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Specials

post #1 of 6
2/17/10 at 6:36am
Thread Starter 
I've been the kitchen manager for about three months now in a family style restaurant with first time owners. they made lot of progress in the year i worked as a cook and now we've really tightened down. the problem is I've spent so much time training re training, systematizing and organizing that I've lost touch actually cooking. I'm still on the line five days a week but i feel our specials are really falling short and this is the one place i have left to really 'hone in". So I'm looking for advice and input on how to plan and organize specials, even though inspiration isn't a huge issue, apparently its part of it please help!
are you picken up what im layen down?
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post #2 of 6
2/17/10 at 10:59am
I've taken all the specials that I come up with and put them down on a computer progam broken down in to specific categories, pasta's, chicken dishes, beef, seafood, salads, sand's, breakfast ect.... then after looking through the walkins i can see what I have to use, then goto the list and just pick something out that sounds fun......or if I come up with something new I just add it to the list.....It really makes specials easy....I must have a couple hundred or more to chose from after 15 years
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post #3 of 6
2/20/10 at 2:09pm
i used to hide the specials board at one of the restaurants i worked at
we're as good as our last meal.
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post #4 of 6
2/22/10 at 3:45am
This doesn't apply so much where I work now, but I used to run items or dishes I might potentially put on the menu as specials. If they didn't got over, fine. If I had one that people were asking for a lot, I knew it was time to put it on the menu. That way I didn't put things that ended up as duds on the menu. Saves on printing costs. Sometimes it would be weather driven. A seafood salad on a particularly hot day, or hot beef sandwich on a cold drizzly day. The cold weather ones were ususally the most successful with customers saying it was just the right thing on a day like that. I used to use leftovers for almost every soup I made, so sometimes it was so I could more or less sell the item twice (roast chicken and dressing today = chicken dumpling soup tomorrow).
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post #5 of 6
2/22/10 at 7:07am
I'll often do a little brainstorming with my crew.  Often, a little suggestion here and there can go a long way into helping you through creating a dish.
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post #6 of 6
2/22/10 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eloki View Post

I'll often do a little brainstorming with my crew.  Often, a little suggestion here and there can go a long way into helping you through creating a dish.

I agree, asking your team for ideas empowers them and shows that you appreciate their input, always a good idea!
UNDER PRESSURE AT PEMBROKE
Cooking sous vide at Cambridge's third oldest College
http://thepembrokekitchen.blogspot.com/
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