Glenn Cybulski is an award-winning executive chef with over 25 years of restaurant experience. He has opened 24 of his own restaurants, consulted for Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza, and developed a dough recipe that they purchased from him for $80,000. He’s also consulted for Pieology, a restaurant company that has over 150 locations, and has spoken at multiple expos, including the International Artisan Bakery Expo and the International Pizza Expo. Glenn has written for Pizza Today magazine, Outside magazine, and Franchise Times, and has appeared on the Food Network and multiple other television outlets. Additionally, Glenn is the Founder of Tossed, Sauced & Baked, which features award-winning sauces infused with cannabis.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Glenn Cybulski shares how his father influenced his passion for cooking
- Glenn describes the early days of his first pizza restaurant
- How did Glenn successfully open 24 restaurants?
- Why marketing is essential even if you have a great restaurant location
- Glenn tells the story of developing the pizza crust for Papa Murphy’s
- Glenn’s advice for aspiring restaurateurs
- Why now is an opportune time to start a restaurant — despite the obvious obstacles
- Glenn explains what inspired him to create cannabis-infused sauces for Tossed, Sauced & Baked
- What do customers experience when they taste the sauces?
- Glenn discusses the biggest turning points in his career and gives a shout-out to inspirational industry leaders
In this episode…
The wonderful aroma of a freshly cooked meal fills the air. You’re surrounded by loving friends and family. Just like millions of people around the globe, you’ve all been brought together by one simple thing — food. Chefs in every corner of the planet strive to create that environment for people to enjoy.
However, you can’t fulfill that dream without a solid business plan. No matter how amazing your product tastes, if you don’t market it correctly, no one will know. Similarly, there are certain steps to follow if you want your restaurant to be sustainable. So, how can you develop a plan that will fulfill your culinary dreams and create a welcoming environment for people to enjoy?
In this episode of the SpotOn Series, Chad Franzen is joined by Glenn Cybulski, an award-winning chef and the Founder of Tossed, Sauced & Baked, to discuss his strategies for successfully starting a restaurant. Glenn talks about his 25 years of experience in the food industry, shares advice for anyone contemplating opening a restaurant, and explains why a pandemic isn’t such a bad time to start. Plus, he gives the inside scoop on his latest project, Tossed, Sauced & Baked.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Glenn Cybulski on LinkedIn
- Glenn Cybulski’s website
- Tossed, Sauced & Baked
- Glenn’s phone number: 707-774-1668
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- SpotOn
- Rise25
Sponsor for this episode…
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders show powered by Rise25 Media. We featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here co-host for this show where we feature top restaurant tours, investors and business leaders. This is part of our SpotOn series spot on has the best in class payment platform for retail. And they have a flagship solution called spot on restaurant where they combine marketing software and payments all in one. They’ve served everyone from larger chains like Dairy Queen and subway to small mom and pop restaurants to learn more go to spot on calm. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses to get ROI clients referrals and strategic partnerships through done for you podcasts. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships with clients referral partners and thought leaders in your space. There’s no better way to do it than through podcasts and content marketing. To learn more go to Rise25 Media or email us at support@rise25media.com Glenn Cybulski is an award winning executive chef with over 25 years of restaurant experience. He’s opened 24 of his own restaurants. He’s consulted for Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake pizza, and developed a dough recipe that they purchase from him for $80,000. He’s also consulted for Pieology restaurants, they have over 150 locations. He’s a writer for Pizza Today magazine, a speaker at multiple expos, including the international artists and Expo, the International pizza Expo and northeast pizza and pasta Expo. He’s written for Outside Magazine Franchise Times, and appeared on Food Network and multiple other television outlets. He’s also the Founder of Tossed, Sauced & Baked, which features award winning sauces infused with cannabis. Wow, Glenn, thanks so much for joining me. How are you?
Glenn Cybulski 1:59
I’m tired now that I’ve heard everything that I’ve done. It sounds like a lot. But it’s been fun. And I’m fine. Chad, it’s really nice to be here.
