catering

Olive Garden is suspending its renovation program, a key part of the brand’s turnaround plan, to gauge the return on investment over a longer timeframe, parent company Darden Restaurants told investors yesterday.

Joseph “Smokey” Simmons doesn’t have a lot of love for today’s teenage restaurant workers. “These kids expect to go to school for two years and come out as a chef,” says Simmons, owner of Our Daily Bread Chef Services, in Cincinnati, Ohio."

Whether it’s simply moving lunch to an outdoor location or offering a full off-premises banquet and catering service, there’s money to be made offsite. But preparing and holding food often requires specialized equipment.