Culinary School: Worth the Cash or Not So Much

Culinary School: Worth the Cash or Not So Much

by | Jan 25, 2017 | Career

Becoming a chef definitely has its perks! The work is fast-paced and it’s not sedentary, so you won’t suffer the devastating health effects of planting yourself in front of a computer all day. It’s prestige work that people admire and respect as they enjoy the fruits of your artisanal labor.

However, getting to that point is hard work. In fact, less than half the people who enter culinary schools actually graduate (although CIA, Culinary Institute of America, a premium non-profit institution, claims a 78% graduation rate). Another eye-opening stat – some estimate that at least 50% of culinary school graduates who go to work in restaurants are no longer cooking after five years. So is it worth it to go to culinary school or are you just as likely to succeed if you opt out?

First thing’s first

Before considering culinary school, you’ll probably need to think long and hard about whether becoming a restaurant chef is right for you. Most people who dream of becoming a chef or owning a restaurant or other eatery don’t realize the demanding physical labor involved. Forget about the gym — hefting around those soup pots filled with gallons of soup or hauling 100 lb. bags of beans not only builds muscles but can damage a few. If you’re a girl…you’re not exempt. You’re on your feet all the time, and that’s no improvement over sitting all the time.

A culinary arts degree will barely boost your salary over what you’d make by just working your way up through the ranks.

Hope that your kitchen is air-conditioned, because the health department doesn’t want any unscreened windows or doors open, and kitchens get pretty hot with the ovens going on a sweltering summer day. Expect cuts and burns. Forget about a social life with the long hours, including the typical 12-hour shift. And time and a half? Not necessarily.

Reasons against culinary school

Still want in? Great, then you should know that any kitchen classy enough for you to learn from a true mentor will probably also relegate you to lower level positions, such as working on the line, for at least some time whether or not you go to culinary school. And a culinary arts degree will barely boost your salary over what you’d make by just working your way up through the ranks from dishwasher or apprenticing yourself as they do in Europe.

These are just some of the reasons many decide against culinary school. You don’t need it to become a chef. It’s expensive: “The average tuition cost at 10 of the country’s popular culinary arts programs is three times the amount of tuition at standard four-year public universities.” Consider how long it will take you to pay back $50,000 or more for a two-year program if you’re just making $10/hour and need a little money left over to live on.

Good teachers are good teachers…and it’s nice to learn from them in a less stressful environment than a commercial kitchen.

Reasons for culinary school

So with the seemingly few perks and the steep bill, why would you opt for that training? Executive chefs responsible for hiring as well as other seasoned food workers point out these reasons to consider a culinary degree program:

  • Good teachers are good teachers…and it’s nice to learn from them in a less stressful environment than a commercial kitchen.
  • School is a good transition to a commercial kitchen, often a brutal environment.
  • As with top flight schools in any walk of life, it’s a good place to make connections.
  • There are more uses for a degree in culinary arts than working as a chef in a commercial kitchen.
  • Some executive chefs look first, although not exclusively, at culinary arts school graduates.
  • With a basic vocabulary and foundational skills, you may get off to a quicker start in the restaurant business than if you try to enter without that.

Many graduates of culinary arts schools value their education for a variety of reasons (see the comments) and make sufficient money to pay off their school debt. Virtually everyone in the business, students and professionals, recommends working in a commercial kitchen for a period of time, for little or even no pay, even doing dishes, before deciding if a passion for cooking merits the substantial investment in culinary school. Many recommend on-the-job training as an alternative to school, moving up from dishwashing to higher level tasks, learning skills as you go from willing mentors along the way, books, videos and lots and lots of practice.

You’ll need that passion and positive attitude to carry you through the tough times.

Finally, it comes down to passion, attitude and willingness to work hard. Very hard. You’ll need that passion and positive attitude to carry you through the tough times when the work seems overwhelming or when the rewards seem not sufficient to balance it. But if it’s what you really want, and you persevere, maximizing your learning and skill-building opportunities in any way you can think to do it, including culinary school, you just might become that chef who loves what s/he does and thrives on it.

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Training Hacks: Developing an Effective Training Process

Training Hacks: Developing an Effective Training Process

by | Jan 23, 2017 | Business Toolkit, IndiTips, Management

The hospitality and restaurant industries can be high-stress jobs. Employees must be able to multi-task and adapt to any situation quickly, all while on the move constantly; sometimes for up to ten hours per shift. They’ll have to do all of that while handling needy or irate customers who don’t understand the effort that it takes to create a phenomenal experience. Luckily, there are tried and true ways of training your employees to handle anything that’s thrown at them. And not to be cliche, but practice does make perfect.

