You ultimately need a tool that will give you reliable food usage comparisons. In order to accomplish this, data that normally accumulates in different programs needs to come together for comparison. The inventory usage data in the accounting software needs to come together with the item sales data collecting in the POS system. I posted a link to a spreadsheet I created here at www.box.net. It is useful but it still requires manually entering the data. Most POS systems offer this functionality but here’s the problem.  The thing that people soon discover when attempting the configuration is it becomes very entwined and hard to manage. It is great in theory but unless you own a hotel with an accounting staff it just isn’t a likely priority. It is extremely time consuming to set up an entire menu to return a theoretical food cost in order to compare it to your actual usage. This is where I think my idea could be useful. When setting up the menu item recipes it isn’t necessary to add every ingredient. Try configuring the items with only the high dollar velocity inventory items I mentioned in the video and disregard the others. This means each item will only have one or two ingredients. That is much less time consuming to set up and change when the time comes. This will give you access to the theoretical to actual reports that will help you focus in on the most meaningful items.

The other thing I forgot to mention in the video is I have noticed a spillover effect. When you work like this, the impression it creates with the staff is you are watching everything like a hawk. They won’t know you are only focused on 15 items unless you tell them. Besides, your staff couldn’t and probably wouldn’t steal or waste enough salt and cinnamon to matter. So watch the video again, get focused and good luck.

It was an amazing thing to be in that building for the party. The party basically was a sit down dinner during the awards. We had televisions all over the restaurant and spread the courses out over the ceremony. When the Oscars were finished the tables were removed and we took a break. It really was a blast to stand up on the roof of the restaurant and watch the craziness going on out on the street. Once the attendees started showing up from the ceremony we began sending passed appetizers. We served things like pizza, satays, caviar potatoes and Chinese duck sandwiches. It was so tight and cramped. The kitchen was right there in the open and anytime you ran out of something it had to be carried through the crowd milling around the dining room. I had to be careful only a couple hundred people were attending the hottest party of the year. It stood to reason that everyone in the room was a power player even if I didn’t recognize them. There were people trying to crash, walls of paparazzi, and even a line cook who snuck his girlfriend in through the upstairs bathroom window.

I don’t know how I managed it, but every year I managed to get one of these clapper boards from the table centerpieces that were made by Shelly Balloon. The one from 1989 is hanging in my kitchen.

That was such an exciting time in my life. I sometimes wish I could go back and experience it all again…..with a digital camera.

Here is a short list of some celebrities that attended
Alana Stewart, Bruce Willis, Catherine Oxenberg, Cybill Shepherd, Demi Moore, Dudley Moore, Ed McMahon, Eva Gabor, Geena Davis, George Hamilton, George Schlatter, Jack Valenti, Jackie Collins, Jodie Foster, Julian Sands, Kim Novak, Merv Griffin, Michael Caine, Michael Douglas, Mimi Rogers, Placido Domingo, Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Sherry Lansing, Shirley MacLaine,
Tom Cruise, and Tom Hanks.

I had a breakfast wrap this morning at Maui Coffee Roasters. It was fresh, hot and delicious. I’ve had wraps from other places where they cook a mess of eggs in advance and throw them in a wrap. My point is you want to be the place consistently turning out fresh delicious food because most of your competition is not. Watching the kitchen guys during the rush will tell you a lot about their habits. You don’t have to evaluate the whole menu at once. Pick one or two menu items and focus on how the dish is treated. You can turn mediocre food around one dish at a time.

Some months later, Tony arrived at Spago in the afternoon with one of his paintings as a gift to Wolf. He wanted a picture hook so he could hang it in the bar. I rummaged around in my toolbox and found the hammer and a hook. I climbed up on the bar while Tony directed. When I climbed back down, without warning, he gave me a big bear hug and a kiss on the cheek. It startled me but it was sincere and again sort of surreal. He got a little choked up seeing his painting up on the wall. I went back to work as Tony waited for Wolf to arrive so he could show off the painting.

Around 2004, and after I had read Tony’s autobiography, I was cooking one night on the line at the Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Las Vegas. Tony walked up and sat at the counter right in front of where I was cooking. I reintroduced myself to him and told him how much I had enjoyed his book. He ate dinner, we chatted for a while, and he said goodnight. That was the last time I ever saw him.

If you’ve been working in restaurants for very long, you probably already know where I’m going with this. Restaurants have the potential for all kinds of abusive behavior. The Zimbardo experiment may even sound like a normal Friday night service to you. A new study performed by researchers at USC, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Kellogg School of Management arrived at some interesting conclusions about the abuse of power.

Their research, which will be released soon in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, was discussed in a brief article from the Stanford knowledge base titled Power Corrupts, Especially When It Lacks Status.

Researchers “found that individuals in roles that possess power but lack status have a tendency to engage in activities that demean others…..the combination of some authority and little perceived status can be a toxic combination.” As I read the article, I was reminded of some cruel managers I once worked for and with, who could have benefited from a little restraint…or termination. The article offers some surprisingly simple suggestions to mitigate this dynamic. In so many words they recommend engendering a culture of respect and value with opportunities for advancement.

I strongly believe that the environment you create in your business, kitchen, or dining room will either inherently diffuse problems or generate them. Learning how to create an environment where problems stop before they even start probably sounds pretty good to you. Take five minutes to read the article and please leave a comment.

Links:
Power Corrupts, Especially When It Lacks Status.
www.prisonexp.org
(Wikipedia) Stanford Prison Experiment

20% of proceeds between now and Dec 11th are
going to the HH Philharmonic to support music education in Orange County.