Passion for food…. always wanting it to deliver the best

Cook with love the food taste better

The other day I had someone ask me when did I know I wanted to be a chef? Well it was a long time ago when I was 3 years old; I stood next to my grandmother and watched her cook sausage gravy. She explained to me how to cook the sausage properly in an iron skillet and why she followed the steps to make it. She was not a professional cook but someone that had a love for feeding here family great tasting food to nourish their minds and souls. I watched as she browned the sausage and the little crumble bits came off in the pan, all in that warm fat. She removed the cooked sausage patties, adds some flour and then made a paste of goodness; to this she added some whole milk. This is when I got the job of stirring the pan until the milk and flour paste magically became gravy. She then crumbled up some of the sausage into the pan, then she tasted it to make sure it was just right.  I got to taste it too as she told me about how it needed to be just right, not too thick or too thin, not too salty but maybe a little peppery. She was teaching me that to cook food for anyone you have to “feel” how it will taste to people. It is a lesson that I will never forget – you could feel the love and care in the food she cooked every time, she was breathing passion into her food. I always remember this as the earliest memory of food, especially when I spent the rest of that summer playing “cook” with my own little pots and pans at my grandmother’s house.  You see passion for food extends to the serving of food with warm hospitality and a desire to exceed the expectations of your guest.  Do you realize you have the ability to be passionate about the food you serve your guest each and everyday? Do you know they can taste the love in the food you are serving, but how can you make sure that passion is coming through? It is easy; taste it, make sure it is properly prepared, seasoned correctly and served at the right temperature every single time, every single guest.  Passion for food and creating a culture of food starts with every single member in a restaurant delivering a consistently high quality experience that is a craveable celebration of dining, not simply a plate of food. So take some time to really taste and understand everything on the menu and make sure you make every single item to spec, you will become passionate too.

BOH - Back of the house series - Walking the kitchen – an active observers guide to better operations

Over the next few blog entries I will share back of the house tips for improving kitchen operation performance. Each of these lessons can be used in part or whole to make an impact in your restaurant. I hope you enjoy them and use them to teach the next generation of managers that may have not benefited from these experiences.

Walking the kitchen – an active observers guide

Have you every really thought about how to walk your kitchen. It seems silly but sometimes we get into a rut and have blinders on when it comes to walking our kitchen and restaurant. With a few simple changes to your daily routine you can re-teach yourself to see what is there and needs to be corrected. Remember when an  internal inspector or health department official drops by to tour your facility they have one advantage you don’t, “fresh eyes”. So if you follow this simple exercise over a few weeks it will start to help you change the way you see your kitchen and restaurant.

First I like to start with the idea that there are three distinct zones of view: floor level, eye level and ceiling level. You will find different things to look for in each of these zones.

We will start with floor level first, probably should do this walk at least 2 times a day – it is your safety walk.

Floor level – what to look for from the floor to about 12 inches up.

·      Standing water on the floor, is something leaking?

·      Cracked or broken tiles, is there a hazard on the line, in prep, coolers, dry storage?

·      Spills – oil, food, seasoning, etc, is there some reason something is on the floor and could be a hazard?

·      Splash up – is there soap, cleaning fluids or water splashed up from hosing down the kitchen on lower shelves, plateware, uncovered food items stored on the lowest shelf?

·      How do the floor drain/ sinks look, clean and clear?

·      Un-wanted friends – do you see signs of pests in your kitchen or restaurant?

·      Extend this walk to the front of the house – what do you see that the guest or your team sees?

Eye Level – maybe the most telling walk and one you should do about 4 to 6 times a day – it lets you know what is going on in the kitchen.

·      First and foremost – look at your kitchen team, greet them, make sure everyone is healthy to work and handle food

·      Take a look around is there any snacking or drinking going on in food production areas?

·      Are the hand washing sinks, stocked, functioning and useable?

·      Is the dish machine running at proper temperature, is the dirty dish table organized to facilitate easy clean as you go.

·      Walk down the line – proper utensil storage and handling being executed?

·      Right size portion devices in the right sauces, ingredients, any visible product issues or concerns?

·      Look at the equipment on the line, is it clean, working, and maintained? If not what can you correct immediately?

·      Temperatures on all refrigerated equipment look right? Anything not function at a safe food holding level?

