Consult Chef Restaurant Cater Operation Bay Area Food Beverage Direct

Contents

- Focus Areas

- Kitchen/Bar Set-up

- Health Dept

- Cooking Flow

- BOH/FOH Training

- Selling Skills

- Dining Room

- Foyer + Restroom

- Menu + Signage

- Curb Appeal

- Training Manuals

Restaurant, Bar & Catering Operational Consulting- Why is it so hard to get good people to handle, cook, clean and sell good food without wasting time and money? I always have to watch and baby my employees… you’d think they’d know how to do this stuff by now! It’s costing me an arm and a leg to train them and they still aren’t doing it right! Why am I constantly fighting this never ending battle?

Because you need proper control over your operation.

Operating a Food, Beverage or Hospitality Business takes unique leadership and commitment to uncompromising quality while creatively solving problems as efficiently as possible. It sounds like a double-edged Sword…and it is! You need to completely control “everything” to eliminate the potential landmines that will destroy a business’ public reputation, the owner’s financial credibility and the employee’s commitment to the common good. You must be completely locked into the needs of your Business and Employees…always! Try to be detached at all and your money will be detached from you as well.

We can stop the sick call-ins, the equipment breakdowns, the bad health department ratings, the pest problems, the poorly trained employees and constant turn over, the poorly prepared and displayed Food & Drinks, the money lost via improper portioning, the dirty bathrooms and the poorly lighted dining room, the filthy sidewalks and parking lots. However, we can’t stop them without you! We will re-train, re-organize and re-image You and Your Operation to shine like a star! We will streamline your Costs, increase your Sales and Free up your Time in the process. It’s all about Empowering yourself with Knowledge to Succeed!

The only Question is, are you willing to call us to “Learn How” to succeed?

The Owner's Attitude, Care, and Leadership results in Profit

It's Absolutely true! It cannot be denied! All Successful Businesses start with a compassionate leader who is a fantastic problem solver at the top. Case in Point, look at Donald Trump's Show on NBC from New York, "The Apprentice." You're thinking...Donald Trump..."You're Fired!"...Compassionate...Problem solver? Absolutely, it's probably one of the most compassionate examples of Professional decision-making and managing we have in any business today.

Every week the business professional contestants are sent throughout New York City to perform tasks that have to do with a successful operation within a certain disipline of Business. He gives the contestants every tool they could possibly need to succeed and even sends his son or daughter to help them and review their progress.It's left to each contestant's personal talent, ingenuity, and commitment to persevere. Then, when all the contestants return to the board room and it's time to review everyone's description of events, he hears their opinions, relies on counsel from his managers (his children) and makes a decision based on what he views as necessary for success. That's what Compassionate Professionalism is all about!

Whether you're running a Snack Cart in downtown San Francisco, a Fine Dining Restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, a Family style Catering Company in San Jose, an Institutional Cooking Kitchen at a Government site in Sacramento, or even a nationwide Consulting Company, being able to anticipate the problems your staff will encounter and have effective solutions to help them solve problems and grow further in their job (simultaneously serving your interests better,) makes for happier and more productive employees (and customers!)

Most Employees go to work for the primary purpose of making a living at something they can tolerate! Yes, they need to have some level of passion or acceptance for the Restaurant/Bar/Hospitality/Foodservice Industry, but it's the old 80/20 rule:

20% of your staff has the passion and does most of the hard work
80% of your staff needs a paycheck and does only what they have to

You can effectively bring this care and involvement level up and swing that "Care" Percentage demonstratively in your favor. You do it by always having an answer that employees can use to help them in one of 3 ways... 1.) make more money, 2.) get finished with their work more quickly or 3.) make their job more enjoyable to participate in. That's how you also build great Labor Teams that work together for Success.

