This week, Nick sits down with Alison Patt, President and CEO of Thomas Cuisine, to explore how food can be a powerful catalyst for both personal and professional transformation.

Alison shares her inspiring journey through the food service industry, a career rooted in real food, genuine hospitality, and a passion for improving lives through nutrition. From her early experiences in luxury hotels to leading one of the nation’s most respected dining service companies, she reveals how her leadership blends strategic vision with heartfelt service.

Listen as Nick and Alison discuss the intersection of health, leadership, and purpose in the food industry.

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Nick: nick.portillo@portillosales.com

There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry. You just have to find one. On the Titans of Food Service podcast.

I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top. My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast. Let's jump right into it.

Welcome back to another episode of Titans of Food Service. I'm your host, Nick Portillo. Thank you for joining me again. Please, if, if you're enjoying the show, leave me a five star review.

Whether you follow along on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, YouTube, anywhere you get your podcasts, that really helps the show and the reach. I appreciate it. Today's titan is a leader who embodies what it means to serve with purpose and heart.

Her journey began in luxury resorts like the Four Seasons, the Lodge at Torrey Pines, among others, where she developed a deep respect for excellence, service, and the human connection that food creates.

Before joining Thomas Cuisine, Allison held key leadership roles at Continental, where she served as the VP of Sales and later as Group president, both roles that sharpened her ability to grow teams and inspire culture through values driven leadership.

Educated at the Point Loma Nazarene, which is a college here in Southern California, not far from me, she got her bachelor's degree and then she went over and got her MBA at the University of Michigan. And she says, go blue. She blends strategic thinking with a human touch, and that's rare in today's industry. Her impact extends far beyond business.

From the kitchens of world class hotels to the boardrooms of one of the nation's most respected dining service companies, Allison's story is about leading with intention and serving food that truly fuels lives. With that, let's go ahead and welcome. All right, Allison, welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast.

I appreciate you taking time to come and meet with me.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Of course. So I noticed that you went to Point Loma Nazarene.

That's right, yeah. San Diego. I'll tell you. So I was from Michigan.

Yep.

I went out to visit the campus and they showed me the freshman dorm and it overlooked the ocean.

And.

And I was sold. I was in.

I went to Chapman University, which is a small school in old Town Orange and played baseball there. And we played a game against at that. At the campus that over the Basil field, overlooked the water. I was like, yeah, this is. This is a great school.

Yep. It was pretty impressive from the tennis courts as well. Nice sports complexes over there, I bet.

And then. So you grew up in Michigan, but then you went to Michigan as well if you're mba.

That's right.

Yep.

Go blue.

I like it. I may. I'm a big USC fan. Yeah, I'd like to say I'm a Chapman Panther football fan, but, you know, it's Division 3 football.

Yeah, I'm sure they've got a nice program, but. So USC's always been my team growing up here in Orange county. And we play Michigan this weekend, which would be a pretty big game for sure.

Oh, yeah. Well, good luck to you.

Yeah, thank you. You too. So tell me, how did you get into the food business?

Yeah, it's a good question. Frankly. I started in hospitality more than food.

So one of my earlier jobs, well, I guess out of college I had a brief experience working for Martha Stewart and then headed back to San Diego, Southern California, just kind of pulled me back and fell completely in love with the high end luxury hospitality world. So I had done kind of sales and marketing events, kind of all the planning side of things.

And there was just something about coordinating these experiences, interacting with guests, and really being a part of these special moments of their lives, whether it's, you know, a wedding or a baby shower, whatever that might be, that I just loved. And I especially love the precision that came with that luxury market. So that was sort of my entry point into hospitality.

And with that, you learn a lot about food. We got to deal with incredible chefs.

So you're in the back hallway, you know, learning about the best way to sear a tenderloin or, you know, experiencing new dishes with the chef.

And that really opened up something that I had never experienced in Midwest cooking and ultimately really introduced me to a passion and a love that I call food.

I interviewed a guy, his name was Guy Rigby. I don't know if that name sounds familiar, but he was the head of Food and beverage for Four Seasons. And I saw that you worked at the Four Seasons.

He was head of food and beverage for the north, for the Americas, so South America and North America. One of the most fascinating, cool storytellers that I've had on the show.

And I just, I found his, you know, you mentioned the word precision in working in, you know, the kind of the fine, you know, your high end hospitality, if you will, and the level of detail that he went to, went through and like, just like the books and the training and.

