Chilean native Loreto Berry once considered being a non-native English speaker to be a disadvantage, but her mindset changed after she joined Toast in 2019.
What Does Toast Do?
Toast [NYSE: TOST] is a global technology platform built for restaurant and retail businesses. From the busiest local restaurants and shops to large hospitality brands, Toast helps owners and operators manage their businesses more efficiently, drive guest demand and build lasting success.
Toast integrates software, agentic AI, payments, financial technology solutions and hardware with a broad partner ecosystem. Powering billions of purchases throughout local commerce, Toast delivers the precision and innovation required for modern restaurant and retail environments. For more information, visit www.toasttab.com.
While working as a field account executive covering Toast’s San Francisco market, which includes Mission District, Berry used her fluency in Spanish to build rapport with the neighborhood’s Hispanic business owners, gaining a deeper understanding of what it takes to run businesses within that community.
“What I once thought was a disadvantage — English not being my first language — became my superpower and ultimately led me to the Strategic Cuisines team,” Berry said.
Berry currently serves as regional vice president of Strategic Cuisines for Spanish-speaking customers on Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team. The Strategic Cuisines sales team supports customers who prefer to communicate in their native languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Thai, Hindi and Vietnamese.
Account executives on Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team own the full sales cycle, drive new business, run demos, and help operators go live on Toast. They also build systems and go-to-market strategies for their segment, as is the case for Tram Tran, a Strategic Cuisines account executive who serves Toast’s Vietnamese-speaking customers.
What Is Toast's Strategic Cuisines Team?
Toast’s Strategic Cuisines Team works across sales, onboarding and implementation for language- and cuisine-specific restaurant segments, improving acquisition and customer experience.
“My role is both revenue-driving and foundational, as I am helping Toast scale a new vertical, while acting as a trusted advisor to hospitality owners,” Tran said.
Senior Onboarding Manager Leona Lu leads a group of onboarding consultants dedicated to supporting customers in Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, French and Spanish. She ensures that customers transition seamlessly onto the platform while overseeing the point-of-sale, menu and guest side of the implementation process, leading kickoff meetings, and supporting technical menu reviews and go-live calls.
“I focus on navigating ambiguity and staying calm for my team during complex launches, ensuring they have the technical product knowledge and confidence to drive success for our customers,” Lu said.
On Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team, no two days are ever the same. Whether helping new customers go-live with Toast products or sharing best practices with their peers, team members continuously blend performance and purpose to break down language barriers and help all of Toast’s customers thrive.
“Our team knows that we are not only selling technology; we are helping restaurant owners grow businesses that often represent family, culture and generational opportunity,” Berry said.
How Toast’s Strategic Cuisines Team Supports Restaurant Operators
Tran knows firsthand that language barriers impact trust, which is why she was eager to join Toast last year as the company’s first representative for Vietnamese-speaking customers on the Strategic Cuisines team.
She worked with regional vice presidents and internal teams to create a more inclusive experience by adding language selection to demo request forms and helping route leads to the right reps based on language. Tran recalled how open and collaborative everyone was throughout the process, which made it easy to move quickly and bring their ideas to fruition.
“This project meant a lot because it wasn’t just improving a process; it was making Toast feel more accessible and welcoming from the very first touchpoint,” Tran said. “It also had a real impact on the business by unlocking high-intent inbound leads and helping us better support underserved communities.”
While the initiative presented a few challenges, Tran and her teammates were able to overcome these hurdles by maintaining clear communication with everyone involved. By leaning on teamwork, they amplified Toast’s commitment to investing in Asian cuisine and diverse operators, shedding light on a promising untapped market.
Members of Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team have many opportunities to make an impact. For Lu, this opportunity came during the go-live of several major boba tea brands.
“This launch was vital to our team because it served as a proof of concept for how we can tailor our strategy to specific, high-growth niches,” Lu said.
Lu’s team bridged the gap between the company’s core product and the specific needs of each brand, ensuring that as they moved from product development to go-live readiness calls, the company’s Mandarin-speaking customers felt supported in their native language.
“By pushing through these implementation challenges, we didn't just ‘go live’ — we built a scalable blueprint for how our customer experience team can support specialized beverage brands nationwide,” Lu said.
By collaborating closely with sales, product and engineering teams, Lu and her teammates made sure that any issues they encountered during implementations were addressed as quickly as possible — and stretched their skills in the process.
“As a people manager, there is no better feeling than supporting an onboarding consultant through a difficult project and watching them come out the other side as a subject-matter expert,” Lu said. “It is a privilege to support their career trajectories.”
The Culture of Ownership, Purpose and Authenticity on Toast’s Strategic Cuisines Team
Members of Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team say they are supported by a “One Team” culture that extends beyond office walls.
“Because many of our reps are deeply connected to the communities we serve, there is a personal level of care and ownership in the work,” Berry said.
Leaders and reps share best practices, highlight customer stories and learn from each other across markets.
“We are a sales team, so results matter, but the way we achieve those results matters just as much,” Berry said.
“We regularly share insights, wins and challenges in real time, which helps us move faster and make better decisions,” Tran said.
Tran always feels heard on Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team. She said that leaders react quickly to turn challenges into solutions.
“You truly feel empowered working at Toast,” Tran said. “Ideas can come from anywhere, and if you can tie them to impact, people will rally around it quickly.”
Why Join Toast’s Strategic Cuisines Team?
“The ‘One Team’ mindset is not just a value on paper; it’s something that is truly lived every day,” Tran said.
As Toast invests in the hospitality industry around the world, it’s simultaneously investing in each community’s people and unique culture.
“At the end of the day, everyone is aligned around the same goal, which is helping restaurant operators thrive,” Tran said. “That shared purpose, combined with a supportive and action-oriented culture, is what makes Toast such a special place to grow as an employee.”
“That shared purpose, combined with a supportive and action-oriented culture, is what makes Toast such a special place to grow as an employee.”
As the Strategic Cuisines team expands, team members will have even more opportunities to make an impact, improve processes and help shape the future of the business, Berry said.
“We move fast, we hold a high bar, and we expect people to care deeply about both their results and their customers,” Berry said. “This is a great team for someone who wants to build, not just maintain.”
Lu echoed this sentiment, adding that team members’ diverse expertise and experiences are key to driving business success.
“Whether you were a teacher, a chef or a consultant, your unique perspective helps us solve problems differently,” Lu said.
Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team hinges on hard work — and a lot of heart. As team members support restaurant owners around the world, they describe bringing their whole selves to work.
“If you’re looking for a place where you can be your authentic self — parent, educator, technologist or all of the above — you’ve found it,” Lu said.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Strategic Cuisines team at Toast?
The Strategic Cuisines team works across sales, onboarding and implementation for language- and cuisine-specific restaurant segments to improve customer acquisition and the overall customer experience. A large part of their mission is acting as trusted advisors to hospitality owners, helping them break down language barriers and grow their businesses.
What languages does Toast’s Strategic Cuisines team support?
The team supports restaurant operators who prefer to communicate in the following languages: Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Thai, Hindi, and Vietnamese.