Being nice, but letting task organization slip, will make everyone friends, but will diminish efficiency, service, quality and ultimately, customers. Being the "Mad" drill Sergeant will guarantee efficiency, but alienate most crews and turnover becomes rampant. Paying attention to details that are priority to employees, like getting paychecks in on the morning of payday rather than after the banks close (or perhaps even the next day,) is an absolute necessity! Nobody gets something for nothing! You must give to receive! If you think of their needs first, they will respond and you will get results.

Specifically, this means having the systems and solutions to manage ALL areas of operation of your Foodservice Business from Back of House(BOH) to Front of House (FOH,) Administration, Sales and Marketing, Advertising, Cleanliness, Quality, Service and Appearance. Your employees can't be fumbling for answers, stumbling over messes or gerry-rigging things so they temporarily work. Transversely, you can't very well put pressure on a server or cook to present Food & Drinks properly to standards if your Restaurant Kitchen or Service area doesn't have all the basic preparations necessary for them to do their job. You wouldn't put up with it from them, why should they from you?

After all, in the history of American Business, only Disney has been successful running a Mickey Mouse operation!

You can't be a success in this Industry without good employees, professionalism and clear understanding of your specific concepts and goals! This is YOUR primary job as the Director of this Restaurant/Bar/Catering or Institutional Kitchen; To Manage, Develop and Build an atmosphere of Quality, Commitment and Professionalism.

The truth is, you do need to provide all the answers to solve your employees needs, teach it to them in a way that makes it simple to execute, so they can have quick success. Present these expectations in a Business-like, absolute fashion (nothing too personal or parochial) then keep the discipline of holding them accountable for those standards in the same fashion; simple truthful and straight forward. This creates an environment where people who enjoy working professionally will have professional success. By constantly reviewing ALL your Operational needs, you start minimizing surprises and breakdowns, eliminating excuses and complaints and start building a strong Professional Team!

If while you're reading about these things you realize you don't have ALL the ANSWERS, the EQUIPMENT, the LARGE BUDGET or most critically, the TIME to learn about or enact these systems and solutions, then you need to Consult the Chef and have us discuss a Consulting Solution for your Business.

Having all the Answers, Knowledge and Systems to effectively manage your Restaurant/Bar/Catering or Institutional Kitchen, really is simple once you know how! That's why we're here, to Empower you, give you Knowledge and help you be a more Profitable business owner and operator!

Focus Areas of Restaurant, Bar & Catering, Operational Consulting- Maybe I should change a few things and I’m realizing that doing EVERYTHING myself isn’t working all that well. Maybe, if I thought of this Consulting stuff like...I get a new beginning; a Mulligan; a do-over…this could be just what we need. I need to streamline my Operation anyway…I can Save some good money, my employees get more focused Training and I can spend more time running the parts of the Business I really love...Hmmm...Why didn’t I think of doing this sooner?

Whether you need some immediate changes, a new beginning or are starting your Food & Beverage Business from scratch, if you aren’t versed in how to Train, Operate and Review EVERY JOB IN YOUR BUSINESS, then you need help in getting there, NOW! Even if you have Managers, who reviews their work? If you don’t take the “attack style” Management stance, and just believe everything is under control, things will get away from you fast, if they haven’t already.

Consult the Chef will train you and your staff on all the areas listed below so there are systems in place that you can easily execute, maintain and use continuously as a barometer to gauge the effectiveness of your operation. No more guessing, no more catch-up, no more fireman duty! Believe us, your bottom line will thank you!

Now that you know that your people are the key to managing a successful Food & Beverage Service Business and that Your Knowledge of all Operations is Your Power, you need to decide whether you need help in MOST or ALL of the areas listed in this Section, or whether you only need specific training in one or two specific areas of BOH or FOH Operations.

We offer specific Individual Session courses or we can Customize Projects or you can get one of our Value Based Consulting Packages that hit a broad variety of Services and Consultations for much less than combined individual sessions cost. See our "Consulting Pricing" Heading Section for more information.

