I recently spoke with my culinary team about always being on stage. No big deal; it’s not really a new concept. Who hasn’t preached this for the last 50 years? Unfortunately I was not referring to the pre-planned, rehearsed productions we usually think of.

It is the hidden camera, breaking news type scenarios that I am concerned with. Its mind boggling to think that most people can record and broadcast to the entire world from their personnel electronic devices. The ramifications of a poorly trained associate making an isolated mistake, or a fluke situation on the part of a staff member or guest, can become the next YouTube sensation. The potential for negative publicity resulting in embarrassment, loss of prestige, and business is very real and does happen. Read more of this >>

What are you doing when you aren’t cooking (for your hotel restaurant)?

Most chefs de cuisine start their day with morning staff meetings, review invoices and new orders being placed, review daily prep sheets (if this has not been assigned to someone else), review the week’s budget and any cost overruns, prepare reports for weekly department meetings, and so on. Somewhere, and at some time, you spend the rest of your time trying to catch up on e-mails and respond accordingly.

Networking through professional trade blogs definitely works; however, the impetus to sustain written communication is time-consuming and can sometimes seem counterproductive—it takes you out of the kitchen and away from the line and interferes with scheduling, ordering, prepping, personnel issues, etc. Do you feel blogs have any relevance to your line of business? Read more of this >>

Our food chain faces more challenges than ever, caused by a number of issues, not only land based but in the oceans, rivers, and lakes as well. Some of these challenges include:

Aquaculture

With a growing world population and marine fisheries in decline, fisheries experts have long hoped that aquaculture might one day take up the slack. In some ways it already has, but a growing number of marine scientists believe that parts of the industry may instead contribute to the further decline of marine resources. The intense controversy pertains to which species are being farmed and how they are being farmed. Read more of this >>

So, you walk into a Whole Foods supermarket, and around every turn are signs shouting “local” this, “local” that, “organic” these, and “organic” those. For many of us, we’ll look at the prices attached to those products and think, “Whew, that’s expensive,” and go for the conventional, familiar, as-seen-on-TV brand.

As chefs, our lives are easier if we seek out the “compliant” product attached to our preferred procurement plan, without maximizing the leverage we have to both influence the decision-makers at the procurement organization, or by reconsidering our obsession with margins (I’d rather have dollars any day).

Read more of this >>

There was a time not too long ago when you needed to be someone important to have a voice or to be heard. Times have surely changed.

With the advent of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of blogs, everyone has a voice these days. People from the “old school” like myself would probably consider watching paint dry more enjoyable than “tweeting.” However, it must be important to someone to know what you are doing every five minutes because this method of communication has really taken off. I can’t figure it out, but I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed or the tastiest French fry in the happy meal.

These forms of communication link millions every day. Information travels to and fro. Businesses make a living out of it. In shifting the focus to our industry, the idea of instant communication has the potential for great value.

Before making a purchase, you are able to read reviews from previous buyers. The same real-time feedback can help us in the hospitality procurement field. I will give you my own example.

As a participant in LinkedIn, I am a member of four industry groups, which are online discussion forums that connect people throughout the industry. If I want to get comments on the quality of a certain table, see who has comments on a certain brand of product, etc, the feedback is only a few keystrokes away. Granted, the online discussion forums are not scientific research. But they are forums for informational exchange. The information obtained on these forums is what marketing firms would spend large sums of money in trying to obtain through their own research. Online discussion forums can be a true procurement resource in your purchasing arsenal because they give a voice to the everyday buyer like you and me.

While you will probably not see me “tweeting” any time soon, you can rest assured I will use online discussion forums to help me be a better buyer.

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure; biological systems remaining productive over time. Sustainability also means long-term maintenance of well-being of the natural world and responsible use of all natural resources. The sustainability movement focuses on organic foods, which are defined as those produced without synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, or genetic modification.