Chad Franzen 2:07
You have a you have a very distinguished history. You know, I would think that after you’re on the award winning chef who developed the crust for Papa Murphy’s, I might have just called it quits. But you moved on. And now you’ve developed your own thing. And we’ll get into that in a little bit. But before we get into kind of your specifics in terms of owning restaurants and pizza and things like that, what in your life journey led you to become a chef, where did you decide like, oh, yeah, this is what I’m gonna do.
Glenn Cybulski 2:36
Um, realistically, I hate to sound a little bit cliche, but food. And especially the way my father used to cook, Dad cooked for everybody. So anytime he made something, he made a big pot of soup, or he made a big, you know, plate of pasta, whatever he did, he made sure that there was plenty so that our friends and other people can come over and eat as well. So, you know, for me food evokes a lot of memories that are very, very, very treasured to me. And, and that’s really where the passion came from.
Chad Franzen 3:14
And then you I’m sure you know, you enjoyed your father’s food. But at what point did you decide this is what I’m good at?
Glenn Cybulski 3:23
Oh, boy, I guess you know, without any specific, one example I can give you. I’m good at. You know, I think any chef that that, that starts, you know that as a chef now and just starts cooking, we’ll talk a lot about when they were in the kitchen with their parents or their grandma or grandpa or something like that. It’s the same thing, you know, when you start cooking. And you start making things that taste different that you haven’t tasted anymore, but you love it because it lays well on your palate. And putting those you know, ABCs, one, two threes together on when you’re ideating creating recipes. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of times where I’ve put a spoon in my mouth and went, Oh my God, that’s horrible. After Of course, ideating it in my mind and saying, Wow, these combination of ingredients should go great together. But I’ve always been very adventurous. I’ve always used a lot of spices from different countries, and applied them in different ways on my plate layers of flavor combinations, and I’m good at it. So I think that’s where really it starts.
Chad Franzen 4:36
Was there ever a time when you were growing up? I mean, I know you’ve had, you know, extensive training and you’ve certainly built up your skills professionally. But when you were growing up where you talk to your dad into letting you prepare the meal, and everybody was like, Oh, well you need to become a chef.
Glenn Cybulski 4:55
Yeah, I don’t know that there was a specific time I think you know, my dad and both my mom, we’re very open to the kids in the kitchen. And again, it starts with, dare I say, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs and things like that. You know, you start doing little things that inspire you or you go, Wow, that really tastes good together, you combine something. So I think that’s really the most. I think the thing that I can think most about is, is the first time I made a spaghetti or lasagna, and, and my father was with very few complements. Although, you know, he was a tough, he was a tough dude. But it was I do remember one time where he said, Wow, that this is really good. So I don’t know how much more that inspired me. I’ve always loved to cook. And it just seems that people come together. Listen, people come together on food with every single thing that happens in our lives, the great times the really bad times, food is there. It’s a comforting agent for for our times when we’re sad and stressed. It’s also a very happy occasion when you have all your family together. And it’s a celebration. So foods always there. And it’s very, very important emotionally and obviously nutritionally for us. So I think that’s the draw for me. It really builds my passion.
Chad Franzen 6:24
We talked about I mentioned in your introduction that you you developed a dough for Papa Murphy’s, you have a extensive background in pizza, you’re an award winning pizzaiolo. Is that the right way to say it? That’s correct. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your journey into pizza. And what drew you to that specifically?
Glenn Cybulski 6:46
Well, again, I think it goes back to really remembering every Saturday night when my dad would go down and get shaky pizza, because that was our special night. And I hate to date myself, but I’m not as young as I used to be. And we watch creature features on channel two, way back when and we’d have shaky pizza. And you know, we get soda. So that was a really fun time. I think that’s one of the big things. There’s not too many people that don’t like pizza. In fact, I’ve never ever really heard anybody go, Oh, I hate pizza and never eat it. So um, that’s one of the main I think things that drew me to pizza. And then of course, first time I traveled to Italy. Pizza was all around me. And I think the challenges of really the intricacies of making dough sauce and cheese and toppings come together as a dish, a culinary dish that actually pleases people in pizza pizzas. Just not a pizza anymore. Chad.
Chad Franzen 7:57
I loved shakers when I was a kid the texture of the crust as well as the kind of sweetness Yeah, Tang Enos of the sauce was just spectacular. So how did you get started as a pizza chef, tell me a little bit about your training and then how you ventured into it.