Kitchen, Bar Set-Up & Equipment
We can come on-site and help Business Owners lay out a new Venue or Facility, identify the specific Equipment they will need based on Prospective Menus, make recommendations on new or used Kitchen/Bar/Display Equipment based on Purchasing and Operating Budgets. We can also consult and act in concert with local regulatory agencies and inspectors to meet building codes and insure BOH & FOH comfort and ease of operation while maximizing Flow and efficiency during operation.

We can offer proper maintenance Training or operational Training from Manufacturers in cases of equipment additions to existing Bars/Kitchens in concert with new menu items. All local and national safety & cleanliness standards regarding equipment are also taught to  employees should you need it. We try to maximize your staff's knowledge so they can perform regular maintenance via calendar checklist.

We may invite outside Local or National Hospitality Industry Professionals to make presentations or give opinions on proper equipment safety regulations or operations. If an employee knows what to look for and has regular Maintenance schedules to follow, they can handle small Cooking Equipment or Bar Equipment problems before they get costly and interrupt service at critically in-opportune times.

Food Handling & Cleanliness
We can Consult on Local and National Health Department Certification Training in order to prepare employees and Managers for Tests to comply with City, County, State and National health and Food Handling Procedures. We also do intense, overly critical Restaurant Inspections, view your Employees and Managers during Meal Periods and produce reports, so you can be fully prepared for your next inspection.

Food freshness, rotation and waste disposal Systems & Schedules are also taught, so your Chefs, Bartenders and Managers can keep your fresh Food Quality High and your employees fully aware of how improper product rotation, temperature abuse, storage and handling hurts the prepared Food & Beverage product that ends up on a customers plate or in their glass!

Prep & Cooking Flow
The single greatest area you can lose money on food is during early Preparation. Improperly operating Scales and Equipment, Spoilage due to poor packaging, poor Cleanliness habits and lack of direct Management monitoring typically results in poor food Quality, over usage and over portioning and no adherence to Recipe standards.

This is a recipe for a Full Plate of Financial Disaster!

Daily Preparation & Waste Lists are integrated with Storage, Inventories, Sales figures and Daily usage numbers to identify which foods are the biggest "cost" offenders, freshness "offenders" and "bad taste" offenders. We will teach Employees and Managers how to rectify and implement Prep & Cooking flow charts (Electronic or Manual) to ensure quality controlled Cuisine from Prep to Plate.

This is also an area where POS Systems and/or Chef Software can be integrated to make tracking and maintaining efficient preparation and cooking flow far easier. See our POS Financial Monitoring and Restaurant, Beverage & Catering Software section under our Restaurant, Bar and Catering Management Heading.

Chef & Cook Training - Skill Development
The challenge for most Restaurants is not how to make the perfect Buerre Blanc, but how to get Joe to step up his production on the Dinner or Lunch Line and in the Prep kitchen. While we certainly can help with his Sauces, Joe maybe slow on his Breakfast Production because he doesn't Organize his Grill temperatures & maintain his Saute Pans properly. Maybe his knife skills are bad and he can't get Prep done on time. Maybe he knows you don't check him, so there's no real benchmark for success and no real pressure to get better. The answer doesn't have to be firing; it could be more training with timelines and written goals for Joe to attain. Consult The Chef can help with better Planning & Scheduling of Work, Techniques, Short cuts & Flavor Secrets, Saute & Healthy Cooking; even how to run the Wheel properly, and of course, the Dreaded Breakfast Egg Flipping!

We offer a lot more information on Cooking, Cheffing, Elite Taste enhancement and Recipe production in our "Training" Heading Section.

Because we are owned by a Chef, he demands that we evaluate and even challenge the Chefs/Cooks of every kitchen we pay an on-site visit to. Our Chef believes you can't grow and prosper unless you have the personnel in place to take you there and they understand the skills they need to grow with you. We will produce a performance review on you Kitchen Staff and recommend further Training by Consult the Chef or outside Culinary Education Academies. You may have a budding Superstar on your hands and not know it!

