Saving Money in the Wrong Places:
Recently, Fox's reality TV show, Kitchen Nightmares brought home some important lessons about making it in a tough market. If you haven't seen the show, it is a reality type TV show in which, Chef Gordon Ramsay, a successful British chef and restaurateur, spends a week in a failing restaurant and attempts to make changes that can revive the business.
In this episode, a failing Detroit restaurant was cutting corners trying to make ends meet (owners were $1 million into it). They were using many pre processed frozen foods - frozen french fries, frozen burgers, frozen breaded chicken nuggets, and frozen, cubed, seasoned chicken, and frozen fish. A lot of the so-called fresh food was half rotten and moldy. Many ingredients were out of bottles and cans. And they were trying some inventive but unappealing menu items - such as ranch dressing pizza that was a sloppy mess. The dining area was well worn and long past shabby chic. The carpet alone had so much food ground in, it could have kept a colony of cockroaches fed on a space trip to the next galaxy.
By cutting corners to save money, they forgot about their customers and some of the reasons people choose to go to a restaurant. In this day and age of prepackaged, all in one bag, pop in the microwave, ready to eat meals, why would people want to eat the same thing at a restaurant? Furthermore, they spend more time driving and waiting for the meal, than they would at home heating the same meal and washing the dishes.
While convenience is a factor, more often people go to a restaurant for foods they don't normally prepare at home. They go for atmosphere. They go for service. They go for something special and unique.
So what did Chef Ramsey do to help turn the restaurant around? First and foremost - he created a smaller, more manageable menu, 45 items instead of 135, and one based on all really fresh ingredients and dishes prepared from scratch - french fries from hand cut fresh potatoes, hamburgers from fresh ground beef, good fresh salads with homemade dressings, etc. Second, he helped them find a niche and specialty - a homemade barbeque sauce, around which much of the menu was based. And to help with the mystique of the sauce, bottles of it lined the walls and were available for sale to the customers. The third item, admittedly expensive, was a make over of the dining room - new carpet, new lighting, new furniture and booths, a bricked wall to add warmth and new signs outside. And finally, as important as good food, he instilled a new attitude of pride for staff with some training, support, and commitment to maintain standards.
Did it work? Well, several months later, the restaurant won a cook off primarily based on their new barbeque sauce menu. This formula, at least for the American version of the show, seems to be a standard. To be successful, the restaurant needs good quality fresh food with unique flavors that is prepared by motivated, trained, and dedicated staff who takes pride in their product and service. And finally, the food is served to their customers in a pleasing and clean atmosphere by people who can also take pride in the quality of food and service they provide.
Recently, Fox's reality TV show, Kitchen Nightmares brought home some important lessons about making it in a tough market. If you haven't seen the show, it is a reality type TV show in which, Chef Gordon Ramsay, a successful British chef and restaurateur, spends a week in a failing restaurant and attempts to make changes that can revive the business.
In this episode, a failing Detroit restaurant was cutting corners trying to make ends meet (owners were $1 million into it). They were using many pre processed frozen foods - frozen french fries, frozen burgers, frozen breaded chicken nuggets, and frozen, cubed, seasoned chicken, and frozen fish. A lot of the so-called fresh food was half rotten and moldy. Many ingredients were out of bottles and cans. And they were trying some inventive but unappealing menu items - such as ranch dressing pizza that was a sloppy mess. The dining area was well worn and long past shabby chic. The carpet alone had so much food ground in, it could have kept a colony of cockroaches fed on a space trip to the next galaxy.
By cutting corners to save money, they forgot about their customers and some of the reasons people choose to go to a restaurant. In this day and age of prepackaged, all in one bag, pop in the microwave, ready to eat meals, why would people want to eat the same thing at a restaurant? Furthermore, they spend more time driving and waiting for the meal, than they would at home heating the same meal and washing the dishes.
While convenience is a factor, more often people go to a restaurant for foods they don't normally prepare at home. They go for atmosphere. They go for service. They go for something special and unique.
So what did Chef Ramsey do to help turn the restaurant around? First and foremost - he created a smaller, more manageable menu, 45 items instead of 135, and one based on all really fresh ingredients and dishes prepared from scratch - french fries from hand cut fresh potatoes, hamburgers from fresh ground beef, good fresh salads with homemade dressings, etc. Second, he helped them find a niche and specialty - a homemade barbeque sauce, around which much of the menu was based. And to help with the mystique of the sauce, bottles of it lined the walls and were available for sale to the customers. The third item, admittedly expensive, was a make over of the dining room - new carpet, new lighting, new furniture and booths, a bricked wall to add warmth and new signs outside. And finally, as important as good food, he instilled a new attitude of pride for staff with some training, support, and commitment to maintain standards.
Did it work? Well, several months later, the restaurant won a cook off primarily based on their new barbeque sauce menu. This formula, at least for the American version of the show, seems to be a standard. To be successful, the restaurant needs good quality fresh food with unique flavors that is prepared by motivated, trained, and dedicated staff who takes pride in their product and service. And finally, the food is served to their customers in a pleasing and clean atmosphere by people who can also take pride in the quality of food and service they provide.
X