--- title: "How Grégoire’s Culinary Hub Kitchen Model Streamlines Operations for Franchisees" url: https://burnaze.com/article/9f38d107-22e1-487c-88a6-23716f3eaeac source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/how-gregoires-culinary-hub-kitchen-model-streamlines-operations-for-franchisees-2719248 category: "Restaurants" industry: "Restaurants" topics: ["Operations"] published: 2022-08-01T20:15:00.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T02:10:51.946Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/3a8b9947401d4d4554bedfb4c7d5dc9c9123.jpg --- # How Grégoire’s Culinary Hub Kitchen Model Streamlines Operations for Franchisees **TL;DR:** Grégoire, a fine fast-casual eatery, is starting to franchise with a unique hub kitchen model that streamlines operations for franchisees. The model allows for quality control and uniformity across locations, making it easy for franchisees to operate with a small staff. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2022-08-01. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/how-gregoires-culinary-hub-kitchen-model-streamlines-operations-for-franchisees-2719248).* ## Story Many differentiators set Grégoire, a fine fast-casual eatery starting to franchise, apart from other restaurants. Chef and Founder Grégoire Jacquet set out to create a niche market that mixes the dishes you’d find at fine dining establishments with the fast, intimate service of a carry-out concept. From his exquisite menu, with always fresh, locally sourced ingredients and seasonal changes to the offerings, down to the carefully designed and patented packaging, everything about Grégoire is quality. “I would love to change how the word franchise is looked at. Quick service franchises are typically associated with fast food or lower-scale food. I want to bring a change in restaurant franchising with my food,” explained Jacquet. He plans to maintain quality control as the brand scales through franchising efforts by creating a central hub kitchen where all ingredients will be prepared, portioned, and then delivered to the local Grégoire locations in the area fresh each morning. The concept can then be expanded nationally as the business grows to other cities in the country and has a hub kitchen in each metro region. “The ingredients will be really locally sourced. Every market may have a different menu and use different ingredients from different providers in different areas,” said Jacquet. “When we're in Texas, we use farmers from Texas, meat from Texas, vegetables or anything we can use from the local area.” He can confidently do these amazing local dishes and have seasonally rotating menus because the hub kitchen handles the culinary side of things, meaning he doesn’t need franchise owners who are highly skilled chefs. It’s something he tried out while Grégoire had a second location in Oakland. Everything would be prepared there, and half of the ingredients would be sent to the Berkeley space. “It worked really well. It worked fantastically. Everything was always the same; every sauce was the same, and every portion was the same. It's great for uniformity,” he said. His wife Tara recommended using the model for franchising to “have control over all the food and difficult dishes.” “We have really adopted this model, and by doing so, that gives us a lot more freedom with franchisees because now we don't need franchisees that are culinary savvy. I removed this from the equation, and now I just need to find people that are good managers and great at customer service.” The model makes it easy for franchisees to operate the store without needing a large staff because most of the prep work is done. Jacquet said a Grégoire could run with three people: one person in the kitchen, one cashier and one backup. On weekends, four people should suffice — a cashier, two cooks and one backup. That makes it easy for franchise owners from an overhead and payroll standpoint. And the process of ordering the ingredients needed and having them delivered has been made very easy by the team at Grégoire. Franchise owners will use the brand’s app to place orders for whatever items they are running out of, and they will be dropped off the following day. The procedure keeps inventory low and ingredients fresh. While Jacquet said that the concept of a hub kitchen is not new — he points to the international food court at Disneyworld’s Epcot as a prime example — he said he hopes to revolutionize it with his franchising model and his gourmet to-go style. “For our concept, it is imperative that it is done like this. It wouldn't work any other way because there's too much change and variation in the product and the recipe. There's a lot of things going on, so this is how we protect the quality and consistency,” said Jacquet. ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - QSR (sector) - fast casual (topic) - franchise operations (topic) - franchising model (topic) - Gregoire (company) - Grégoire Jacquet (person) - quality control (topic) - Tara Jacquet (person) - hub kitchen (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/how-gregoires-culinary-hub-kitchen-model-streamlines-operations-for-franchisees-2719248). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/9f38d107-22e1-487c-88a6-23716f3eaeac).