Glenn Cybulski 8:13
You know, um, gosh, that goes back to the first trip I ever took to Italy. My cousin and I met some some guys we were surfing in Hawaii met some Italian guys they invited us over long story short, one of them had a restaurant in a small town called Fish na right outside of Rome on the coast. The Sonia D’Amato and we hung out there and and they had a wood fired oven. Everybody in Italy has wood fired oven in their homes, basically. And that’s I think were the true passion for wanting to know how dough sauce cheese basil and a little bit of olive oil can taste so magnificent. That’s probably where I really started to gain my my love for baking and pizza. And that was probably around 1988 1989. And then ever since I’ve just been, you know, chasing that that perfect pizza which there never is going to be one which is by keep chasing.
Chad Franzen 9:17
How did you How and where did you start your professional career?
Glenn Cybulski 9:22
Well, you know, I worked in a lot of restaurants from the dish pits at Zimmerman’s and Incorta Madera, Erie County when I was still in high school earning money to delis like Perry’s deli and, and, you know, just different restaurants like that, because I didn’t know what else to do. And then when I came home from Italy, I decided I had a food company prepared foods company called Sonoma naturals that I had started and it was very successful. That company was then sold. And I started a pizzeria and I named my first pizzeria for Jennings after the town In Italy, where our friends live, and you know the rest is history from there, I believe that was in 2001 ish. My first restaurants what?
Chad Franzen 10:13
What kind of were you? Was it? Did it just feel like it came natural to you. Were you nervous when you decided like, I’m no longer an employee, the boss yet I still work at the restaurant.
Glenn Cybulski 10:25
I wasn’t nervous about it at all, never really have been nervous about, you know, the the entrepreneurial ship. You know, my risk taking abilities are a lot less now than they were when I was you know, 2530. But the thin crust, a Roman style pizza that I ate when I was in Italy really was different than anything else here. And he’s still able to hear me.
Chad Franzen 10:54
I can hear you. Yes. Okay, great.
Glenn Cybulski 10:56
I just lost my Bluetooth. So sorry about that. Okay. So basically the thin crust that I loved in and tasted in Italy, I brought to progenies in my small town in Petaluma, because really nobody had anything like that. So that also was one of the segways to lead into the Papa Murphy’s story. And, and once I started cooking that people were just amazed, I used a different kind of sauce and pizza sauce was a big plus, I always use the best California all milk mozzarella, cheese, because, you know, the butterfat content is where all the flavor is, was very simple from there to go on and start layering. Different, you know, toppings and the reality is I opened my first restaurant with about $700.
Chad Franzen 11:50
So okay, $700. So I’m sure, given you’re given the resource, the financial resources that you had to work with, and just any new restaurant that nobody knows about? What were the early days like, and how did you overcome some of those obstacles?
Glenn Cybulski 12:07
Really tough. I mean, the early days were really tough. I had a really good I had a really good friend, Jeff Howard. And Jeff helped me raise some money to to really start expanding the brand he was integral in in the in the launch of the first restaurant chain. And so that helped. What also helped was we were able to get a little tiny space down in downtown Petaluma. So all the people with businesses came in to get a slice right away. And the word of mouth spread like wildfire. And it was it was really fun now, I opened I did dishes, I bussed tables. I did everything that I needed to do to make it happen before I could start hiring employees. And that’s that’s basically how it launched.
Chad Franzen 12:57
How many hours a day would you say it took for the first you know, the first several, maybe a year?
Glenn Cybulski 13:02
Oh, goodness. Minimum 1214 hours a day? Minimum seven days a week? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And at that point in time, I was a single father. So it wasn’t that easy to do. But you know, whether where there’s a will there’s a way, I never, I never say no, I just, you know, no matter and everybody gets, you know, don’t get me wrong. There were some really, really tough times. The restaurant business is not easy. And every single restaurant owner I know has closed stores, as I have extremely difficult lessons to learn costly, yet, they’re stamped into your memory as to tell you listen, it’s not all about great food, you really have to know everything about the restaurant business to be successful. And that’s what’s led me to, you know, my success at this point. Yeah,
Chad Franzen 14:00
you talked about, you know, you’ve you’ve run 24, you’ve opened 24 restaurants, at what point you know, after you put in the 12 to 14 hour days, seven days a week that you decide, I’m ready for more restaurants. And why did you get to that? How did you get to that point?
