Difficult owners. Or well intentioned GM's.

[Rivitman]

How do you deal with them?
I like mine personally, but as the Chef, I am supposed to be nominally in charge. IMO this means not having my prices questioned, being forbidden to do business with certain purveyors, having my menu choices or portion sizes interfered with, nor having my instructions to subordinates countermanded.

I try to give the best advice I can, sound and proactive, and it's in one ear and out the other. I rely heavily on the advice of chefs with more experience. I try not to make guesses, instead relying on my 2 confidants with 55+ years of combind experience in the business.

I deliver on the food, I havn't had a complaint in months and have not comped a single meal since last summer.
In fact, Iv'e done everthing I have said I was going to do, that I was allowed to do. I feel like my views should be respected and acted upon.

I'm thinking more and more that there is no room in this world for an easygoing and non-assertive chef, and am considering becoming a total b@stard in order to regain control of my kitchen. I am considering an all hands meeting to spell it all out to the staff.
I can do this, and there WILL be some very ruffled feathers. But at this point my relaxed style has failed to establish me as a leader I think.

As far as the owners and GM, I don't do ultimatums. Ultimateums are cheap and sleazy, and smack of ego. If I decide to take this course, I'm just going to do it and take the fallout, even if it means my job.

Thoughts?

[Rivitman]

23 views 0 replys.
Looks like nobody wants to touch this one.

Heh, I don't blame you one bit.

I'll let you know how things turn out.

[clay]

I'll touch it, because I have been there too. Ultimately it ended up being that the owner ran me off, and didnt even know why. I just had enough of trying to undermine my ideas, so I moved on. Since then I have realized that the only good boss you are ever going to have is yourself! Really I am not saying there isnt good bosses out there, because I try to be one, but never will there be a time when an owner and a chef agree on everything.

I understand what you are saying completely, but what you have to remember is that this is their money, and untill it is YOUR money, then they will have a say in it. Simple as that.

Good luck to you. Be smart learn from their mistakes, then open your own place

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Rivitman

How do you deal with them?
I like mine personally, but as the Chef, I am supposed to be nominally in charge. IMO this means not having my prices questioned, being forbidden to do business with certain purveyors, having my menu choices or portion sizes interfered with, nor having my instructions to subordinates countermanded.

You should listen to the GM. It's not you vs. GM, it's both of you getting together and running a successful operation. When I say listen, I don't mean obey. He (she?) has concerns as well and voices them in the only way he knows how. Your job is to ease his concerns and that can only be done by working together.

Everyone's different, and believe it or not, you can even get along with micromanagers. When you distill it down, it's likely that the both of you have the same concerns. Nobody is stepping on each others' toes. You just haven't been quite successful in getting through to your GM, and he's still a little apprehensive and being a GM. Trust is one thing, but he has to verify as well. (the one useful thing I learned from Ronald Reagan)

It's gonna be difficult but extremely important to be able to see things from a GM perspective. Try to trade places for a bit. And talk. Always talk. If you don't have the words, tell him you don't have the words and try to work through it together.

[Rivitman]

I suppose the real issues boild down to how certain aspects of the business needs to run.
I'm the outsider here, and while that disadvantages me in some ways, I feel like it allows me to see problems they cannot because they have operated the same way for years.

I was supposedly brought in as an agent of change, yet the status quo is still in force and argued for at every turn.

I have a great deal of responsibility and nearly no authority.

I am simply trying to use industry standard methods and am being stymied.

For example, food cost.
I am ultimatly responsible right?

The place has never done inventory.
I offered to install a complete inventory control and tracking system, accurate and nimble.

Rejected.

The owner calculates food cost via a method I am not privy too. I have zero control over what goes out at breakfast and lunch. I Costed out my entire dinner menu and every item meets the target; in fact my highest priced entree is right at the target with my most popular 2 items being 10 to 15 points below respectively.


I have only one major purveyor. I tell them we need at least two or we have no pricing clout.

Rejected.

As food costs drop, labor costs tend to go up, due to additional prep and cooking. When I took over, I immediatly got rid of many pre-made and pre- portion controlled items, prepping everything in house, which dropped the FC about 4% almost immediatly. But this put me in a labor bind, and now I am doing most of my own prep. We could bring in labor and still probably come out ahead, but my request was, you guessed it....

Rejected.

Spoilage logs?
Ignored.

Order sheets?
Unused.
Pars? Rack locations? Pantry management?
Nope.

In my State, the health dept is now enforcing HACCP guidlines. We are out of compliance in almost every area to varying degrees. I wish to act proactively to bring us into compliance before we get slapped down. I wish to install the equipment. systems, and proceedures asap.

Rejected.

By now, most of you have seen my other thread on equipment issues. Last year we spent 21K paving the parking lot. Total spent on kitchen other than emergency maintainance?
Less than $300 total.

I don't want to make it sound too much like we are a backwater operation. The folks here are good people if stubborn, and hard working.
But if they want a chef, then they need to start heeding my warnings and requests, or formally absolve me of the responsibility of the outcome.

Honestly, I'm trying my best to help the business be sucessful. And I still have control of the plates. I am very proud of what I have done. But other than that, things are spinning out of control. I cooked valentine's day night. Solo. That hurt.

Maybe I need to take Henry Rollin's advice:

"You say your job is a pain
It's pullin' you down the drain
I think you'd rather complain
Than quit it"

[kuan]

Ooh shoot I forgot that was you about the equipment.

Forget about it. If a place has shown no real history of change then it probably never will. It's like people you know, when they have 20 years in as a line cook and still fish spaghetti out of a tub of cold water you know they'll never change.