We offer extra on-site & Web based Training in Knife Skills, Prep Organization & Listing, Kitchen Set-up, Hot & Cold Table Set-up, Storage and Rotation, Walk-in Refrigerator and Freezer Organization, Line Set -up & Wheel Expedition, Grill Organization, Grill/Oven Meat Preparation & Cooking, POS System reading and verification, Catering/Banquet Estimating, Portioning & Service...Breakfast & Egg Cooking! Or we cover most of these areas as part of our Value Based Consulting Packages! And, if you don't see it here, ask us for it!

Delivering Hot Food Hot & Cold Drinks Cold
Depending on your Restaurant, Bar or Kitchen service style - Full service, Buffet service, Delivery service, Counter (or Quick) service - you have different danger zones where product delivery temperature can be compromised. Sometimes, letting the packaged Food, Dish or Drink sit too long in the Holding/Staging/Window area before delivering, ruins the Flavor, Presentation, or the Recipe itself. Something is not in sync! The knee jerk reaction might be that the Server isn't doing their job, but often, its something operational or organizational you don't recognize.

We'll spend time in your Kitchen and/or Bar reviewing your set-up, Cooks, Servers, Bartenders, Equipment and then make recommendations on efficiency upgrades that you need to make to ensure quality of Food, Drinks and Cocktails, Proper Temperatures and timing of delivery to tables or customers. Like we said, it's not always the Cook staff, Waiter, Server or Bartender. Sometimes, unfortunately, Kitchens or Bars just simply don't have the proper equipment to Serve their own Menu items adequately. We make sure your staff, equipment and organizational flow are making the grade.

Serving & Selling
Whether your Customers come to a Quick-Serve Counter, matriculate through a Catered Buffet Line or sit and dine in fine, Classic French or Russian Elite Service, there are specific points in the process where they make decisions on what they order. Unless the customer is a regular who always orders the same thing, a member of your staff almost always assists that point of decision! If you don't have a knowledgeable, energetic but patient,(knowledgeable) kind but authoritative (knowledgeable) and did I mention knowledgeable (knowledgeable!) person in that position to consult on those choices, you're letting money walk out the door.

We will review your Front of the House (FOH) staff for personality, personal presentation, attitude, and MENU KNOWLEDGE!!! Remember this is different for every Bar & Grill, Fine, Casual or Family Dining & Restaurant, Catering Company, Cafeteria style Kitchen or Fast Food style Restaurant. Then we will review service standards, station maintenance, ability to interact with Kitchen staff, helpfulness, cleanliness and oh yes…MENU KNOWLEDGE!!!

We offer extra on-site training for Floor Organization & Seating, Service sequence and Table Etiquette, Order-taking, Food delivery, Record Keeping, Proper POS Entry for Pricing & Inventory, Time Standards for Service Cycles (different for every Foodservice Business), Interaction with Kitchen, Bussers and Food Runners, Cocktailing, Time organization, Tip Reporting and/or Pooling, The Language of Sweet Selling and of course…MENU KNOWLEDGE!!!!! Or we cover most of these areas as part of our Value Based Consulting Packages! And, if you don't see it here, ask us for it!

We offer a lot more information on Food & Beverage Service, Training and Consulting in our "Training" Heading Section. Your FOH employee’s ability to create an environment of “Sweet Selling" as an everyday attitude, is one of the keys to Financial Success for every Franchisee or Owner Operated Foodservice Business. We also touch on this concept in our "Marketing" Consulting Heading section. This attitude not only gets your check averages up, but done instructionally, yet “sweetly,” it also develops a reputation that customers can’t wait to tell their friends about, thus turning it into a Marketing and Advertising tool as well.

Dining Room Set-Up & Décor
The one pet peeve most people have is feeling packed in like sardines. The Linens, China and Flatware patterns can be stunning, the Booth Upholstery simply to die for, darling...the local artist renditions of post-impressionist garden Frescos [on your walls] may be the finest collection outside France, but if you have to bump into another diner at the table behind you just to get up and use the restroom, you might as well close the doors...now! How are your servers supposed to negotiate these mazes and not irritate customers or better yet, how doesn't someone call the fire department on you!