We recently saw yet another outbreak of E. Coli affecting the East Coast, causing two fatalities and sickening at least 28 others. The subsequent recall involved more than 500,000 pounds of ground beef distributed in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The fact that this particular processing plant had three recalls since 2007 is just another indicator of how flawed our system currently is. Having a compelling desire to share some facts with my peers and the readers of this blog, I would like to assess some of the challenges our dysfunctional food chain faces:

Global Issues
One billion people worldwide do not have secure access to food, including 36 million in the U.S. National and international food and agricultural policies have helped to create the global food crisis but can also help to fix the system.

Health Issues

• 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year because of foodborne illnesses, according to the CDC.

• RBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) is a genetically engineered hormone injected into dairy cows to make them produce more milk. Many countries have banned the use of RBGH, including Canada and the European Union, but not the United States, where it is used extensively.
• Pesticide concentrations in dust collected from farm workers’ homes were five times higher than those in non-farm workers’ homes.
• The USDA estimates that between 1970 and 2000, the average daily calorie intake in the U.S. increased by 24.5%, or about 530 calories.
• Six hormones are implanted in beef cattle for no other reason than to make the cows grow faster so they can be sold sooner.
• 90% of all U.S. feedlot cattle are hormone implanted.
• Human deaths related to poor diet and physical inactivity is second only to tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.
• One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. High-calorie, sugar-laden processed foods coupled with our sedentary lifestyles are growing our waistlines and contributing to serious health issues such as diabetes, heart ailments, and cancers. Kids should be served healthy meals, not soda and junk food.

Factory Farming
Virtually all the meat, eggs, and dairy products you find in the supermarket come from animals raised in confinement in large facilities called CAFOs, Confined Animal Feeding Operations. These highly mechanized operations provide a year-round supply of food at a reasonable price. Although the food is cheap and convenient, there is growing recognition that factory farming creates a host of problems, including animal stress and abuse, pollution, unnecessary use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs, as well as the loss of small family farms, and, last but not least, food with lower nutritional value.

Unnatural Diets
Animals raised in factory farms are given diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredients are genetically modified grain and soy that are kept at artificially low prices by government subsidies. To further cut costs, the feed may also contain “by-product feedstuff” such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers, and candy. Until 1997, U.S. cattle were also being fed meat that had been trimmed from other cattle, in effect turning herbivores into carnivores. This unnatural practice is believed to be the underlying cause of BSE or “mad cow disease.”

Animal Stress
Ruminants are designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants, and shrubs—not starchy, low-fiber grain. When they are switched from pasture to grain, they can become afflicted with a number of disorders, including a common but painful condition called subacute acidosis. Cattle with subacute acidosis kick at their bellies, go off their feed, and eat dirt. To prevent more serious reactions, the animals are given chemical additives and antibiotics. When medications are overused in the feedlots, bacteria become resistant to them. When people become infected with these new, disease-resistant bacteria (i.e., E. Coli outbreak), there are fewer medications available to treat them.

Caged Animals
Most of the nation’s chickens, turkeys, and pigs are also being raised in confinement. They suffer an even worse fate than the grazing animals. Tightly packed into cages, sheds, or pens, they cannot practice their normal behaviors, such as rooting, grazing, and roosting. Laying hens are crowded into cages that are so small that there is not enough room for all of the birds to sit down at one time. They cannot escape the stench of their own manure. Meat and eggs from these animals are lower in a number of key vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.

Environmental Issues

• 1,500 miles: The distance average food product travels to get to your grocery store.