Do you think being in that environment is, does it take a certain skill set to learn it, or is it something that's kind of innate in you to be able to be in that type of environment?

Oh, I think it's a great question. From my standpoint, it can very much be learned. But I think what I, what I learned in that environment was how critical preparation is.

So not only do you need to prepare in terms of your own skill set, whether that's synchronized service or, you know, wine knowledge, but there's also this concept of really knowing your guests. And I think Four Seasons does it better than just about anyone.

I'm a little biased, but this idea of preparing for each guest, knowing their preferences, cataloging those preferences, and being able to weave those into the experience, some of that feels like a lost art anymore. But I do believe it can be learned. It just takes a lot of attention and frankly a lot of care and belief that this is an art. It's not just a job.

I would imagine too that the experiences you got early in your career to where you are now today, a lot of that has shaped, you know, kind of how you run your companies.

Yeah. So there's quite a bit in between.

You know, I mentioned this hospitality world that I lived in and loved, and I'll just say, at least at the time, you know, you're working 80, 90 hours a week, you make no money. And I just loved it. It's where I met my husband.

And so it was just this really special time in life where we just kind of, you know, we're all in on this, this hotel world and the culture created there. Although in that kind of window, we also had the amazing blessing of having our very first son. So we got married. Our son Joey came soon after.

And while we were, you know, just like every other first time parent along that path, we started to notice just some missing milestones, some things that didn't quite seem right. Again, first time parents. So you kind of, you assume some of that is just a one off, but eventually we took it pretty seriously.

Met with a pediatrician, kind of went down that journey and discovered that he had pretty severe nonverbal autism. And so that kind of threw a wrench into everything. You know, we thought we were on this path of working like crazy in this luxury hospitality market.

And we had a wonderful pediatrician. I've told the story a couple times that she sat us down and said, listen, like most families with this kind of a diagnosis, they just don't make it.

The family kind of crumbles under these kinds of very difficult circumstances. So she said, if you want to do this a little differently, I'm going to have to encourage you change something.

And so we packed up beautiful San Diego. We moved back to Michigan, which I think we swore we would never do. I mean, if you've seen the weather difference, you know why.

But we moved back to be near family and my husband ultimately quit his job to stay home with our son. And that frankly, launched this whole new chapter of food for us.

So I joined an incredible company out in Michigan called Continental and started in this food management space that I knew very little about.

And while going through that journey, also had a pretty transformative experience with my son who after so many years of so many therapies, finally started responding when we introduced the concept of real food.

Wow, that's incredible. And good for you as, as parents as well. I'm actually a new, a new father myself.

Congratulations.

I'm about six months in, you know, the first month of, you know, just getting used to the sleep and oh yeah, you know, all that.

I'm getting sleep now, but I would definitely say it was a shock to the system, to say the least of, of, you know, getting used to being a dad, you know, because my whole life I obviously just kind of, I slept fine and.

But now it's like, oh my gosh, it's so much so I can definitely empathize with, you know, being a parent and I think that's really great too of, of what you and your husband did of like, you know, putting family first. I think that's super important, you know, for our business.

We're, we're definitely a family first business and just understand that the importance of, you know, we find that when people are happy and healthy at home that it truly translates into other parts of your life, you know, whether that's business or whatever your, you know, you know, your, your day to day looks like and that's very, very important. You know, my, my wife, she's a therapist and so we talk about these types of things a lot.

And she actually, she started when she started in her career.

She started working with children with autism and going into, in, in home and working with them and you know, what a incredible experience that was for her and, and you know, working with the families and she still talks about it to this day of how, how impactful it was on her life. So thank you for sharing that.

Yeah. And I will say, I mean, we've interacted with some of the most caring people since, since getting that diagnosis.

Frankly, it felt like food was this missing element of all of it. Though so many of us are in this space, we know that food matters, it's our business, it's powerful.

And yet the concept of how food really does benefit the body and ultimately, at least in our case, really kind of saved our family. I think it's an underrepresented story out there.

Definitely. So you mentioned introducing real food to Joey. When you say real food, what do you mean by that?

Yeah, it's a great question.

Well, I'm a little embarrassed to tell you that before this transformative experience, we were classic working parents, getting a lot of pre made prepackaged frozen dinners, anything that was easy on the go. We had a busy lifestyle, just like so many. And at the same time we were stacking therapy upon therapy.

