Tag Archives: Foodie

June 24, 2016 · 12:13 pm

Take Me Away

It’s Foodie Friday and I have a little blast from the past today.  I’m a fan of the animated movie Ratatouille, the story of a rat who loves to cook.  If you’ve never seen it, take a few minutes this weekend and do so (as of this writing I see it’s available for streaming rental). The whole thing is pretty wonderful but there is one scene in particular which speaks loudly to me and I think has some business inspiration for us all. 

 

I’m going to risk spoiling the movie here but I need to explain the scene of which I’m thinking. It’s when France’s top restaurant critic Anton Ego, whose previous review cost the restaurant in which Remy, the rat, cooks one of its stars. Without spoiling it too much, Remy and the chefs cook Ego a dish of ratatouille which brings back an astonished Ego memories of his mother’s cooking. The graphic you see on the right is the moment when Ego takes a bite and that’s our business inspiration.

Every time a customer partakes of our product or service, we have the opportunity to make a positive emotional connection. I’m sure you’ve had the sensation of recalling a memory when you experience a particular smell or taste something. We see this all the time with, for example, scented candles. There is a difference between recognizing the smell of a pine tree and experiencing the feeling of being out in a snowy woods standing among them.  We’re trying for the latter because that emotional connection binds the consumer and the product. Actors use this all the time via affective memory or sense memory.

As with many things we discuss here on the screed, it’s not an easy task. The benefits are worth the effort, though. You can see it even in something as simple as the “Calgon, Take Me Away” campaign. Maybe we’re all in the transportation business?

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June 17, 2016 · 11:58 am

Just Nice Isn’t

Foodie Friday, and this week I learned something from going to lunch. I’ve written any number of times about how critical customer service is, both in the food business and everywhere else. I found out from my dining experience this week that there is a lot more to the equation. Let me explain.

I was out for a business lunch. We were seated in a section that wasn’t particularly busy and greeted by our server. Let’s call him Jim. He was as pleasant as could be. He asked about our drink preferences and said he’d be right back with the drinks as well as some water. When he came back 10 minutes later with our two glasses of iced tea, I thought maybe he’d had to serve another table. No water either, but not a big deal. He also left without taking our food order.

Upon his return, he apologized when he saw that he hadn’t delivered the water. He ran to get it. He must have run a 3K because it took another 10 minutes. Jim was still incredibly nice as he took our food order – charming, actually – but I was beginning to realize that his demeanor was much better than his competence. Other tables that had been seated after us we receiving food as we were still ordering.

The rest of the meal went on like this. Smilin’ Jim would interact with us every so often and we would have to wait. The customer service was abysmal, frankly, although it was hard to get really angry about it. That’s the lesson I learned.

Nice isn’t enough. Jim was about as good as it gets with respect to customer interaction but he was a total failure when it came to customer service. It’s not enough to train the people who service our customers to be nice. We must train them to produce results and those results must be customer focused. If I go back to this place (the food was actually quite good once it arrived) I’ll be sure that Jim smiles on someone else.  Service with a smile is great, but remember that “service” comes first in that sentence!

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June 10, 2016 · 10:31 am

Sous Contrôle Régulier

This Foodie Friday I’d like to revisit the subject of sous vide cooking. I blogged about this (you can read that post here) 18 months ago after I received an immersion circulator as a gift. I’ve come to love cooking this way. Not only is it easy but the results are amazing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, sous vide (literally “under vacuum”) is a cooking method in which the food is placed in a container of some sort (I generally use a Food Saver bag) from which the air is vacuumed out. The sealed bag is then placed in a water bath which is held at a constant temperature by the immersion circulator. It can’t overcook since it never gets hotter than the target temperature you set. While, for example, the center temperature of a steak you cook on a grill might be perfect, the outer 40% is probably overcooked (that gray layer is overdone, friends). That doesn’t happen using sous vide, although you do need to sear the outside of anything you cook briefly once it’s done.

During the earlier post, I made the business point that sous vide thinking in business is dangerous because it might lead to complacency since the method is very “set it and forget it.”. I failed to mention, however, the good things we can learn in business from sous vide. The key to this method isn’t really the vacuum – it’s the steady temperature control.  This sort of constant environment provides a couple of advantages.  Not only does it prevent overcooking as mentioned earlier, but it also is very repeatable. Maybe instead of being labeled “under vacuum,” this method should have been called “under regular control.”

The analogy to business is pretty clear in my mind.  Having worked for bosses who are very hot and cold (much like an oven’s fluctuating temperature), I can tell you that I much preferred working with managers who were more on an even keel.  I’m sure your staff, co-workers, partners and clients feel the same way.  Fostering repeatable results from our team is one of the role roles any manager plays. The fact that the food is in a bag, a closed environment, plays a role as well.  The bag keeps all the moisture in so the food braises.  If you’ve ever had a nicely braised short rib or lamb shank you can appreciate how wonderful the results can be from this method.  In business, keeping an inclusive team mentality is the equivalent of a closed bag in my mind.

I’ll repeat the warning about complacency, but I can’t recommend using the regular, even control of sous vide strongly enough, both in the kitchen and in business.  You in?

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