Tag Archives: Food

March 7, 2014 · 9:59 am

Getting Your Business On A Scale

One of the most basic kitchen skills is our topic this Foodie Friday: measuring.  If you cook, at some point you use standard measures – cups, tablespoons and such.  Even those chefs you see on TV grabbing pinches of salt know how much they’re pinching (you use your thumb and one finger, then two fingers, then three fingers and measure each result to have a sense).

English: Kitchen scale, electronic, household ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Baking, which is basically chemistry, requires very precise measuring to ensure success.  Sometimes, however, something doesn’t come out the way you’d like even though you measure carefully and that’s our topic today.

If you ask 10 people to measure out a cup of flour and then weigh each result, you’ll find that there is a huge variance in the amount of flour.  That can be fatal to a cake or in making pasta.  One thing I find incredibly useful in my kitchen is a scale.  I use it for cooking as much as I do baking (OK, I really don’t bake) and I seek out recipes where the measures are by weight and not just volume.  After all, the cup of grated cheese called for in a recipe could be finely grated and weigh more or relatively coarsely grated and weigh a lot less.  100 grams, however, is always 100 grams.  I find recipes that call for “1 medium onion, chopped” or “two ripe bananas” to be pretty useless since what I consider a medium onion or the size of those bananas may vary considerably from what the author had in mind.

It’s incredibly useful to have standardized measurements that are truly standard when you’re trying to get the best results.  Which is, of course, the business point.  One thing I spend a lot time with clients on is identifying and measuring the business in a standardized, objective manner.  Putting up a new website may cause you to think it looks better but that’s not measurable.  What is measurable and actionable are thing such as bounce rates, time on site, page views, and conversions.  If the new site causes those metrics to improve, it’s a better website.

The same is true about other business elements.  Presentations that look nice and flow well are good; presentations that result in decisions made in the presenter’s favor are excellent.  “Look and feel” is the cup of flour.  Data driven decisions are flour measured on a scale.   If you want success in the kitchen, get a scale.  If you want it in business, find ways to take subjectivity out of the process.  You with me?

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February 28, 2014 · 9:46 am

Pickles And Pizza

At last it’s Foodie Friday Fun time.  Today I want to contemplate pickles and pizza and how they relate to your business.  I’m a fan of each of those foods although I will admit to being rather fussy about the latter.  That stuff they serve in a pan in Chicago isn’t pizza.  It’s good, but it’s not pizza.  I’m careful when I choose to eat one – thin crust, great sauce, and whatever I choose to put on it needs to be fresh and/or of high quality.  I’m less fussy about pickles although I don’t really care for sweet ones.

Since you’re already wondering about the business point it’s this.  Even if you got your perfect pizza and a jar of your favorite pickles, you probably wouldn’t put the pickles on the pizza.  I’m told that in some parts of the country people do but pickles are probably not the first pizza topping that comes to mind.  Business is like that.

We do our best to find the best ingredients – great staff, a fabulous product or service, a superior business model – but we don’t often think about if they’ll go together.  Moreover, there is a tendency that once you realize that you have pickles and pizza to panic.  Maybe even to start over.   I think that’s a mistake in many cases.  Am I advocating a pickle pizza?  No.  I do think, however, we need to broaden our thinking.  Pizza is basically a grilled cheese sandwich with the tomato soup in which they’re often dunked already on the sandwich.  You’d eat a pickle with that, right?

We can also think about the pickle.  One can pickle any vegetable pretty easily – pickling liquid is just a spiced brine, after all.  Why pickled cukes?  Maybe peppers – you have those on pizza all the time.  Or cabbage – kimchi is a pickle and I have seen that on pizza.  That’s how we need to think in business.  How can I change whatever frame of reference has my business not performing optimally?

Business isn’t about looking at pickles and pizza and throwing your hands up in disgust.  It’s about rethinking each piece  – dough, sauce, seasoning, pickle – and finding a way to make it work.  How can I make things or people or markets that just don’t seem to fit work together to make something in which the flavors mesh and everything is balanced?  That’s how I see it.  You?

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February 21, 2014 · 1:14 pm

Casual Dining Isn’t A Casual Decision

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week let’s think about dining out.

Guess what type of restaurant we photoshooted

(Photo credit: A&A Photography Services)

In tough economic times, that’s not an easy decision for many people and the restaurant industry has felt that over the last few years.  More on that in a minute.  Where to eat?  In many places there really aren’t many alternatives to the big national chains.  As with booksellers, coffee shops, and clothing stores, many of the little guys have been undercut by the chains, at least when it comes to price and in many cases quality.  So you’d think that the national chains, particularly the casual dining chains, would be doing well.  You’d be wrong.

As a recent article stated:

The casual-dining industry has largely worn out its welcome. Customer traffic to these restaurants has declined in nine of the past 13 years, according to retail-research firm Black Box Intelligence. Even as the U.S. economy began healing and consumer spending recovered, beginning in 2010, same-store sales were stagnant, based on Black Box estimates.  In December, industry-wide sales at restaurants open at least a year slid by 2%, even as the unemployment rate hit a five-year low and the stock market hit all-time highs. For sure, harsh weather didn’t help, but that can’t account for tepid nationwide results.

This raises a few instructive questions in my mind.  Turns out that in the process of upscaling fast-food and undercutting fancier local places on price these chains – Applebees, TGIFridays, Red Lobster and others – left a niche that’s suddenly being filled by Chipotle and others.  They’re getting beaten not just on price (a relatively easy thing to fix) but also on quality of ingredients and food served.  As we’ve seen many times here on the screed, if price is the only thing you have going for you, you’re in trouble.

The reality is that casual dining out is not a casual decision these days.  Cooking at home can be an attractive alternative when one figures in time and cost but who wants to clean up?  Even those of us who are dedicated cooks like a night off.  Most folks prefer to spend that night in a welcoming environment with interesting food.  The chains seem to be duplicating what a decent home cook could do (and generally in a less-healthy manner but that’s another rant).  Consumers also see that they raise prices by offering smaller portions or offering cheaper, lower-quality meals.  Charging for every drink refill may help margin but angers customers (especially if you don’t tell them you’re charging until the bill comes).

Any business needs to give customers a reason to buy.  That means a great product that meets customers’ desires that’s priced fairly and supported by great service.  That’s how I see it.  You?

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