say on the transformation of agriculture from what it used to be to what it has become.

The Art Institute of Chicago hosts hundreds of high-profile events throughout the year, but one of the hottest tickets this spring was the inaugural Chef ’s Playground benefit for the Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC).

Bon Appétit Management Company doesn’t generally cater outside the campuses where we have kitchens. But when CEO Fedele Bauccio was invited to give the keynote address at a very special awards ceremony held by the Association for Corporate Growth – Silicon Valley chapter (ACG-SV) at San Jose’s Computer Science History Museum, we couldn’t possibly let the 300 Silicon Valley CEOs and executives who were attending (many of them Bon Appétit clients) dine on anyone else’s food.

Bon Appétit Management Company was founded in 1987, by two food service industry veterans — CEO Fedele Bauccio and President Ernie Collins, later joined by COO Michael Bauccio — who had a vision of different kind of company. They set out to bring restaurant-quality food to corporations, universities, and specialty venues. Bon Appétit has become an industry pioneer in many other ways: the first to commit to local food, sustainable seafood, and cage-free eggs, and the first to tackled thorny issues such as food’s role in climate change, the reduction of antibiotics in agriculture, and farmworker rights. To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we worked with a great team at InHouse Creative Services to make this video about how we got here, and where we want to go next: The Story of Bon Appétit Management Company from Bon Appétit Management Company […]

Bon Appétit Management Company CEO Fedele Bauccio is proud to be among the 70 leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations that have today sent an open letter to Congress urging lawmakers to revise the draft of the 2012 Farm Bill — which should more properly called the Food Bill, as it is the largest and most significant piece of legislation affecting what, how, and even whether Americans eat.

I was surprised and disheartened to read comments by Thomas Keller in the New York Times that chefs’ only responsibility is to taste. “Is global food policy truly our responsibility, or in our control?” Keller asks. “I don’t think so.” I disagree, as do many others, and I am hoping that Keller’s statements were taken out of context. Chefs have an enormous power to make a difference, and they can do so without sacrificing flavor.

Writer Jessica Battilana spent a day trying to keep up with Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio for this in-depth profile that 7×7 Magazine published in its February food issue.

Peter Coclanis argued in the Wall Street Journal that “American food is much safer than you think.” He is right in that that system only (italics mine) kills eight people a day on average, and that they are the weak members of our herd: babies, the elderly, the sick. He seems to think some human suffering is an acceptable price of doing business. Too bad it’s one that the food industry doesn’t actually pay.

The “Future of Food” conference convened by the Washington Post at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, provided much… well, food for thought. However, the 30 speakers, who included Charles, Prince of Wales, and Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio, weren’t serving up snacky soundbites, but multi-course meals made up of whole, high-fiber ingredients.

I ate Bon Appétit food at WashU in St. Louis for four years—and I guess my accumulated knowledge of Bon Appétit by the time I graduated just goes to show that just because you put something in your mouth doesn’t mean you know a THING about it. So here are my very first impressions of “the Real Bon Appétit”…of finally diving into the “real world”, and the truth about salmon…