Alice Cheng’s, CEO and Founder of Culinary Agents journey is one of belief, perseverance, and a relentless focus on adding value. Over the past twelve years, Culinary Agents has grown into a trusted platform, boasting nearly 2,000,000 members. As she puts it, she is a true “mailroom story” having worked her way from a mailroom worker to the CEO of her very own company. 

Cheng attributes this success to the relationships they’ve built  and the values they uphold, including an initial, inspiring meeting with Chef Daniel Boulud which led to him becoming an early believer and client.

“Our story now is really, we’ve built our business relationship by relationship, earning the trust and really listening and proving ourselves,” Cheng shared with host Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. “And so the story now is, what else? And we challenge ourselves as far as continuing to be innovative and thinking of what’s next is what else can we offer? What else do we do more? What’s missing? How can we provide better information and give people access to all the amazing data that we have that’s proprietary and how do we make it digestible?”

In an exciting reveal, Cheng announced the launch of Culinary Agents’ new Freemium model. This model allows companies to post jobs for free, offering access to a comprehensive suite of hiring tools. 

“It’s our Freemium model where you can post jobs for free, and you can post all the jobs you want for free,” Cheng explained. “That also gives you access to our AI generated matching for recruiting purposes. So, you get this whole full suite of tools if you choose to advertise, but you have a whole suite of free hiring tools, including free job posts, if you just need to have a record of it, if you need to store it for compliance, and you just need a place to keep everything in one area and manage with your team; the hiring process.”

Throughout her twelve years at the helm of Culinary Agents, Cheng has witnessed the dramatic shifts in marketing, media, and audience reach. She emphasized the importance of embracing these changes and leveraging new opportunities in digital spaces. Whether it’s managing social media handles or developing a content strategy, she encourages businesses to start where they can and grow from there, tapping into different audiences and making the most of today’s technology.

“Admittedly, I think it’s something that business owners have to do all the time. You have to pick and choose based upon your bandwidth,” Cheng noted. “That’s the beauty, I think, of embracing some of this technology today. You also get to tap into different audiences.”

Through Culinary Agents, Alice Cheng continues to empower hospitality professionals and businesses, helping them thrive in an ever-changing landscape.

Digital Hospitality is an interview-based video podcast hosted by business owner Shawn P. Walchef (@shawnpwalchef) and produced by his Cali BBQ Media company sponsored by Marqii (@getmarqii) The weekly digital series explores the ways successful businesses and entrepreneurs have merged old and new with innovative digital strategies that harness the power of the Internet and social media. Shawn is the founder of Cali BBQ Media and creator of the Restaurant Influencers podcast on Entrepreneur Media.
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