"The Culinary World of Chef Brad"

Word-of-mouth is coming on stronger than ever, thanks to the influence of social/emerging media. In fact, to the world outside foodservice, one would almost think it’s a new or novel idea. However, those of you marketing your restaurants to patrons have always known the power of WOM. At Noble, we call it WOMP (TM) or word-of-mouth power, recognizing that this oldest of marketing tactics is now turbo-charged.

via Harnessing the Power of Word-Of-Mouth – FohBoh.

….or OBSTINATE if you are looking for an acronym. If I had a nickel for every time someone said Andy, don’t be so damn obstinate this is a lot bigger issue than you think! Yeah, whatever…..

I identify operational issues that are causing either a hardship to the guest, employees, or profit lines of restaurants. I then identify whether the issue at hand is:

Don’t know (it’s simple….teach, train, hold accountable, reward)

Can’t do (it’s simple…..eliminate, sad to do, but eliminate – I think that only 1 in 500 employees go in this category-very rare!)

Don’t Care (it’s simple….eliminate, not sad, but you can’t do it fast enough)

via Linear Thinker – FohBoh.

For me, these “times” have expanded the creative side of P&L management like never before. In the past, my thinking was somewhat linear when it came to food cost control- Portioning, Purchasing, Menu Pricing, & Waste Control. Now that we have entered into the Great Reset, I have had to change the way I go about thinking and doing things in my restaurant.

It was December of 07’ when I started to feel a little pain. Sales were trending down and I did not quite know why. At this time portioning was under control, purchasing contracts were in place, menu pricing was comparable with competitors, and we were doing a decent job of controlling waste. I did not want to watch the bottom line follow the sales trends, so I had to do something. This is when the thinking cap went on.

I am in an airport environment, so incremental price increases were not an option. I needed to get my costs of goods down without reducing the quality of the foods I served or raising prices. When I started dissecting my menu the Christmas lights went on all at once. I could improve the quality of several of my menu items and decrease my costs without affecting labor.

via Higer Quality Lower Cost? – FohBoh.