·      Round the corner and move through your prep production area – what do you see – any cross contamination occurring during prep/ production?

·      Gloves being used properly? In prep, on line, no bare hand contact with ready to eat foods.

·      Handling of proteins your most expensive ingredient, is it being treated with care or compromised at prolonged room temperature?

·      Inbound produce or  food order is arriving – how do the cases look? What about temp, is everything with in your standard operating guidelines?

·      Lets move into your storage areas – dry goods, cooler and freezer – are the all organized?

·      Dry store – everything covered, labeled, dated – rotated? Stored in proper hierarchy?

·      Cooler – are items organized by prepared and raw goods, floor clear, -packages properly labeled? Pull thaw – everything in proper containers, dated? Is the food hierarchy of raw on bottom with cooked on top being followed? Covered, covered and covered - ?

·      What about the freezer? Organized? FIFO?

Ceiling level – do this at least once a day both in back of house and the front of house as well.

·      How do the tiles look, clean or dirty?

·      What about the air vents – are the clean or need a wipe down

·      And the number one thing – any burned out bulbs, uncovered fluorescent tubes or bad ceiling fans? And so on………..you will see something that may need attention.

So you get the idea of the impact and importance of really being engaged when walking your kitchen – you should see everything at some point in the day. Also focus on those things that have been your hot button issues in the past. Remember teach and coach so everyone sees what you see and you will elevate the level of care and performance of your restaurant.

Patterns - they are ever where and will lead you to what is next!

Pattern emergence - seeing the future now

Published on September 25, 2015
The views, thoughts and ideas expressed in this blog post are solely my personal opinion and thoughts, no way reflects any connection to past or current employers. These thoughts are for discussion purposes with industry peers as an open forum for sharing ideas that are non-proprietary in nature.

I am often asked, " How do you know what is next, the simple answer is you look for it. Seems easy right - you just read the tealeaves and they tell you what will be the next emerging trend. I know I sound glib but it is a skill that you can teach yourself. While there are trend spotters out there, I am referring to a strategic approach that will provide a steady flow of possible paths for you to grow your business. I will share how to find these next opportunities; I will not be sharing which exact resources I use to determine what is next for my business.

"Seeing the future now" is a mantra we use in our industry to identifying the next segments, products, concepts and process for our business. The key to success is to see patterns emerging in any give topic, subject or genre that you have determined to look for in the great wide world. Which is much easier now with the Internet, you can visit the world on a virtual basis within an hour and spot possible emerging channels, paths or new ideas that you can use in your business.

How do you see what is next before it has gone mainstream, look for a pattern of emerging ideas. Observation is the single most important skill to develop for you to be successful. You have to travel, either virtually or physically to make these observations. Watch for clues and common themes that are all around us. To truly be able to see the future now you have to look everyday and watch for the subtle changes in the ether. I spend one to two hours everyday observing and cataloging what I am watching or seeing in the global market place.
Where do you observe? Everywhere, the broader you cast your net for observations the more likely you will see patterns forming and emerging. Developing this skill will allow you to become very good at identifying new opportunities for your business. Identifying early adopters is an important key to where a new idea/ product is in the market place cycle. The harder part is getting others to believe or buy-in to what you have identified. Unfortunately the only way to do that is to build a solid track record by providing examples of your predictions becoming reality. Once you have built credibility it is much easier to get buy off on the new ideas you have uncovered. Sometimes you have to track these observations and note what you see to even proven it to yourself. Most times it can take three to six months to identify an emerging idea, maybe longer. The final determining factor of whether you should pursue the new idea is the level of risk/ reward your organization embraces. This is the decision point of whether you are an innovator or someone that simply talks about innovation. In most cases in the restaurant industry, innovation is talked about not embraced as part of the culture. We tend to be very risk averse since we work with very narrow margins. To truly be an innovative company you have to live the mindset each and everyday. Pattern emergence is one of the tools of a successful innovator that creates new channels or disruption that creates growth.
So here are the steps to seeing the future
Define goals or strategies
Observe
Catalog observations
Look for patterns – they are there
Define patterns you see
Track patterns
Decide the tipping point for the idea
Prototype the emerging idea in the context of your business
Present to team for buy in
Rapid test the idea to fail fast and forward (learn and adjust)
Risk/ reward analysis
Implement
Measure impact/ success