Tag Archives: Food

April 19, 2013 · 9:23 am

Is Hospitality A Goner?

After a tough week, it’s finally Foodie Friday.

Andrew Zimmern before taping

Andrew Zimmern before taping (Photo credit: Lester Public Library)

I’ve written a lot about service and how I think that’s one of the most important aspects of any business in a time when many goods and services are being commoditized in most consumers’ minds.  That notion came up again yesterday during an “Ask Me Anything” with food writer Andrew Zimmern on Reddit.  He was asked the following and gave this answer:

Is there a current trend in food that you wish would go away?

[–]andrewzimmern[S]  Where to begin! I think one trend that is very noticeable in restaurants is less and less emphasis on service. I think that’s a horrible trend. Even at a hot dog stand, you want to be greeted.  The saddest trend is that the word hospitality is going extinct.

Exactly.  Hot dogs, to use his example, can be found everywhere from convenience stores to food trucks to specialty restaurants, and there are few foods that are more of a commodity item.  What ultimately gets people to choose your business to provide them, and to get the customers to return, is service – the biggest part of the relationship with the customer.

Over the years I ha the pleasure of working with the folks at Anheuser-Busch.  They had a very simple goal at the core of their marketing:  make friends with the customer.  Even today, when you distill their marketing down, it’s about making the brand a friend.  Service is what does that along with delivering the inherent brand promise – this is how our product makes your life better by fulfilling a need or want.

So that’s the question with which to end the week:  when was the last time your did a service check on your business?  Maybe it’s mystery shoppers or maybe it’s a survey but how are you checking, analyzing, and improving customer service?  Another great partner – Microsoft – bases a fair piece of their reps’ compensation on annual feedback from partners.  That’s a great notion – maybe one you might consider.

Zimmern called it hospitality.  I’m using the term service today.  Call it what you will, it’s the lifeblood of any business and while he thinks it’s becoming extinct, I think it’s the businesses that lose it that will be the ones leaving the scene.  What do you think?

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April 12, 2013 · 11:37 am

What Grills Teach Us About Scaling

A rainy Friday but we’ll still have our Foodie Friday Fun as if the sun was shining and we’re firing up the grill outside.

Beef and Corn on a Charcoal BBQ grill

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is getting to be that time, of course, and with it comes one of the big differences between a professional kitchen and most amateur kitchens:  the ability to scale.  Cooking for a family of four is vastly different from making the exact same meal for 24.  In the case of the aforementioned grill, grilling burgers, dogs, and chicken for four is relatively easy; doing so for 24 requires excellent timing, a much bigger grill, and a way to keep food hot while the rest of it cooks.  That’s why I have a firm rule against “piece work” when cooking for a lot of people – I always use big cuts – racks of ribs, briskets, whole chickens – and cut them into serving pieces.  It makes scaling the operation a lot easier.

Many business folks don’t think about scaling.  They develop a product or service or management style that works when things are small but which can’t handle a much larger set of challenges.  Managing a staff of three can be easy – communication should be efficient, there are only a few egos and skill sets to align.  When three becomes 30, look out, especially if your management style is one of detachment or tolerance rather than engagement.  Obviously there are technical challenges in many businesses as well – servers can only handle so much traffic, sloppy code can’t process quickly enough to handle demand are some examples in tech.  Customer service lines can be full, inventory management can be a nightmare – some non-tech issues.  Those are things that must be contemplated very early on with an eye towards the stress brought on by success (not a bad problem to have, right?)

How the business will grow and how to support that growth is probably not on enough radars.  Do we get bigger through new products?  Do we add areas of focus?  Do we get enough funding to make acquisitions?  Strange as it may seem, planning a cookout can help think it through.  If you’re running out of food or serving it cold, guest walk away hungry or maybe sick.  Scaling to serve your guests (customers) isn’t something that just happens – it requires thought and planning.  So does business!

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April 5, 2013 · 11:04 am

Crowding The Pan

Foodie Friday Fun time.  Today I want to talk about the Maillard reaction.  No, it has nothing to do with ducks – those are Mallards.  This is something that goes on in cooking when heat causes the natural sugar in food to change.  You can think of it as browning although it’s a lot more complex than that.  The process creates lots of flavors and why we sear off meats before roasting or we will cook vegetables in a recipe to bring out flavors before adding other ingredients.

 

Quails browning

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The thing about bringing out this reaction is that you can’t crowd things in the pan.  It’s why we’re often told to brown meat in batches.  You’ve probably tried to brown some ground meat and noticed that rather than browning it sort of steams in its own liquid.  It’s not brown – it’s kind of grey.  The same problem occurs in baking – too many cookies on the sheet and they don’t cook properly.

 

The fix is pretty simple:  give everything a little space and take a bit more time as you plan out your cooking time. Give your food plenty of room to move around in the pan, and let it cook in a single layer.  Which is, of course, the business point as well.

 

We often crowd people with too many tasks and a multitude of instructions   As businesses we often put too many things into our figurative pan.  Rather than getting the reactions we want (nice even browning with a lovely fond on the bottom of the pan) we get a soggy grey mess or soggy, limp vegetables that don’t have a lot of flavor.  We need to take a few things out of people’s’ pans or focus or business on fewer things. Give everything a little more space and allow time for things to develop properly.  Of course, there are those cooks who think they can skip the searing altogether.  That’s a big mistake which you recognize once you’ve done that and tasted the results.  Business takes time and there are certain steps that you can’t omit if you want a great product.

 

We’re all under a lot of pressure for results, both in the office and in the kitchen.  Overcrowding the pan in either place might get us where we want to go more rapidly but the results are inferior.  No one wants “OK” as a response, not when “WOW” is sitting there waiting.

 

How full is your pan?

 

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