Glenn Cybulski 14:18
It was a it was a natural progression. It was just a thought process. Very early on. I met. I went to Pizza Expo. And again, Jeff Howard and I Jeff goes, we got to go to this. It’s in Las Vegas. Let’s go and have some fun. So we did. Fortunately, we actually won entered a contest in one point of sale system, which we didn’t have we only had a cash register. So that kind of changes the trajectory of the way you’re thinking pizza Expo has been an extremely large part of my success. And it’s because I embraced the the education that they give the camaraderie In the industry, and specifically one guy named Tony Geminiani, I’m sure we’ll talk about him a little bit later. But Tony Geminiani you know, he, he opened the door to an opportunity. And I pulled the door right off the hinges, and I went deep. So, you know, this is a, this is an industry to where you build lifelong friendships with people. And even if you don’t see them for a whole year, so maybe only at Expo, things like that, if they called you, and they needed help, and you could help you help.
Chad Franzen 15:37
So you have, you’ve opened 24 restaurants, how many specific brands have there been?
Glenn Cybulski 15:46
There have been two brands, I will actually four different restaurant names. So two brands that were that were expanded upon. And of course, I’ve opened a lot more restaurants for other clients as well. So 24 of my own, there’s a total of almost 100 restaurants I’ve actually opened. So but very important later on in my career, when I could embrace the entire model of opening restaurants. And and that’s been that’s been key to the success is really understanding what your mistakes are. Being able to survive a mistake financially, and take continue to take that risk. That’s also been a big part of the success over the
Chad Franzen 16:33
years. What’s a moment that you look back on, that you are particularly proud of in terms of that?
Glenn Cybulski 16:40
Oh, by the way, um,
you know, I guess probably the there was a moment where I won my first contest and, and really realized how important recognition is in the industry. And that was, that was a pizza Expo. And that was the first time I went, I came in second with my chicken, Chipotle pizza. And I had one gentleman who’s also been very, you know, listen, there’s a lot of people that have played a huge partner, still very good friend, Shawn browser, came up to me and he goes, How did you think about this? How, how did this come about? Because the flavor profile really layered on your your mouth and on your palate? And it didn’t? You know, there was nothing else like that out there just at that time.
Chad Franzen 17:33
What’s the biggest you talked about how you’ve opened restaurants, you’ve had to close restaurants? Is there a biggest pitfall or mistake that you’ve learned from?
Glenn Cybulski 17:41
Yeah, the biggest pitfall mistake that I’ve learned from really is not understanding how important demographics and marketing are to the success of a restaurant. Again, there’s not one, I cannot think of one TV chef that is out there that has not closed a restaurant, it is really part of part and parcel to success, are you going to be able to get back up and do it again. So I would say that my biggest lesson was really understanding demographics and understanding the the marketing side, you can have the best product in the world. And I always give this one experience in a lot of my seminars is, you know, out in Sebastopol, a little town north of me in Northern California, you know, I wanted to have a location out there. And there’s a really good set of Glenn I got a great location. It’s anchored by this and it’s fantastic. 100,000 cars go right past it every single day. And that’s exactly what they did. They went right past it every single day. Because really, nobody knew I was in there. And I had great food and at that time was winning awards, but nobody knew. So that’s a very important part demographics, marketing, setting yourself up for success. That was a tough lesson that was about a $200,000 lesson for me.
Chad Franzen 19:01
Is that something that you specifically are able to do now? Do you hire people to do that for you? Or did you kind of transition from doing it to hiring? Or do you just do it?
Glenn Cybulski 19:10
No, I just do it. You know, there are, you know, in the new company, which I know we’re going to talk about, I have a great friend, Harry Miller, who owns franchise science and and Harry actually took our persona project to franchise for us. He’s brilliant. And, you know, Harry really reconfirmed with me. And he’s involved in the new business as well. Harry really confirmed to me how important marketing was and how important demographics were to be able to continue to you know, build restaurants and make them successful.