So equine therapy and equestrian therapy, speech therapy, ABA therapy, fellowship in the blank, and just really frankly weren't seeing much results from all that. So somewhere along that journey, my husband had actually been the one who came home and said, you know, he's so picky about his food.

Joey basically liked, you know, pretzels and granola bars, things that are kind of crunchy and easy to eat. And he said, if we ate these few foods that Joey eats, I don't think we'd feel all that great either.

So what if we thought about reconstructing how we eat as a family? And I give him all the credit because he really started with breakfast and kind of moved on from there.

And instead of cereal, we got rid of all the packaged processed food and made eggs and oatmeal and just really started with scratch ingredients, no additives, nothing, kind of pre processed and pre made. And little by little, we worked our way through the day.

We got rid of kind of some of the bad snacks and introduced fruits and vegetables and just regular proteins. We really had to kind of learn to cook as a family.

And it was truly only a couple weeks later he started playing with his younger brother, which was very unusual. He had really been kind of locked in his own head. And pretty soon after that he self potty trained, which was truly miraculous at the time.

I won't go into the real specific details, but that was a life changing moment for our family. And then he started babbling and saying, mama.

And I just remember crying in the kitchen and saying, it's been Here this whole time, like, this thing that really was able to unlock Joey as a person. Joey's eye contact, communication. And so we've been on that journey ever since.

So for us, real food really looked like clean, individual ingredients that we come together and we cook, we make. We are on a constant journey in our own pantries, our own kitchens. I'm always shocked when I find, you know, dye in pickles or something like that.

They sneak in there where you don't always envision that they're going to be.

But we've really tried hard to get anything out that we know doesn't benefit the body and to really make cooking a family experience and something fun that we all do together.

You mentioned trying, like, equine therapy. Aba, how did you, you know, come to find, you know, let's. Let's change up the diet.

I would love to tell you. We had this amazing conversation or read a book or an article. We really didn't.

I think it was more just intuitive, recognizing that when we don't eat well, we don't always feel great. Sometimes we feel sluggish or tired or whatever that may be.

And just recognizing it was kind of the one part of his life and our life that had been untouched in this journey. So it was more intuitive than anything else. But once we started to see the results, we truly just got on the real foods bandwagon.

We told everybody that we could. We thankfully have the opportunity to interact with other families going through really similar experiences. So we know it's something that works.

And frankly, the side benefit that we don't always talk about is, for Joe and I, my husband, our health improved. What a shock. When we ate better, we too showed up better. And then, of course, that sort of, over time, led me on a journey to my company.

Now, that is a company that believes in that same mission. So to be able to bring that personal side to work. You talked about kind of aligning your home, your family and work.

I do believe when those two can live in harmony. I mean, it's incredible what you can accomplish, totally.

And when you believe in what you do, you know, it just makes going to work a lot easier.

I think a lot of times, you know, we've probably all had jobs in the past where it's like, man, I just feel like I'm kind of doing this, but what's the purpose? But, you know, you see, it sounds like what you do is very purposeful.

On the topic of what you do professionally, tell me a little bit about what you do at Thomas Cuisine.

Yeah. So I'm president and CEO.

I just hit my five year last week, which feels crazy that it's been half a decade, but it has been the most extraordinary five years of my life. You just said it. I'm not sure I recognized how much I was seeking meaning and purpose in the workplace.

We bring a lot of ourselves to these jobs, as you know. And I think leadership in and of itself is a calling. It's something really special to do.

And to then pair that with a mission that I wholeheartedly believe in, it's pretty special. I feel like I get to come to work every day for a noble cause.

And so with that being said, I have an opportunity to oversee about 2,200 team members across about 17 states, mostly on the western half of the US and with contract food service, which I didn't used to be very familiar with before I was in it, we basically get to go into other people's environments, whether that's a hospital or a school, a sports team, a company, they'll bring us in really to create their own value proposition through food. So perhaps it's an employer who wants to recruit and retain talent through an amazing on site culinary program where they get breakfast and lunch.

Or maybe it's a sports team that wants to recruit incredible athletes through an amazing tailored chef program. So we've got about 120 of those partnerships that we get a chance to do across the nation. And it is so much fun.

I truly, truly love coming to work every day.

Wow. I would imagine, though, five years ago was probably a tumultuous time to start with the pandemic.

It was a weird time to start.

Yeah, maybe that tumultuous, maybe not the right. A weird time for sure.

You know, being in the, in the food business, I'm sure a lot has transformed and changed very much in your time there, for sure. Working with colleges, sports. So essentially, how does it work? So you have maybe a staff, is it your staff that works on.

