It's Almost Our Birthday!

We aren't ashamed to tell you our age!  The Corporate Chef will be turning 57 in March.  In the era of lauding the start-ups (whose arrival on the scene heralded innovation and forward thinking), we are pretty proud of the "innovation and forward thinking" it has taken to remain in business for 57 years!

Looking back at our beginnings is a glimpse into the Mad Man era, the 1960s.  Our company was Hava Snak Food Service back in the day.  Our fore-founders patented a stainless steel "snack-a-teria," a moveable mash-up combination of an expansive vending machine and a mini-market.  It was shiny, spotless, and a brand new kind of food service for the company employee, right in their own "plant."  It wasn't a do-it-yourself operation.  A uniformed "operator" (the terminology of the day) filled the shelves with pre-made sandwiches, ice cream, cold drinks, refrigerated foods, hot drinks, and hot foods.  Of course we had candy bars, salty snacks, and fresh donuts too.  You never had to kick a jammed vending machine to get your food either.  It was handed to you with a smile.

We burst onto the Bay Area scene in 1961 bringing our own brand of far out food service.  And here are some other food innovations from that year:

- boiling bags - frozen plastic packages of food that could be dropped into boiling water
- teflon-coated frying pans
- Julia Child's first cookbook - Mastering the Art of French Cooking
- Brian Epstein hearing the Beatles for the first time at The Cavern in Liverpool
- Total breakfast cereal (General Mills)
- Mrs. Butterworth's syrup
- Green Giant frozen corn, peas, green beans, baby lima beans in pouches with butter sauce
- Sprite (Coca-Cola Company)
- Coffeemate - non-dairy creamer (Carnation)
- purchase of the rights to McDonald's name by Ray Kroc
- birth of Hava Snak Food Service

1996:
Hava Snak Food Service became The Corporate Chef

From coffee cart to cafeteria to chef-owned cafes in the Bay Area and beyond, we have grown up, stretched our creative muscle and business savvy, and evolved.  We are The Corporate Chef now.  What did it take?  In the words of  Bertram Gilfoyle (from HBO's Silicon Valley), "It's not magic, it's talent and sweat."  (Okay, maybe a little magic too.)