We will help plan out all of the above-mentioned décor items for your Catering Events, Banquet Halls or Restaurant & Bar Dining Rooms based on your Venue's theme, Menu style, Target Market Niche, History and Location. We will de-clutter Deli's, Lighten up dark Dining Rooms and Jazz up Juke Joints and improve ambience, flow, cleanliness, SAFETY and save you money in the process! Your Place needs to Dress for Success! We can do a focused Dining Room Project Consultation or include it in one of our Comprehensive Consulting Reviews and/or Packages.

Foyer and Restroom (your most important areas of concern)
THESE ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT AREAS OF YOUR BAR, RESTAURANT, BANQUET HALL, CATERING VENUE or CAFETERIA STYLE KITCHEN! Customers judge whether they trust your over all Venue hygiene by what these two areas look like. If they find your entry way or bathroom anything but immaculate, they figure, your kitchen is filthy as well and you had better be absolutely perfect along every other step of their dining experience or they will NEVER BE BACK…if they haven't already been so put off that they leave before they eat! Don't laugh...its happens daily!

Plus in this day in age, Negative Opinions and Cell Phone Pictures end up on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube…almost anywhere and everywhere! The big problem is, you have no way to respond once a customer has decided to “OUT” your messiness. Viral Marketing can be a BIG PROBLEM if you don’t do the Basics to keep your reputation in tact. We address Internet & Social Media impact in our Website Design & Viral Marketing Sub Section under our Marketing Heading Section. When it comes to Food & Beverage Service, Cleanliness IS next to Godliness. If you don’t keep your place clean and you offend the wrong Blogger, your Bar or Restaurant can go straight to H, E double Hockey sticks!

We will help design and add systems that keep cleanliness, attractiveness and public verification in the forefront of your Manager's priorities. If you lose a customer due to a single bad food or service incident, that's unfortunate, but mistakes happen. NEVER AGAIN LOSE CUSTOMERS TO POOR RESTAURANT CLEANLINESS! From today forward, it is unacceptable!

Menu & Collateral Signage
Your Menus need to be clear and concise so people know what they're getting. There is some Restaurant/Bar/Catering/Cafeteria/Quick-Service jargon that is acceptable as well. Many Family style or Kid focused Restaurants like Goofy Names and descriptions. Certain Ethnic Restaurants have Dish or Ingredient names that are completely undecipherable to those who are not of that group's origin. Are you using too many of these tricky word-plays? Is the Print easily readable or too Ethnic? Are your customers asking too many questions of your Servers and do they know how to really describe and sell the dishes; or are they not asking any questions at all?

Remember, Your Entryway Signage, Your Menu, Order Board, Table Ads, even your Service Staff uniforms are integrated Suggestive Sales and Marketing tools that "lead the customer down the Path" to high profit sales. This being said, You still need to play to your strengths and there is no substitute for a great Service person being able to describe a luscious, delectable menu item. We'll analyze your complete use of Sales, Marketing and Promotional items and make our recommendations. This is also one of those areas that is needed by every Business, but a Family Restaurant has different needs than an elite fine dining Haute Cuisine Restaurant; a Cafeteria or Catering Buffet has different needs from a corner outdoor Café and a Deli, Fast Food or Pizza delivery Franchise are basically wall to wall ads with nothing else. When we go on-site to your Business, we'll Customize Signage Strategies just for you and your Target Market Niche.

You can also read more about these needs in our "Marketing & Media" and "Recipes & Menus" Heading Sections.

Outdoor & Curb Appeal, Parking
This is absolutely part of an effective Food service Operation, especially, as it applies to new visitors. Outdoor signage makes a statement about the cuisine style, price range and Customers you hope to attract. Legibility, location proximity to passers- or drivers-by, lighting and information all play a part as to whether it is an effective tool for your Restaurant. How about your landscaping? Beautiful trees are great, but not if there's always leaves and bird droppings everywhere. This is where Operationally, you need to have Maintenance & Cleanliness completely up to snuff, everyday!