• 30,800 tons: The amount of greenhouse gas emissions resulting every year from transporting food.
• 6% of U.S. farms generate 75% of all commercial agricultural production.
• In 2007, 63% of hens sold for egg production and 67% of chickens sold for meat production were raised on farms that managed more than 100,000 birds.
• In 2007, 87% of all hogs sold in the U.S. were raised on farms that managed more than 5,000 hogs.
• $8 billion: Total agriculture subsidies in 2007.
• 10% of eligible farms received 60% of all farm subsidies that same year.
• The fast food industry is one of the driving forces behind the factory farm system. In an effort to sell food as cheaply as possible, animals are fed the wrong types of feed, injected with hormones, fed heavy metals, and pumped full of antibiotics.
• When animals are raised in feedlots or cages, they deposit large amounts of manure in a small amount of space. The manure must be collected and transported away from the area, an expensive proposition. To cut costs, it is dumped as close to the feedlot as possible. As a result, the surrounding soil is overloaded with nutrients, which can cause ground and water pollution. When animals are raised outdoors on pasture, their manure is spread over a wide area of land, making it a welcome source of organic fertilizer, not a waste management problem.
• $34.7 billion: The annual cost of environmental damage caused by U.S. industrial farming.
• 3,000 acres of productive farmland are lost to development each day in the U.S.
• Millions of gallons of untreated manure are held in open-air pits and pollute the surrounding air, land, and water.
• 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in at least 17 states have been polluted by cattle waste.

Pesticides
Cancers, autism, and neurological disorders are associated with the use of pesticides, especially among farm workers and their communities. What pesticides are in your food?

Back to Pasture
Since the late 1990s, a growing number of ranchers have stopped sending their animals to the feedlots to be fattened on grain, soy, and other supplements. Instead, they are keeping their animals home on the range where they forage on pasture, their native diet. These new-age ranchers do not treat their livestock with hormones or feed them growth-promoting additives. As a result, the animals grow at a natural pace. For these reasons and more, grass-fed animals live low-stress lives and are so healthy there is no reason to treat them with antibiotics or other drugs.

Grass Farming
Raising animals on pasture requires more knowledge and skill than sending them to a feedlot. For example, in order for grass-fed beef to be succulent and tender, the cattle need to forage on high-quality grasses and legumes, especially in the months prior to slaughter. This nutritious and natural diet requires healthy soil and careful pasture management so that the plants are maintained at an optimal stage of growth. Because high-quality pasture is the key to high-quality animal products, many pasture-based ranchers refer to themselves as “grass farmers” rather than “ranchers.” They raise great grass; the animals do all the rest.

Better Nutrition
A major benefit of raising animals on pasture is that their products are healthier for you. Compared with feedlot meat, meat from grass-fed beef, bison, lamb, and goats has less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. It also has more vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and a number of health-promoting fats, including omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid or CLA.

When you choose to eat meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals raised on pasture, you are improving the welfare of the animals, helping to put an end to environmental degradation, helping small-scale ranchers and farmers make a living from the land, helping to sustain rural communities, and giving your family the healthiest possible food. It’s a win-win-win-win situation.

I recently watched Food, Inc., a sobering, but well-done documentary exposing the activities of nation’s food industry, the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the public with the consent of USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment.

The issues are many, and the stakes are high. There is no single solution for this complex issue, and no quick fix for a system with its root cause going back to the policies of the 1970s. The public not only deserves better in the form of a food chain with transparency and integrity, we owe it to our children to leave them a better place.

We, as chefs and professionals, can contribute greatly, I feel we have an obligation not only to educate our employees, but our guests as well, tackling the issues at stake, getting involved, and being part of the solution.

VOTE WITH YOUR FORK! Incorporate more local, sustainable foods at your business.

URGE your suppliers to support you in sourcing and obtaining locally grown, sustainably raised meat and vegetables from independent family farmers.

EDUCATE your family, friends, neighbors, schools, and community! Find more info at www.SustainableTable.org.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” ~J.A. Brillat-Savarin, 1755-1826

*BEEP. You have reached our automated system. If you know your party’s name and extension, you might wonder why they didn’t give you their direct line? Please listen to the following options: For inquiries, questions about your reservation, or any other problem that we will make fun of you for, please press 1. For a representative to continually respond to your problem with a scripted response without actually offering assistance, please press 2. To remain on hold for so long that the cell phone you are currently using will become outdated and no longer work with our network, please press 3. To hear these options again, stop doing whatever else you’re doing for a minute, you ADD freak, and pay attention. For all other problems, hang up, figure it out, and get on with your life.

