Culinary Cues

MARCH 4, 2022

You breathe out and shake your head again knowing that as much as you try to convince yourself, those jobs are not part of your portfolio anymore. An employee is constantly late or lacks the personal motivation to do a consistently good job – the senior chef will likely seek the cause rather than simply lash out or give up on a person.

Coaching 473

Coaching Training Fine Dining Article 473

Culinary Cues

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

When we sign our work, we take full responsibility for it. “I Think about it for a moment – would you be willing to put yourself out there and take ownership for work that is less than stellar, less than the best you can do? Make excellence the rule and send mediocrity out the back door. I did this, this is my work”!

Seminar 359

Seminar Front of House Back of House Workshop 359

7 Shifts

JUNE 3, 2022

According to Jim Taylor, a restaurant coach at BenchmarkSixty , restaurants can afford to pay employees more by looking for efficiencies in their productivity. Here are a few ways to ensure you're scheduling with empathy: Get the schedule out in advance. Or perhaps even take a short trip to visit friends or family.

Tip Distribution 397

Tip Distribution Email Marketing Communication Coaching 397

7 Shifts

AUGUST 16, 2021

The way to run great shifts is to get out ahead and schedule pre-shift meetings. A pre-shift meeting is, simply, a meeting that occurs before meal service where the manager gathers the team to go over updates, train them, and get the team excited and motivated for the upcoming shift. Call it out here. Use and Take Notes.

Front of House 397

Front of House Back of House Customer Service Coaching 397

Culinary Cues

JULY 23, 2023

As if that weren’t enough, the menu and each morsel of food presented represents the chef’s life of experiences, his or her family history, the cuisine of their forefathers, every chef who contributed to their training, and everything that they believe in – as it pertains to food. It simply points to what may be behind it.

Guest Recovery 407

Guest Recovery Seasonal Menu Customer Experience Presentation 407

Embrace the Suck

OCTOBER 28, 2021

Only 5 out of 100 restaurants will celebrate their 10-year anniversary. Hire a business coach (okay that was a little self-promotion…LOL). Take a hard look at the following mistakes and give yourself a little reality check. If you’re guilty, just admit it and then take conscious action to change it.

Coaching 337

Coaching Training Social Media Hiring 337

Culinary Cues

JANUARY 13, 2025

Sure, there are always a few players who truly stand out and supporters are quick to point to a portfolio of statistics to lend credibility to their choice. So, really, the MVP is the team, not any one individual. The same is true in a restaurant. In a real team environment, there is room for everyone to shine at any given moment.

Coaching 286

Coaching Sports Presentation Seasonal Menu 286

Modern Restaurant Management

OCTOBER 23, 2020

With a thorough and well thought out training plan. It’s easy to rush training and skip past essential topics when you’re short-staffed or in your busy season or during the pandemic, but investing time in training can save you time and earn your business more money in the long run. Continuous Training.

Communication 179

Communication Training Dietary Restrictions Customer Service 179

Culinary Cues

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

How you play the game in the process of winning is critical, as is the sportsmanship that allows people to get past defeat with honor and grace while taking the time to positively recognize those who administered that defeat. Create a Team Built to Win. Well-run organizations – in this case a kitchen, are built to win.

Fine Dining 413

Fine Dining Coaching Dine-in Café 413

Embrace the Suck

MAY 24, 2023

It's time to dust off your note-taking skills because we're diving into a four-step game plan to draw the crème de la crème to your restaurant, starting immediately. Now, let's discuss our current predicament and find a way out. Instead, we should be on the offense, taking our recruitment strategy to the talent pool.

Recruiting 335

Recruiting Hiring Coaching Customer Experience 335

Hot Schedules

MAY 10, 2021

Seasonal Staff Playbook: Hiring, Training & Retaining Great Teams. So how do you stack your bench and coach your own team to maximum efficiency? The first challenge for seasonal venues is stacking the bench when there just doesn’t seem to be enough people out there to hire. PLAY 2: Onboard & Train Your Seasonal Staff.

Hiring 147

Hiring Training Mobile Ordering Coaching 147

Culinary Cues

MARCH 22, 2023

When offered, it quickly sells out because people are always drawn to perfection. Vince Lombardi, considered by many to be the greatest football coach of all time said: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” You know it, when you see it, feel it, smell it, or taste it.

