Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsey Ofcacek . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lindsey, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Edward and I started the LEE Initiative in 2017 because we saw an opportunity to promote more women in positions of power and more diversity in our chefs, bartenders and GM’s. We saw an opportunity to make positive change in our industry. We firmly believe that the restaurant industry is in a momentous time of transition right now and the worldwide pandemic only heightened our awareness of these issues. Restaurants are valuable, restaurants are cultural, restaurants are essential to America’s identity. We are excited for the next generation of restaurant professionals and we hope to do our part in helping to bring about a change that is rooted in equity, diversity but most importantly, a kindness and a belief in our local communities.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.

Lindsey Ofcacek is both Co-Founder and Executive Director for The LEE Initiative, the non-profit she launched with Chef Edward Lee in 2017 to address issues of diversity and equality in the restaurant industry. Ofcacek has created several programs under the organization’s umbrella, including the Women Culinary and Spirits Program, Restaurant Workers Relief Program, Restaurant Reboot Relief Program, and Culinary Education Program.
Beyond these programs, Ofcacek has managed and overseen a bevy of relief work from The LEE Initiative in recent years: the distribution of over 2 million meals at relief centers nationwide, over $1.5 million invested in small farms, and over $3 million in grants given to Black-owned food businesses through the Black Kitchen Initiative, a partnership with Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice and Heinz. In 2021, Ofcacek and Chef Lee both won the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for their work with The LEE Initiative. Prior to starting The LEE Initiative, Ofcacek has worked in almost every part of the food business, from farming and distribution to cooking and managing. Ofcacek was the General Manager and Wine Director at 610 Magnolia, running the award-winning wine program at the restaurant. In 2012 Ofcacek helped open Decca, working as the Front of House Manager and then Events Manager. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her partner and two sons, listening to records, and hosting Martha Stewart inspired dinner parties.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Changing our mentorship program and the idea of M. Frances:

Over the last six years, our Women Culinary and Spirits mentorship program has focused on offering support at the individual level. Our primary goal has been to help women better succeed in the restaurant industry – through a variety of professional development opportunities, externships with experienced industry mentors, and targeted skill-building workshops.Through this programming, we’ve built a dynamic national peer network of women working
across the industry – possibly the most valuable asset to come out of WCSP. However, we’ve also learned that there is no amount of professional development that can compensate for the lack of a long term safe and supportive environment in the kitchen. Once mentees leave our program, they too often return to a professional life that is simply a continuation of the same inequities we strive to combat. A systems level intervention is needed to create a more equitable industry. That intervention is M. Frances – a new model for fine dining. At M. Frances, we intend to refashion WCSP as an inhouse program – offering mentees the opportunity to grow in a dynamic environment that pushes the limits of possibility. Pulling from our alumni network – in addition to new mentees selected on a rolling basis – our kitchen will be a self-governed, democratically organized, and women-led environment, usurping the traditional brigade system. At M. Frances, all employees will be paid a living wage and receive workplace entitlements. They will model equitable labor policies, pilot sustainability initiatives, engage with every aspect of running both a kitchen and a business, and collaborate with some of our industry’s leading female chefs. Rather than continuing to focus on individual solutions, M. Frances will be an experiment in creating a holistic system of equity and sustainability for an entire restaurant model. Both our successes and our failures will be shared as open source collections of data-driven annual reports, directories, and toolkits – housed in one online location. By sharing our findings in a way that is easily accessible to peer organizations, independent restaurant owners, and industry professionals, we hope to collectively progress, as an entire community, towards creating better pathways to care, safety, and mutual respect in restaurants across the country.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Create an environment that encourages your staff to ask for what they need. I believe that the best work environments are led by people that focus on creating an open dialogue where all team members feel safe asking for what they need.

Contact Info:

• Website: leeinitiative.org
• Instagram: @leeinitiative, @lindseyofcacek
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheLEEInitiative
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-lee-initiative
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@theleeinitiative

Image Credits
Sarah Babcock