Tips For Hiring A Restaurant Chef

Hiring a restaurant chef may well be the most significant decision you make when starting or operating your restaurant. The quality of the food, timeliness of presentation, profitable operation of the business and draw for diners who appreciate the food all depend directly or indirectly on the skills and abilities of the chef. Here are a few tips that should be considered when you are searching for the right person to carry the title of chef.

If your establishment already has a signature style, your new chef should be able to follow that general format in cooking. However, it is also true that a chef will always bring his own personality and style into the dishes that have made your establishment known and enjoyed in the community. For a new restaurant which has not yet cast a theme or cuisine, the outlook of a chef can help to form the personality of your restaurant.

Finding a chef may be done through various means. There are head hunter employment firms. Be sure that the one you use is knowledgeable about the specific needs of the restaurant industry. You could check with reputable chef schools for upcoming graduates, although these people may not have the level of experience. Some chefs are looking for a change of geography, so you could attract inquiries to your business.

Administrative duties are also part of overall responsibilities of chefs. If there are workers in the kitchen, they must be directed and supervised. The chef is usually responsible for maintaining the knowledge of health and sanitation standards expected of a first class establishment. Food handling and storage is a necessary part of duties of the chef. He or she must also be able to maintain a reliable inventory of the necessary food, spices and kitchen supplies. Working within a budget is also important.

When choosing the chef, you should give them an interview that includes preparing a selection of items from the menu. You may want to combine that with allowing the applicant to prepare something that they are skilled at. Ultimately, the chef must be able to work with you, with the existing staff and in the surroundings that will be commonplace while on the job.

Take the time to ensure that you know what you want when hiring a chef. If you want a person who is calm and laid back in the kitchen, your interview should reflect that. If you can handle a lot of drama, you may be less picky about a little emotion from your applicants. Be sure that you taste the type of dishes that the chef puts out

How To Handle Restaurant Discipline Issues

Even in the best run restaurants, there will occasionally be discipline issues that arise. When you find that employees are not performing as expected, it is important to act consistently, and promptly. When a relatively minor issue is allowed to grow and fester, it can affect morale of the other employees and can even result in loss of business. In worst case scenarios, failed discipline can result in safety issues or even legal action against the restaurant.

Before you can work on discipline problems, your employees must know what is expected of them. There must be a standard of behavior or performance against which the actions are measured. Even if you think about behavior that should be obvious to most people, your problem employee may not be aware of the issue. If, for example, off-color comments or foul language is part of the vocabulary of an employee, they must be informed that such comments are unacceptable.

Standards and expectations about what is acceptable and what is out-of-line should be consistent across the entire employee roster and work environment. A particular dress code, if stated, must be followed by every employee. This leads to a less stressful workplace for everyone. There is no effort to push boundaries because of lack of knowledge.

The employee should be encouraged to participate in restaurant training sessions, either at the work place our outside the workplace. For example, failure to perform a specific part of the job correctly should become a discipline issue until the employee has been trained in the correct way to do the task. Training can be formal or can simply be in the form of a regular performance review.

Part of identification of correct standards is setting up a progressive statement of penalties for failure to meet standards. A plan for correcting unwelcome behavior presented in a tactful and positive way has the benefit of salvaging the training efforts already expended on a specific employee. Many employees who start out with rough edges can be trained and counseled to become an asset to the employer.

In every case of restaurant discipline problems, it is important to approach it with the idea of preventing legal, health and safety issues. Additionally, you want to avoid employee behavior to drive away customers. Identify the expected behavior and train the employee in how that behavior is to be displayed. When there are continued issues with a specific employee, follow a plan of progressive penalty. Your goal should be to salvage a marginal employee, rather than eliminating him or her.

Tips For Setting A Restaurant Theme

Setting a restaurant theme is one of the more important tasks for setting up a new dining establishment. The thematic choices can incorporate food type, decorations, staffing and equipment needed. Proper market research must be conducted in order to ensure that there is a pool of people who will be interested in the themes that you select. Here are some tips from ReservationBooks.com to help ensure that the tone of your establishment is effective in reaching your customer pool.

It is important to understand that a selected theme of your restaurant is far more than just picking a type of food. A theme certainly incorporates the cuisine, but it also describes the type of service offered and the customers you plan to attract to your business. For example, a family restaurant may be one theme, while a dinner club will be a different theme. Both of these examples could serve the same type of cuisine.

Determining the customer pool will often help to determine the theme of the facility. If you want to attract senior citizens who have time to sit at a table and discuss grandchildren while drinking a cup of coffee or two, the type of service you will offer and the facility set up will be different than for an eating place that mainly serves the lunch crowd from a nearby office complex.

Although you may prefer to serve a specific ethnic cuisine or specialty, the theme is still the over-riding factor. You can easily use your cuisine choices offered to customers in a way that is true to the theme while still providing a variety of options to your dining public. The menu options should mesh smoothly with the theme and decor of the facility.

The decor can reflect the theme of the facility without being overwhelming. You don't have to have every item of equipment and decoration related to a Western theme in order to display a family friendly Western atmosphere. Wagon wheel light fixtures, table decorations and focus walls coupled with numerous items that appear to have come from a local junk dealer may result in a cluttered look, rather than a family theme.

Choose your restaurant theme carefully. The elements of choice can include the style of service, type of food and the decorations that provide visual interest. The theme that has become more of a gimmick than a philosophy of service may have a shorter lifespan than is desirable.