A New Restaurant

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland to see Food Network personalities Alton Brown (Good Eats, Iron Chef – America), and Duff Goldberg (Ace of Cakes).  It was well worth the trip.  My wife and I had a great time.  I’m not a big fan of standing in long lines for tiny samples of food, so I didn’t really enjoy that part, but it was very entertaining, and there was some very good food there.

 Seeing the food displays got me thinking about the difference between the way food is advertised at restaurants and the way it looks when it gets to the table.  For me, it is very disappointing when I order a meal that looks so wonderful on the menu, but when it is plated and brought to the table, it’s a mess.  I know that most times the pictures on the menu are studio productions, and usually not even real food.  Still, too often the food you are served is too far from what is promised.  It not only looks different in the way it was prepared, but many times the portion sizes are completely different.

Long term success in the restaurant business, or any small business, comes by consistently exceeding the customers expectations.  You spend a great deal of money in marketing and advertising to get the customers in the door.  Why would you want to waste that money by disappointing them once they get to your restaurant?

It comes down to two things: training and inspecting.

One thing that successful restaurants do is develop a training program.  This doesn’t mean stick them on the line and hope they pick something up from the people they are working with.  It means having a program that walks them through the different parts of the job, and lets them know how to do the job the right way.

I can hear the arguments already: “We need help on the line immediately.  We don’t have time for a formal training program.”  Well let me ask you this, do you have the time to deal with angry or disappointed customers?  Do you have the time to fix mistakes coming out of your kitchen on a busy Saturday night?

You can’t rely on your existing line to properly train a new person, because that usually results in a progressively weaker line.  Over time if workers are left to their own devices, they begin to develop bad habits.  They learn shortcuts in how they prepare and plate the food.  They stop using the proper serving utensils and measuring tools, and they start guessing at portion sizes because they think they know what a proper portion looks like.  When the new person joins the line, they are never taught the way it is supposed to be done.  They are taught the shortcuts, and then they develop even more shortcuts of their own.  Now they get to teach a newer person, and the problems get progressively worse.  Over time, no one will even remember what a proper portion size is supposed to be.

Set up specs on how each dish in your restaurant is supposed to be prepared and plated, and then teach your cooks how to do that.

You also have to inspect what comes out of your kitchen.  Most employees will rise to the level of expectations.  If you don’t expect much, your kitchen will not deliver much.  If you expect sloppy plates with improper portion sizes, that’s what you’re going to get.  Raise your expectations.

And don’t fall back on the “We don’t have time” excuse again.  Do you think 5-star restaurants have more time in the kitchen on a Saturday night?  No, they don’t.  What they do have is a management team that expects the food to be prepared and plated properly, and they do not accept anything else.

You staff does not want to make more work for themselves.  They do not want to have to make a meal again that they have already prepared.  Their preference would be to get it right the first time.  After a few incidences of meals coming back because they weren’t properly prepared and plated, the line will start being a little more careful about what they send out.

You can send great meals out of your kitchen.  You just have to make sure your line knows how to deliver what you expect them to deliver.  Your customers will appreciate the effort.