“Lateral Moves Are For Suckers”

Third in a series documenting A. Chef’s first year as an executive chef.

“Lateral moves are for suckers”. I said that once to a cook, only to move him laterally a number of months later. It’s funny how things can come back around to bite you in the ass. I don’t mind really, and it’s not even entirely true – while it’s not a good idea to make too many lateral moves, sometimes they are unavoidable and even necessary.  They’re even advisable if you – as a cook – are still trying to hone your skills and master a station or menu. The problem really comes when you find yourself (or someone you love) making lateral moves across different restaurants over the course of decades. We all know that in this industry time can go by very quickly, but if you find yourself in the same position that you were in ten years ago, it’s time to make some decisions. Either get real or get out. It’s okay to pull the chute before you hit the ground. That’s why it’s there.

I have found myself making lateral moves on the menu front for a while this first year, and I think it’s beneficial to my business and me. The menu I inherited was pretty tight; costs were under control but it certainly wasn’t mine until the second full revision, which happened in October. The previous change, in May, was made under duress and it was thrown together in the middle of 75-hour work weeks. The latest revision that rolled out this week was another incremental change in what’s been a yearlong process of paring, tweaking and standardizing. I managed to get the ‘early bird’ menu out of the place, as it wasn’t serving the business like it used to, in exchange for keeping a popular prix fixe option. There was some initial grumbling, as many people don’t like change, but after a week or so it died down. Six months later, people still wander in sometimes wondering what happened to the ‘early bird’ menu that they had last time. Last time? You haven’t been here in six months. I managed to make some ingredient changes, for the better, that people were convinced were going to cause the sky to fall. Have you looked outside lately? Look up – it’s still there.

Certainly by this time we’ve all built feature sheets, written special menus, daydreamed about what might make it on the menu at your restaurant and that’s all pretty easy stuff to get used to. So much of it’s just a one-off, not something you are going to have to live with for a few months. We’re in the habit of having a major spring and fall menu change, and a summer and winter revision to allow for seasonality, so that’s four menu changes in a year, lunch and dinner. That’s not to mention the group menus, party menus, special occasion menus, custom party menus, tour group menus – I think you get the idea. With that in mind, when a menu gets printed and stuffed, I intend to stay committed to it for four months and then re-tool as needed. It can certainly take a couple of months for something to get some legs and for the servers to figure out how to sell it.

Part of this process is the menu tasting. This is where I’m able to show each new item and explain it thoroughly to the service staff, answer questions and give them a chance to taste what they are selling. A big part of what I learned from my predecessor was the importance of food knowledge, and listening when people talk. The amount of information I’ve picked up and remembered from speaking with growers and suppliers, magazines and websites, current and former colleagues comes in handy when having to explain myself to a group. This explanation takes a written form too, in the way of a menu syllabus where each dish is broken down into an ingredient list and production method, often giving the source of the product and common allergens.

One thing I never paid enough attention to early on – and it didn’t really matter  much when writing a fresh sheet or special for one night – was sales mix. As I watched my food costs creep up, even though every item was costed appropriately, I couldn’t understand why. Until I asked around. “Maybe it’s your sales mix”, they said. My sales mix? The closer I looked, the more I realized how well my delicious, well-priced protein items were moving, and my lower cost items were not. Kiss of death. I did some research, looked back through some textbooks, spoke with people more experienced than I and spent some weeks paying closer attention to things like waste and staff meals. The problem identified itself, and I needed to find ways to make the lower cost items more attractive. Sell more soup, salad, pasta! To this end, the last menu change had me paying a more attention to what I thought the mix will be – making the inexpensive items on the menu that little bit more appealing.

It’s all part of the learning process, and thankfully my masters have given me the grace to figure things out as I go.  We’ll get there, and as we phase out some tired promotions and roll out new ones, focus on our electronic marketing methods and forge relationships with new, interesting suppliers, I think ending the year better than we started is going to be reality.

READ PART ONE | READ PART TWO