I hate to use the newest dirty word, but this economy requires many of us to cut back. As consumers, we’re trying to eliminate frivolous expenses and are seeking real value in our purchases. We’ve learned that either the $8 bucket of soy-skim-latte-frappa-cappa-latte-chai beverage may not be a fiscally responsible breakfast beverage or we need to drop the $8 from something else throughout the day because the world would simply cease to be without our designer caffeine in the morning. As operators, we’ve learned to buy in bulk, seek better values in our proteins, find the hidden value wine gems, stagger our servers for more efficient coverage;,and write our menus so they can deliver great quality with fewer hands. I could devote a whole post to how we all are doing that, but I’ll leave that to a more articulate blogger than I.

The most alarming thing about our economic downturn, which is either continuing to spiral downward or beginning to trend upward depending on what cable channel you watch, is we have also become more frugal with customer service. And by frugal I mean an Ebenezer Scrooge-like death grip on customer service like it is a gold coin snatched out of the poor box at the church. Customer Service, more often than not, generally costs a company somewhere in the neighborhood of NADA! Sure, it costs to fix mistakes, send replacements, refund money. Empathy, concern, or even a general sense of helpfulness costs nothing, however. Even if the empathy, concern, or general sense of helpfulness is faked but faked to the point that I believe it and go away feeling less than screwed, it still costs nothing.

What brought all this on, you ask? What transgression has sparked someone to violate Rule #1: Don’t Poke The Bear? (which will also be the title of my book as soon as I find a publisher who enjoys the four martini lunch)…Well, let me tell you!

Since we’ve turned over much of the F&B management staff in recent months, I have assumed the role of Evil Overlord for the department. I have a wine/liquor vendor whose company requires a $350 minimum purchase (or 5 cases) for delivery. When we placed an order yesterday it totaled $575 but my rep forgot to punch in two cases of wine. He called me today; cowboyed up, admitted the mistake and apologized.

No muss; no fuss. Thanks for calling. Moving on.

He then said “I’d like to bring the two cases by tomorrow, BUT (my smiley face has turned to a frowny face… “but” is a powerful word) I’m in L.A. tomorrow for meetings.”

“No problem, just throw it on the truck,” I say, knowing how badly this is circling the drain already.

“Well,” he says, ever hopeful of escape, “if you want to order some cooking wine or a few more cases to meet the minimum, we can do that.”

My Executive Sous Chef, overhearing this conversation and realizing where it’s headed, leaves the office lest the venom splash on his shoes.

“So…in order for me to get the two cases of wine that I ordered but you forgot, I need to fill out a minimum that I easily filled yesterday despite the fact that my sales rep neglected to include it in the order. Once I pad my small, previously communicated order with items I neither want nor need, then, and only then, will my two cases of orphaned wine be reunited with the rest of the order and be delivered by a truck that will be in the area anyway?” I say in a voice that my staff likens to those pictures of the crocodile approaching the gazelle at the watering hole where only the eyes are visible prior to bad things happening.

Silence ensues, broken only by the sad words, “That’s our policy.” This phrase is rapidly becoming the “up yours” of a new generation.

I didn’t need the wine for a specific function, but that’s not the point. As the Executive Chef, it’s my responsibility to be a great representative of my hotel. When my hotel screws up, I apologize on behalf of the hotel and do what is necessary to make my guest happy. Similarly, when my team or I screw up, the hotel backs my play and takes whatever steps are necessary to ensure the satisfaction of the guest. My rep made a simple mistake, did the right thing and called, and was left twisting in the wind by his company policy. Customer service should ALWAYS dictate policy; policy should never dictate customer service. Leave that to the insurance companies, the medical profession, and the government.

