Category Archives: food

August 21, 2015 · 9:02 am

Becoming A Steakhouse

It’s Foodie Friday, and my mind is turning to steak. While I enjoy grilling steaks as much as the next person, most of our efforts here at Rancho Deluxe can’t compare to the product put out by a good steakhouse. It got me thinking about why that is, and it turns out there are some really good business points one can take away.

Steak at Peter Luger's

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At first I attributed the biggest difference to the meat itself. After all, high-end steak places serve nothing but prime meat, and generally, it’s been aged. As with any business, NOTHING can take the place of top-shelf raw materials. You can’t make a great product out of inferior ingredients. So on a special occasion, I splurged on an aged piece of Prime porterhouse thinking I now had the ability to replicate that great steak at home. While it was very good, it was definitely NOT the same.

Then there is the cooking method. Top steak places might use a broiler that is heated to 1,000 degrees or more. While I do have a high-end broiler in my oven, I don’t think it gets quite that hot. A charcoal grill can get quite hot using lump (not briquette) charcoal, but it’s a different experience than most steakhouses. Still, it came close in terms of providing enough heat to do the job.

So now I had the equivalent ingredients and a similar cooking tool but it just wasn’t the same. Putting aside that I was doing the cooking and not just being served, I realized that there was one more huge difference: practice. Steakhouses cook 1,000 steaks a week or more. If I do 24 in a year it’s a lot. But it’s a good business point.

There is no substitute for practice, and the more times we do things – presentations, analyses, whatever – the better we become at them. That’s noticeable to the recipient.  Having great raw materials – that includes people – and a great methodology coupled with the right tools to do the job and a LOT of practice can produce a great steak.  That formula’s also capable of producing greatness in your business if you’ll let it.  Will you?

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August 14, 2015 · 9:34 am

Bad Choices

A little science for our Foodie Friday Fun this week, and a business point to boot.  I read about a study conducted by some Swedish scientists.  They were trying to understand why people make bad food choices.  You know what those are – the candy bar instead of the apple when we want a snack or the quart of soda when we’re thirsty.  Turns out that there is a scientific reason why we do so, and it’s not just the sugar high:

Scientists believe they have evidence that stressful situations really do affect the self-control mechanisms in our brain, making us more prone to unhealthy choices. In a small study, Swiss researchers at the University of Zurich found that people who were exposed to an unpleasant experience prior to making a food choice were more likely to go for the unhealthy, but tastier option. Scientists also analysed the brain patterns of people in the study and saw that exposure to stress altered connections between brain regions in a way that may have affected capacity for self-control.

That is from The Independent’s report on the study.  So stressful situations really do make us more likely to eat unhealthy food, but it appears that they cause bad decision-making overall as well.  That’s kind of scary when you think about it.  After all, how many of us lead completely stress-free lives when we’re at work?  There is always a deadline or a revenue goal looming on the horizon.  How does that affect our ability to make good choices?

There are some things we can try that might help.  First, stop beating yourself up.  No one dies when most of us fail.  I hate to get all Stuart Smalley on you, but we ARE good and smart enough.  Next, allow yourself more time – get to bed a little earlier, have more time in the morning to ease into the day, get to the office when it’s quiet and use the time to plan ahead.  Get up from your desk and stretch.  Walk around. Breathe, and remind yourself that this storm will pass.

You may think that maintaining a high level of stress keeps you energized, but you’re wrong.  It’s clouding your judgement and hurting your success.  Choosing the wrong snack is bad and it might hurt you in the long run.  Making bad business choices is worse and could hurt many more people than just you.

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August 7, 2015 · 10:01 am

The Lord Helps Those That Yelp Themselves

Let’s end the week with a Foodie Friday post about reviews.  There are lots of studies that will tell you just how important “social proof” is as consumers are checking out a prospective buy.  People want to take comfort in knowing that they are making a choice that others have made and felt good about.  Over 70% of Americans say they look at product reviews before making a purchase, and I suspect the number is no different for restaurants.  Because of that, it’s incumbent on every business to check out their reviews.  For restaurants, that means Yelp.

We went out for dinner the other night and I decided to post a review of the place.  We’ve been to this place a number of times over the years and love it, so I thought a positive review would be a nice thing for me to give in addition to my patronage.  Most of the reviews of the place are quite positive.  There were, however, a few one-star reviews (roughly 10% of the total) and they are what bring up the business point today.

You can’t let bad reviews hang around like an old plate of food.  They must be dealt with or eventually the smell will overpower everything else.  Bad reviews are also a great source of research.  In this case, there were complaints about undercooked rice on a few nights.  Who was cooking that night?  A couple mention slow service – was someone absent?  Sometimes the reviews are unfair – complementing the food and service and giving the place one star because you think the neighborhood is “sketchy” isn’t accurate.

So what do you do?  Read every review carefully – you can learn from the good ones and learn more from the bad.  If it’s bad, maybe you want to figure out if this is a legitimate complaint or just a troll (check out the reviewer’s other posts).  You’re going to respond either way.  Apologize, lay out the facts as best you can gather them, and promise to do better if given another chance.  Remember that most of the people reading reviews have no opinion of you (or the reviewer).

A recent Washington Post article mentions that most restaurants don’t hear directly from customers while they are having an issue.  Instead, 80% go home and write something.  Your reputation is one of any business’ most valuable assets.  You need to monitor it and, to the extent possible, control it.  Fair or unfair, that’s reality!

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