10 Critical Points of Kitchen Sanitation

I don’t think I am going out on a limb to say that most of us don’t get into the restaurant business because of a visceral attraction to the field of sanitation. More likely, we chose this path because of a love of food and wine, a proclivity to hospitality, or the...

Improving Front-of-the-House Service

There is not a person in the restaurant business that has any doubts that the service their guests receive is at least as important as any other aspect of their operations. No matter how compelling the concept, how perfect the location, how amazing the food and how...

Why Kitchen Service Backs Up and How to Avoid it

Your dining room is full of happy customers looking forward to a great meal. You are proud of the job you’ve done putting together some crowd-pleasing specials that the waiters are having no problem selling alongside your classic dishes. The orders start coming in...

How to Determine the Most Effective Staffing for Your Kitchen

Not Too Many, Not Too Few Along with food costs, kitchen payroll is one of the two most important, easily quantifiable things for a chef to control in his or her kitchen. Like controlling food costs, payroll is a balancing act between what is obviously sufficient, but...

Fire Safety in the Kitchen

One of my most vivid memories from my early days in the fine-dining kitchens I learned my craft in doesn’t have anything to do with the great food, cooks or menus I was privileged to work with. It is the recollection of how the entire kitchen staff reacted to the fire...