Iron-fisted policy will handcuff most businesses, and it can cripple the hospitality business. Putting my wine on a truck that was already coming to my area costs them nothing in additional labor or gas. They’ll make money on the sale. We’ll have our wine.

Everyone goes home happy and I can return to being the sweet lovable guy that everyone….

Sorry but I can’t continue that sentence that with a straight face.

In the eighteenth century, when Louisiana housewives went to market to buy their rice, the merchant would throw in a couple of extra handfuls after the transaction was completed to compensate for the weight of the linen sack. “Pour la nappe” (for the cloth), he would say. Over the years this developed into “lagniappe,” which has come to mean “a little extra” and applies to all sorts of situations, including the breads, dishes, and sauces. [Blysen, Judith, Cajun - A Culinary Tour of Louisiana, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2003]

In today’s fine dining restaurants in some of the best hotels, guests are often provided prix fixe menus with each additional side adding to the final tab. In light of today’s challenging economic conditions, I have seen more and more fine dining and mid-priced chain restaurants offering a little extra for the same price just to make their guests feel as though they are getting more for their hard-earned dollars.

The actual cost of this lagniappe is nominal when compared to the gain in goodwill and this could be offered in a number of ways. It could take the form of an appetizer or dessert included in the price of an entrée or simply a coupon that could be applied to the guest’s next visit.

I have recommended to some of my clients the following programs to be included in their marketing efforts:

• Frequent guests can be treated to a discounted, or even a free meal, if they are dining with friends on their birthday. You might stipulate a table cover of four as a minimum. The name and birthday date (minus the year, of course) of each guest who uses this promotional would be entered into the hotel’s database for future reference. Before the celebrating guest leaves, make sure they receive a handwritten note card from the dining room manager thanking them for celebrating their special event at the restaurant. Provide each guest at the table with a promotional birthday certificate for their own use and encourage a return visit for them to celebrate at your restaurant.
• Offer a complimentary house wine paired with particular entrées that are underselling. This may include new wines you are trying out.
• Include complimentary full breakfast (at a full-service hotel) for a minimum stay at the hotel. This should be set for weekdays rather than weekends and marketed as a value-added hotel promotional.
• Offering specialty “martini nights” scheduled mid-week (when business and hotel occupancy are typically off) contributes to the bottom line and allows walk-ins to generate new business. Successful management of these events should create sufficient hype and repeat business and is something you need to consider if you are not yet attracting this type of demographic.
• Registering a wedding party to hold their event at the hotel’s dining facility during off-peak days and offering discounted pricing on certain F&B items (but certainly not your high-priced selections).
• Conducting “manager’s receptions” for business travelers,  offering a free cocktail and limited hors d’oeuvres for an hour or two during the week. This also enables the GM to receive comments and feedback directly from the guests. Although this activity is not a new concept, it serves well to mention these complimentary events when guests check in. Note cards in each room should welcome the guests to enjoy the reception. Reminders should also be noted on the hotel’s website as well as posted on the in-room advertorials on the TV.
• The chef could prepare a “tasting menu” offering its latest recipes in small portions, such as tapas.  This is ideal for promoting the restaurant’s latest creations and becomes an ideal method to test-market new menu items prior to placing them into full production. It saves time and money.

Any of these promotional efforts can be perceived as trendy while heightening guest appreciation efforts. Most likely, your competitors are already conducting similar activities. Anything you can do to outperform will not only assist your bottom line but also increases awareness of your property. It should be incorporated within the hotel’s marketing collateral pieces, especially on the hotel’s website where guests may base their decisions based on these extra value-added incentives to visit your hotel and dining outlets.

When considering what you are willing to offer as an “extra” for your guests, it may not always revolve around F&B, but it’s the most poignant facet that can be performed without compromising your marketing budget.

It is these challenging times when we will get our most creative. Adversity reveals genius.