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The Importance of Follow up!
It's one of the most powerful tool in any kitchen, yet many chefs are really bad at it...
Once you give specific direction to your team, if they know that you won't follow up to see if it was done the right way, what do thing is going to happen.
It's a normal human behavior, if no one is going to follow up and watch on them from time to time, it must not be that important, so why bother?
If you say I will be back, please do come back or teach yourself to not say anything.
If you say we will talk about it later, please do talk about it later.
If you say in April we will look at your salary again, please make a note somewhere so you do follow up on the first week of April.
If you say I want it done this way, make sure that you go back and see if it was done this way.
If you say next week, well make sure that next week it is...
Your team will respect you way more if you are one of those chef that follow up, and the performance overall will be much better than if you are one of those who is all words no action.
How to achieve your Goals
Last year I set myself a goal, and I actually followed up with it!
In my 20 years as a chef, I had never really learned to make good quality bread. I would just call the baker or bakery and have them supply me with high quality products.
SO, I set a goal of learning how to do it!! I spent a few weeks reading about bread and I did it. In 2005 I only bought 3 loaves of bread during the entire year, and all 3 of them were rye breads, a type of bread I don't make.
My success was simple, I told all my friends right away that I would try this, and I let pride do the rest:) Now that all my friends knew about this, there was no way I would not follow through, as I am way too proud!
If you are fresh out of school, set yourself some career goals and tell everybody about it. That will help you follow up with it...
Is wastage a big deal?
A) Yes! In every restaurant, wastage is affecting the bottom line profits. To improve your profit and sometimes your bonus, watch the garbage cans in your kitchen.
One cook that throws away an apple a day at $0.25 each will add up to $91.25 at the end of the year. $91.25 is not that much, but it can pay a cook's wage for one day. Now, imagine a team of 30 cooks that does the same thing everyday, and you are looking at a total of $2737.50 of wasted apples.
Wastage also includes the apples that your cooks, your servers and your dishwashers eat! (just food for thought - no pun intended!)
How to choose the right career for you
Before you start on any career path you should do the following:
A) Do many hours of research to see if there is a future in that field. You don't want to finish 2, 3, 4 or 5 years of schooling to find out that the field has been replaced by computers or most of the jobs in that field have now moved to India or China. For example, skilled butchers are in big demand, and not all of them will be sourced outside the country.
B) Go talk to people who are doing the job you think you want. Talking to people makes the job way more real for you and can give you a great eye-opening experience. For example, lawyers don't spend every minute of their time in court!
C) It may sound basic, but make a list of the actual things you want to own and the things you want to do in life, and figure out if the career that you are looking into has the money necessary to achieve the life style you really want. In some cases, you may realize that this career will not produce enough money to maintain your desired life style.
D) Try to organize a job shadowing day or something similar. For example, if you want to become a chef, go work in a restaurant for a few days and then make your final decision. Actually working in a professional kitchen will confirm or change your intentions.
E) Once you have a pretty good idea of a career that fits your ideal list, just look at schools and how long will it take to become whatever it is that you wish.
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Is it Ok to be late for work 5 or 10 minutes?
NO!~ Lateness is a lack of planning, whether you are late 5 minutes or 5 hours, it's just about not planning your day properly. Now, think about it, ultimately, it is a direct reflection on your work ethics and it shows how little you are reliable. I know that you are thinking it's just a few minutes, but as the head chef your entire world run by the minutes.
A few hints to be a better cook on time:
Plan to be at work, no less and no more than 15 minutes ahead of the start of your shift.
Make sure that you allow at least 15 minutes of unexpected crap while going to work.
Plan your day backwards so you know exactly at what time you need to leave home to go to work, and leave on time.
It's your choice, you can be the cook that the chef always ask for something special or you can be the cook that chef always pick on...
Dealing with issues with a coworker during the food service!
I will attempt to give you a few tricks to deal with issues between you and a co-worker.
1- NEVER deal with a hot situation right away, wait until things are calm before starting to talk. So, it's OK to say "can we talk about this later?"
2- Always take the fault up front when you cause the issue.
3- Hot headed co-workers will tend to try to monopolize the conversation right up front. The best way is to listen WITHOUT interrupting. If your co-worker is disrespectful, just say "let's talk about this a bit later, you are obviously still upset" and walk away. Once time has passed, you can get back at it.
4- Let the person speak first then you can say what you have to say in a respectful way too.
5- Don't concentrate so much on whose fault it is, but more on what can be done to improve the situation.
6- Try to deal with issues in private, no employers like to watch two grown up professionals argue. Employers want to see teamwork!
7- Try to finish on a positive note as much as possible.
8- Sometimes there is no solution, so try to keep your discussions to a maximum of 5 minutes.
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Find a mentor
It is a very good move to find a mentor that you can learn from - someone that has a few years more than you and that can be available to answer some questions.
Find someone who is a professional chef; someone with a sense of humor, good work ethics, great communication skills and overall a good example for you. I have found that mentors provide great support for the human resources part of the job once you are in a supervisory role. It's never easy to manage people!
If you move away, you can keep in touch with your mentor by email or phone.
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How to become a better cook!
Learning is the key...
Find a place to work where they will let you learn lots. It's easy, the more you know the better you become.
A) If something amazing is happening at work and you are off, ask your employer if you can come anyway and be there to learn. It's not working for free; it's more like going to a seminar.
B) If it is at all possible, ask your chef to organize a short internship of a day or two. It's an advantage for the chef as you will come back with skills you did not have before, and it keeps you interested in your job. For example, maybe a sushi restaurant in your town, you can learn so much more from the right place.
C) Read about cooking, read about food, and read about your profession...
D) Watch what and how your co-workers are cooking, as you may learn that way too...
E) Ask "why?" a lot!
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"My Daughter wants to Be a Chef!
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