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home | Chef Training
 
Chef Training
Chef Training and Kitchen Management

A Good Cook Is Always Learning

Find back-of-the-house strategies and techniques to increase your operational effectiveness, employee morale, and guest satisfaction. Written by working chefs and chef/owners.

Click HERE for a list of SELECTED CHEF TRAINING articles.

Case Study: The Chef's Role in Developing Server Salesmanship: Inspiring Your Waitstaff in Wilmington and Wichita
Chef Dan Butler
Case Study: The Chef's Role in Developing Server Salesmanship:
Inspiring Your Waitstaff in Wilmington and Wichita That requires inspiring your servers to become sales-minded professionals. That can be a tall order if you're not running a well-respected and expensive restaurant in a big city, say like Union Square Cafe‚ in New York, where staffing your restaurant with quality, career servers is a relatively easy task. Servers who are motivated by a progressive healthy and vibrant workplace and, oh yeah, a very healthy wallet bulge, are naturally attracted to such environments. They're even willing to compete to work there. But how does a chef in Wichita or Wilmington inspire his staff? . . . keep reading
Case Study: How to Make News With Creative and Profitable Daily Specials
Chef Michael Tsonton
Case Study: How to Make News With Creative and Profitable Daily Specials Specials are important as a way to keep menus interesting. Ensuring return visits from customers requires a solid mix of standard and signature dishes along with fresh and intriguing options. Equally important, specials give the kitchen manager or chef a chance to stretch the imagination. They also keep the cooks motivated and interested in their jobs. Let's face it: No one likes rote responsibilities. . . . keep reading
Case Study: Eating With Conscience: A Sustainable Seafood Primer
By Chefs Dan Butler and Michael Tsonton
Case Study: Eating With Conscience:
A Sustainable Seafood Primer "Sustainable seafood" is a broad term to describe fisheries that are well-managed to protect the population and survival of commercially viable species. This can include species not endangered by overfishing. It can also include fishing methods that do not damage other species. For example, for many years shrimp trawlers in the United States would harm the population of sea turtles that were caught, killed and discarded as bycatch. (Today, all shrimp fishers that fish in U.S. waters or import into the U.S. wild-caught shrimp harvested anywhere in the world are required to use "Turtle Exclusion Devices" to minimize the incidental catch of these animals. . . . keep reading
Case Study: Do It Yourself? A Candid Look at Pre-made versus Scratch in the Startup Kitchen
Chef Dan Butler
Case Study: Do It Yourself? A Candid Look at Pre-made versus Scratch in the Startup Kitchen In the middle of a very busy Saturday night service, my sauté cook realized he was running short on Béarnaise sauce, not the kind of sauce that one can really jump off the line and whip up in a jiffy. He jokingly called out to the prep cook on duty for just such emergencies, "Warren, I need you to run to the 7-11 and pick me up some more Béarnaise sauce!" . . . keep reading
Case Study: Doing More with Less: Back-of-the-House Strategies for Tighter Times
Chef Michael Tsonton
Case Study: Doing More with Less: Back-of-the-House Strategies for Tighter Times This economy has taken a sizable bite from your business. The dollar is getting eaten up around the world, the housing market is in the soup, the credit crunch continues to tighten, the war in Iraq drags on without end, and adding to that is the ridicules cost of fuel, making most everything we purchased more expensive. Every operator, from white table cloth to quick service carry-out has been forced to trim costs everywhere. Staff layoffs top the list. As cover counts shrink, so do jobs. Employee benefits have come under the knife too. It seems that weathering the storm has become the "now" mantra for the restaurant industry. . . . keep reading
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: The Trials and Tribulations of Going From Chef to Chef/Owner
By Chef Michael Tsonton
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire:
The Trials and Tribulations of Going From Chef to Chef/Owner The key to opening a restaurant - any restaurant - is staying organized, focused, motivated and being able to truly multitask. Don't get overly frustrated, either. There will be days when the punch list is your best friend, and days when you want to settle down with a fifth of whiskey and just chuck the whole thing. Keep a keen eye on your goal, and be ready to go with the flow. . . . keep reading
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RESTAURANT STARTUP & GROWTH magazine is dedicated to presenting the BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES in all aspects of running an independent restaurant business. Much of our content is based on "case studies" of independent restaurateurs and their approaches and strategies to seizing market opportunities and rising above operational challenges.

While RS&G case studies are not presented in the classic business and management case study formats, such as the Harvard and Wharton methods, with which many students of business are familiar, they are instructive and detailed, and often presented in the first person by experienced and successful operators, chefs, and other professionals who directly serve the industry. Our editorial staff strives to edit them to be readable, focused, practical, supported by appropriate charts and graphs, and with sufficient depth for our readers to apply these practices in their restaurants TODAY.

This unique editorial approach fills an important niche between the academic journals, which are often too rigorous and theoretical to be practical for the average independent business person, and trade media that only skim the surface of important management concepts. Our goal - and our passion - is to provide solid managerial education to independent restaurateurs to improve their competitiveness, profitability, and chances for sustainable success.

We are... RESTAURANT STARTUP & GROWTH magazine.

We believe... GOOD RESTAURATEURS ARE ALWAYS LEARNING.

Here is...WHAT OUR READERS AND MEMBERS ARE SAYING ABOUT US...

"I am a small business owner. I must say this is the best tool I've ever subscribed to. I was suspicious at first, I did not expect much but this is awesome. Thank you so much."

Gesine Franchetti - The Topaz - Santa Rosa, CA

"Your website and magazine have been extremely helpful to our growing business. We are just about finished with the construction of our new location. I have learned so much from your articles, the online seminars, the discussion forum and the spreadsheets are an invaluable asset. I continue to learn something new every day."

Belinda Self - Ginza Japanese Restaurants, Inc. - Winston Salem, NC

"You are giving me a great education. I can't soak it up fast enough. The articles, templates and especially the online training are heading me in the right direction to having a great business."

Martin Hardy - City Bagel Café - Siloam Springs, Arkansas

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Marc Cedron - Printer's Alley Bar & Grill - Memphis, TN

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Donald Spahr - Spahr's Seafood - Thibodaux, LA

"So far, we’ve revised our accounting system and introduced the prime cost concept. My prime costs are dropping because of focusing on both inventory and labor together. This will improve my contribution margin by $120,000!"

Brian Fitzgerald - Paddy's Brewpub & Rosie's Restaurant - Kentville, Nova Scotia

"Thank you for this site. Little guys like me need all the help we can get and it is wonderful to be able to get answers to questions here."

Margaret Williamson - Hizzoner's Uptown Deli - Bellingham, WA

"I have sung the praises of your site to many of my friends, associates, and suppliers. There is a wealth of information and material available from your site that is of tremendous benefit to all independent restaurateurs. We have used virtually everything you offer in some form or another, from the restaurant by the numbers material to all of the articles on service, management, training, etc. The templates for training manuals and various forms have saved us a lot of time which would have been spent compiling and organizing this vital information."

Robert Hodgson - Lefty's Restaurant - Parksville, B.C.