An Interview With Martita Mestey
Quality of Service Impacts Taste — the way your customer feels about their experience getting the food will influence their experience with and their feelings about the food itself.
In this interview series, called “Chefs and Restaurateurs Helping To Promote Healthy Eating” we are talking to chefs and restaurateurs who are helping to promote and raise awareness about healthy eating. The purpose of the series is to amplify their message and share insights about healthy eating with our readers. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Brandon Dorsky.
Brandon Dorsky, Esq. is an intellectual property attorney and cannabis industry expert turned food entrepreneur through his work as CEO and co-founder of award-winning cannabis edible Fruit Slabs and as a minority partner in Los Angeles most infamous slangers of dough, Yeastie Boys Bagels. He launched his career in food in 2015 when he helped founder Evan Fox establish the Yeastie Boys food-truck business and became a force in California’s edibles market when he joined Brian Cona, the creator and master formulator of Fruit Slabs, to bring healthy cannabis edibles to the world. Dorsky has since gone on to introduce other consumer packaged food products to market, including CBD Fruit Slabs and SUPER IMMUNITY by IMMORDL, both products designed to be functional food to support a healthier lifestyle.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restauranteur or chef?
As a lifelong sufferer of allergies, and someone who has had near-death experiences and countless hospital visits from ingesting the wrong thing, I was interested in making dining safer and more approachable for those with food sensitivities or severe dietary restrictions. I was at a restaurant in Los Angeles and was served a sandwich that had an item added to it that I was allergic to despite having informed the staff of my allergy and I ended up in the emergency room at Cedars Sinai. I negotiated with the restaurant to add a new button to their register to provide notice that the customer had allergies to the chefs by using a different ink color on the meal ticket. Thereafter I sought to become a part of a food business so I could have influence over making the customer experience better for people with allergies.
Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?
At Yeastie Boys Bagels, the focus is on the quintessential bagel experience. Founder Evan Fox is the brains behind the sandwich concoctions and clever marketing, and he is the one who really dialed in the bagel and cream cheese recipes, although I made both bagels and schmear with the crew at times.
At Fruit Slabs, we focus on making high-end adult fruit roll-ups that are safe for all diets and dietary restrictions. The team was fueled by a collective interest in making a cannabis edible that was less like candy and more a functional food. We specifically focused on making an organic, healthy, no added sugar edible that people with severe allergies, on strict calorie diets and/or diabetes could eat.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that has happened to you since you started? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
Several years ago I wanted to change the allergy warning label on our packaging to provide more details and information to prospective customers about our production process and exhibit that we self-regulate at a heightened level but could not get buy-in from my co-packer. I had authored a thought piece for a lobbying organization about adopting better labeling practices to be more informative and wanted to include new language on our packaging that provided additional information on what we do to ensure there is no cross-contamination or cross-contact with allergens in the production process, but our co-manufacturers legal team would not allow us to do it because they did not adhere to those same standards with other products they produced and they did not want to expose themselves to liability. My takeaway from that experience is that it typically costs more to do the right thing and pioneer into doing business a better way and that the heartbeat of business in America is too often dictated by legal concerns rather than doing what is right.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
Great question. I worked with a woman named Rachel Hytken at a hot-dog restaurant in college (shout out Red Hot Lover’s in Ann Arbor), and she and I also lived together for nearly two years there, and she just taught me so much about cooking, pairing flavors and preparing well balanced meals that I carried into my adulthood and meal preparation practices. My partner and Fruit Slabs Chief Marketing Officer, Maggie Wilson, has been super supportive of my hustle and worked alongside myself and Brian Cona to ensure that Fruit Slabs is recognized as one of the healthiest edibles out there.
In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?
Unique flavor and/or texture. When the experience you create with your food is memorable because it was both delicious and not typical, the impression it leaves is implanted in your memory in a more visceral way.
Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal’ for you?
