Tag Archives: Foodie

November 9, 2018 · 1:24 pm

The $2 Difference

This Foodie Friday sees us trying to answer the all-important question about whether to tip on the pre- or post-tax amount of the check. I suppose in some ways this falls into the category of “is a hot dog a sandwich?” but it has practical implications for the people on the receiving end of those tips, your waitstaff.

The thought for this was put in my head by an ongoing column on The Takeout, called Ask The Salty Waitress. Rather than getting caught up in the philosophical arguments for and against tipping off the taxed amount, she does something that I have often urged people in business to do: look at the practical and not at the hypothetical. She takes us through the math of the financial implications of tipping each way. In the end, it amount s to a $2 difference in a high tax area on a $100 check. Her feeling – and mine – is that the $2 probably means a lot more to the tippee that to the person eating out in a nice place.

This happens in business all the time. I’ve seen dozens of times when a meeting devolves into a heated argument over something in a contract. Everyone is standing on their principles but neglecting the real world. Often, when you can get the meeting to focus on the actual differences of conceding a point and getting something done vs. standing on principle and prolonging the discussion, the actual differences are actually pretty insubstantial, like the $2 tip.

Call me a pragmatist or call me someone who prefers to spend his time on things that warrant it, but my first instinct is always to figure out what the real outcomes are. If the result of taking either path is to have you end up in pretty much the same place then I’m taking the path of least resistance. You?

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November 2, 2018 · 1:32 pm

Learning To Make What You Can’t Eat

It’s Foodie Friday and the topic this week is allergies, specifically food allergies.  Milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybean account for 90 percent of all food allergies in the United States. Think for a minute about how many people are employed making food in the restaurant business. As with any large population, there is a percentage of those people with food allergies. Now, look at the previous list of the top things that cause those allergies. It’s pretty clear that if you have a food allergy and want to cook professionally that you’re going have to have a plan for dealing with it since the thing that causes it is probably going to be nearby quite a bit.

There is an article on Eater that discusses this topic. Called How Chefs With Food Allergies Make It Work, it’s an interesting look at how gluten intolerance affects a pasta chef and how other chefs deal with an inability to taste – or in some cases even to touch – an ingredient that sets off a bad reaction. I’d go beyond allergies, actually. Say you’re a vegetarian and you’re assigned to the meat station. How do you taste? What about a vegan who is assigned to make a stew or chili, where seasoning is paramount and tasting required? If you can’t touch fish, how can you tell when it’s properly cooked?

There’s a lesson in there for any of us in business. I used to supervise technical people and I’m not a highly technical person myself. I couldn’t see if lines of code were messed up nor could I grasp the intricacies of a network beyond a certain point. I was like a chef with an allergy – I couldn’t personally taste and instead I had to rely on others. What I could do – and what you can do when you find yourself in a similar situation – is to learn to ask the right questions. A chef that can’t taste a dish can ask if there is a balance between salt and acid. He can ask what flavors are dominant and if the ingredient that’s being highlighted is predominant enough. You may not be able to “taste” your accounting but you can ask the right questions about how things are being done. You’re not a lawyer (no allergic jokes please) so you can’t “taste” the various indemnifications and liabilities, but you can ask the lawyer the right questions about specific concerns you might have.

Learning to ask the right questions and learning how to listen carefully to answers is part of being a great businessperson. You may be unable to taste or touch a particular area of the business but you can always use others to fill in your understanding just as a chef with allergies uses others to help them. In fact, that “liability” is actually an asset in a time when more customers suffer from the same issues. As one chef is quoted, “Someone with allergies is going to be a lot more cognizant and proactive in the kitchen space.” I take that to mean someone who has learned to work with others toward a common goal that’s customer-focused. Isn’t that why we’re all in business?

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October 26, 2018 · 12:40 pm

Country Omelets

It’s Foodie Friday and for some reason, I’ve got omelets on the brain. I’m not talking about the egg concoctions they’d serve you at the local greasy spoon although as you’ll see I’m a fan of those. No, I’m thinking about the French Omelet and as it turns out, there is a business point that comes along with it.

If you’re not familiar, a classic French omelet (or omelette) has, as Serious Eats put it,  a smooth, silky exterior with little to no browning that cradles a tender, moist, soft-scrambled interior. It is a dish that relies almost exclusively on technique. As with any dish, you want the best ingredients, but unlike many of the foods about which I’ve written over the years in this space, this dish is a fussy little thing and without knowing the proper technique, producing the unblemished golden-yellow eggs with an ultra-creamy texture is almost impossible.

There is no person better equipped to explain the proper technique than the great Jacques Pepin. Here is a video in which he makes a country omelet (what you or I would make at home) and the classic French omelet:

With the first one, a competent 6 year old could handle the technique (or lack thereof). I’m pretty sure that the second technique would involve a fairly large mess.  So what does this have to do with business?

I’m not going to deny that there are “techniques” in business. Where we see them most often is in the sales area. I recall going through various sales training sessions years ago where I was taught closing techniques, questioning techniques, objection handling techniques, and so on. The problem is that many of these techniques are used without an ethical overlay. Salespeople often look at them as ways to trick people. Obviously, if you have the right customer, you’re selling them something that will solve a problem they’re having. Why would tricking them be necessary?

I’m more of a country omelet businessperson. Sure, there are skills involved in what I do and you need to understand how to use the tools at your disposal. I’m far less concerned, however, with technique and more concerned with putting out a product that satisfies the basic need: someone is hungry! Is the ability to turn out a perfect French omelet impressive? It is, but it’s also way more fraught with risk. Minimizing risk while producing a great solution to a customer’s problem works for me every time. You?

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