Editorial | What Really Happens in the Kitchen, Sept 2008

What Really Happens in the Kitchen?
September '08
Hello and welcome to Fine Dining in the UK episode 7
- the podcast brought to you by www.finediningguide.
co.uk

Today we discuss a model for business and apply it to
the restaurant world as well as take a look at a couple
of recent chef TV programmes.

In the business world the recipe for success is
simple; take a great idea and turn it into a growing
business. Then over time, as the product lifecycle
reaches the final third of it’s span, have another great
idea and grow a new and/or related business.
Sprinkle with luck and old fashioned hard work and
hey presto….Lasting success.

Simple?!

Well no, the challenges faced by all new enterprises in
competitive markets are tough, very tough.

But let’s just take a step back to the basic recipe and
look at the three fundamental ingredients – an idea, a
business, money - Putting it simply, it is very rare for
the person with the great new ideas to also have the
capital to get going, as well as the know-how, stamina
and attention to detail of managing the day to day
strategy and operations of a growing organisation.

How often have trembling ideas men had the whites of
their eyes stared down by hungry venture capitalists?
How many times have frustrated entrepreneurs never
found ‘the right opportunity?’ Or indeed money men
been disappointed with their investment choices?

If only the three groups could meet, chew, digest and
cogitate on a regular basis, the world would be awash
with exciting new innovation. Perhaps the internet is
the first in a line of information enabling vehicles to
make such possibilities a reality.

This model applies equally to the top end of the fine
dining restaurant business. Even if you have the right
product (meaning a proven Michelin Starred Chef) all
other aspects of the business have to click and work
for the operation to be a success: The marketing, the
front of house, the cash flow, the pricing, the variable
costs, the overheads and so on.

This is where the myth of chef/patron looms large;
how and why should you expect a chef to have the
ability (or inclination) to be as successful at all the day
to day entrepreneurial operations as they are at
running a kitchen?

They say in business you are promoted to your level of
incompetence. The moment a chef steps out of the
kitchen and into the office it is, with few exceptions,
bad news – bad for the customers and ultimately bad
for the business; no matter how strong the ‘brand.’
Why? Because the magic ingredient from the kitchen
has gone. Let’s argue against this proposition
.
A revealing aspect, or rather model, of a top end fine
dining restaurant kitchen came from two of the early
(now endless stream of) quasi reality television
programmes; namely Gordon Ramsay’s Boiling Point
and a late 1980’s programme at Marco Pierre White’s
Harvey’s.

It was noted that within a Michelin starred kitchen the
Head Chef (in these cases Ramsay, Pierre White)
would oversee the day to day running of the kitchen.
They were kind of managerial ideas men. The men
who invented the repertoire of dishes and ensured
they would go out. service after service, executed to
perfection.

Then there were the do-ers – we’ll call them cooks
(they may have had titles like head chef, sous chef or
chef de partie) – who actually did the cooking of the
repertoire day in day out. They may in fact have been
better at cooking than the ideas men.

After all they had to cook the dish every time and suffered
the rollockings when they were not up to scratch. Just
because one may create a Michelin Three Star dish – that is
conceive, prepare and execute – does not mean that the
same person is best placed to reproduce it again and
again, day in day out, under significant time pressure.

I hasten to add that this insight was not noted in the
programmes, however to continue the line of argument, nor
does it necessarily mean that the repertoire creator is the
most adept people manager.

So should you find a great cook, that can also manage
people then you have an ideal head chef. This would allow
the creative talent to step back and away from the kitchen.
Ramsay and Pierre White both did this to focus on the
growing strength of their ‘brand’, in the case of the former
with great success.

This is fine so long as it stays within our model of the
business. Remember all products have lifecycles.
Ramsay, for example, must be aware that to maintain his
privileged Guide status’ he must keep putting in time to do
what he does best and that is developing, evolving and
creating the repertoire.

Ramsay has been very astute at giving wings to talented
people and they have, without question, flown for him and
his business. At the very guts of the matter are those Three
Michelin Stars and ultimately they sit on the shoulders of
one man – Gordon Ramsay.

Let’s put this into perspective, Boiling Point started with
Ramsay ploughing in his life savings and taking a seven
figure loan to start up (his now flagship) restaurant on Royal
Hospital Road, London. Part gamble, part self belief. Not
only did he get the ultimate promotion to three Michelin
stars but also gave life to what would grow, in a decade, into
an incredible personal brand and a burgeoning restaurant
empire.

To the general public in Britain (and probably America)
before Ramsay, Michelin was just another tyre company.

Let’s move on and discuss two recent television programs
– Masterchef, The Professional and The Restaurant. Each
has a highly respected Michelin Two Star Chef as judge,
Michel Roux Jnr of Le Gavroche and Raymond Blanc of Le
Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. Both are well cast and do a
good job.

The objective of the former is to find a professional chef that
is going to make the step up to Michelin Stardom and the
objective of the latter is to find a couple that can win and run
a restaurant. One might argue that given our example of a
simple business recipe and our examination of chefs and
cooks that the two programs have mixed up formulas.

Ask a chef to create a repertoire and then watch him
manage some cooks. Ask a business partner to come up
with a marketing, finance and operations plan and watch
him attempt to deliver monthly results. Surely this marriage
is a more ideal one for all concerned – win a restaurant and
work in your own Michelin starred kitchen!

This is not to suggest yet more TV food/cooking/chef
programs. There are far too many. First the expanses of
garden programmes followed by the estate of housing
programmes and now the brigade of chef programmes.
Enough! A happy balanced diet of television would be
easier to digest.

That concludes Fine Dining in the UK episode 7 - the
podcast brought to you by www.finediningguide.co.uk

Until next time.

Happy eating!