Corporate event company pivots during pandemic

By: Cristina Lopez

Over the last few weeks, I have spoken with our clients about the coronavirus and what it means for their business both in the short and long term. Understandably, many business owners have questions and immediate concerns, but some have already started to look for the hidden opportunity within this crisis.

Today I wanted to highlight Hands On Gourmet and the changes they made during the pandemic. “Normally”/pre-COVID, Hands On Gourmet provides cooking parties for corporate team building and private events. When shelter-in-place order was placed in the Bay Area all events, if not canceled, were moved to later this year. Please see my conversation with Stephen Gibbs, Chef, and Partner at Hands On Gourmet.

Cristina: How is your company dealing with the pandemic?

Stephen: Our pivot that became provisions, was created so that we could employ some of the staff we had to lay off and to supply safely sourced, minimally exposed foods to our community. We also wanted to explore alternative revenue streams. It took two weeks to launch our new business!

C: What are the challenges of starting something in such a short time?

S:  Challenges that we face are constant shifts in prices and the ever-changing supply chain. Also now that delivery platforms are back up and running we are always adding new offerings to entice customers to continue to spend some of their food dollars with us. 

C: What would you say are the learnings from this?

S: I’ve/we’ve learned that it takes a ton of work to launch a new business in 2 weeks! It’s also been very rewarding and creatively challenging. A great exercise for sure.

C: Do you see this as part of Hands on Gourmet's future? 

S: Haha. As fun and rewarding as it’s been I think that we will phase out this part of our business once the stores return to normal. I never knew how hard it was to operate a grocery business and I’ll happily turn it back over to the pros and refocus on the experiential side of cooking. Hands On Gourmet. Next is virtual events!

I personally order produce and cooked food every week. No matter how good I think I am in the kitchen, a chef prepared meal is still special. Just like what Stephen said, sometimes we have to leave it to the pros. 

As of this post Hands On Gourmet has stopped doing provisions. They are looking into going back to what they know best. They are planning to start virtual events soon. I am looking forward to what they do next.