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How Our Favorite Chefs Keep Their Staff Motivated
With front of the house servers and back of the house cooks, effectively managing restaurant staff can be a difficult juggling act, even at the best of times. Yet in the hospitality business, the happiness and satisfaction of your employees translates directly into the satisfaction of your customers, and eventually the bottom line. We recently talked with some of our favorite chefs from around the country known for their great hospitality and came up with a list of essential tips for all restaurant chefs and managers.Critic-Turned-Cook Gets An Earful About Front-Of-The-House Drama
Way back when I first asked Seattle restaurateur and chef Tom Douglas if I could come work in his kitchens, he asked if I also wanted to try some front-of-the-house shifts. I didn't hesitate: No way! I was terrified of cranky customers, the incredible amount of multitasking, and the risk of ticking off the cooks. It's hard to be a good server. How do you keep your cool when somebody's all fired up and in your face?Should Restaurants Charge No-Show Fees?
As times get tougher, for restaurants and everyone else, more establishments have started to impose steep fees for missed reservations.Served: Why Tipping Makes Everyone Uncomfortable
Last week, I learned that many believe a server should never address a customer about a tip. Others chimed in to agree.Served: The Ballsy Waitress
I have never before said a word about a tip. Maybe my thank yous are slightly more emphatic when a tip is extremely generous, but I’ve never approached someone in the reverse situation and asked what was up. But Friday night, I felt different.Four Veteran Servers in Los Angeles Profiled
Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Times profiles four waiters who, among them, have provided more than 100 years of service to diners: Vladimir Bezak, Sergio Guerra, Pablo Zelaya, and Manny Felix (who "has a smile as big as an iceberg wedge"). They are the types who know you dropped a fork before you need to ask for another. They remember the hold-the-onions request without writing it down. They are a rare breed of "veteran career waiters," and even though they work at Southern California celebrity hangouts, "if you’re expecting any juicy stories, forget it—when pushed, they all fall back on the famous discretion of a great waiter.” This was a feel-good piece, and a refreshing one, without a...How's the Restaurant Biz Near You?
In today's New York Times Julia Moskin lays out in clinical, terrifying fashion the awful current state of the restaurant biz in New York and the rest of the country. Although Moskin has dug up some truly terrifying statistics (between October 2008 and January 2009, the New York restaurant business lost more than 10,000 jobs, and nationally the restaurant industry has cut more than 100,000 jobs since September), I didn't need to read them to know that things are bad all over. What have you noticed where you live? Here's what I have observed and heard from many well-known chefs and restaurateurs about their collective plight: Servers have bigger stations with more tables and diners to take care of. The...Chewing the Fat: Alton Brown on Hospitality
On this week's Chewing the Fat, Alton Brown talks about what he discovered about the whole notion of hospitality when he hit the road in Feasting on Asphalt.Alinea's Grant Achatz Will Read Your Blog
Chicagoist has a really fantastic interview with Grant Achatz of Chicago's highly-acclaimed Alinea, talking about all sorts of things like his philosophy as a chef and restauranteur, and how his creative process works in his kitchen and with his colleagues. This was my favorite thing to read: C: What food-related websites or media do you keep an eye on, for ideas and feedback?GA: I do it a lot less now, but I used to be really into all the blogs, like eGullet, LTHForum, all of those. I don’t read them so much anymore, I don’t know why. I feel that some of it is that they’re losing some credibility. There’s a lot of good, honest material there, then there’s a...Hot Topics: Technique of the Week | The Food Lab
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8 Delicious Chocolate Cakes and Pies for Valentine's Day
Some might say that chocolate on Valentine's Day is about as unoriginal as you can get. We all remember the first heart-shaped box of overly sweet chocolate bonbons from grade school Valentines. But chocolate gift-giving needn't be a cliché. This year, let's bake our sweethearts chocolate cakes and pies instead! Here are 8 delicious recipes perfect for celebrating your love (of chocolate.)
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