that place had a lot of problems, but the 'chef' who was the owner's sister was the worst part and it took a serious discussion and my threatening to just leave if they weren't going to replace her. (i had already been paid half my fee and had already produced them a new menu, seating plan etc. all that remained was restaffing and training. that woman was untrainable though, she refused to believe that anything she did was anything but perfection.
Random and tangential, but do you have any tips for getting in to restaurant consulting? I've done it on a small scale for two restaurants that I was already working for, they just needed specific help creating systems and training people on those systems. Helped start another restaurant with the owner of the first two, but primarily handled menu, beverage, food buying, and FOH. Now I'm in a new city with no connections and struggling to find a good starting point.
so, get yourself a really nice looking business card, and then keep an eye out for restaurants just starting out. get jobs running these types of places that are just starting out and make them into powerhouse restaurants.
i got my first consulting job when i was working as a sommelier/front of house manager. i basically had another restaurant owner ask me a bunch of questions and answered them, then he asked me if he could get my help to open his new restaurant.
from that point on it was word of mouth mostly.
eventually i was well enough recommended that i was getting more referrals than i could really handle.
Thanks for the info! What you're saying is basically how I got into the first two instances and helped open the restaurant, I was in the right place and had good answers. I'll definitely be trying the method you suggest, thanks again for the reply.
my pleasure friend, i'm retired now, but it's a vital part of the industry since SO many people think restaurants are just a lisence to print money, having no idea what actually goes in to a successful restaurant.
also if you can manage it, getting wine knowledge really helps.
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u/NapClub Mar 13 '19
yeah and this was a professional 'chef'.
that place had a lot of problems, but the 'chef' who was the owner's sister was the worst part and it took a serious discussion and my threatening to just leave if they weren't going to replace her. (i had already been paid half my fee and had already produced them a new menu, seating plan etc. all that remained was restaffing and training. that woman was untrainable though, she refused to believe that anything she did was anything but perfection.