SoCalGas is hosting the 11th Annual SoCalGas Foodservice Equipment Expo (2 days) on Tuesday, October 22nd and Wednesday, October 23rd from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the SoCalGas Energy Resource Center in Downey.
“With no-cost registration, the 11th annual Foodservice Equipment Expo provides an opportunity to Reconnect, Rebuild, and Innovate at one of the industry's largest West Coast showcases of natural gas and energy-efficient commercial foodservice equipment. Leading industry manufacturers will display and demonstrate their brands as attendees visit booths and live-action cooking stations, sample artisan foods cooked on a variety of natural gas equipment, network, and learn about available rebates.”
SoCalGas Co.’s Gina Christian (Foodservice Technical Specialist) is our guest providing all the details.
Hi, I'm Carla Hall of ABC's The Chew. You're listening to The SoCal Restaurant Show on AM-830-KLAA. What are you doing? And welcome back. It is The SoCal Restaurant Show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon, right here on AM-830-KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2025. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce. We're very fortunate on The SoCal Restaurant Show that a large part of our listening audience is chefs and restaurateurs and people that are on the hospitality industry. And wherever there is industry news that will be of interest to that constituency, we definitely like to promote it, and is most chefs and restaurateurs know, particularly in the Southern California area, the Southern California Gas Company, SoCal Gas, provides a variety of services to restaurants, food service, and hospitality folks at no cost. And one of the big annual events they do out and downy every year is the annual SoCal Gas Food Service Equipment Expo, which is really one-stop shopping for chefs and restaurateurs that are looking for new equipment or looking for new ideas. And we definitely want to promote this and let our industry folks know what's coming up. And it is a pleasure to welcome back to The SoCal Restaurant Show, Gina Christian, who is an employee of SoCal Gas. Her title is Food Service Technical Specialist, and she is based at what they call the ERC and downy, and we will discuss what that is. And with that is background, it is a pleasure to welcome Gina back to the show. Gina, good morning, and are you getting ready for the 11th annual Expo? Yes, good morning, Andy, and thank you. Yes, we are. We started yesterday tagging equipment and things were shipping in, so we're gearing up for it, and looking forward to another successful event this year. Gina, just for background for our listeners because SoCal Gas, the Gas Company, this is a big entity. So day to day, what are your responsibilities for SoCal Gas? I am part of the team that manages our Food Service Equipment Center, which is a facility located in Downey in the Energy Resource Center that operates Test Kitchen and space for our business customers in our service territory to come in and utilize the equipment, test it, kick the tires, run their recipes through, work with the local manufacturers and factories to decide what it is that's best for their operation, whether it's replacement, if it's a new build, or if they're just looking for what their future is going to be like, we operate what's called our Try Before You Buy program, and that is available to the customers at no cost as all the other services that we provide. So I help support that. We have events, we have seminars, we have training and education, we do a lot of our energy efficiency testing in this facility. Now let's pack up a little bit, Gina. We've mentioned the ERC and the Energy Resource Center a couple of times. We understand what the Food Service Equipment part of it is, but there's a lot more under that roof than that. Can you kind of broaden the scope and kind of give us a little bit more about the other services and activities at the Energy Resource Center because I know it's state of the art and I know it's something the gas company is very proud of, and it's a pretty expensive installation. Yes it is, and when people are going into business and expanding their business and use those resources, such as, like I mentioned the Try Before You Buy program, we have multiple third parties that we work with that help facilitate financing programs and rebates that are available to the customers. We work with the customers so they can optimize their performance and minimize their cost. Many times the cost of the equipment can be very overwhelming for them, so we want to help them try to minimize that with some other opportunities or options and especially when it comes to the financing programs of the Try Before You Buy and also with the rebates because rebates give them an opportunity to get some money back on that piece of equipment that they could use towards things like the installation. Purchasing me, extended warranty are actually setting up some training, and we also, under our roof, we do have multiple industry-related seminars and educational trainings for the customers so they can get a better idea of what we do and what we have to offer and to give them some comfort in knowing when they're purchasing equipment from these manufacturers and reps that they're getting quality to put into their kitchen. Engina, just to re-emphasize the point, in terms of all these services and seminars and the technical support, all of this comes from SoCal Gas at no charge to food service industry folks. Yes, exactly. When they come into our center, we can set them up with tours. We can also set them up with assistance through our third parties that offer the rebate programs and those programs that many times are offered either by zip code or by county and also with our service text, those are the men and women that wear the blue uniforms out in the field, they can, you can set up appointments for them to come into your kitchen, conduct basic repairs and maintenance of your equipment at no cost, but if for some reason there is a repair that needs to be done, those parts can be sold to the customer at a much lower rate than it would be through a service agent and then these cost of those repairs are amortized on their gas bill, so they don't have to pay anything up front, it just goes on to their gas bill. Engina, you know, definitely very helpful because as we all know, a lot of challenges in the restaurant and hospitality industry right now and wherever a proprietor can save some money and economize, you know, this is not just a matter of a bottom line in many instances, it's a matter of survival, so great to know that this wonderful resource is out there. Now, Gina, I know every year you really look forward to the food service equipment expo. Let's talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts of that, the days and times, and how also our chef and restaurateur listeners can be part of this. So the expo this year will be held on October 22nd and 23rd at our facility in Downey, which is on Firestone Boulevard, the hours of the expo are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is open to the business customers in our service territory and it is an event that was created many years ago to give our manufacturers and our rep groups an opportunity to have that contact with the customers in our service territory under one roof. So we set up the facility with multiple boots, we're going to have 42 bender boots in which those rep groups will be showcasing their equipment and their programs and services. We also will have, I think there's about 15 to 20 cooking stations which we set up in our main kitchen, plus we also have an outdoor patio which we're going to be setting up with cooking stations primarily focusing on road to threes and smokers and a couple of char broilers that should be set up out there. We're going to have a resource area which will include our energy efficiency rebate programs and as I mentioned those third party implementers who focus on assisting customers with ways in which they can either purchase equipment at no cost through our on bill financing program or through other means in which they can get low interest loans to be able to purchase that equipment knowing how much it costs and many times it can be a burden on them when they're opening. We also will be featuring our commercial service tech so have their own boots set up so customers can stop by, talk to them about the services they provide and we're also going to be promoting the push for the end of the year rebates on the equipment because there are still funds available to our instrument rate program that the dealers and vendors participate in. So it's a there's a lot going on yeah no kidding yeah and it's a great it's a great opportunity for customers just to get an exposure to our services in our center. Wonderful now Gina the one thing that we need to share with our audiences is how does a chef or a restaurateur or a hospitality industry professional how do they register for this and I bet there's a website yes so they can go to so count gas dot com forward slash expo they can see the video from last year's event they can register there for either the 22nd or the 23rd or both days there's no cost to register for either day and also at our still count gas dot com forward slash food service website they can view the facilities and the services we provide there and sign up for appointments tours to try before you buy program and learn more about the rebate. Ladies and gentlemen it is Gina Christian food service technical specialist and of course happy to be of service talking about the 11th annual SoCal food service equipment expo coming up on October 22nd and 23rd no cost to attend but you need to register in advance the website is SoCal gas dot com slash expo you are listening to the SoCal restaurant show when you return we are journeying down to San Pedro and it is 5th generation owner chef Dustin training of Jay trainees Risterante and trainees dockside station we will be right back don't wonder far.