Let's, let's take a campus, right, that works on campus, that does all the meal prep and serve and you know, all of that kind of, you know, essentially run the operation on the campus.

You got it. So in so many ways we're a people business.

We train incredible chefs and directors, operational folks, people who go in and really operate the day to day. So what's so cool about that model is they really become ingrained in the culture in which they serve.

So for example, if we're talking about a sports team, our dietitian our chef, our on site folks. Our cooks really feel like they get to be part of the team. So they get all of the resources from Thomas Cuisine.

They have us backing them and behind them. And then they also get a chance to feel like they are part of whatever team that they're serving. Sort of becomes like having a personal chef.

So whether that's in a company or even in a hospital, we have nurses and doctors who they look forward to going down into the cafe every day because you know that particular team member is there ready to serve them. They've saved them their favorite in the back. So you really get to build these super genuine connections through a model like that.

All right, what about you as a leader?

When you look at, you know, you hear of there was a period of time there was a lot of, like, financial people with financial backgrounds becoming a CEO or there's sales people becoming a CEO.

When you look at your background, I'm sure it's not just one thing, but if there was one thing or a few things that you do exceptionally well, what do you think those would be?

Well, I think I've always been pretty growth oriented, so.

So I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of organizations who were on that growth path and wanted to understand how can we unlock some of that capability, both commercially and operationally. And so that's certainly something that I feel like has been a sweet spot for me.

I did have the opportunity for many years to work in the growth arm and kind of be a commercial leader. So I can wear that hat when I need to or support that part of our team. On the flip side, how do we unlock capacity?

How can we create the right systems and processes, but do that really surgically so that we also get to be nimble, we get to be creative, Because I'll tell you, we have a chance to recruit and retain some of the best chefs in the industry because we don't tell them that they have a locked order guide. We don't tell them that they can only use these 18 recipes.

So it's this constant balance of enough structure and framework that we're consistent that we are doing things the right way and in a way that is very on brand, but also really allowing flexibility and again, that space within the framework to have some fun. So that's one area that I think I've certainly had an opportunity to practice, and I'm bringing that in.

Second, I think it helps that I know I'm not great at everything. I have a lot of areas that I am not the expert.

And so building a high performing team, really bringing in experts across these different areas of the business and pulling together a very humble, hard working. I'm going to call it a first team.

If you're familiar with kind of the lencioni language of first team, really work to create that here at Thomas Cuisine. And my goal is to create a team that doesn't need me there every day. A team that really is carrying forward our mission.

Exceptional in their own areas of practice, but also looking at the business as a whole. So I'd say that unlocking growth and developing a really incredible leadership team have been two big areas of focus for me.

It sounds like you've, you've, yeah, you've, you've built this culture of, you know, essentially there's the framework, right. You have the systems and process in place for someone, but they're not too much where, you know, you lock out the, the like.

For a chef ordering, which I do, I'm a on the sales side, you know, going in and selling products, I definitely deal with that of trying to get products on the menu, off menu ordering guides and yeah, I understand that for sure. But then you also allow for that freedom, maybe a little entrepreneurial spirit or even pushing onto someone, you know, kind of carry your own bags.

Yeah, you know, one of our core values is ownership and I love the way that plays out. Again, there's like everything I think about it, like strengths, there's balconies and basements to every strength that we all have.

I think the same is true for ownership. When we are in the balcony, I think ownership means you are making decisions like it's your own business.

You are ensuring that you're doing what is right for your customer. And that concept of do what is right, we're very much rooted in that, even from our founder.

On the flip side, sometimes ownership means you kind of go awry, you kind of do your own thing. And maybe it isn't serving the business, maybe it's simply serving you.

And so really having those checks and balances, but empowering people to truly act like owners and do what is best for their team and those that we serve, that's what we're trying to strike. Not perfectly, I will admit.

How do you take all of that, you know, you mentioned, hey, I've got a growth mindset and that's an, you know, a strength of mine. How do I take the growth mindset?

But also, I'd imagine, you know, you're looking at a P and L of you've got income coming in and you're dealing with the expenses that you have and how do you pair the two that I want to grow, but I also understand where I'm at here financially. You know, what are some of the things that you look at to be able to. To advance the business?

Yeah, part of that I'm actually going to kind of elevate up to our incredible owners. So we are a privately held business and that affords us a lot of freedom and flexibility.