Coaching 372

Coaching Fine Dining Café Training 372

Culinary Cues

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

The stores were empty, and restaurant service staff were staring out windows from the vantage of unfilled seats. The look of the service staff, cooks on the back loading docks grabbing a smoke break, salesclerks with arms folded, starring out shop windows, and nervous shop owners checking their bank accounts on cellphones was disconcerting.

Customer Experience 366

Customer Experience Customer Service Food Safety Hospitality 366

Culinary Cues

JUNE 3, 2024

Are you serious about cooking, creating, coaching a team, and contributing to the success of a business? It may not look the same and they may have never written it down, but this is their method of operation. [] LOOK THE PART Take pride in your appearance and the sharpness of your uniform. Besides when you look good, you feel good.

Uniforms 338

Uniforms Point of Sale Coaching Small Business 338

Culinary Cues

AUGUST 4, 2022

People do care about value and once the splash of being able to get out of the house wears off, value assessment will be paramount once again. Unless…a coach or player steps up and says “NO”! “We PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER. Apathy is a disease that spreads as quickly as a virus. Toynbee (author and historian).

Front of House 332

Front of House Back of House Coaching Customer Service 332

Embrace the Suck

JUNE 18, 2021

Working on the right things, in the right order, what to focus on now, and what to hold off until later, can mean the difference between success and burn out. 60% of restaurants don’t make it past their first year and 80% go out of business within five years. They shift from a training culture to a learning culture.

Leadership 354

Leadership Small Business Marketing Coaching 354

Culinary Cues

OCTOBER 14, 2024

Ah…” when opportunity knocks, you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket, in basketball or hockey you’ll miss every shot you don’t take, if you aren’t going all the way, why go at all,” …there are plenty of quotes that point to the same reality. This statement applies to all of us, in every situation, or any career. You might fail.

Coaching 336

Coaching Employee Relations Take-out Training 336

Culinary Cues

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

Maybe the driver is distracted with a cell phone, engaged in a discussion with a passenger, or simply spacing out – but regardless of the reason, you see the impact before it happens, and you are unable to move out of the way. So, if this sounds like you, then take a deep breath, shake it off, stand tall and listen.

Coaching 307

Coaching Take-out Café Management 307

Culinary Cues

OCTOBER 30, 2021

Sitting is the chef’s office, or what some might refer to as a storage room with a desk, it is always enlightening to look out on the kitchen and watch the motions of those who have found a home in double-breasted white jackets and skull caps. What many chefs neglect to understand is that they are teachers, mentors, and life coaches.

Coaching 417

Coaching Café Training Take-out 417

Embrace the Suck

MARCH 27, 2020

Times like these bring out the best in some people and the worst in others (a shout out to all the toilet paper hoarders out there). It was a bunch of mercenaries that only looked out for their own survival. Keep limping along and try to hold out until things “get betters”? There was a lot of drama.

Leadership 343

Leadership Cash Management Coaching Take-out 343

Culinary Cues

MARCH 3, 2024

You were either part of this or feeling left out because you weren’t. Can you tough it out? We even boast an informal initiation period where new employees are given conflicting directions, inaccurate details on the work to be done, or even sent on wild goose-chases just to embarrass them and see if they can take it.

Leadership 372

Leadership Restaurant Law Social Media Sports 372

Embrace the Suck

APRIL 16, 2021

When I am coaching a client, I love to sit in the dining room and just listen. They just think that’s the way “things are” Which honestly is the biggest bunch of b t out there. Are you willing to look in the mirror and admit you might be the one holding your restaurant back because you are burned out?

Coaching 239

Coaching Social Media Hospitality Take-out 239

7 Shifts

JULY 12, 2023

She joined us on The Pre-Shift Podcast to discuss her philosophy on managing a team, including how she coaches managers. I kind of did it out of a self-serving type of thing where I was like, I never see him. At that time he was owning Poppy + Rose along with his other business partners until I came along and bought them out.

Front of House 370

Front of House Back of House Take-out Book 370

7 Shifts

OCTOBER 16, 2023

7shifts set out to solve this industry challenge by building a true all-in-one app that serves the entire restaurant employee lifecycle from hiring, training, and scheduling to paying and retaining. Well-trained and engaged staff contribute to better customer satisfaction. When we say all-in-one, what does that actually mean?

