Qdoba Hires Executive Chef to Create Menu Innovations

July 22nd, 2019

Qdoba Mexican Eats announced last week the appointment of Katy Velazquez as its corporate executive chef. The chain of some 750 company and franchised restaurants in the U.S. and Canada is pushing to create innovative new menu offerings.

“Katy is an extremely talented chef with an impressive background and we’re eager to have her dive into developing new menu concepts,” said Keith Guilbault, CEO of Qdoba.

Velazquez honed her skills with chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless, having served as the kitchen director for Bayless’ hit PBS series, “Mexico – One Plate at a Time.” She was the culinary director of Bayless’ podcast, “The Feed.” Following her move back to California in 2016, Velazquez served for three years as the executive creative chef at Puesto, a contemporary, artisan Mexican restaurant with several locations throughout Southern California.

Don Sniegowski

Don launched the news site Blue MauMau in the Fall of 2005 after franchise buyers and owners told him that they felt it was almost impossible to shovel through the propaganda and sales spin from business news, disclosures, and even franchise experts in order to make informed and wise investments.

Why is this news site called Blue MauMau? It's metaphorical. Blue MauMau is a South Pacific fish that gathers in schools for protection from sharks and other predators. In an industry that has many impediments in knowing truth at the franchise level, Don created a platform that franchisees from all brands and ilks could use to network together to inform both themselves and reporters about their businesses and industry. This site works when franchise owners participate in what they know. In the past that function has been left largely to the franchisor. I'll still reach out to franchisors, but I do so wanting straightforward answers for our readers—franchisees. This news site aims to continually improve at being "the franchise owner's most trusted news source."

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