I have been fortunate over the last year to have had a
successful group of clients in the restaurant industry. One constant I continue
to notice when working on brands with great longevity is that they have been
and are still all about the food they produce. One client has three locations
that have been in their family for 70 years, and they still scratch cook
everyday. Could they take short cuts, sure but their multiple generations of
guests would notice. At three locations
it is much easier to scratch cook than at three hundred but it can be done.
What is the key to executing consistently? One thing is straight forward
recipes that are easy to make and deliver amazing quality and taste. The other
secret ingredient is the long tenure of the employees. When you have kitchen
managers that have been there 22 years it makes a huge difference in the
ability to deliver great food. People and the culture of hospitality and “real”
cooking continue to be the most important difference I see between brands that
are winning right now and those that are struggling to survive. I have another
client with over 100 locations and their brand again is over 50 years old. They
scratch cook both in restaurant as well as at their own central kitchen. They
have the ability to deliver consistent quality food from both points but the
people are still the key. In the central kitchen they have employees that have
been there for over 20 years making the soups and dressings day-in and day-out.
These folks take great pride in knowing they are delivering amazing food to the
restaurants and ultimately the guests. The in restaurant team continues to
cook, really cook at least 80% of the menu from scratch. These same people also
are long tenured in the brand’s back of the house. I think one formula for
success in this current economic environment is the following
Culture + skills + desire = A quality experience that
creates an emotional connect with the consumer
Anyone that is able to consistently execute against this
formula will win in the long run. There has to be some magic in this formula
based on what I continue to see and experience in our industry. It is less
about scratch cooking and more about creating a caring culture that embraces
teaching a group of employees that will continue to attract the right talent in
a tightening labor market. When people are cared for and provided the chance to
grow and gain skills we all benefit. People
are the magic and I think this is how we shift and evolve the restaurant
industry for the future.
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