Good times and bad........

[chefboy2160]

We have all had our good experiences and bad ones in restaurants learning as we go . Some chefs have taken there role a little to much into the demigod relm
( old european school chefs for example ).
I myself have experienced this relm as a
young apprentice and I still see it brought up as far as training goes in our proffession . I myself as the years have gone by have found myself mellowing can we say , perhaps ? If any of you have worked for the old school you know what I mean ! The hollering at your staff and putting down of your help is not the way to give our customers what we are there to do ! Now I am the chef and things do run differently but I have learned from these tough times . Did it make me
better ? Of course , but what about the good times when we pulled the meals out of our arses or they just happened the way we planned them .
So , my question for you is how do you
rule your kitchen , what is the relationship between you and your employees , and bottom line , how is your customer satisfaction ?
Peace , Doug.....................

[riverrun]

The answer is no unfortunatlely he's smarter than that to become a chef.
I rule my kitchen like a democracy, Everybody has say on what we do , I just have final say. I think it is very important to let your employees be invoved in almost all decisions. I tell them if We do good we all reep the benifits. I've learned more from people who cook with me and have no education than i almost learned in school. I't's amazing to learn how everybody eats because we all do it some what different.
All my employees would walk through fire for me i'm quite sure of that but i'm also walking through it with them.
I treat my employees like they were my kids ,but older of course and my motto is , "You respect me and i'll respect you, I won't steal from you , You don't steal from me".
I take time to learn each personality so that way i know what direction i want to come from to get them to do something, it's not as hard as people say it is. I whatch out for them and they whatch out for me it's a family and a team.

[genevieve.m]

When I opened my first restaurant, I was a tyrant feared by most. However, with time I mellowed. It was difficult at first because I did not know most of the staff and I am the only women in our three kitchens of 45 chefs. When I got to know them I found I treated each one differently.

Some people can be pushed to achieve a lot and some people cannot. So, I adjust how I treat each person. For a rock bottom trainee I am very hard. I use techniques involving humour these days and endless sarcasm that makes the trainee laugh. But it can also be used to make everyone else laugh at the trainee for the smart mouthed young ones. I find they learn this very quickly and soon find their place in the pecking order of the kitchen. When in a training, I write everything wrong in a section in my diary and the trainee is taken over the shortfalls on arrival every shift. This cuts down a lot of training time and leaves no stone unturned and no grey area’s in the trainees mind about their job.

Older chefs that are more experienced are a bit tougher. They need to be respected and made to feel they are a part of the team. An unhappy sous chef will poison all your good work around him and can bring on chaos and an unhappy work environment. If a sous chef makes a mistake or causes a problem, I will sit down with them and discuss it later rather that demeaning them in front of the other staff. If it has to be done on the spot, I keep it professional and to the point.

Customer satisfaction? All good in the kitchen, if only those waiters could use that stupid computer system…