opsi is a daily workflow app built to progress the way modern operators manage their restaurant. With robust recipe management, true recipe costing, task and food prep lists, and product guides, opsi is suited for any operation looking to maximize efficiencies within their kitchen team, and cut down on employee training times. James has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry and a strong vision for technology’s role in it. His time in the kitchen has taken him from New Jersey to Rhode Island, Washington DC, San Francisco and Minnesota. As a chef, James has worked alongside industry-leading chefs such as Michael Mina and Gavin Kaysen, giving him a profound understanding of restaurant operations. The inspiration for opsi came early in James’ career after he took over as chef de cuisine in a restaurant that was in the midst of change and facing issues with internal communication. QUOTES “(Being a restaurateur) is a wild and challenging business. From any angle, as an operator it’s even more challenging because you’ve got 50+ people banking on you.” (James) “I love the stories behind entrepreneurial ideas because they’re usually very simple, very true and very authentic and that’s what makes them wonderful.” (Michael) “Technology was a space for me where we could develop a solution where we could keep all the information in there, keep the team on the same page and marching to the same sheet of music and moving in the same direction.” (James) “(opsi) made it easier for us to focus on the larger goal, which was servicing the guest and putting out a really high quality product.” (James) “In any kind of creative business, there’s organized chaos and artistry but I agree that people need and love process. A little organization isn’t a bad thing.” (Michael) “My belief is that anyone – from a food truck to a three-star Michelin restaurant – can utilize opsi.” (James) TRANSCRIPT 00:01.48 vigorbranding Hello everyone today I am joined by someone who knows a lot about how to run an a fishing kitchen his name is chef James Pasa Faro James how you doing say hello and give us a little bit of your backstory.   00:17.65 James Hi thanks for having me. Um, yeah, my background I started in the cooking culinary world when I was really young something I really wanted to do from a young age bounced around a bunch ended up in Minnesota. I work for some really great chefs like Gavin Casean and Michael Mina and um here I am now working in technology which I never thought I probably have to say out loud.   00:42.10 vigorbranding That's awesome. We're gonna talk about opsy here in a little bit but where did the whole love of cooking come from like where did it start I mean how did you? How did you happen upon it.   00:51.22 James Yeah, um, you know a lot of the times I think generally this story kind of goes for people. It's like you know they're cooking in a kitchen if they're grandmother or mother some some family member or it's a family-owned operator. My parents. Ah, my mom was in sales for telecoms so she worked for att my father was in floing so he worked worked in union in New York and then he owned a business in New Jersey where we grew up and he just had friends that were in hospitality so they would always throw a a game dinner every year at a restaurant called perona farms and it was run by 3 brothers and.   01:09.94 vigorbranding And.   01:25.26 James They're they've been in business for over 100 years now and they're like in their sixth generation of family running it. But at the time um Kirk was the chef and he was kind of running this program where he could. Ah, bring in local hunters and fishers and cook a dinner each year and kind of run it for friends and family and kind of started blossoming from the late 80 s to early 90 s where he actually um, he launched a really successful smoke salmon business and he s