Chef industry and the internet

[Nicko]

Seems that more and more chefs are getting connected to the internet. With the expansion of business to business site on the internet I believe most of the ordering process will no longer be done over the phone, but will all be done from the Internet. I have spoken with one chef who uses his palm pilot to take his orders for the next day and then just transfers them to his PC, and then emails the orders in. That is really amazing. Along with that the use of automatic scheduling software will make it possible to just set up an automatic schedule on your pc (or mac, don't forget about the mac guys) and have your regular produce, meats and fish automatically ordered for you.

In addtion to that I think it will also give chefs more opportunity to find the best product and not just limit them to local purveyors.

It is interesting to consider how the Internet is going to affect Chef industry and if the affects will be positive or negative.

Any thoughts?

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Best Regards,

Nicko
nicko@cheftalk.com

I am very interested in the recent "about face" of suppliers and their views on the internet. Yes, there currently is a small fraction of Chefs that are either active or have time to go on the net but that number is steadily increasing. I've noticed some of my suppliers are starting to appeal to this growning market. My supplier that has 65% of my purchasing just made available to us internet ordering. Amazing program, everything is done in real-time and I can even access colour pictures of items to clarify what I'm ordering. On another supplier's site, they post the weekly market update. Perfect way of seeing what's happening in a fraction of a second.

I've also got e-mail access to my sales rep and all of her buyers, purchasers and ownership. Great way of getting things done when you're leaving at 11pm and don't have time for telephone tag the next day.

With the cost of computers coming down it seems ever two weeks and internet access being so cheap, we're bound to be headed down the road to a completely internet structured ordering system.
I am really amazed by the Chef who orders on his Palm pilot, I haven't heard of that one yet. Just wait until you're connected to the Internet on your PALM PILOT, doing orders in real-time, looking a colour pictures of new prdoucts and recieving email updates of price alerts!! Look out.

[Jim]

I know that I rely on the internet to bring me information that I may not be able to find easily. Specifically, I did a meal based on a Hawaiin Luau and was able to get information on food and presentation from people in Hawaii by way of a Hawaiin chat room. I just completed a v.i.p. and had quite some time trying to get information on intermezzo; I relied on web-based bulletin boards to get the information I needed and in a short amount of time. It seems that whatever the topic, the information is but a few key strokes away.
Also, products are more plentiful than ever. The variety of items available through speciality vendors is more abundant than ever; its almost like when trains first criss-crossed the country in the late 1800s, and there was an explosion of new products available. Not to mention 'grocery' vendors. I do twice-weekly general-inventory purchasing over the 'net. I am one of those people that has an automated inventory package integrated with my ordering. What once was an all day event, is now but a small chore.
The onset of the cyber-chef revolution, I think, will go hand-in-hand with the creation of some wild food. My thinking is that new foods that were difficult or impossible to find, will creep on to the menus of the tech-savvy chefs who partake in the new availibility of specialty items teamed with the explosion of useful information.