We have incredible family owners, three of them, that set a beautiful vision around how we want to show up in the world with Real Food, how we want to treat people fairly and kindly. Profit sharing some really unique and beautiful traditions in the business. Beyond that, they understand that we're investing for the long haul.

This isn't about a quarter by quarter, month by month. P and L, certainly we need to be great stuff, and I believe that is something that we do.

And we need to show up as excellent financial stewards, both for our owners, but also, frankly, for those that we serve.

But beyond that, it gives us such an ability to look a year, three years, 10 years out, we can start to read the tea leaves and understand how frankly, we've been ahead of the curve with this Real Foods mission.

The world's slowly starting to catch up to what's in the food system and how we might want to transform that and look at our health a little differently because we have this amazing ability to look at the long haul. We may choose to make investments that wouldn't make sense next quarter, but set us up beautifully for future years.

We've invested in things like a Real Foods leader within the organization who's helping to transform all of our operations to just move towards that real, clean, healthy eating. We are able to invest in more specialized chef talent or dietitians, IT support new systems.

As long as we're really looking at how are we going to grow this for the long haul.

So first and foremost, I think it's agreeing on what kind of a timeframe are we comfortable with, what is our horizon that we're planning for and getting that alignment with the board and the owners has really helped us. Beyond that, though, I believe there is a right, thoughtful, financially sustainable way to grow.

And for Us that starts with what we call smart growth.

Finding very aligned partners who actually give a darn about what we're trying to do, who see alignment between our cultures and our values and want to make this a win win. And in 40 years of business, I will tell you, we've got a pretty incredible batting average at finding those kinds of people.

And that really does allow you longevity retention which lead to healthy financials.

I, I think I saw on your website, on the Thomas cuisine website there was highlighting a Montana beef company and I think that's probably like one of the partners that you're talking about is somebody like that or probably you pro, you have good insights into, into their farming and practices and things like that that help translate into, you know, your individual operations.

Yeah, that's true. That particular partnership is actually really exciting.

We as a company had really struggled to get exceptional grass fed grass finished beef, especially again in that Montana region. It's as you know, it can be tricky, it can be hard from a distribution standpoint and especially from a cost standpoint.

So that actually was a bit of a project from our ownership group.

They decided to partner with a ranch and really infuse the capital needed to get that up and running and create our own grass fed grass finished beef label. So central Montana beef only serves Thomas cuisine.

It's been an exceptional way for us to make beef more accessible, more affordable for those that we serve. And now it's kind of throughout the mountain region for us. But yes, that is a great example of a wonderful supply chain partner.

I would even translate that though to the other side.

When it comes to business partnerships, when it comes to that hospital, that school, that sports team, we are spending a lot of time getting aligned on the front end because as you know, losing a partnership is incredibly expensive. We want to get that alignment right up front.

We want to make sure that what we are here to do is very much in support of their mission and that this is going to be a long haul partnership, not just something quick and bottom line wins.

What areas do you cover in the country? Or you cover the whole U.S. yeah.

Well, we do have partnerships kind of across the nation primarily where the western half of the U.S. okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Because you're based out of, you're out of Utah now.

Boise, Idaho is actually our home office which if you've never been, you should visit. It's pretty incredible. But Boise is where we were founded.

We were actually started in a garage by our founder Thad Thomas, 40 years ago with this just dream of Doing better and we've grown. So Utah is one of our, our very large markets. California, Washington, Montana, kind of down to Texas area, you know, Arizona.

That's kind of our core geography area.

Yeah, that makes sense. So I'd never been to Idaho until last week. Or wait, two weeks ago. I went to Coeur d', Alene, Idaho, which was beautiful. I mean, it was stunning.

I. I had never. I flew into Spokane, Washington and then drove over. I think it's like 35 minutes.

It's a hidden gem.

Hidden gem. Would absolutely go back there again. So it was, it was a beautiful area, but never been to Boise.

But a lot of California people have moved into, into Idaho, Utah, Nevada, into some of those, you know, surrounding states.

That's right. Yep. We've had a lot of growth. I'm part of that growth, having moved here five years ago. But yes, there's been a pretty big migration here.

When you go back to when you first started in your career, you know, working in, in hospitality, did you, did you think back then that you wanted to one day be run a company? Is that something that you wanted all along? You know, is that something that was innate in you?

So I have this very vivid memory as a high schooler which sounds a little bizarre.

