Dining Out editor Maya Silver had the chance to sit down with Yasu Kizaki, one of the sushi masters behind nationally-renowned Sushi Den, to get the inside scoop on his SLICED! sushi classes and she definitely delivers the goods!
In 2015, Yasu taught 1,000 students how to roll temaki, tatemaki, uramaki, and nigiri, and this marks his 10th year spreading the sushi gospel. Yasu co-owns Izakaya Den, Sushi Den, and their newest venture, OTOTO, with his two brothers: Toshi, master chef; and Koichi who visits the fish market in Japan everyday to hand-select the fish that will arrive at his brothers’ restaurants less than 24 hours later.
The secret to the remarkable success of Yasu’s sushi classes lies in an epiphany he had after the very first one, which he dreamed up after a loyal customer asked him to think of a creative Christmas gift. After the inaugural lesson, Yasu asked his wife Elizabeth, who had sat in on the class, if she had enjoyed it.
“I love you, darling, but …” she began, which Yasu immediately knew was precursor to criticism. “I couldn’t believe how boring it was.”
Yasu was shocked. He had been so excited about the idea of turning his customers into sushi chefs, and now he felt disillusioned by his wife’s cutting honesty.
But then something made sense to him…
“I know!” he said during a revelatory shower. “I need to make fun of my customers.”
And the rest is, more or less, history. In the first year, he offered three classes and didn’t promote them at all, only letting people know about them if they asked. Eventually, he ramped up to one class per month, but when demand grew even more, he increased the classes to weekly. Now, he hosts everyone from mother-and-daughter pairs, to couples and groups of friends, to politicians and businesspersons entertaining their clients, to corporate staffs seeking team-building experiences and professional hackers. Yes, professional hackers love sushi, too.
Yasu draws a diverse audience for good reason. The two-and-a-half-hour experience is one you’ll never forget, and if you do want to learn how to make sushi, there’s simply no substitution for learning from a master in-person. Part sushi-themed stand-up comedy, part storytelling, and part instruction, the class goes by faster than you can say “sliced.”
A few of the things to know before going to one of Yasu’s classes include: It’s Yasu’s way or the highway, prepare to sweet-talk your roll and come hungry!
Food and beverage safety is the number one priority when running a restaurant, especially a successful one. That means making sure your managers, service staff and bar staff are trained and that their certifications stay up-to-date.
Enter ServSafe, the most popular food and beverage safety training program in the industry. Accepted in every state, it’s the obvious choice in terms of training resources. Now, you just have to figure out when and how to make sure your employees get ServSafe certified and that’s where we come in…
Here are the pro-tips to ensure your staff has all the training they need:
Create a schedule for everyone to get certified routinely
The ServSafe certificate is good for 5 years. In addition, many states mandate that you get re-certified once every certain number of years. For instance, California wants recertification once every 5 years, in Utah it is every 3 years, and Alaska is every 5 years.
No one expects you to keep track of all your employees hire-dates in your head, so have a schedule up in your break room that shows re-certification dates by hire date. For instance, if you hired 3 people in 2014, all three get a training day together in 2017.
Pro-tip: Make sure managers are also on the schedule, since many states (Rhode Island and California, for instance) mandate that a manager certified in safe food handling is always on site when food is being prepared.
Let technologybe your friend
ServSafe has online courses that allow employees to take classes in the comfort of the break room or their own living rooms. Online courses make it easy to get new hires certified quickly and lets you work around everyone’s busy schedules.
To make things even more convenient, you can request eCertificates.
Students can request that the PDF file of the certificate be emailed to them immediately after they pass the exam, which means that you can have the proof of their training displayed right away.
Line everything up at once so you don’t have to keep track of different expiration dates and which certificates you are missing.
Make sure everyone passes the first time by offering study help
Honestly, some people don’t take tests well. They may be fantastic Chefs and Managers, with sterling records regarding safety and sanitation, but they have a hard time taking notes or they freeze at the word ‘exam.’