The perfect meal is a palette pleasing experience that includes multiple courses, terpene pairings between the food and beverages, that is filled with temptation and excitement and free of allergen risks. I can go for many types of foods, but the top choice meal for me would be sushi with cannabis dipping oils and ponzus, including a healthy serving of aburi (torched) cuts and a tour de Toro, followed by a desert that included chocolate cake or pie with ice cream and Fruit Slabs.
Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?
If I need a creative boost, I will often turn to musical inspiration and/or cannabis.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?
At Fruit Slabs, we are working on formulating some new flavors that include vitamins, adaptogens and nootropics. We also have a line of sour flavors to introduce that we are excited about it; our first official Sour Slab, Aqua Melon, debuts in California in June 2022.
At Yeastie Boys, Evan Fox has been working on a collaboration with Taco Bell that we are pretty excited to bring to the world.
Ok super. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. You are currently leading an initiative to help promote healthy eating. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
Myself and my fellow leaders at Fruit Slabs, Brian Cona and Maggie Wilson, are trying to change the conversation around cannabis edibles to focus the narrative on edibles as functional food. We feel that cannabis edibles should include healthy, no sugar added alternatives that are not reserved for the class of desserts. We are trying to promote healthier edibles that facilitate the consumer feeling good and healthy and that do not work against the very ailments they are supposed to address because of the presence of extra sugar. We also believe that Fruit Slabs should be part of an everyday diet, whether you are consuming the non-infused, CBD infused and/or THC infused products.
Without saying specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was helped by your cause?
We have multiple fans of Fruit Slabs that suffer from diabetes that tell us our edible is the only edible they can comfortably eat.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
The government could stop providing subsidies to food producers that are raising livestock or growing produce in ways that are not sustainability optimized.
The government could stop treating cannabis edibles, whether CBD or THC infused, like they are unapproved drugs and start treating them like the functional food that they are.
Politicians and the community could support food industry self-regulation through legislative enactments, including tax incentives or rebates that reward more informative consumer disclosures.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Chef or Restaurateur” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Trust Fund Babies Should Not Run Food Businesses — any individual that, because of their lucky lot in life, cannot really appreciate what it takes to earn or save a dollar, or the opportunity cost of that dollar, and has never had to say no because of cost, is probably not the best person to be leading a business that operates on thin margins, like food. I worked with a food brand operator who had inherited a lot of money and spent it all in her 20s, and she spent thousands on promotional items and swag and the swag accumulated dust in their warehouse for over 12 months while that same person authorized overpayment for the purchase of inputs because they did not have enough money to put down a deposit on those goods because of their questionable swag purchase.
- Better to Sell Out Than Over Project — with fungible inventory, it is better to run out of inventory than be left with inventory you cannot sell.
- The Customer Does Not Care About Your Feelings — the customer’s expectation, not yours, is what really matters.
- Quality of Service Impacts Taste — the way your customer feels about their experience getting the food will influence their experience with and their feelings about the food itself.
- Holidays Impact Business In Many Ways — Just because it’s a holiday and people may have a day off from work does not mean you are de facto doing more or better business. Planning for the impact of a holiday requires careful consideration for how it impacts your supply chain, worker availability and customer preferences.
What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?
At Yeastie Boys, I strongly recommend the signature sandwich, The Game Over, and make it heavvvy (i.e. add a hash brown).
At Fruit Slabs, my go to product is the Tropical Haze 100 MG THC fruit leather. It has organic mango puree, tropical fruits and organic hemp seeds infused with kosher-certified THC and it’s delicious, nutritious and makes you feel great.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would like to have Yeastie Boys Bagels with Action Bronson just to get his take on our schtick.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Sign up for the Slabs e-mail list at www.fruitslabs.com or www.fruitslabscbd.com and plug into @yeastieboysbagels and @fruitslabs on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and wherever else you consume your social media.
I personally can be found in most places just by looking for Brandon Dorsky (@brandondorsky).
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
How Chef Brandon Dorsky Of Fruit Slabs & Yeastie Boys Is Helping To Promote Healthy Eating was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.