HEART OF THE HOUSE - CHEF MENTORING SUCCESS

One of the fundamental differences between the corporate or chain operated restaurant and the entrepreneurial owned and operated restaurant is the "control factor". Where does the control factor lie within the organization?

The corporate or chain restaurant menu is produced at the corporate level by an executive chef and supporting team. Menus of chain restaurants excluding daily/ weekly run specials tend to change less frequently than entrepreneurial run restaurants.

In corporate or chain operated restaurants, the actual onsite kitchen operation is overseen by a chef or kitchen manager and a well-documented standard operating plan.

The corporate executive chef is responsible for menu development. They create the menu items, write the recipes, design plate presentations and document all specifications. A specialized menu development software program may be in place to assist in the automation of this process. 

The support team to the executive chef's menu development process may include a procurement and accounting department. The procurement team provides sourcing, product cost, and contract negotiations roles, while accounting may apply assumptions and analysis to determine goal driven menu pricing. 

The menu development process is "corporate" driven and controlled to ensure consistency in procurement, menu delivery and its respective costs and contributions.

Purveyor contracts may include extended fixed pricing periods for non-perishable products, auditable cost-plus based contracts with higher purchasing volumes, and product rebates.

Menu development and procurement are just a couple of responsibilities associated with kitchen management leadership. 

The menu development control process in the entrepreneurial owned and chef operated restaurant  lies solely at the restaurant level. The same tasks and efforts are required as those of the corporate or chain restaurants, although without the chef's supporting cast. 

Most entrepreneurial run restaurants thrive for a stronger emphasis on buying local, product sustainability, seasonal ingredients, transparency of origin, humane raising and harvesting practices, a direct connection with the product source, and other climate change values of the current consumer base and industry. 

These values put additional demands on the process attributed by increased frequency of menu changes, inherent product cost fluctuations buying from local farms, markets, and broadline supplier street pricing.

Entrepreneurial restaurants typically lack specialized menu development engineering software due to their expense and labor demands (for another discussion). Supplier proprietary procurement and menu development software become less effective as more purchases are placed with local artisan preferred sources verses their broadline supplier.

The ability to professionally manage the menu development process and tasks at the entrepreneurial restaurant is the defining skill set differentiation between a chef and an executive chef. 

Culinary schools teach outstanding cooking, pastry and baking curriculum and graduate students with outstanding skills in these areas of expertise. Where they fail is providing solid curriculum on kitchen operations, production and management, the duties required to truly be an executive chef. In all fairness these are not the skill sets students are looking to acquire when enrolling in a culinary school.

Most entrepreneurial restaurants do not employee a qualified executive chef. It is becoming more and more common that entrepreneurial startup restaurant owners are executive chefs.

The term chef is becoming generalized or diluted in terms of use and understanding. It is commonly being used when referring to an hourly cook, or worse assigning an hourly cook its title, “chef”. 

A chef must know how to cook but a cook is not a chef. An executive chef must be a chef, but not all chefs are executive chefs.

If your chef just recently graduated from a culinary school or was promoted from an hourly cook’s position, an honest question should be raised, do they possess the necessary skillset to manage your kitchen while still meeting the expectations of producing excellent cuisine? 

The workload put on your chef is immense. Your chef is typically responsible for expenses representing approximately 50% of your generated  revenue, e.g. food cost, kitchen labor cost, smallwares, janitorial and cleaning supply cost, food safety and HAACP, kitchen maintenance, sanitation, hood cleaning and more.

Are you ok with a learn as you go approach at your expense? A learn as you go approach under the supervision of a qualified leader providing the training with checks and balances may develop a truly loyal qualified team member. Does your chef to be, have this mentoring structure for success in place?

Is your heart of the house operation positioned to contribute the potential returns possible. It is great to promote from within, it’s better to promote from within with success.

It's much easier to teach a great chef how to run the business, than teach a business manager how to be a great chef.