The new Chef movie with its star studded line up isn’t just a funny flick about a middle aged dad trying to get his business off the ground. It also contains some important messages about running a food business in the age of social media, and just how influential these channels can be in success or failure.

The scene in the movie below highlights both the younger generation’s enviable proficiency with social media, and the make or break extremes of reviews and content going viral.

Entertaining as it is, there are some lessons to be learnt from this contemporary classic. Here are 3 tips from the Chef movie you can apply to your start up food business and social media strategy.

1) Let the younger generation teach you the ways of social media

Chef Carl (writer/director Jon Favreau) learns about social media from his 11 year old son in the movie. Gen Y’s and millennials were practically born with a touch screen in their hand, so most are fully operational on all of the popular social media channels. If you’re not so confident in this area, don’t be afraid to ask someone from a younger generation show you the ropes. They’ll be happy to swap cooking lessons for social media lessons.

2) Let your passion (and content) drive the business  

If you’re a chef, you’re passionate about delivering sensational food. Let your creativity in the kitchen translate to creative social media content.  In the movie, Carl decides to follow his passion and start a food truck business, and his son helps him with produce unique and entertaining content. Buy yourself a smartphone (if you don’t have one already) and share pictures and stories of your tasty creations with your customers on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

3) You’re only as good as your last review

Forget you’re only as good as your last meal – try last review. Carl lost his job over a bad review, and if you’ve had one you know just how bad this hurts not only your bottom line, but your pride too. Online reviews have the potential to go viral, which is great if you’ve got a good one, but not so great if it’s bad. You can’t make bad reviews go away, but you can work on outnumbering the bad with the good by going back to the drawing board with your menu, style, techniques, and of course, inviting more critics and bloggers to review your restaurant.

So what are you waiting for foodies, chefs, restaurant owners and start-up schemers? Go buy a ticket and get inspired by Chef, a movie that highlights the power of social media in today’s food business industry. View the full movie trailer.

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