[dimos]

Hi there,

I am opening our 4th restaurant in the company, the largest one so far. We are an upscale tapas restaurant (means 45 menu items with some extra work for plating).

Bcause of some minor construction mistakes the health department didnt approve so i have been set back and instead of having 2 full weeks to train my brigade now i have 4 days and the 5th day is the friends and family dinner.

I have finished hiring staff and scheduling menus also organized and cleaned the kitchen.

The thing is because i am new in the city I dont know any of the cooks and dont really know yet there strengths or even if they are what they are. And bringing staff from the other locations is not an option cause of the distance. I only have the help of one of the chefs of the other locations (who i know) to help for the training.

My question is what would you do during these 4 days to actually be able to get everyone to speed?

I was thinking day 1 devoted to prep and the rest three just keep on cooking till the servers explode from eating that much food.

(oh we are 200 seats, and 22 people brigade, including my self and 4 dishwashers)

 

[canele]

gads... that is a SHORT time for before your soft opening. Nightmare.  Truthfully i am not sure you can do it. So just jump in and work it as you go. Keep your cool, cuz they are going to looking to you for leadership.

alright.... i would be working on just having everyone learning the menu.

good luck!

 

[chefross]

I would sit down and work out a schedule for each of the 4 days you have left

Perhaps a one on one the first day to speak to each employee for 15 minutes (5.5 hours total for the 22).

Or better yet a round table where each employee introduces themselves to the group and tells a little something about them.

Pay attention to these people, their body language, their vocabulary will tell you a lot.

Organize and plan each day thoroughly so that you can cover as much information as possible each day.

Lay it all out on the table right away.

If there is an employee handbook explaining what you want all the better.

Good Luck..

 

[panini]

I would split the crew in half, giving your friend 10-11 and keeping 10-11.  Maybe half prepping and you working on menu items with the other half. I think splitting will give you both a more accurate evaluation of each new hire. Identify the stronger hires and put them in key positions.

  You can swap out players with each other according to their strengths . I'm assuming that your stronger people will already have prep experience. Good Luck my friend, you'll get it done. We always do.

 

[chefwriter]

This is where pen and paper are used most effectively. Plan and share. Write down what you want/need to happen. Share it with everyone so fewer questions need to be asked. 

A bit of planning and forethought will make all the difference. 

 

[kuan]

I'm sure you had a 2 week plan.  Just compress that

 

[kingfarvito]

I would break off by station, name a lead for each station and start hammering out items until everyone can do them exactly how you want them done. If its in the budget, maybe tossing everyone on doubles would be good. OT is a nice incentive, and you get double the training time.

 

[akat]

its not ideal , but maybe compress the menu. i have found its much better to have 4 amazing products than 12 ordinary products.

let EVERYONE know that this is a "sneak-peak" into what you will be capable of, not a launch of an adequate restaurant but a sample of an amazing one.