We were lucky to catch up with Vivianna D’Ambrosio recently and have shared our conversation below.
Vivianna, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I believe my work ethic really started with my parents. Both of them worked, my father was an executive corporate chef and my mom was a meeting planner. They really enjoyed their work, they cared about it, they sacrificed a lot for it. Seeing them put dedication into something like that was really impactful and it made me realize the high that you can get from it. Having a good work ethic is super hard to find these days. People want all the glory but do not want to put the work in. Being shown hard work at a young age made a huge impression that still resonates within me today.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
From a very young age I knew that I wanted to be in the food and beverage industry. I first fell in love with cooking so I followed that career path all the way through college at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. My first job out of college was working for The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia as a cook. I worked in all of the restaurant outlets and banquet kitchens. I quickly realized that I wanted to be more involved with the guest so I accepted a position as the supervisor or Prime 44 West, which is the steak house restaurant inspired by Jerry West at the hotel. This is when I fell in love with service and hospitality. I went on to work for companies like The Waldorf Astoria, The Four Seasons and High-end Event Venues in operations. I finally made the switch from working in corporate America and decided to join my husband and his business partners as a sales manager for our food truck events. I have been working for myself since 2018 and I have loved every minute of it. I set the pace, I compete only with myself, I challenge myself daily and I am creating amazing experiences for our guests as well as our 100 employees. I was always a part of Aioli Burger but someone had to pay the bills so it was really nice to come into it full time so that I could really flex my creative muscles. We blew through our 5 year plan for Aioli Burger within 1 year. We started with 1 food truck, then another one, then we launched another food truck brand called Modern Tortilla, then we decided to open a brick in mortar in Phoenix. From there we decided to open another food truck called Oak Wood Fire Pizza. Just when we thought we had enough we just kept going to open Super Mac Bros, Protein and Poke along with full catering. As if we did not have enough at that point we decided to get into the shared kitchen business, we launched BLT Kitchens in Phoenix and we now have one in Mesa with another one in the works in Glendale that is set to open next year. To top all of that off we decided to also launch our own beverage business called AZ Lemonade Stand and it took off faster than we could have ever forcasted. We are in over 150 stores throughout the valley. We are setting up our very own bottling line so that we can take on even more as the interest just keeps knocking. Since we have the all of these businesses we also decided to launch Food Truck PHX which is a food truck coordination business. We coordinate other great food truck partners in the valley with our clients and we help these partners grow with our industry insights with consulting. We have been busy since 2014 to say the least. At this time I am now able to work on the business instead of working in it. So I am mainly focusing on bettering our processes so that we can handle all of the rapid growth and make our workplace fun for all that decide to join in our crazy adventure.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. My culinary knowledge has been the secret to my success in any position that I have taken on. I am able to see the whole picture from everyone’s point of view. This has allowed me to be more understanding, more aware and has allowed me to have the forsite that I need to make my teams a success.
2. Street Smarts! I grew up in New York. Nothing came easy, and I had to compete with several others that wanted the same things that I did. I learned very early on that the food and beverage world is small and that you should always look for future opportunity in every situation whether it is a good or bad one.
3. Drive! I knew very early on that I wanted to be in food and beverage. It did not matter if I was going to be a chef, a server, a sommelier, a manager or even a dishwasher. I was in love with the idea of being a part of something that makes people happy. Food is the glue in everyone, we all need it, and it brings people together. Cannot tell you how many people that I rubbed shoulders with that just did not have the drive, they could not see the reason why people will work a 15 hour day in a small hot kitchen with no breaks. We do it because we know how impactful a good dish is, we do it because we have respect for ourselves, we do it because it brings us solace knowing we made another persons day better.
To all of the young kids that are thinking about getting into this crazy industry: Education is Key, sure you can make it with a high school diploma or GED but getting a college degree will open all the doors and will allow for you to truly meet your potential early on rather than 10 or 15 years later.
Pay attention! Look around, be aware, get to know the people you are working with. Personal connection is everything, especially in our industry. Be smart about the way you portray yourself, show up on time, come in with clean clothes, do not take any job that you have for granted. Surround yourself as much as you can with like minded people so that you feed off of each other. Creativity is contagious if you believe in it.
Find your drive, find your why, find your reason for wanting to do this. It is different for everyone. Only you know what you are really called to do in this world. For some this is easy to determine but for others it takes a minute. In order for you to be successful and truly happy you need to find your why. It all comes together from there.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Being overwhelmed is a daily occurrence in my work day. I have days where I win and some that I loose. The best way for me to combat it is to keep my head down and trust the work. Everything that I am working on is for a reason, and has a real purpose. As long as I am doing the work I will see the finish line. I also pause on things. If I have too much going on, I sift through my projects and choose the ones that are easiest to complete first then I tack the big ones, one at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.aioliburger.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aioligourmetburger/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Aioligourmet
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Faioliburgers
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/aioli-gourmet-burgers-and-catering-food-truck-phoenix-2
Image Credits
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