Cover Story
Cooking with passion
How Fedele Bauccio souped up growth at Bon Appétit by creating a strong culture
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business Northern California | January 2010
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Fedele Bauccio was absolutely disgusted.
The food served on college campuses and in corporate cafeterias in the mid-1980s made him cringe.
“The industry was this industry that when you went to college, you had mystery meat,” Bauccio says. “There was cafeteria fare in lots of corporations. You had menu cycles and recipe boxes. I thought, ‘This is horrible what we’re feeding America.’”
So he decided to create his own customized restaurant company, Bon Appétit Management Co.
“There was a lot of competition in the marketplace in 1986, so I wanted to create a culture that would challenge this status quo in the industry with a very focused, intense passion that would create some innovation and fun for people. I needed a brand that would be a signplace in a cluttered marketplace,” he says.
His mission — what he refers to as the dream — was for the business to stand out by being known for its culinary excellence and expertise by providing fresh, flavorful and quality food.
“One of the things I recognized early on was if we were going to be a company that had not only a great product but try to come up with some differentiation, we really needed people who had an intense passion and commitment to great food,” the CEO says.
Finding these people was a challenge. For every 20 people he and his team interviewed, they hired one. With that kind of time invested in hiring, if he wanted to achieve his mission, he had to find a way to not only attract but also keep people in his company, despite being a high turnover industry.
“I wanted to create a culture that would allow people to have fun, and in order to get this passion and commitment that I wanted, I needed to make sure they felt like owners in every location.”
