Changing of the guard

In all my years in this business I have never been at a restaurant during a head chef transition. I spend an hour commuting each day and I think about what will happen when he comes. What will the first day be like? What will my (new?) roll be? How long will it take for him to be trained? When will my next day off be?

Over the past few weeks our current EC has become lazier. I sensed something was up, but quitting was not what I was thinking. He had the easiest EC job on the East Coast. No other EC, at a restaurant of this caliber, works 40 hours a week, doesn't have to do the ordering or inventory. Food Cost is almost not an issue, imagine that. He has to make the schedule and plate food.

This made me think of all the times I left jobs. I haven't always worked to the best of my abilities and that bothers me now. Integrity points should double once you give your notice. I remember when two previous co-workers left my current employer. They both worked like they would be there the following day. What a selfless and mature way to end. Lets just say that is not happening right now. Coming in late and spending allot of time checking food blogs the norm, however the whistling continues.

The new EC's start date is uncertain, but I am planning for the worst and hoping for the best. I do know that this will make for some great post in the future.

Post Saturday Dinner Service

The guys on the line did real good that night. We ran a special with some pork chops off a whole pig we got from Laughing Stock farms. We brined, smoked, and chargrilled the chops then served it up with creme fraiche spaetzle, confit asparagus, and porcini daube. This sunset happened at 8:50 pm. Our guests got to watch this happen as they were eating and sipping wine. It sure does take the pressure off, however it feels extra good when the food goes out so nicely.

5 minute rule

So the never fucking ending saga of Slingblade continues. I don't really want to go into examples but is he is dumb and getting dumber. Aside from is lack of retaining information he moves very fast in order to seem busy or to impress others, I am not really sure. Teaching him is pointless, he forgets everything minutes after you tell him. I am sorry to report I have given up trying. I hate to quit, but I need to move on and focus on my job. I try and find jobs that will occupy large portions of his day.

During my commute time, an hour, I try and think of new ways to make him more helpful to everyone around us. Boom it hit me...5 Minutes!!! If he, or any employee, spent 5 extra minutes a shift they could go from an OK worker to a valuable team member.

When Slingblade puts his/our mise away he often doesn't label things or even put them in appropriate sized storage containers. This would take a total of a minute through out the day. When he puts the entire collection of mise(a large sheet tray) 25 seconds could be spent looking to see if the tray fits instead of forcing the tray where it doesn't belong. Reading the prep list, 10 seconds, before making a trip to the walk-in to retrieve not only the "lemon" he needs for this prep item, but the other "lemon" he will need for the next task on the prep list would actually save him the 30 seconds it takes to walk to the walk-in. So by spending 10 seconds he gains 30, not bad.

The idea is that if just a small amount of time is spent doing every task a little better then great things WILL happen for the entire team. Five minutes doesn't sound like allot of time.... because it isn't when you are working a 10+ hour shift. Just a little extra bit of "I care" goes along way.