Chad Franzen 19:50
So now you are you talking about your clients and how you’ve helped them open hundreds of rows or you know, over 100 restaurants. I’m sure most people are watching it. Listening. I’ve had Papa Murphy’s. Can you tell me how that came about?
Glenn Cybulski 20:04
Yeah, again, I knew Tim Sweeney, a good friend of mine, his mother married. Terry Collins, Terry Collins was a exec with I believe PepsiCo at the time. And he found two brands pop out those and Murphy’s pizza and combine them to make a taken bake, which really isn’t that popular east of the Mississippi simply because people want their pizzas delivered hot and fresh and things like that. But it was a great concept. I believe it’s still number five in the world for sales. It’s huge. They’ve since sold the brand, Terry Collins is getting on an age right now. But extremely successful corporate food guy professional. And, you know, he tasted my crackers that I was making in in Sonoma naturals and some of my sauces. And I back then was doing pieces out of Sonoma naturals, as well as kind of where I first started ideating. And he tasted those and he goes, Listen, he goes, I need help. And for a company like that, at that time to come to me. Listen, luck, timing. I knew him. He attended one of my golf tournaments that I put on to raise money for the American Heart Association. And I remember that, you know, when you talk now that I’m going back in my memory, you talked about significant times, I was serving him dinner along with everybody else. And he looked at me and he said, You should be in the food business. And that didn’t resonate with me at that time. But here I am in the food business 30 years later, and Terry calling those had a big, big part to do with that. So he loved the crust. He basically told me, Glenn, I’ve got flour mills all over the country. And I got people working on this. And he said some guy from penngrove gives me exactly what I want. So that’s how that one.
Chad Franzen 22:07
So now you are consulting for multiple restaurants. What is a? What’s something that somebody who decides to open a restaurant? And then hire you? What’s something that you think that they haven’t realized before consulting with you? Is there a kind of a common thing that people often overlook? And then they talk to you? And they’re like, oh, yeah, I need to remember that.
Glenn Cybulski 22:29
easier. So there’s, there’s quite a few things like, again, I think I have to go right back down to operations. There are people out there that will probably hear this podcast that will not know what their prime costs are in their restaurant. And, again, passion plays a big part, being able to create good food plays a good part, one thing I missed early on was the numbers. And those numbers have to deal with demographics, they have to deal with marketing, they have to deal with what your prime costs are in your restaurant, you can literally estimate the success of a restaurant based on where you are, what your demographic is what you’re going to be serving, and making sure that your prime costs, which are your labor, and your food costs are at a certain percentage for success. If it’s not there, you’re never going to get it. That’s all there is to it. Restaurants fail a lot. Because restaurant tours like myself, went into the business, because their mother’s sister’s uncle had a recipe that everybody loves it. And they know it’ll sell everywhere. It’s that kind of mentality that we go into with the passion of our hearts and our hard work. And we forget about the numbers, the devils in the details. And if you don’t know what your prime costs are, if you don’t know what your spoilage is, if you don’t know how to cross utilize ingredients to keep your costs low. It’s gonna be a struggle.
Chad Franzen 23:57
So you have people have to face all those obstacles, all those concerns. And then last year, we have the pandemic, is there been a common piece of advice or, you know, a common thread of consultation that you’ve provided to survive that or even thrive in it?
Glenn Cybulski 24:15
Yeah, the first thing was, man, I’m glad I don’t have any restaurants, right? To tell you the truth. And then if you flip forward, one of the things that that, you know, I’ve said on a couple different podcasts and to a lot of my clients is this is the best time to open a restaurant that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. And the reason is, is because the writing’s on the wall as to what we were up against in COVID and still are up against, you know, this is not the last virus that’s going to come through. Hopefully it’s the last time you know, America reacts to it the way we did, but even even still, setting your restaurant up now for success is easier. Since we’ve seen What happened in the past year and a half? And when I say easier, I don’t mean easy peasy, like no problem. I mean, we’ve got data now that proves how important to go is. Right pick up and delivery is where people sometimes would just not even think about that. Now we have all of that data. And it really does help. And I think it’s a very good time to open restaurants.
Chad Franzen 25:27
Okay, that’s it. But that would be maybe counterintuitive to what a lot of people might think.