It was a senior year in high school and I had this, this vivid moment where I had an opportunity, a leadership opportunity and just feeling a calling towards leadership. What that was going to look like, what the title or role or organization would be, I had no idea.

But this concept of carrying the mantle, this really important thing of leading others, of impacting lives through the way that you lead, frankly, I had experienced good and bad in that I have stories of how I discovered what kind of leader or manager I didn't want to be just as much as those that I saw emulate. Just something really beautiful around care and how you can. Yeah. Show true, genuine care for the people that you lead.

So anyway, all that said, yes, I think I did always have this sense that I was headed in that direction, but I never could have imagined a company like this. I couldn't have imagined a role that I loved more. So I certainly feel blessed every day that I get to drive into the office or get on an airplane.

But yeah, I kind of think I knew this is where it was headed.

Yeah. Is there anything, you know, you reference to your high school self.

Is there anything where you are now in your career, looking back that you would tell your high school. Your high school self?

So one thing I think I would tell myself is Actually, advice that I got from my board chair my very first year on the job. And she said, allison, sometimes you're going to be the race car, and sometimes you need to be the pace car.

And I loved that because I have a big engine. Those who know me know I like to work hard. I love it. I'm so passionate about what we do. I mean, it kind of spills over into all areas of my life.

I'm efficient, and I do think I have a tendency to run up the hill and sometimes turn back around and realize there's no one behind me.

And so even in high school, college, first jobs, I think knowing how to pace that, how to make sure that your pace is sustainable not only for yourself, but also for those around you, and finding those moments that you can really lean in and push a little harder and then balancing that with that perspective of, let's pull back a bit similar to what you said earlier. We, as a company, I think we are very family focused.

We believe that you should have life outside of these walls of the office, that you should be able to bring your whole self to work. And, and so again, that pacing, that, that push and pull is really important to allow people to feel like they actually can.

Can live a life outside of work.

I love that.

I. I'm a. I do triathlons, and I've done a couple Ironmans, and, And one thing that I've learned through my training is that to learn how to go fast, sometimes you have to. You have to practice going slow. And so it's a balance of speed. And, you know, in the case of triathlon, going slower, doing a slower pace.

Even though in my mind I have that, like I have in business right there, that the desire to win, to beat myself, to have a better time each time. But it's. You have diminishing returns when you're always pushing the gas. Sometimes.

That's right, you know, hitting the brakes a little bit is how you actually progress. That's right. In what you're doing.

Yeah, I. So I, I do not do triathlons, but I'm doing my second marathon this year, and I hired a coach.

There you go.

And that has been such a transformative experience because she said, you're doing everything too fast. You're actually getting diminishing returns. You gotta slow it down.

And, man, every time I train, I realize this is a life lesson, not just an athletic one.

And in the, in the process, you're, you know, your Achilles tendon, your knees and everything. Just wanted to just, you know, blow up into smoke.

Yeah, that's right.

Oh, my gosh. What about looking into the future? What is something that you want to achieve in your career that you've not yet achieved?

Ooh, that's a great question. Well, here at Thomas Cuisine, I believe we're just getting started when it comes to our differentiation around this Real Foods mission.

Again, I mentioned we've been a little ahead of the curve. I think the world's ready for us now, and.

And we are uniquely positioned to do that in a way others can't, just based on how we're structured, not being rebate driven.

Lots of details behind that, but I am so excited to push into gear how we show up in the world, how we really show up differently than larger competitors. We're just at the start of that, but I see something so excited for the next few years.

Beyond that, I feel a real personal and professional pull to educate, advocate, and deliver real food. That's sort of those three big buckets. And we've been doing the delivery pretty well when it comes to education and advocacy.

I'm excited to take that further on a personal, personal side of things. Again, I've experienced the benefits of how food can transform lives, both at work, but also with my own son, with my own life.

So I'm excited how I can kind of get out there and make a bigger splash around that, impact others and perhaps save somebody a little bit of the journey that we had to go through to find the answers. So I'd say advocacy is in my future.

All right, very well said. For those who want to learn more about Thomas Cuisine, what's the best way to learn more?

Yeah.

So whether it's our website, Thomas Cuisine.com or social media outlets, LinkedIn, Instagram, all of the good stuff, we've got lots of information out there and a lot more to come as we continue to work on our Real Foods mission. Fantastic.

Well, Allison, thank you so much for coming on, sharing your story and being vulnerable. This is definitely going to resonate with people, so I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for having me.