And...perhaps the worst possible issue, you have a Buffet and Cafeteria Style Restaurant that seats 150, and you only have 4 parking spots along the front of your door (that are handicapped protected), its 70 to 100 feet to only 12 more regular spots; 150 to 200 feet to all the rest. You also cater to a strong 60 and over crowd and the asphalt in your Parking Lot is in serious disrepair, angering your insurance company who says "Sorry...its your Fault if one more Butt hits the ground...we're not covering you anymore!" Sound Familiar?

We will do a complete Venue, Facility, Rental/Mortgage agreement assessment and liaison between Property Management, Insurance, Landscaping, Garbage collection, Glass and Sign companies if you wish. We can help develop maintenance schedules for your staff and the landlord's staff that interact for prime efficiency and cost effectiveness. General recommendations will also be made that you can follow-up on.

There is more on the Marketing Value of Signage in the Marketing and Media Heading Section and more on Maintenance Services in the Management Heading Section.

Training Manuals & Operations Forms

This is absolutely where we return to some of our Corporate Restaurant roots. Whether you have a Franchise or Own and Operate a Sandwich Shop, a Pizza Place, A Fast Food (Quick-Serve) Franchise, a Family Café, a Casual Dining Bar & Restaurant, A Wine Bar & Small Plate Bistro or an Elegant Fine Dining, High Volume Michelin Rated Dinner House & Nightclub, you need to create Written Record Logs of Recipes, Techniques and Work Schedule Details of EVERY SINGLE JOB FUNCTION IN THE BUSINESS!!!

This is definitely a time consuming project in the beginning, but if you spend one, two or even three months doing this, you will always be able to handle employee turnover AT EVERY POSITION! Franchises are great at this stuff and should offer you some assistance, if this is indeed your business type. If you are an independent Owner/Operator, your Chef should be able to handle this for the Food Recipes and Techniques for Kitchen & Bar Employees; your Dining Room Manager should be able to handle this for Servers, Hosts and Porterage staff. The problem is, that they all also have Bars, Restaurants and Catering Companies to Operate, so even three months might be hoping for a miracle, assuming they can Ever find the TIME!!!!.

This is a huge, time consuming project even for a 10K per Month Coffee, Doughnut & Snack counter. Then you need to develop the ongoing Operational Maintenance Schedules that interact with the training materials. CONSULT THE CHEF can execute these Manuals and Operation Schedules in just a few weeks with all the right input and information from you, freeing you up to run your business!

That is why, as a Separate Service or Customized Project Consultation we will take your records and basic instructions and assimilate them into systematic "READ TRAIN & TEST" formatted Instructional Manuals with integrated Operations Schedules on Disk or in Printed Text for you. You will never again worry about the struggles, confusion and lag time of improperly Training new staff and daily Operations become just a matter of Checklist style monitoring that not even the best Manager can screw up!

Especially if your organization has Multi-units or Locations, you need to keep the Integrity of your Recipes over time, always be able to reproduce the Preparation Techniques your Chef demands, and save countless hours of time for your Managers or Trainers and you need it ALL written in an Achievement based, Timelined & Checklist form. Plus, there is written Accountability for Employees to understand and perform their duties per Company Standards that will really impress those looking for a profitable, Professional Work Environment.

Each Training Manual Project will differ for each Client, so please contact us to see if this is a Project you want to embark on for your Business.

As with everything we do, you will tell us everything you want accomplished, we will provide a firm bid and you will accept or decline based on the bid. Everything up-front, everything known in advance. This way, the Consultant takes on the financial pressure of performing efficiently, not the client.

Go to our Consulting Pricing Heading Section to check our Individual Issue(s) Hourly Consultations, Internet or On-site Consulting Project Consultations or Full Business Reviews & Packages to determine what Consulting Solution fits you best. Or better yet...Customize Your Own!

Or take our 15 Question yes/No answer Management Effectiveness Survey and score your current Food & Beverage Business management needs.