Glenn Cybulski 25:33
Well, and you know, that’s not that’s a that’s an absolutely fair comment on your part, simply because there was so much devastation in the industry. And I’m sure there’s going to be people that hear this that say, Well, yeah, but you weren’t in it? Well, I was in it, actually. Because all of my business went away as well, when you’re doing consulting and things like that, No, nobody’s paying anybody to help them with their restaurants. Everybody was in survival mode. So it was tough for everybody. I don’t want to make light of it at all. There’s a lot of my friends who closed a lot of restaurants. But that also goes back to the business side of restaurant tour. When you’re in the restaurant business, you know, you’ve got 234, successful profitable stores, you’re going to want to expand that. So you’re either going to get capital in or you’re going to expand from profits that you’re generating off your own stores. Well, how long do you hold a store that’s not making money and feed it the profits from the other store. That’s not the way to go? Some people have to bootstrap. And I understand that and I’ve had to do that. But the same thing has happened to me, I then took you know, a chance on location and was feeding that location with profits. And it didn’t make sense until I moved it. So there are a lot of variables in this. This is not a business that is very easy at all. But I also don’t believe that if you are are following the guidance of a great consultant, or you know everything that you you should be successful in this business, it doesn’t have to be such a high percentage of failures. If you are crossing your T’s and dotting dotting your eyes, and bringing in people that know more than you do about things that are important to the success of the restaurant.
Chad Franzen 27:17
So you have your consultancy and then you’ve also started your new venture Tossed, Sauced & Baked that’s about five years old, I believe 2016 is when you started it. Yeah. 2016 is when I started
Glenn Cybulski 27:29
And I was very quiet about my work with cannabis. Simply because of my success in the industry. I didn’t want to be categorized as a pothead or anything like that had nothing to do with that. Cannabis is in an extremely amazing plant and and the benefits of that plant have been studied and and used for over 3000 years. So it was really interesting. I know we’ll talk about the the the partisan bakery Expo that I just spoke at, but cannabis is here to stay and food. Cannabis is here to stay. And it’s just a matter of time before you know United States legalized it like Canada already has. The FDA is getting ready to approve CBD and food which is going to be another big step forward for our company. And and it’s it’s, it’s definitely part and parcel to who I am.
Chad Franzen 28:39
What made you decide to MC kind of, you know, you’ve you’ve had success, creating traditional and untreated or non traditional pizzas, I’m sure, but not with cannabis. What made you decide to take this next step?
Glenn Cybulski 28:53
It seemed like, you know, again, I’m getting as I get older or more mature, my wife would argue that I’m mature. But I also you know, I can’t do the things I used to do, you know, travel back east every other week for a whole week and work on a concept and things like that. I like to stay at home closer to my home base. Cannabis is an opportunity that I think if the opportunity is addressed properly is going to be extremely successful, is still in its infancy as far as the United States is concerned. And again, I’m a firm believer that the plant holds keys to health and wellness for us that have been proven already through through studies outside of the United States. And now we have a couple of universities that are able to grow cannabis and they’re stepping into it’s just a matter of time. And quite frankly, the the financial benefits are amazing. Constellation Brands invested $4 billion into Canopy Growth. That was three, four or five years ago, Canopy Growth is still not profitable. So when you have large companies like that coming into the industry, then it also confirms that there’s money there, there’s investment capital there. And if you’re in it for the long haul, and you want to make products that people are going to be able to use every single day, pantry products, which is what I I envisioned, and it’s, it’s coming true. So that’s kind of fun.
Chad Franzen 30:32
You, you have some products, tell me a little bit about your product specifically. I know one of which is already award winning. So tell me a little bit about those what you guys offer.
Glenn Cybulski 30:43
So, you know, we’ve got I’ve infused 75 of my award winning products, which means I’ve won awards on on these recipes, without infusing them with cannabis at different different competitions, nationally and internationally. So I knew from a marketing standpoint, that that would help me as a mainstream chef, it would help me market the brand better. Because there’s really no mainstream chefs out there that are well there’s a lot of chefs cooking with cannabis. But from a mainstream side, I don’t think there’s very many of those and I happen to happen to believe that it’s going to make a big difference in the way the brand grows. And that’s that’s really one of the reasons why I chose to start now. It’s also listen, it’s a manufacturing company. So basically we we have manufacturers that we give our recipes to they make our product for us, our district, our distributed distribution, network distributed it’s for us so it’s a great business model that we can grow with it out being too financially of a burden. In other words, you know, instead aim instead of investing $10 million in a company I can invest a lot less than that and utilize the the legal manufacturers and distribution networks that are out there and become more of a marketing and sales and you know that’s what I’m doing right here.
