News

Industry heavy-hitters join leadership team at Kitchen United

March 6, 2018

Kitchen United — an on-demand startup spun out of the holding company behind Cali Group's Miso Robotics and the first application of facial recognition tech for restaurants — is attracting some pretty powerful restaurant industry talent to its leadership team. The latest addition announced this week is former Taco Bell Chief Development Officer Meredith Sandland, who takes the reins as the company's COO, a news release said. 

Kitchen United opened its 12,000-square-foot Pasadena center of culinary imagination recently to help national restaurant brands produce fresh food solely for takeout, catering and delivery purposes, according to the release. The space includes integrated POS software, back-of-house automation and efficient order interfaces that combine inbounds from various delivery platforms to further higher levels of business efficiency.

The space is also available to food truck operators and caterers who need licensed prep space, as well as entrepreneurs developing new restaurant concept and food products.

As COO, Sandland will drive revenue and oversee business strategy, operations and the national rollout plan for Kitchen United. She brings her experience from Yum Brands to the company, where in four years she oversaw the addition of more than $1 billion in sales to the Taco Bell system through 1,000 new restaurants.

"She embodies the strong business instincts, deep knowledge of the industry, extensive leadership and passion that will drive our mission forward," Kitchen United CEO Jim Collins said in the release. "We have ambitious goals for 2018, and the addition of Meredith will enable us to help restaurant operators and independent food professionals expand their footprint and integrate seamlessly with delivery operations by using our turnkey back-of-house infrastructure."

Aside from Sandland, and Collins —who founded Town Kitchen and Grill in California — Kitchen United has also put former McDonald's executive Atul Sood in the role of chief business officer and celebrated restaurateur and SBE Entertainment leader Massimo Noja De Marco has assumed the position of chief culinary officer.

The holding company behind this venture, Cali Group, also backed Miso Robotics' burger-flipping robot, Flippy, and the first application of facial recognition technology in U.S. restaurants.