Sustainability for Food Service Industry: Maximillian Restaurant Chain

This report examines the sustainability challenges encountered by the Maximillian restaurant chain, a fine-dining establishment in Seattle, Washington, USA. The restaurant, known for its grilled food items, faces issues stemming from its commitment to sustainable practices. The report highlights the problems associated with sourcing grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and organic pork, including increased costs, altered flavor profiles, and supply limitations. The analysis delves into the impact on customer loyalty, profitability, and the restaurant's reputation. The report identifies the restaurant's goals, which are to maintain sales, sustainability, customer engagement, and a positive bottom line. It recommends actions such as improving vendor relationships, reducing waste, encouraging recyclable products, educating customers about the benefits of sustainable food, and training staff in resource management. The report concludes that a focus on these recommendations is essential for the restaurant to achieve sustainable growth and long-term business profitability.

Running Head: Sustainability for food service industry
Sustainability for food service industry-Maximillian restaurant chain
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Introduction
The paper aims at discussing the various challenges faced by Maximillian restaurant group at
Seattle, Washington USA. A brief background of the company will help in better understanding
the various challenges that have cropped up in recent times and facing them will be easier.
Maximillian is a small fine dining restaurant chain having large customer base in the country.
The restaurant chain has a well market reputation for its grilled food items from all three major
protein sources of cattle, chicken and hogs. The company provides quality food at the most
optimum cost to their customers. As a result, loyalty has increased and the company is able to
meet its bottom-line easily Beske, Land and Seuring (2014, pp.131-143). After diversifying its
business wings in four other locations the ownership realized the importance of having a strong
culinary side and afterwards hired a corporate chef to look into the sustainable business area.
Discussion
After hiring the Corporate chef Maximillian faced a lot of issues in its operational approach and
the core functionalities faced troubles related to sustainability of both agricultural and animal
husbandry which increased the threats for sustainability for the food service industry Christopher
(2016).
Core problem faced by Maximillian
The major problem faced by Maximillian is sustainability, and it is keen in adopting a proactive
stance in support of it. It tries to focus on areas of environmental awareness, decentralized
approach of setting up menus and increased awareness of healthy and safe eating among
customers Bosona and Gebresenbet (2013, pp.32-48). To handle these areas, it needed a

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corporate chef, but the chef and his work philosophies have become threats to the profitability of
the restaurant.
The apparent effects of the changing business environment with the likely causes of each
includes the following,
 First and foremost, the commitment of the new Corporate chef to sustainable approach of
grass-fed beef, free range chicken and organically raised hogs has questioned the grilled
flavor uniqueness of Maximillian.
 The use of food supplements and weight inducers for the cows are not aligned with the
digestive system of the cow and grass-fed beef usage is complained about at present.
 The cost of grass-fed beef is higher than grain finished products and this has forced the
restaurant to increase its cost and the customers are not happy hearing the news of higher
food cost.
 The free-range chicken is better quality wise but as per taste and flavor the meat is not as
tender and plump as it was before. As a compensation deal the chef has changed the
menu items and focused on slow cooking methods of roasting and braising, which is not
in synchronization with the attraction dishes of the restaurant that is grilled and sautéed
chicken.
 The organic pork availability is limited down due to grass-feed beef and the suppliers are
not able to meet the purchasing quantities of the pork and the restaurant is constantly
running short of pork.
The above problems have created difficult times for the restaurant owners as they are nervous
of losing their customer base as well as sales. Reputation of Maximillian will get affected and

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the overall profitability will decrease in the long run. The negative impact will not be
beneficial for the business in any means.
Goals of current Maximillian ownership
The major concern areas of Maximillian are sales, sustainability, customer engagement and
bottom line. The restaurant is keen to keep its reputation and customer loyalty intact by
means of increased sustainability and also look into the overall sales figures. That is both
food quality and profitability index need to be higher as before with additional sustainability
value addition.
Recommendations in accomplishing these goals
The company in order to accomplish the stated goals is keen on strengthening the culinary
side of their business and for this they chose to hire a professional corporate chef who will
look into the issues of sustainability and business profitability simultaneously Gold, Hahn
and Seuring (2013, pp.784-799). Both ecosystem equilibrium and environmental protection
need to be encouraged.
Methods to be recommended to accomplish the goals
The main methods for goal accomplishment include,
 Finding the area of improvement by discussing with vendors, suppliers, customers
and restaurant employees.
 Both edible and non-edible waste management need to be reduced to lessen the
environmental impact.

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 Use of recyclable products should be encouraged and use of plastic and other bio-
toxins should be discouraged.
 The customers need to be informed about the health benefits of eating grass-fed beef,
free-range chicken and organic pork. They will start liking the roasted menu being
offered by the restaurant. Healthy eating should be encouraged instead of tasty eating.
 Water misuse should be discouraged and everyone from the restaurant staffs to the
customers need to be made aware about the importance of water. To save a drop of
water is like to save a life.
Prioritizing the methods with reasons
First and foremost, the staffs of the restaurant need to be trained of the various methods of
cooking, usage of resources and other means of sustainable growth. Increased awareness among
them will increase their performance levels. Waste management and recycling approach will
help in adding value to performance.
Conclusion
To sum up it could be concluded that Maximillian in order to have sustainable growth and
business profitability at the same time need to focus on the various goals mentioned above and
the employees need to be well acquainted with the modern techniques of resource management
and sustainable development for long run business operations.

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References
Beske, P., Land, A. and Seuring, S., 2014. Sustainable supply chain management practices and
dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature. International
journal of production economics, 152, pp.131-143.
Bosona, T. and Gebresenbet, G., 2013. Food traceability as an integral part of logistics
management in food and agricultural supply chain. Food control, 33(1), pp.32-48.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Gold, S., Hahn, R. and Seuring, S., 2013. Sustainable supply chain management in “Base of the
Pyramid” food projects—A path to triple bottom line approaches for
multinationals?. International Business Review, 22(5), pp.784-799.