As we mentioned in the previous Training Hacks, the intensity and duration of training will depend on your type of business and it’s size. Don’t forget, the best training programs provide the best results.

“You don’t BUILD a business. You build PEOPLE – and then people build the business.” -Zig Ziglar

The Method

At its core, training consists of four very basic principles.

  • You’ll need to explain the task and process.
  • Then, it’s best to demonstrate what you’ve just explained.
  • Next, have the trainee try doing what you’ve just shown them.
  • Last, review the topic and cover any important last notes.

You may not have ever realized it, but this method is used everywhere, from teaching small children to university classes (it works at home, too).

The method can be summed up in this handy saying: Tell/Show/Do/Review. Yes, we’re aware of how childish and simple it sounds, but the results are hard to argue against. Let’s elaborate on the four principles a bit more.

Step 1: Tell

When you’re dealing with a new employee (especially one who’s new to the industry), it’s best to ease them into the lesson by taking a few minutes to explain the task they’ll be learning.

You’ll want to have available any and all tools or materials they’ll need to execute the specific task. At this time, tell them the names and uses of said materials. After that, go into detail on the exact steps to take when performing the task.

For example, if you’re training a new assistant server in bussing and setting tables, you’ll want to have everything they’ll be using ready to go, or at least know where materials are kept in order to instruct the newbie. Then, break the process down into steps. This is especially helpful if the trainee is writing notes; they’ll be able to easily and effectively keep track of what you’re saying.

Step 2: Show

Now that the trainee has a general idea of what to expect, it’s time to show them how to perform the tasks. Yup, that means it’s your turn to show off your know-how. To this end, it could be a good idea to practice what you’re teaching beforehand, especially if it’s been awhile since the last time you did so.

Make sure you complete the task to its entirety using the steps you’ve explained. Any variations in the steps or final results will only cause confusion.

Step 3: Do

Now, it’s time for the trainee to perform the task for themselves. Within this step, there are many methods you can use to ensure the employee has understood and grasped the training.

  • Now is a good time to answer any questions they have and to ask questions to test them.
  • Depending on the task you’re training them on, you can have the employee shadow you throughout the restaurant while you show them how the task fits into the flow of service.
  • You can role play with them. You’ll act as a patron and have them complete the task in a “mock” real life situation.
  • Last, YOU can shadow them as they perform the task.

Remember, if the new employee makes any mistakes while performing the task, be sure to correct them as soon as is appropriate. If you have to, explain the steps again or show the steps again. Do not progress to the last part of this training method until the employee can perform exactly the way you’ve explained or demonstrated.

Step 4: Review

Start this step by having the employee explain the task back to you. A popular method is to actually let the employee teach the task back to you using the four training steps. Then, when it’s your turn to do the task, make some mistakes to test the trainee. This will keep them engaged in training and on their toes.

Of course, exactly what the new hire is being trained on will vary by position. However, there are a few training items that are required by all positions in the restaurant. Here are a few:

  • Clocking in/out
  • Safety procedures
  • Opening/Closing duties
  • Cleaning duties
  • Checking out at the end of the shift

Before letting the trainee go, be sure to answer any questions they may have. This means asking if they do in fact have any questions because they may not be inclined to bring them up themselves.

“Hire character. Train skill.” -Peter Schutz

Properly training an employee can (and should) be a time-consuming effort. But if you hire the right people for the right positions, you’ll form a culture in your establishment that makes training fun and easy, all while producing the best talent.

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4 Reasons a Social Media Strategy is Vital to Your Restaurant

4 Reasons a Social Media Strategy is Vital to Your Restaurant

by | Jan 20, 2017 | Business Toolkit, Management

When marketing your restaurant, you may treat social media as an afterthought. After all, does having a Facebook page or Pinterest account really matter when it comes to attracting new guests?

In short, the answer is a clear yes. Social media, when done correctly, can play a significant part in helping you grow awareness of your restaurant in the area. The key, of course, is to take a strategic approach to marketing. Here are 4 reasons a social media strategy is vital to the success of your restaurant.

1. Reach your audience where they spend their time

Social media has long moved beyond a fad that only a defined audience uses. Today, 78% of the United States population has a social media profile. More than 200 million people hop on Facebook or other networks for almost two hours every day to engage and interact with friends and family.

