And Here's Lilly "In the Press"

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Food Minded:
By S.L. Salamone
Correspondent

Liliana Wilkerson of Simi Valley runs And Here’s Lilly, a food management firm she founded and which is now a million-dollar a year business.  She was nominated Best Business Woman of the Year by the Latin Business Women’s Association.

She started a new life in Simi Valley, an immigrant from Guatemala, a mother of two and a housewife.

She wrote restaurant reviews for a community paper.

Twenty years later, she’s the head of her own million-dollar food-management company looking after the needs of presidents, royalty and other heads of state.

Liliana Wilkerson is the founder and chief executive officer of And Here’s Lilly, a company that continues to grow in new directions, now catering to the needs of Hollywood’s elite.

Recently nominated by the Latin Business Women’s Association as Business Woman of the Year, Lilly was listed in the under $5 million category.

“High energy.  That’s Liliana,” said Gustavo Valdespino, a member of the nominating committee and vice president of operations for Tenet Health Care.

“She walked into the room and knocked over the panel,” he said.  “She’s got the right combination of commitment and desire.”

Company growth, projected growth, operations management and jobs created in the community are just a few of the areas the committee evaluated.

“Her attitude is, ‘There’s no way I’m going to fail.’” Said Fred Lona, another committee member and diversity manager at AT&T.  “Coming from a different culture, she had to be twice as good as anyone else.”

For more than 10 years, Wilkerson managed the executive dining rooms for the Atlantic Richfield Co. at the Arco Towers in Los Angeles.  She was an employee.

Understands people’s taste

Beverly Mowry, executive assistant to the chairman of Arco, has known Wilkerson for the past 10 years.

“I’ve known her since the day that I started here,” Mowry said.  “The biggest plus is that she understands everyone’s tastes and wants.  I can’t tell you how many difficult situations we’ve thrown at her and she never complains.

“She’s nonstop energy.  I usually get to work at 6 a.m. and she’s already here.  She oversees everything.  Everything has her touch.  She’s phenomenal.”

Wilkerson puts her own spin on success.

“The name of the game is profit,” she said, pointing a stern finger.  “And if you’re profitable – ‘Everybody loves you, Baby.’”

Her memories of her rise to the top are less than fond ones.

“I despaired so many times,” she said, shaking her head, her eyes closed.  “Oh, those horrible restaurants.  All my friends said it would be awful and I found out it was the truth.”

A modest beginning

She arrived in the United States in 1953 with a new husband, James Wilkerson, a man she met while both of them were students, studying in Mexico City.

They moved to Simi Valley in 1971.  Her son, Carlos, by a previous marriage, was already old enough to be on his own.  Her husband was often away on business and her daughter, Charmaine, was in school.

She already had earned a master’s degree in education while in her native country, but she no longer wanted to be a teacher.   She liked to cook and entertain and thought it would be fun to manage a restaurant.

She took hotel and restaurant management courses at Moorpark College.  In fact, she and Charmaine actually attended school at the same time.  Charmaine pursued a law degree.

In 1981, she graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a bachelor’s degree.  Then she got her first job.

“Long John Silvers, all you can eat for $6.95,” she said with a moan and rolled her eyes to the ceiling.   “I saw it all.  People stealing utensils and salt and pepper shakers.

“People put bugs in the food to try to get a free meal,” she continued.  “They would bring bags with them to sneak buffet food home.  It was awful.”

Then it was on to the restaurant chain of Casa Maria and Charley Brown’s.

And she learned.

It happened over time, she said, but she came to see the whole picture.  The big picture of management.

“Chefs can talk all day about recipes,” she said.  “And it’s the way they talk about them that makes you think they own the restaurant, but they’re just a player.”

She learned she didn’t want to be a chef.

Finding who has the power

“Management has all the power,” she said.  “Chefs have the creativity.  So the manager has the power and the creativity with the chef.”

So she hung in there and her big break came in 1983.

She became banquet and catering director for Aramark, which led to a similar position with SAGA Corp. which led her to the executive dining rooms of the Bank of America, Union Bank and Arco.

“It’s difficult to swim with the sharks,” she said.  “But it’s much more creative.   There’s more money and some of the chefs I’ve met are geniuses.”

But at the same time, she said, her efforts as a professional in the food industry were continuously stifled and her operation often sabotaged.

The time had come, she decided, to develop a solution for the inadequacy of the company she was working for, or resign.

Bringing it all together

And Here’s Lilly was born in 1988, and is currently under exclusive contract with Arco.

Wilkerson is quick to point out the she is not a caterer.

“We are not caterers in the true meaning of the work,” she said.  “We manage the food of other caterers, executive chefs, restaurants, hotels and other vendors, where the end result is a catered event.”

To those in the know, Wilkerson’s rise to the top has not been an anomaly.

“Her rise has been a very directed exercise,” said Marilyn Delanoeye, president of National Association of Catering Executives.  “She showed good judgment.  She did her homework and laid a foundation.  It shows her expertise as a caterer, but it also shows her expertise as a business woman.”

Hollywood, Delanoeye said, is an area some caterers strive for, and others wouldn’t touch.  For Wilkerson it was just another challenge.

“The company was mainly set up to provide in-house corporate executive dining services,” she said.   “We called it Lilly 1.  Then our clients wanted deliveries to their conference rooms.  We named this delivery service Lilly 2.  Out latest challenge is developing our off-site special event management, which we refer to as Lilly 3.”

Vivian Shimoyama, president of the board of directors of the National Association of Women Business Owners, met Wilkerson at a function at the Arco Towers.

“She’s a planner and a negotiator,” Shimoyama said.  “And she’s so personable.  She makes everything a win-win situation.  She has such a wide range of talents that she often takes a situation over the top.”

Not surprised by the nomination, Shimoyama agreed with Delanoeye that the growth of Lilly has been well-staged and Hollywood continues to be a growth industry.

“Over the top is what Hollywood is all about,” Shimoyama said.  “Liliana has what it takes to make experiences for people happy memories.”

For Wilkerson, there seems to be no end in sight as she looks to the future.

“I want to get involved in politics,” she said.  “I want to encourage more young women about business.   In America, the bottom line isn’t about black or white, it’s about green.   Tell me somebody who doesn’t eat?”