Operator/Record

Torsten Schulz

Torsten Schulz is a restaurant engineer who turns relentless learning into systems a first-time crew can master. His kitchens hold their numbers quietly. He is not the norm: money second, loyalty repaid without cap, mistakes fixed in print.

STATIONSRECORD

Twenty-one stations, seven countries, three continents — the 34th year. The last two rows are measured; the rest is his account.

ran or owned·held a post — The map draws only where he worked. A dot is a row of the table below.

Years	Station	Position	The record
1992–93	Hotel Zur SonneBonndorf im Schwarzwald, Germany	Apprentice cook	A small, family-run house in the Black Forest.
1993–95	Alte KanzleiStuttgart, Germany	Apprentice	Apprenticeship completed, July 1995.
1995–96	Landhaus ScherrerHamburg, Germany	Chef de partie	One Michelin star, held by the house since 1978 — the kitchen of Heinz Otto Wehmann.
1996	Yorkville InnNew York City, USA	Cook	Five months of elevated German cooking. He arrived speaking no English; the German house carried the work permit.
1996–98	LespinasseWashington, D.C., USA	Chef de partie	Fine French, in the St. Regis.
1998	Oriental HotelWuhan, China	Guest sous chef	An eight-month contract, heading the Western kitchen.
1999	SwissôtelDalian, China	Guest sous chef	A second eight-month contract.
2000	Burg SchlitzHohen Demzin, Germany	Sous chef	A castle hotel in Mecklenburg.
2000–02	Armani/NobuMilan, Italy	Sous chef	The opening — Nobu Matsuhisa's kitchen in Giorgio Armani's house, prepared with two weeks' training at Nobu London.
2002	Hotel BelvedereMykonos, Greece	Consultant	Trained the kitchen for the hotel's Japanese restaurant; in 2003 it became Matsuhisa Mykonos.
2002–03	Charlie Palmer Steak, Four SeasonsLas Vegas, USA	Chef de cuisine	Arrived by way of a brief stint at Aureole, New York.
2003–04	André's French RestaurantLas Vegas, USA	Chef de partie	Fine French.
2004–07	Chef Grown Inc.Apopka, Florida, USA	Founder	Three years out of the kitchen: fifteen acres of microgreens and baby lettuce, distributed nationwide.
2008	El CampoXàbia, Spain	Founder	An eight-month attempt to open his own restaurant. It failed on funding.
2009–11	Restaurante São GabrielAlmancil, Algarve, Portugal	Executive chef	One Michelin star, held throughout his tenure; his name is printed in the Michelin Guide España & Portugal 2010.
2011–12	The Blvd, Beverly WilshireBeverly Hills, California, USA	Chef de cuisine	Seasonal California cooking in a Four Seasons hotel.
2012–14	D.B.A.Akron, Ohio, USA	Chef de cuisine	Opened with Dante Boccuzzi — modern American cooking.
2017–18	PiacereSan Carlos, California, USA	Executive chef	Fine Italian and Californian — and the room where he met his current business partner.
2019–21	86 PrepRedwood City, then Santa Clara, California, USA	Founder	A commissary engineered to make kitchen prep efficient, supplying a client restaurant ready to cook. Two successful years; COVID ended it.
2023–	ASV Restaurant GroupLivermore, California, USA	Partner	The partnership behind case study No. 01: a first trading year measured, reconciled, signed.
2024–	HSV Restaurant GroupNorthern California, USA	Partner	The partnership behind case study No. 02: the two-minute kitchen, measured.

PRESENTPROOF

The record above is stated. These two are measured: the operations behind the last two rows, their case studies reconciled to the POS and the payroll.

A fine Spanish eatery

Northern California · full-service dining · case study No. 01 · partner

$1,999,179

Net sales, year one

Measured — the POS, 319 trading days.

39,921

Guests

Measured — $50.08 per guest.

17.33%

Net operating income

Engineered — each line set where a working kitchen can hold it. Signed.

A fast-casual Greek restaurant

Northern California · campus operation · case study No. 02 · partner

1 min 54 s

Median ticket

Measured — 74,755 tickets, two six-month KDS windows.

96%

Inside six minutes

Measured — the load rose 15% year over year; the median moved two seconds.

16.2%

Operating earnings, 2025

Measured — before financing.

Both studies are published here in anonymised editions. The named records come to the table.

METHODPRACTICE

The method is learning, pointed at restaurants. A Google UX course changed how he writes: every recipe, menu and presentation since lives in Figma. Graham's The Intelligent Investor changed how he reads: a restaurant is an asset, and its margin is engineered. What he learns surfaces as systems — kitchens built so clearly that nobody has to ask what to do.

On the university campus, a first-time crew holds a median ticket of 1 min 54 s across 74,755 measured tickets — and he is on site once or twice a week. The numbers hold either way.

The record keeps its failures: the restaurant that died on funding in Spain, the commissary COVID closed, and — inside the signed studies — the mistakes, named, with what each cost.