Through a strategic social media presence, you can become a part of that conversation. By creating relevant content for your target audience, you begin to establish yourself as a resource worth following. Sooner or later, your restaurant becomes a natural part of your guests’ social media feeds anytime they log in.

Through your social media presence, you can share visuals and attract guests to your restaurant.

2. Create a visual presence of your restaurant online

We’re visual beings. Research has long shown that if we have the choice between reading content and viewing the same content in a visual format, we will choose the latter every time. Through social media, you have a unique opportunity to take advantage of this tendency.

Restaurants have plenty of content to share on a regular basis. Pictures of meals, full dining rooms, desert tables, and outside space on a summer day all lend themselves to making your restaurant look attractive. Through your social media presence, you can share these visuals and attract guests to your restaurant.

3. Allow guests to share their experiences 

A major benefit of social media is in its name. Rather than being limited to a one-way communication channel, Twitter, Instagram, and other networks allow your guests to have a voice and share their thoughts about their experience at your restaurant.

Through a social media presence (and a social listening strategy), you can jump into these conversations and further broaden your reach. Not everything your guests share about your restaurant will be positive. But even for the occasional negative comment, wouldn’t you prefer to know about it and be able to address it?

By their nature, social media networks are more intimate and personal than print ads or other traditional promotions would be.

4. Offer a glimpse behind the scenes

Finally, don’t underestimate another benefit of a social media strategy for your restaurant: it’s ability to go beyond the types of messages that other marketing channels have to offer. By their nature, social media networks are more intimate and personal than print ads or other traditional promotions would be. If you approach social media strategically, you can take advantage of that expectation.

Find out how Sirvo can help your business utilize social media to hire top industry talent.

The most natural way to endear yourself to your audience on social media is to share content that offers a glimpse behind the scenes of your restaurant. Who are your chefs? What’s their favorite meal to cook, and how do they cook it? What does your kitchen actually look like? If your social presence can answer these types of questions, you’re well on your way to executing a strategy that promotes both first-time and return visits to your restaurant.

In short, social media can and should be a core part of your digital efforts. The above-mentioned points are just some of the benefits it offers. As long as you understand both your audience and the medium in which you operate, you can take advantage of its benefits to strategically reach out to potential visitors and grow your restaurant.

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The Best Line Cooks Have These ‘Set Shifting’ Traits

The Best Line Cooks Have These ‘Set Shifting’ Traits

by | Jan 18, 2017 | Career

Multitasking… there are a few people in the world who seem to thrive on it, but those people probably mastered the art of rapid set shifting, something a little different from multitasking. Set shifting “… means consciously and completely shifting…attention from one task to the next, focusing on the task at hand.” Giving full attention to a task in the moment improves productivity and creativity and causes fewer mistakes. “Set shifting is a sign of brain fitness and agility…”

If there is any life that requires this ability for rapid set shifting, it’s the life of a line cook. The best line cooks work quickly and with absolute focus. Receiving instructions and requests from multiple directions at once and with several different mini-events happening on different schedules under their watch, a line cook requires this rare ability for rapid set shifting.

If line cooks didn’t have this ability but instead multitasked in the way most of us think about it, order fulfillment would suffer; orders would slow and be filled with mistakes. Unanticipated problems occur in any commercial dining scenario, and line cooks, without this rapid set shifting ability, cannot create solutions.

Beyond set shifting, line cooks require a few other specific skills and lifestyle preferences. Let’s take a look.

“Set shifting is a sign of brain fitness and agility…”

Sharp and sharply focused

“Set shifting is a sign of brain fitness and agility…” A line cook is the person in the room who catches subtle cues quickly and whose responses are quick, intelligent and on target. Issues don’t sit on their mind while they weigh alternatives — they don’t have time for that. A line cook resolves issues instinctively and immediately and moves on to the next mini-event with complete focus.

Nimble

Sometimes the most intelligent people in the world move slowly or clumsily. The best line order cooks move quickly and gracefully, positioning their bodies and hands effortlessly and instinctively exactly where they need to be. The objective is to preserve every ounce of mental and physical capacity for the food prep task at hand without distraction.

Health-oriented

Seriously. Sounds crazy, but if a line order cook is conventionally multitasking instead of rapidly set shifting, they accumulate stress, contributing to a poor health profile. Add to this proximity to sweets and processed foods with little time to stop and focus on eating, and you are on the way to poor health. Poor health chips away at mental capacity, reduces focus and invites sluggishness. In contrast, someone who eats the right foods, drinks plenty of water and is active is more alert, focused and energetic.

