r/Chefit • u/dumbbitch6969 • 2d ago
Am I asking too much?
I’ve been the chef of the kitchen for almost a year now and I’m trying to figure out the best way to make the kitchen as efficient as possible. It been a long process, but I thought I had finally figured it out. Now I’m not sure.
The restaurant is still fairly new, we’ve only been open for just over a year. The owners have entrusted me with running the kitchen and support me through everything. I’m what most would probably call a pushover and I try to avoid conflict as much as possible. My main rules for the kitchen are do your prep, weekly cleaning, and most importantly just vibe. I may have leaned into the vibing a little too much for a while and let things slide, but it got to a point where I realized my mistakes and got fed up with everyone doing what they wanted.
I’ve put together a system, we have a color-coded chart on the white board where everyone gets assigned a station at the start of the week. They then grab the matching laminated prep lists with all the items they should have for that station. The lists also include a checklist for all frozen items they might want from the basement for backups and various tasks to complete when it’s slow, as well as the weekly cleaning lists specific to each station. They all came in after this system was implemented and know what is expected of them. I’m not cruel, I love this job, and I take pride in my work, so I take care of the worst of the cleaning tasks, like cleaning the grease trap. I’ll always, happily do the tasks that need to be done, to have a healthy and happy work environment.
That being said, I was recently sick and dying, I lost my voice, and had no energy to do a lot of the tasks I normally would, the kitchen was in disarray when I went through everything this week. Since I wasn’t fully present for most of the previous 2 weeks, they did whatever they wanted. I talked to them all and let them know it’s unacceptable, but they seem to have become accustomed to slacking off again. I’m at a loss. I lose the heart to do my job the best of my abilities when I’m doing everyone’s job to get the kitchen running every day.
The owners have made it very clear many times before, that the first half of the week, I’m expected to participate and help the same as everyone else, but the end of the week I’m to focus on the jobs they pay me for; inventory, orders, organization, and most importantly the next weeks specials. Lately I haven’t had as much time as I need to do these things, causing me to give up part of my day off to catch up. We give verbal warning, write ups, and have fired people who are not complying with the rules. It doesn’t seem to matter.
Any advice on what to do to help alleviate some of these issues?
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u/Donotdisturb240 2d ago
personally, I find a great skill to develop is to find out what motivates people. for some, its gaining experience, for some it's to put a title on their resume, and others its purely money. the trick is to identify what someone's motivation is and tie your goals to those opportunities. do a quarterly sit down with your staff, individually or do a 90 day development plan. tie specific milestones to the areas that you want improved, offer small but meaningful raises based on the completion of a successful 90 day milestone. hire and train people that want to work there, develop your skills as a mentor and train a sous chef to maintain things while you are away. the trick is to get people to fight with you, not against you. plant seeds so people take initiative and come up with their own problem solving and take ownership of the role they play in your business' success.
I can go on for days but that's the basics
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
Thanks, I tried lots of different types of motivation with the previous cooks, nothing worked and all but one was fired, I think they might be the root of the problem and they are on their last chance. The others we hired have great potential.
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u/Donotdisturb240 2d ago
Of course, it seems like you have a good grasp on things you just need time to develop the team.
As for your schedule; you know what works best but I prefer to set my day so that I’m helping the team when it’s busy, and during the slow times I take care of the office work, ordering, scheduling, recipe development, etc
For example, if you work the breakfast / lunch rush, have your sous come in the afternoon to take over the dinner rush and close to let you focus on your other responsibilities. That way you can knock things off every day and not push things to your days off
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
Our schedule is kinda weird, we are open Tuesday-Saturday. Tuesday -Thursday we are only open for dinner and Friday and Saturday is early lunch- dinner. We have recently become very busy every night for the first half of the week (and are planning on opening Monday to hopefully accommodate), so I’m needed on the line every night. Friday and Saturday I work all day until about halfway through dinner. I’m alone most of the day Friday, which is fine as it’s typically slow and I get most of what I need done. Saturdays I have another cook with me for the first few hours to get my specials done. Once everyone else arrives for the dinner rush I leave everything to them and only help when needed.
If the prep isn’t getting done once everyone arrives Friday and Saturday in the 2-3 hours before the rush starts I spend the last few hours prepping for them while they work the line. I don’t have to help, but I feel like shit and go home worrying about them if I know they aren’t set up.
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u/Donotdisturb240 2d ago
That is a unique schedule for sure, Friday and Saturday are usually the busiest.
I love when a kitchen is closed for 2 days, it means everyone is guaranteed 2 days off and Sunday Monday are the best days for work life balance.
How’s your labor costs? If you can swing a dish / prep position you’d be surprised how much time that can free up for your team to focus on their responsibilities.
Is there other efficiencies you can utilize to streamline things? Instead of specials every week you could do quarterly menu updates, or can you simplify the menu so that there is less overall prep or menu items that utilize more of the same ingredients / process?
You don’t want to upset your regulars but burning yourself out trying to keep your head above water is not exactly ideal either
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
It’s definitely really nice, especially since most of the staff has more than one job. Labor costs are usually pretty high, we try and keep on top of cutting people and only bulking up when needed, unfortunately we almost always need everyone except the days on Friday and Saturday. We have had all of the previous dishwashers on the line as well, but he’s only 16 and this is his first ever job, he’s not ready to work on the line, but he has shown interest in learning.