Tip Distribution 221

Tip Distribution Document Hiring Training 221

Modern Restaurant Management

JANUARY 23, 2023

As leaders who are focused on making our business stronger through thoughtful problem solving, we have had to take a hard look at how to meet that particular challenge. We strive to empower our employees by coaching them for long-term success. Fourth, adopt a coaching mentality. How do you practice what you preach?

Coaching 198

Coaching Employee Relations Hospitality Social Media 198

7 Shifts

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

There was no learning curve — they found the app easy to use and easy to train their managers on. This is something that we have our managers use on a weekly basis as well, so teaching them and training them how to do it literally takes no more than 15 minutes,” says Allie. 7shifts was very easy to get started with.

Website Management 195

Website Management Communication Point of Sale Coaching 195

Culinary Cues

AUGUST 19, 2024

Competition can be joyful and uplifting or it can spiral out of control, tearing away at reason and good faith. It was Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach of the Green Bay Packers who proclaimed: “Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.”

Coaching 298

Coaching Café Blog Article 298

Culinary Cues

MAY 26, 2020

Let’s put on our restaurant hat and take responsibility for doing what is right for both the health and wellbeing of our families, staff, and customers, and help in bring our communities out of the deepest economic hole since the Great Depression. PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER. Shouldn’t we be doing the same in restaurant kitchens?

Kitchen Safety 268

Kitchen Safety Food Safety Leadership Front of House 268

Embrace the Suck

APRIL 18, 2022

There are also some that thrive (15%) and the elite few that drive their market (5%)… these top two categories came out of the pandemic stronger because they focused on the right things. Many of my clients when they first start my coaching program do a big sales number. I should cost out my menu. I must cost out my menu.

Social Media 221

Social Media Recruiting Online Ordering Point of Sale 221

7 Shifts

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

Can you provide an example of how you’ve improved employee performance through training? Can you provide an example of how you’ve improved employee performance through training? A restaurant manager should not only be able to manage day-to-day tasks but also invest in the growth of their team through effective training.

Leadership 195

Leadership Management Management Operations 195

Culinary Cues

JUNE 1, 2020

WHAT WE SAY: – Effective leaders coach their words and base them on what they have learned – backed up with facts and input from those “experts” that they have effectively listened to. Those chains are far more likely to gather their collective minds to find a way out of the storm and survive a period of business downturn.

Leadership 61

Leadership Supplies Guest Recovery Small Business 61

Modern Restaurant Management

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Inadequate training. Businesses may skimp on the length and depth of training programs in the rush to hire. Some enterprises may not have a formal training program; instead, they may require the new employee to shadow a more experienced colleague. Providing consistent coaching and oversight of new and especially young employees.

Management 202

Management Management Food Safety Hiring 202

Culinary Cues

JUNE 11, 2021

Words that are well thought out, from our memory and filtered through the heart can bridge any gap that might exist between people. Let’s work together to figure out how to make it better.” I remember many examples in my own past as a cook where things just seemed to get out of hand. PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER.

Coaching 442

Coaching Leadership Café Pricing 442

Culinary Cues

NOVEMBER 2, 2024

You look around the kitchen and marvel at the amount of work that takes place each day on stainless tables, in 5 00-degree ovens, on open flames, and in dozens of pots and pans washed and rewashed countless times. You decide to walk through the kitchen during these last moments and take it all in. This is not one of those moments.

Coaching 318

Coaching Take-out Food Order Inventory 318

Embrace the Suck

JANUARY 24, 2022

Times like these bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Some have added take-out and delivery. We all have had to take a hard look at our business models (even me) and asked what can I do now that the world has been forever changed. So let's talk about those habits. There was a lot of drama.

Cash Management 259

Cash Management Leadership Take-out Coaching 259

Embrace the Suck

JUNE 13, 2022

Having experience, work ethic and knowledge of how a restaurant operates is just 20% of what it takes. And my restaurant didn’t “take off” as I expected. Peter knew that sometimes when you find yourself hitting your head against the door you have to stop, reassess the situation and take a new approach.

Back of House 44

Back of House Food Truck Point of Sale Take-out 44

7 Shifts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Elijah has a unique experience with 7shifts, moving as an employee being scheduled through the app, to being a manager scheduling his own employees with the app, all the way to Field Business Consultant, where he now coaches Clean Juice GMs on how to schedule efficiently. It's simple. 7shifts just makes it easy.”

Franchise 272

Franchise Franchising Seasonal Menu Management 272