Chad Franzen 32:26
You have a trophy one of your products has already received a trophy. Can you show it to us and tell us about it?
Glenn Cybulski 32:33
I can and really cool this is from Weed con we con productions. And I know it’s probably hard to read but I’ll read it to you it says 202,021 week con buyers cup first place, best confection Tossed, Sauced & Baked cannabis and cannabis infused caramel sauce. So we started with three sauces. And it was it was interesting from a marketing perspective. The business is based on creating pantry products that people can use every day that are infused with THC and CBD or just CBD. Salad dressings. Pasta sauce, pizza sauce, I’ve infused crackers, breads, fresh pasta, there’s just the list goes on and on. The reason why I picked sweets first is because the cannabis market is predominantly in edibles are all sweet, it’s candy, it’s gummies, it’s chocolates and things like that. So from a marketing standpoint, I first decided to go with four savories. And I think that would have been a really big mistake. Instead we went to three saw sweets and one sweet or two sweets and one sweet savory. So we have a chocolate sauce that is just out of this world. We have of course our award winning caramel sauce, and we have a sweet and spicy barbecue sauce. And all three of those have sold extremely well in the market so far because people can relate to the sweets they can relate to instead of having a chocolate bar or a gummy or a piece of caramel. Now they can have sauces that they can actually use on ice creams, cookies in baking, when you’re barbecuing, you know you’re finishing your your whatever your barbecue and with your barbecue sauce and and it just works. And so again, little bit of luck, I think a lot of knowledge to be able to switch. And one of the other things is really important. put your ego aside. It’s nice to be able to wear shirts that say award winning and you’ve done this and done that everything but the bottom line for chefs is put your ego aside and do what’s right for not only the business but for your customer base. We’ve seen suit too many egos ruin chefs where they think they’re all that and you know, a bag of chips. The bottom line is if you put us all in a restaurant, and I’ve done this with, with what 1314 other chefs in Italy, and you put us in a kitchen, there are no egos everybody grabs the station and starts making dinner for everybody. And that’s where the magic happens.
Chad Franzen 35:19
So when, when a customer or you know, somebody trying one of your products, tries it, what, what will they experience? Obviously, it’ll taste good, is there going going to be other things that come along with the experience of eating these products? Well sure,
Glenn Cybulski 35:35
because you’ve got THC and CBD, so you’re going to get somewhat of an entourage effect. Purists in the industry will say that’s not an entourage effect, because you don’t have all the terpenes and you don’t have all of the canal noise in there. But we also have to be realistic and the majority of the United States has not consumed any cannabis at all. Yet, CBD products are flying off the shelves and stores everywhere. So what you know there’s a couple of different components of course THC is going to have that psychoactive effect, you’re going to get high, you’re gonna feel good. Each bottle comes with a I should have a bottle here, right here hold up and I do it’s over there, I’ll go grab one. But each bottle has 100 milligrams of THC and 25 milligrams of CBD. And then our CBD only products have 500 milligrams of CBD. CBD does not have any psychoactive aspect to it. But it does have other benefits of of, and we we never make medical claims because we’re not doctors, and we have not done the research ourselves on any of the claims. But it has been noted that CBD helps people with anxiety to calm down. We know that there are two drugs on the market that have CBD in them for children who who suffered grandma seizures, that it radically helps them improve on those seizures. our fighting men and women, God bless all of them. All of our soldiers out there and our veterans have found that CBD helps them with their PTSD. Where, you know, they used to use pharmaceutical drugs that they only get addicted to. So things like that with with actually cancer and other patients like that CBD is the cannabinoid that helps inspire your your, your hunger, your appetite. So that’s also been very, very beneficial for people. In the past year and a half with COVID people have been using CBD to relax, de stress, take that anxiety out of their life, instead of drinking two or three or four bottles of glasses wine a night. So there’s a many, many, many benefits a lot more to come as the research is done in the US. And the US opens up to research that Israel doctors in Israel have done for the past 40 years, there’s going to be a lot of CBD and cannabis is going to be everywhere.
