Few companies have been as closely connected to the evolution of workplace dining and hospitality as Restaurant Associates, better known throughout the industry as “RA.” This fall, one of SHFM’s iconic member companies and its leadership will come together to support the organization’s work when RA CEO Ed Brown serves as the featured chef for the annual SHFM Foundation Gala on Monday, November 9th in New York City.
Ed Brown (Photo courtesy of RA)
The evening will bring together two organizations with a shared commitment to strengthening the foodservice profession. For SHFM, that means providing education, networking, professional development and opportunities designed to help today’s industry leaders grow while building a pipeline for the next generation. For Restaurant Associates, it represents another opportunity to support an organization and professional community that have long been closely aligned with the company’s approach to hospitality, culinary excellence and talent development.
Set for The New York Academy of Medicine at 1216 Fifth Avenue, the gala will bring together leaders from corporate dining, workplace hospitality, contract foodservice and the broader supplier community while raising funds for the SHFM Foundation and its work attracting, educating and supporting future hospitality and foodservice professionals.
For Brown, whose relationship with Restaurant Associates stretches back more than three decades, the opportunity to support SHFM was a natural extension of his commitment to the people and organizations shaping professional foodservice.
“I’m thrilled to do it. I’m a huge supporter of SHFM and have been since the early days,” Brown said. “It’s a great organization that helps support the professionals in this industry.”
SHFM serves a sector that touches millions of consumers every day but frequently operates outside the public spotlight. Its membership includes professionals engaged in corporate and workplace dining, contract foodservice and hospitality services, along with the manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and business partners that support those operations.
Through education, networking, professional development and relationship building, the association works to give foodservice professionals the resources and connections they need to advance their careers while helping member companies identify emerging ideas and talent. “They promote the industry, they offer educational opportunities and networking, and it’s a great place for professionals to evolve and grow,” Brown added.
The Foundation extends that mission by focusing on attracting, educating and supporting diverse talent. Its programs are designed to strengthen the workplace experience industry’s talent pipeline by introducing students and transitioning members of the armed forces to hospitality and foodservice career opportunities.
Proceeds from the 2026 gala will support those Foundation initiatives. The evening will also benefit New York Common Pantry, which works throughout New York City to combat hunger and food insecurity while helping individuals and families move toward long-term independence. Brown serves on the organization’s board of directors. The partnership between Brown and SHFM also reflects the evolution of workplace dining itself. What was once routinely called B&I, or business and industry foodservice, has increasingly become a hospitality-driven experience where employers and their foodservice partners compete to deliver restaurant-quality food, service and amenities.
Brown noted that SHFM’s community reaches the professionals serving that broader contract foodservice marketplace, including the people creating dining experiences away from traditional freestanding restaurants. Few executives have traveled between those two worlds as extensively as Brown. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, Brown began his professional career at Maurice in New York before traveling to Paris to work at Michelin three-star Lucas Carton. He joined Restaurant Associates in 1990 as executive chef of Tropica and later spent 14 years leading the kitchen at The Sea Grill.
Brown eventually ventured into entrepreneurship, opening Michelin-starred Eighty One in 2008 and Ed’s Chowder House the following year, before returning to Restaurant Associates in 2010 as chef | innovator. He later served as President of Restaurant Services and was promoted to CEO in January 2022. That career arc gives Brown a distinctive view of the connection between restaurants and managed foodservice. “We were a restaurant company who became a foodservice company, and putting restaurants back into the foodservice business is really what sets us apart,” Brown continued.
Under Brown, Restaurant Associates has increasingly used public-facing restaurants as both operating businesses and showcases for the culinary and hospitality standards it can bring to its workplace and institutional accounts. Brown said the company now operates a collection of more than 25 public-facing restaurants across its portfolio. “We have all these public-facing restaurants now as our calling card to say, ‘This is what we do, and we can bring this to your B&I operation,’” Brown detailed.
Among the company’s latest projects is Marcel, created in partnership with Roman and Williams and Sotheby’s at the Breuer Building in New York. Brown also pointed to upcoming restaurant initiatives connected to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a restaurant partnership at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and a planned public-facing restaurant at a new Google facility in Chicago. “We are proud of the collection of real, heralded restaurants that we have built,” Brown outlined.
That restaurant mentality will also influence Brown’s approach to the SHFM Foundation Gala menu. While his career has long been associated with seafood, Brown said the size and diversity of the gala audience called for a broader approach. He plans to focus on high-quality ingredients, precise execution and food that delivers on flavor. “I want to lean toward seafood because of my past, but it’s a big and diverse audience, so I think it’ll be a combination of everything,” Brown explained. “I think it’s about great, delicious food, really well executed like we aim to produce everyday.”
It is an approach that mirrors the direction of today’s SHFM workplace foodservice business, where expectations for culinary quality continue to climb even as operators manage labor, cost, speed and consistency. For Brown, supporting SHFM is ultimately about helping the people responsible for meeting those expectations continue to develop their skills, relationships and careers. “I want to put three or four amazing, perfectly cooked things on the plate that are the best ingredients,” Brown concluded.
The SHFM Foundation Gala will be held Monday, November 9, 2026, at The New York Academy of Medicine in New York City.
Restaurant and foodservice operators, equipment and supply professionals, food and beverage companies, manufacturers, distributors and other industry professionals interested in attending the gala, supporting the Foundation, becoming involved with SHFM or learning more about its professional development and networking programs can visit www.shfm-online.org. Additional information about the Foundation and the 2026 Gala is available through SHFM’s website.
