Country Clubs.... All the same?

[isaac]

Dear All:

Well, it has been 5 months since I started at the country club as the chef. Now I feel Frusterated for a number of reasons and i wanted to know if it is like this at any other country club.

The first thing is that it seems like the GM is screaming numbers at me about labor and food cost. So I let some people go and cut labor. Now i am running a skelaton crew which is ok i guess. i also have created a database so i can see what i am spending each day on food and labor. then the GM screams food cost but wont let me charge what i think we should charge for food due to the fact that we are a country club. it doesnt make since.

at the end of the month, we see the financial papers and he gets pissed at me if we were over budget on labor and food cost. I base all my spending, both on food cost and labor cost) on what he and the board of directors have forcasted in sales. For example, if the GM and the board project that in Jan we will make 26000 then my budget for food is 43% and labor is 48%. these numbers i cant meet but if we only make say 20,000 in sales, then i do not meet my porjections and he gets pissed. what am i suppose to do?

then the other day he and i met with our pastry chef and i told her that she needs to have a better attitude because she brings a lot of personal problems in the kitchen. After the meeting, the GM got pissed because I told her that it needs to stop. I would like to let her go to be frank because she is make $16 an hour and not doing much. she gets paid so much because she has been with the club for so long. last time i checked, pay was measured by performance. however, he will not let me let her go. the GM said we are a family... a culture. to me, we are doing business and doing what is right for the club. i hold all my kitchen staff to the same standereds about attitude and not bringing personal things into the work place.

i feel like my hands are tied and that i am being told that ym numbers are too high. i do not agree because i cant make people come into the club and dine and spend money.

any advise or other simuliar experiances?

[dano1]

IME, yup .
The C.C. life-love it or leave it. Don't worry too much though, another few months and you got a whole new board of directors to break in-and maybe a new GM too....
Seriously though if you got questions you could e-mail me. I've been there and done that.
hth, danny

[kuan]

Isaac, you need a consultant to look at the numbers for you. The numbers can reveal a lot about the operation.

Yes, country clubs are quite similiar.

Kuan

[Suzanne]

Isaac, I moved this thread because it's more about the business of cooking than about the act of cooking. And this board is more likely to get hits from the pros who can help you.

[Shamrock Chef]

Yes all cluds are the same!
And the last time a manager told me that about some one on staff he was sleeping with her so watch out you can't win that one

[gilbear]

Isaac,
Check out the club chef forum on Chef2chef. It seems like you're not alone. There are, however, many actions available to you.Get with some of the "pro"s on that site. They can help you out,too.chef2chef club chef forum
Good luck.

[chefboy2160]

hey isaac , ive been there, for a year and a half I was exec at a country club when I was a very young chef ( 26 ) . I rewrote the menus the first month there as I was hired to bring the place back in budget .
well the board approved it and after the first quarter I was called into the board meeting to explain why my food cost was 35% and they felt this was way to low and that I was trying to profit from the members . I was told to run a 42 % to 45% so that the members would not feel they were being taken advantage of .
All I can say is it was a very long year and a half . It seemed that every member was a gourmet who knew how things should be done . One member would not accept his plate unless it was so hot that the waitress had to use an oven mitt to deliver it . The GM used to freak out whenever we had celebs in the place which was quite frequent since we were close to L.A. and had an excellent rated golf course . I remember
I got an order once for 4 cheeseburgers
and the GM came into the kitchen freaking out yelling that one of these was for Michael Landon and I better make it special . Well it had been a long day and I finally lost it and told him I didnt give a **** who this cheeseburger was for and that I made all my cheeseburgers special and to get the **** out of my kitchen . Needless to say I gave my 2 weeks notice and left .
I have never even thought about working at a country club again .
Good luck dude , Doug..............