See it from his point of view though...

Forget about inventory. You don't take inventory to the bank. He's not doing food cost. He's estimating.

One purveyor for a small place may be OK if you have it contracted. Sometimes the cost of getting $350 worth of canned goods costs more than it's worth to the supplier.

The costs you don't see with labor are the various taxes and compliance requirements. Once you're big enough, you need to comply with certain laws.

Spoilage logs? Forget it. It could be he expects little to no spoilage and that you take care of the problem right there.

Order sheets? Forget it also. No inventory means no order sheets means no paperwork.

HAACP? We'll deal with it when they come knocking.

Been there before brother.

[Rivitman]

Originally Posted by kuan

Ooh shoot I forgot that was you about the equipment.

Forget about it. If a place has shown no real history of change then it probably never will. It's like people you know, when they have 20 years in as a line cook and still fish spaghetti out of a tub of cold water you know they'll never change.

See it from his point of view though...

Forget about inventory. You don't take inventory to the bank. He's not doing food cost. He's estimating.

One purveyor for a small place may be OK if you have it contracted. Sometimes the cost of getting $350 worth of canned goods costs more than it's worth to the supplier.

The costs you don't see with labor are the various taxes and compliance requirements. Once you're big enough, you need to comply with certain laws.

Spoilage logs? Forget it. It could be he expects little to no spoilage and that you take care of the problem right there.

Order sheets? Forget it also. No inventory means no order sheets means no paperwork.

HAACP? We'll deal with it when they come knocking.

Been there before brother.

Man, you have them down to a tee.
I guess I'll just do my thing, smile, and nod a lot.

[cheflayne]

What is it that you ultimately want out of your professional situation? I am very fortunate in that at various establishments I have been employee, chef, gm, owner. So I have been able to see the business from all points of view. Earlier in my career I used to get all worked up because I knew how to do things better than the people doing them. Now I just ask myself, do I want to be right, or do I want to be happy. I pick my battles these days. I don't need to fight them all.
"am considering becoming a total b@stard in order to regain control of my kitchen"
You can possibly regain control of your kitchen, but the total b@stard part will permeate your personal life as well. Is this a price you are willing to pay? What is the ultimate goal? What is really important to you?

[chefrbruno]

No way dude. My advice, for what it's worth, is to leave. It sounds as if this place and the powers that be are happy with running it the way they are. If your ok with smiling and nodding alot, well stick it out as long as you can. But ultimately, when things go bad they'll need a scapegoat. And brother, you'll be it. With no authority or respect what kind of a chef are you there. I'm sure this isn't who you are or who you want to be. Never compromise your principles for anyone. No job is worth sacrificing your self respect and dignety.

[alexr]

First, as an owner, if you want to make all those decisions, I suggest you put together a few hundred thousand $ and open your own place!

Second, as a Chef, you have to fight the battles you can win to get your food out, to get your team in sync, get the equipment you need, etc.

Third, personally, if an owner or GM doesn;t compromise on any issue or area, as in your case, it's time to leave.

IMHO

[Rivitman]

I'll probably wait and stick it out awhile, and try to gently illustrate my points with hard data.
Whats most important to me?
The food.
The sucess or failure of the establishment is relevant to me to the degree to which the food is well recieved, and my staff stays employed. The offshoot of which is that the business must survive.

[clay]

My biggest thing lately is this; At the end of the day did I try my hardest to accomplish the most I could and make things better than they were the day before? If I can say the answer is yes, I stick around. When the answer is no to many days in a row, I bail. If you think you can be happy with some effort, stick it out, if not.....

[Rivitman]

I put in 13 hours on the line and in prep yesterday.
I feel like Iv'e been run over by a truck.
Did I try my hardest? Yessir.

And it does feel pretty good.

I'm just trying to eliminate the unnecessary painful bits.

[clay]

I may just be sick in the head, but aren't 13 hour days fun? You can actually get things done! I worked a long day too, and I'm the owner 8 in the morning to 11 or 12 at night just about every day, and I love it.

It seems like there are ALWAYS going to be pains, happiness is all that really matters. For me happiness is learning, when I am learning working somewhere then I am happy, but when I am done learning, I move on. That's really all you can ask for.

[Rivitman]

I have mixed feelings about my long days.
I am on salary for one,(VERY small for chef work, but it's one reason I have the job, I work cheap). I get no overtime and a little balance might help keep me both healthy and married.

My problem is that the avalanche of tasks is never ending, so much so that working a ten hour stint is often done without a break. Constant movement from the time I hit the door. Trips to the restroom get put off unless matters are critical.

But I have worked many professions in my time, I came to this one very late in life. Many of those jobs were heavy manual labor type jobs.

I can say without qualification, That except for being an army infantryman for a few years, this is the most physically demanding work I have ever done, and certainly the the most intellectually challenging. I love it on many levels, but I can see burnout down the road, So staying where I am at for more than a couple more years is probably not in the cards.

I'll never work a job where I don't get to spend some time on the line, but I suppose I'll need one that spends more time on the dreaded managerial/admin side.

I did get the owner to loosen up a couple hundred bucks for some ergonomic improvments to the kitchen. I know that sounds like small potatoes to many of you, but that small sum is princely to me, and a lot will get done with it.

And lest I sound cranky, I still do adore my restaurant. Where else could I go, and pick my own herbs and tomatoes in the summer? Catch my own trout for dinner service? Go out the backdoor leaving for home at night, and be greeted by an 8 point buck deer or a rouges gallery of raccoons begging for a heel of bread?

Good days and bad.