The secret ingredient in Savoury Chef's recipe for success
If you’ve ever hosted, planned, or attended an event in Vancouver, chances are you’ve heard of Savoury Chef.
Known for their creativity, quality, and commitment to locally-sourced, sustainable ingredients, Savoury Chef has been making waves in the Vancouver catering scene since they launched more than a decade ago.
Today, their production hub boasts 10,000-sq. ft of commercial kitchen and office space as well as nearly 40 full-time staff. While a lot has changed since Savoury Chef’s inception in 2006, a few things remain constant. Chef Taryn Wa and her partner Kyle Nordman are wholly committed to a quality product and ensuring that their staff are happy and taken care every step of the way. They’re highly selective about which vendors they work with. When sourcing ingredients for their award-winning menu, that means choosing suppliers who offer sustainable, locally-sourced, seasonal, and high-quality ingredients. And when choosing the software that streamlines business processes and empowers their employees, they’re just as selective.
Their mission is to create exceptional experiences for their clients. With rapid and consistent growth in Vancouver’s competitive catering industry, as well as an impressive list of discerning, high-profile clients—including celebrities, athletes, and members of the royal family—they’re clearly doing something right.
But as a fast-growing catering business, their HR and payroll processes can be complicated. The founders have a lot on their plate and too much time was being devoted to dealing with complicated and time-consuming payroll administration.
Making a Change: Integrating HR, Payroll and Group Benefits
“Our payroll is complex,” says Taryn Wa, co-owner and culinary director. “We’re at 40 full-time employees, and we have over 100 part time staff. We are constantly hiring and adding people to payroll.”
With all those challenges, Wa’s team found working with their previous payroll provider overly time-consuming. They knew they needed to make a change, but they wanted to make sure that their new provider would be fast and reliable, and that there wouldn’t be any interruption in their services.
A sound solution and a pleasant surprise
In addition to payroll, Rise also acts as Savoury Chef’s group benefits advisor. Wa and her team appreciate how much time they can save by automating payroll and group benefits reconciliations.
“Having our payroll and benefits automated with Rise has made everything so much easier and more streamlined" says Wa. "The biggest benefit has been the hours we’ve saved in weekly payroll and benefits administration that we can devote back to providing exceptional experiences to our employees and customers."
Getting back to their passion
Part of what has led to Savoury Chef’s remarkable success is their commitment to providing exceptional service. When choosing vendors, they look for that same commitment to the customer experience, which is what initially attracted them to Rise. Plus, they like that both Rise and Savoury Chef are exciting, disruptive companies.
By streamlining and integrating their payroll and group benefits with Rise, Savoury Chef was able to save hundreds of hours per year and thousands in payroll fees. Rise allows Savoury Chef to put that time and money back into what matters most: providing exceptional event and catering services and ensuring their employees are taken care of in the process.
“We think that Savoury Chef and Rise work well together because we’re both vibrant companies that are doing something a little bit different—a little bit against the grain—and, you know, we really like that in other companies and vendors that we use,” says Wa.