A line cook who loves the taste and appearance of food knows instinctively when something isn’t quite right.

Love food and food preparation

If you don’t love good food and have some artistic sensibility about it, you cannot prepare a tasty, visually appealing dish. A line cook who loves the taste and appearance of food knows instinctively when something isn’t quite right and makes adjustments. Someone with no feeling for it or passion about it? Not so much. And there’s no time to check a recipe. While it’s true that line cooks don’t make the menu choices or have final responsibility for dishes that go out, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and in establishments with fixed menus, a line cook is often the only person preparing food.

Strive for excellence

Of course, we should all strive for excellence in whatever we do, no matter how great or small the task. The story is in the details, and a good line cook takes pride in every item they prepare, in its taste, aroma and appearance. Serving good food with flair and attention to detail ensures customers return.

A natural and trained awareness of food sanitation best practices

Of course you want your line cook to have sanitation training and certification, but hopefully that line cook reaches a level of ease and naturalness with best practices. Interrupting focused rapid set shifting to remember whether you should turn off hand-washing water before drying your hands or after adds unnecessary distraction to the work.

A line order cook is someone with a natural gift honed by training and experience. A good one is a rare find, and restauranteurs who find great line cooks are smart to show their appreciation to these employees.

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Training Hacks: Materials and Resources Essential for New Hires

Training Hacks: Materials and Resources Essential for New Hires

by | Jan 16, 2017 | Business Toolkit, IndiTips, Management

After hiring, you’ll want new staff to start training as quickly as possible. This ensures they hit the ground running while avoiding rookie mistakes. In order to make this possible, however, training materials and resources must be ready to go, especially these six items that every new employee should have in hand the minute they walk in the door.

New hire paperwork

It’s a good idea to greet new hires with these materials. And whether you’ll be doing the training yourself, or you have a designated trainer, a senior staff member should sit with the employee while they fill out their new hire paperwork. This allows you to go over the materials with them and it’s the perfect time to set your performance expectations.

After the paperwork has been completed, take your new hire on a tour of your establishment. This helps to familiarize them with the business. During the tour, you can introduce them to other employees and tell them any names or terminology they need to know. It’s also a good time to show them where any safety equipment or materials are located.

A training schedule

Don’t leave new staff in the dark about training ins and outs, especially the timeline. Depending on the size and type of your establishment, training may only last a few shifts, or you may require weeks before you feel a new employee is qualified to work alone. Also, remember, you may need several training schedules based on position, so be sure to plan accordingly!

With this in mind, try to have the entire training schedule planned out. Let them know what days they’ll be working, what area of the business they’ll be learning about each day, and who they’ll be working with.

Having at least one designated trainer for each position is a great way to make sure all employees are trained the same way every time.

Designated trainer(s)

Having at least one designated trainer for each position is a great way to make sure all employees are trained the same way every time. Even better: having a few trainers that can share the load. This also takes some of the pressure off of you, allowing you to continue running your business while your trainer supervises new employees.

If possible, introduce new hires to their trainers immediately. This will allow them to get to know each other and will also ensure that new employees will know who to find when they come in for training shifts.

Printed materials or learning aids

If you have printed materials for your new employee, make sure they’re ready to go right away. If you use an app or website, make sure you make the employee is aware of the site or app and how to use it in conjunction with their training. There’s nothing worse than telling your new hires to read an article or complete online training without providing them with the necessary information to access the content.

Tests are a great way to gauge where trainees are in their learning process.

Tests to verify training/learning

Tests are a great way to gauge where trainees are in their learning process. So, before your new employee is ready to deal with customers on their own, you’ll want to test them to see if they’re grasping the training. These tests can be anything from online quizzes to mock restaurant scenarios. Of course, testing formats and parameters should be discussed with new hires and included on training schedules.

Tests are also a great way to see how the trainer is doing. If you start to notice new employees all seem to make the same mistakes or perform the same tasks incorrectly, sit down with your trainer(s) to make sure they’re teaching the correct habits and skills.

A clean, new uniform and name tag (if required)

Finally, if you require a uniform, make sure you have a fresh one ready on their first day. This goes a long way in making your new recruit feel like they fit in and are a part of the team right away.

If you’ve read our first post on Training Hacks, you’re well aware of how hard it is to find good employees. Make sure you’re not just a stepping stone on their career path. Welcome your new employees warmly and have a comprehensive training program in place so they feel secure in their job choice.

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