Remind your staff that if anyone needs a little assistance in note taking or understanding questions, you’re more than willing to help, and that ServSafe has links to quizzes and other study guides.
This way, your world-class employees can spend more time doing their jobs and less time fretting about a test.
Food safety certification is mandatory in most states and counties. These tips will make complying with these regulations easy and efficient, and will keep your establishment focused on producing good food, instead of keeping up with paperwork.
When it comes to finding jobs in the restaurant industry, the grass is always greener in the next city over. However, the places you think of as restaurant meccas may not be the ones you want to pack up and move to.
We’ve compiled a list of cities that we think are the best places for various career paths, factoring in the local restaurant scene, job market, rent, regional economy, state minimum wage for tipped workers, and the average resident’s spending habits. The results included some unexpected winners…
Best city for Servers: Seattle, WA.
Minimum wage for tipped workers in Washington is a staggering $9.47. That’s more than you would earn in California or New York, and, unlike both cities, in Seattle you might find a decent apartment for under $1000 a month! Seattle also has a vibrant restaurant and bar scene; it’s famous for its seafood, but every kind of cuisine is represented.
Best city for Bartenders: Las Vegas, NV.
This one is probably less of a surprise. Minimum wage in Nevada is above average – $7.25 for those who claim health benefits, $8.25 for those who don’t- and in the tourist haven of Las Vegas, you can expect generous tips.
The median amount a Bartender takes home $22 an hour in Sin City.
That goes pretty far in a town where a fair-sized one-bedroom apartment might cost $700 a month. Between its thriving bar scene and its famous casinos, Las Vegas always needs Bartenders, so landing a job, at least, isn’t much of a gamble.
Best city for Cooks and Chefs: Boston, MA.
Minimum wage is only $3.00 in Massachusetts, but the job market favors Chefs and Cooks in the foodie hub of Boston. The median cook can expect to take home $14.40 an hour. In Boston, as in most cities, Cooks make less than a dollar an hour in tips.
Boston’s rent, more than that of most cities, varies wildly by neighborhood, but generally stays under $1000 for a one-bedroom apartment.
Best city to find your first restaurant job: Austin, TX.
It’s true that Texas’ minimum wage is a measly $2.80. However, with unemployment at 3%, Austin’s job market couldn’t be much tighter, driving wages up along with beginning workers’ prospects.
In fact, Austin’s restaurant industry is the fastest-growing in the city.
The city is known for Tex-Mex and southern barbecue, but fine dining and international cuisines are on the rise. Best of all, rent is fairly low, usually around $800 or $900 for a one-bedroom apartment.
Best city to start a restaurant: Buffalo, NY.
If you’ve never been to Buffalo, you might picture it as a crumbling ex-factory town under several feet of snow. You would be right about the snow, but in recent years the former shipping hub has been going through an economic boom, beginning with its restaurants.
One in seventeen Buffalonians works in a restaurant and the city boasts no fewer than five farmers markets, but wages and property values are still relatively low. So if you want the lowest possible starting cost with the largest possible clientele, perhaps you want to learn to make beef on weck.
The world is saturated with advice for job seekers in the hospitality industry about how to come out of interviews ahead when seeking new employment, and as any manager who has held more than one round of interviews can confess, that shows. However, smooth talk and instant likability during the interview don’t always translate to the workplace. So how can management see past the shine to choose the best possible person for a position? We’ve got the answer…
Here are five tips for smart hiring in the hospitality business:
Determine whether or not the candidate has done his or her research
Hiring managers often begin an interview by telling the candidate about the business, both its history and current positioning in the industry. Instead of going traditional, break the mold and ask the candidate to explain what he or she knows about the company.
Candidates who have put in the extra work to learn as much as possible about the company prior to the interview are more likely to go above and beyond when it comes to time to work. Not to mention, it’s a good sign that the candidate is interested in actually working for you and not just finding a job.