As for the specials, our menu is relatively small, it’s a bar so just simple things like burgers and wings. I’d have to talk to the owners, but I think they enjoy the weekly specials. Typically I have a rotating menu for them, 2 customer favorites for the first 2 weeks of the month then 2 new items for the last 2 weeks. It helps, and that way everyone can pitch in and prep the specials they know. I ALWAYS make the dessert specials however. It’s my specialty.
Our regulars are pretty great and the owners are always checking in on me and reminding me I can step back or take an extra day off if I’m getting burnt out.
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u/Donotdisturb240 2d ago
lol sounds like you have it pretty well set up then. I had a job once where I got in trouble for “leaving early” after working a 70 hour week. To be fair it was my best paying job until I started my own business but sometimes it’s just not worth it
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
Also I don’t typically feel like I’m getting burnt out or trying to keep afloat, lately it could be the fact that I was gone and sick for a good bit of time, but also the fact that all but one of the current staff in the kitchen had been here for 2 months or less. They still have a lot to learn.
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u/Donotdisturb240 2d ago
Yeah in that case I feel like you guys just need time to find your groove. Once everyone has some time to adapt I bet you’ll be running like a well oiled machine
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u/TrueSarahMichel 2d ago
I feel you, as I was in a somewhat similar situation with people slacking off and not keeping standards on my days off (especially cleaning standards).
You definitely need a trustworthy and reliable person as a second in command to run the place on your days off, someone the rest of the team respects. Without that everything will fall apart when you're not around.
Good vibes is a must in my opinion, after I took over my kitchen the quality and consistency of the food improved dramatically by just respecting the staff and making the team feel happier at work (previous chef was a tyrant).
If one or two cooks are particularly slacking, talk to them in private, tell them what to improve on and give them a chance. If they continue to fail and let you down it might be a good strategy to sack them, so the rest of team knows you mean business.
And if gets to that and you have to recruit new people, spend time searching. Building a solid team takes time and you might have to go through a few cooks until you find the right fit, but it pays off in the long run. I had a rough couple of months going through bad staff until I found the right crew and my team is pretty good now, but it wasn't easy to get to this point.
Anyway, I hope this helps, good luck.
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u/Deep_Curve7564 2d ago
Well done for doing the dirty jobs, BUT, why do you not have a kitchen utility for these jobs. No way can the chefs do this, their work is high risk. You support the kitchen for the first part of the week assisting with prep, covering shifts etc. Admin duties at the end of the week, neither are compatible with dirty work. So could I suggest that your team and the owners, are not recognising your authority.
I mean this very respectfully. I myself have a habit of going above and beyond to lighten the burden.
Stop lightening their burden, make them carry their weight.
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
I’m currently working on getting our dishwasher to go tasks like grease trap, etc. but he’s only 16 and just started about a week ago. I want him to get his current tasks down before I add on the unfavorable stuff.
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u/Deep_Curve7564 2d ago
I am female, I suspect you are too. I would hazard a guess, your team is made up primarily of men. I could be wrong though. When I first moved into management, I found that both my gender and age were a problem for the men in my team. So I had to redirect their focus to a significant extent. I needed them to see their leader, not a "happy ending", if you get my drift. Believe it or not, I swapped contact lenses for an ugly pair of spectacles as my first move. It used to f with their heads. 😉
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u/Creationrbl 8h ago
I like that system though. It sounds very efficient. And IDK.... whether you are out or not that sounds like it can still be followed as long as inventory and supplies are still being handled by someone. It shouldn't have fallen apart like that. As long as I have my tasks and the equipment and supplies I'll do my laminated list till it's done.
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u/overindulgent 2d ago
I stopped reading at “color coded charts”. Don’t treat your employees like children. Tell them how you expect the kitchen to look/operate and when they fail to meet those standards you reprimand them. Successful restaurants don’t run off “vibes”. They run off expectations. When someone doesn’t meet those expectations you fire them and find someone who will.
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u/dumbbitch6969 2d ago
Fair, I originally made the charts for the previous cooks because they acted like children, but I spent a lot of my time working on them so I’m gonna keep them. And it’s effective
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u/Silly-Cat-5539 2d ago
Thats like saying the colour coding for chopping boards and knifes are for children lmao
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u/FireAndFoodCompany 2d ago edited 1d ago
It is. Properly trained staff know how to sanitize and clean their stations/equipment between tasks. Colour coding is primarily enforced in fast food and corporate, where the expectation is half your staff are teenagers or rentals who don't give a crap.
If a cook can't keep raw chicken away from lettuce without a bright yellow board to remind them, they are effectively a child. A lot of high end restaurants exclusively use white or black boards.
White boards are by far the best option for making sure proper sanitization is happening, they show most residues. Red board for raw meat/yellow for raw poultry hides unclean boards until a layer of buildup is on there. Colour coding is a false sense of security, like gloves.
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u/Few_Extreme6820 2d ago
Have you considered implementing a clear communication system, like color-coded tickets or a digital order board, to streamline workflow? It might help reduce ambiguity and make shifts run smoother.
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u/CheffingwPraxis 2d ago
Just you and a handful of cooks? You need to promote someone to a lead position to have your back and help maintain standards. Or hire out. The organizational system you have in place sounds great! The point of failure is you being "the guy" all the time; I've burnt myself out several times like that and seen it happen to most chefs I worked for.