Chad Franzen 38:15
And if I have just a couple more questions for you, what have been the biggest turning points and kind of the five year five year plus lifespan for this company.
Glenn Cybulski 38:24
Um, boy, there’s been a quite a few turning points. One of my first partners unfortunately, went to bed one night didn’t wake up the next morning he had a massive heart attack, a vision of health marks Dorothy in Chicago was was integral in helping me get the first round of funding done in the company. So you know, I say a quick prayer to mark all the time I feel His presence and His Spirit I know he’s around. And the also the people that that put in the first amounts of seed capital. So that was a big turning point. The galley, any homerun all the partners that have helped and jumped in and and you know, gotten the help to get the product off the ground. This is not a one man band at all. Nice thing is we just opened up our seed round of capital raise. So we we’ve got a capital raise going right now we’ve got proof of concept in the market in California, and we’re looking to expand nationwide. So I certainly did not do all of that myself. There’s been a lot of people that have helped and there’s going to be a lot of a lot more people that help.
Chad Franzen 39:35
Final question. We’re big fans of gratitude around here and we like to give people a chance to publicly acknowledge the people who’ve been influential for them. Who are some of those people for you? You’ve talked about a few here with us so far, who are some people in the industry that you respect and look to advice for and that you’ve learned from?
Glenn Cybulski 39:52
Yes, and we have like three hours. Okay, well off the top of my head really Pete la Chapelle Pizza Today magazine, the International pizza Expo and the International Artisan Bakery Expo, Pete la Chapelle and there’s way too many people in the organization to name you all know who you are. You’re all great friends and I care about you deeply. Emerald expositions who now owns pizza Expo. phenomenal company. I’ve been very proud to speak for them right for them for the past 15 plus years. That has been a huge benefit for me. In my my culinary journey. Tony Geminiani is a good friend who I probably only see once a year and he lives about 30 miles away. We’re also busy, but there’s guys like Tony Geminiani, Joe Carlucci. Shawn browser, Michael Shepherd, Kenny, Brian, all the guys on the international or world pizza champions team. Of course, you know, the the people behind the scenes. Jeff Howard early on my nephew, Michael sobolewski was very integral and in teaching me a lot on management in in progenitors. So a lot of people, there’s probably people that have missed here, Mara 40. ovens. I can’t tell you enough about more 40 others Francisco and Enzo and their brothers have have been integral in in in helping me throughout my restaurant career. And last probably but not least California milk advisory board. What a great organization, I’m very pleased to be able to work with them as well on their pizza contest that they have coming up next month. This is the third year in a row. And there’s a lot of people, gratitude is one thing that we can give freely. And and there’s a lot of people that I’m extremely I’m extremely grateful to meet you, Chad and see where this journey is going to go as well. So I really do appreciate the time that you’ve taken to do the podcast and invite me on grateful for that.
Chad Franzen 42:03
Thank you so much. It’s been a it’s been a pleasure. For me. It’s an honor for me to speak with you. So we’ve been speaking with Glenn Cybulski, a distinguished Chef Restaurant tour and Founder of Tossed, Sauced & Baked. Glenn where can people find more information about you? You can I’ve got two
Glenn Cybulski 42:19
websites first, www.tossedsaucedbaked.com is the cannabis infused sauce company. And then of course, www.glenncybulski.com. And that’s my culinary site as well. Go to either one of those sites, you can connect with me via email through those sites. I’m happy to help. I’m happy to help when somebody comes to me with a consultation. We don’t talk about consultation of prices first. I’ve got to figure out if I can first help that person. So especially in this time, if you’re thinking about the restaurant industry, it’s a great time to start. If you’re having struggles, call me phone calls are free. Let’s talk about it first. I’m happy to do that. And my cell phone. I might as well put it out there 707-774-1668 I’m happy to help if I can. If I can’t help I probably know somebody that can help you.
Chad Franzen 43:15
Okay, Glenn, thanks so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you. I appreciate you calling everybody.
Outro 43:21
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