Chefs have a reputation for micromanagement; it’s why they’re so good at what they do. The flipside of that fastidiousness, however, is that it may hamper the building of a more profitable and functional enterprise. According to Walter Zuromski, CEC, CCE, president and culinary director, Chef Services Group, Inc., Lincoln, RI, and a chef ambassador, American Egg Board (AEB), Park Ridge, IL, chefs need to ask themselves how they can increase productivity and profitability while maintaining quality and culinary excellence.
The answer boils down to “responsible purchasing,” says Zuromski. Something delicate like a seared sea scallop chefs may prefer to prepare in house. “But when you’re buying chicken breasts for a chicken Caesar salad, do you want to grill 30 lbs. of chicken, or do you want it already grilled for you?” he says Such pragmatism renders the shortcut decision value-neutral. “Using convenient products isn’t a bad thing,” Zuromski notes. “It’s just a strategic choice, in my opinion. As a culinary professional, you have to evaluate each ready-made product and identify whether it is usable in your operation or would be accepted by your customers who are evaluating its sensory attributes. And if it meets the guidelines, go for it.”
You sure can’t beat the consistency, says Dianna Fricke, CRC, CWPC, executive chef, research and development, J.R. Simplot Co., Boise, ID. But some chefs are still convinced they can do things better, so she asks, “‘Can you do it?’ That’s where it hits the pavement: Can you hire people to execute what you need them to do and still turn a profit and have a consistent product?”
An inside job
Lest we leave the impression that chefs are irredeemably intransigent, Thomas Fleming, corporate executive chef, Preferred Restaurant Services, Addison, TX, assures us otherwise. “We’re trying to put just as much efficiency into that product ahead of time as possible to give us a little more time on the clock, so to speak.” It’s just that they want to do so without compromising quality.
Having a sophisticated product with which to woo them helps put their minds at ease. “Our products have to have some dynamic to them that is a value to the operator, so when the operator sees that perceived quality and value, it becomes a lot easier to hit the financial equation,” says Fricke.
It helps to have an understanding of a restaurant client’s kitchen system. “When I work with chains, before I even write any concepts or do any ideation, almost every time I go and spend a day in their restaurant,” says Charlie Baggs, president and executive chef, Charlie Baggs, Inc., Chicago. He studies how the restaurant tackles distribution, storage, workflow and budgetary constraints. And, he adds, “what’s really important for the manufacturer is to understand the operator’s limitations. Part of the reason I go and work a day at different operations is that I want to see how they store their product, how much storage they have, which equipment has bottlenecks because the fryer is jam-packed or the impinger oven hit its max.” These are the types of things you need to know how to design around, or to solve outright.
“We have different products for different situations,” says Fricke. “We offer our mashed potatoes frozen, and we have them dehydrated. With our french fries, you can actually cook some of the products from both a refrigerated state and from frozen.” A new ovenable fry even passes for its oil-cooked cousin. “We put some beta-carotene in the batter, so it’s a beautiful, ovenable fry that has that extra-golden color from the beta-carotene. It’s ready to go in the oven, but looks like it came out of the fryer.”
Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at kim@decker.net.