Hospitality is sometimes unpredictable, so it’s essential for employees to show overall good judgement, quick decision-making, and flexibility. However, a large portion of any hospitality job is predictable, which allows you to get a glimpse at how candidates would approach their daily tasks.
Start by asking general questions that touch on part of the position for which the candidate is interviewing. After a few of these, move on to more specific questions having to do with the same topic.
You’re not only testing their ability to handle the job, but also their sincerity by opening up the opportunity for inconsistent answers.
For example, part of a general manager position is firing employees, so start by asking questions about handling conflict in the workplace. Then transition to specific questions about firing responsibilities and handling confrontation.
If a candidate is either unable to answer your questions or inconsistent in their responses, it’s unlikely they’ll thrive in the position.
Test the candidate’s industry knowledge
Even the most experienced interviewers can’t weed out all unqualified candidates solely based on resumes, so count on some slipping through the cracks. Most often, these are enterprising problem solvers desperate for any job at all who have no prior experience in hospitality.
Thankfully eliminating these candidates can be as simple as quickly quizzing each person who sits in the interviewee chair on basic industry knowledge.
For example, nearly anyone will be able to explain what a server does during service, so skip to what’s behind-the-scenes. Ask about the post-service tasks to gain decidedly more insight about the candidate’s true level of industry know-how.Discuss industry trends
Discuss industry trends
Another type of candidate to look out for is the person who does have industry experience and is qualified, but who does not want a career therein for the long-term. While it may be more difficult to ascertain this than other factors, it’s an important piece of information. So how to tell?
A candidate who is serious about a successful future in the hospitality industry should be able to speak about current trends and latest news.
Ask which of latest industry innovations he or she is most excited about. But don’t stop there. Also inquire about what trade publications or events the candidate has found to be the most and least helpful in his or her career and which connections have been the most fruitful.
Someone who is unable even to name a trade magazine, for example, probably does not view hospitality as his or her permanent field. Finding this out now will save the company time and money on repeating the hiring and training processes in the future.
Ask Other Staff For Impressions
It is natural that every job candidate do his or her best to make an excellent impression during the actual interview. However, good behavior doesn’t always extend to the waiting room or with other employees not conducting the interview.
Asking other staff members who had a chance to interact with candidates before or after the interview can therefore provide valuable insight. This alternate perspective can reveal what would otherwise remain unknown and lead to more informed hiring decisions.
It is never possible to completely eliminate the risk of hiring someone who turns out to be ill-suited in the long-run. But, by following the tips above, every hiring manager can make the most of his or her time with each candidate and increase the likelihood of choosing the best possible person for the job.
We’re very excited to announce DiningOut as our new media partner! This partnership will allow us to provide our users with even more news and updates about the restaurant industry, and give DiningOut readers easy access to open jobs in the industry. With our new public API and WordPress plugin, all of Sirvo’s job postings are displayed and searchable directly on DiningOut.com. We think this is a double win for those looking for restaurant jobs in the Denver/Boulder area and businesses hiring on Sirvo.
We’re also collaborating with DiningOut to create more content for members of the industry, such as posts about the best local restaurant companies to work for, round-ups of awesome Denver restaurant jobs, and insider tips and tricks. Stay tuned for this content on our site under “IndiNews”
Since 1998, DiningOut has been bringing you the best of the Denver/Boulder culinary scene with stories, interviews, and recipes from the best restaurants in Denver, Boulder, and beyond. DiningOut publishes two issues annually in the winter and early summer, and tracks breaking news on its website (diningout.com/denverboulder) daily.
Sirvo, named “Best New Startup 2015,” is a modern web app for hospitality recruitment. Sirvo helps better connect employers and job seekers by providing easy access to business and talent profiles, powerful search, as well as collaborative hiring tools for a smooth, streamlined hiring process.
