Keeping Culinary and Finance in Sync:

Closing the leadership gap no one is talking about

Live masterclass | Tuesday, June 16 at 11am ET

Most restaurants struggle because their high-performing Operations and Finance teams are solving different problems, but true growth happens when both share ownership of profitability.

Join Michael Sanfilippo, former Brand Chef at CAVA, and Gina Cavendish, former CFO at maman, for a masterclass session on closing the leadership gap no one talks about: creating a frictionless relationship between culinary and finance teams for growing multi-unit restaurant groups.

What you'll learn:

Actionable strategies to achieve alignment by agreeing on eight key shared metrics, building a deeper understanding of financial metrics responsibility, and implementing a functional weekly-to-quarterly meeting rhythm.

Understand why restaurant growth requires Operations and Finance to share ownership of profitability.

Identify the five most common sources of friction between the two departments.

Learn the eight essential shared metrics, like Prime Cost and Food Cost %, to review together.

Discover how a shared responsibility across metrics can align priorities and roles.

Implement a strategic weekly-to-quarterly meeting rhythm that actually works for both teams.

Register for your spot now!

Who is this for?

If you’ve ever felt like culinary and ops aren't seeing eye-to-eye with accounting - this masterclass is for you. Whether you're an accounting leader or an operations and culinary leader, this session will help you cut through the friction and focus on what and who actually drive profitability for your restaurant group.

Built for:
✅ Finance leadership
✅ Operations and culinary leadership
✅ Owners and investors looking to improve collaboration and profitability

Restaurant operator and accountant sit together with a laptop

Why it matters

True restaurant growth happens only when both Operations and Finance teams share ownership of profitability. Every major restaurant decision ultimately sits between these two functions.

If these two teams are still feeling at odds or are unsure of who's responsible for what performance metrics, you're missing out on better profitability, faster decision-making, and smoother growth for your enterprise.

Chefs prepping food in restaurant kitchen

What you'll walk away with

Actionable strategies that achieve alignment
The eight key shared metrics you should be reviewing regularly
A deeper understanding of financial metrics responsibility
How to implement a functional weekly-to-quarterly meeting rhythm

Meet your presenters

Together, Gina and Michael bring you proven strategies from years of experience running financial and culinary teams for large, rapid-growth restaurant brands. If you want to run a smoother, more collaborative and more profitable enterprise, this session is a must.

Former CFO of maman

Gina Cavendish

Former CFO of maman

Gina Cavendish is an experienced Hospitality CFO, having worked most recently as the CFO for Maman, and previously German Doner Kebab and other UK/Europe-based Fast Casual restaurant brands.

She has worked with small to large groups of 250+ units and specializes in scaling private equity-based, fast-growth concepts.

Former Brand Chef and Head of Innovation at CAVA

Michael Sanfilippo

Former Brand Chef and Head of Innovation at CAVA

As former Brand Chef and Head of Innovation at Cava, he helped scale one of the fastest-growing restaurant concepts in the country during a pivotal phase of expansion. Now, as Chef in Residence at MarginEdge, he works with operators across different sizes and concepts—and sees the same blind spots come up again and again.