About Chefs Food Prep

Chefs Food Prep was started by two chefs, Jeroen Romanesko and Pascal Elout, who met at De Nederlanden in Vreeland. Pascal had opened a restaurant at that time which he later sold, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeroen was still an employee but had been undertaking small assignments for restaurants providing advice for three years. Eventually, their paths crossed, and they decided to establish a company together.

Chefs Food Prep primarily operates as a staffing agency for chefs. Additionally, they offer consultancy services and connect suppliers with companies. Jeroen assists in designing menus and provides advice, while Pascal oversees the entire business operations. Pascal explains, "There are many owners in the hospitality industry who have no idea about the kitchen. The chefs then need to communicate with the owners, but it often doesn't go smoothly. Where things go wrong, we step in. For instance, assisting in setting up menus, helping with a different concept, or making the kitchen profitable. We offer tailor-made solutions that enable a hospitality business to thrive." Chefs Food Prep began two years ago and now has a pool of 50 excellent chefs.

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Planning before Clevergig

"At the outset, the company used WhatsApp groups for scheduling," says Jeroen. He explains, "It was quite a hassle. We had a group chat with just the two of us and one other chef. No scheduling system, everything was managed there. If we were to do that now with 50 people, it would be a recipe for total chaos. Even then, with only 8-10 employees, it was overwhelming." Any tasks that couldn't be managed through the app were handled via phone calls. Not everyone was easily reachable, making it a time-consuming task. This led to the idea that investing in a scheduling system would facilitate smoother growth. They weren't wrong. Eventually, the founders explored four software packages, but most lacked a focus on the intricacies of the hospitality industry or missed elements crucial for chefs. Ultimately, Clevergig emerged as the best match for automated scheduling.

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Experience with Clevergig

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The first advantage that Chefs Food Prep experienced with Clevergig was the ease of the scheduling system and automated planning. "Easy, quick, open the laptop and get going," says Jeroen. He emphasises the importance of having an overview, something they achieved with Clevergig. They know where everyone is scheduled for the day. If someone falls ill, they can easily check availability and quickly find a replacement. Another benefit is that Clevergig allows them to invite either one person or an entire group for a task, a flexibility crucial in their industry. They also generate reports using Clevergig: "We're starting to grasp the system more, and it's making life much easier. Insight and overview are the keys to success."

Pascal mentions that since starting the collaboration with Clevergig, they have experienced significant growth. The transition to a good scheduling and time-tracking software has meant a lot to them: "Now is actually the moment when we're starting to grow. We had 10 people when we switched to Clevergig six months ago, now we have a pool of 50. It wouldn't have been possible without Clevergig. We can now coordinate through the system; previously, everything was done via phone or app, and we couldn't reach everyone immediately. It was very slow. This process is much faster now. At one point, we had to turn away a lot of staff because everything needed to be sorted out first. Now we can keep up."
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It's always challenging for an agency to choose the right moment for a transition. When you're starting, it often seems like there's no time to implement an entirely new time-tracking and scheduling system. However, Pascal states that a company cannot grow if they don't invest time in implementing such matters. One thing they appreciate about Clevergig is the responsiveness of their Customer Success team: "We appreciate that we can always reach your Customer Success team. We always get a response on the same day, which is crucial for us because we're almost always working. Staffing is quick business."

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