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THE
SIMPLEST KITCHEN ON EARTH
May/June
2007
Last summer,
my family and I spent a week vacationing in the Rocky Mountain
resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. After a long day's journey,
my children, then six and two years of age, were exhausted.
They woke early, tolerated two planes that carried them half
way across the United States, and then finally endured a ninety
minute car ride before we reached our destination. We quickly
dropped off our luggage and immediately left in search of somewhere
to eat. We needed something simple and quick. The kids were
fading fast.
Witness to an Operations Miracle
We found a local restaurant on main street called Rasta Pasta.
They had a variety of pasta dishes. The restaurant is small,
about 60 seats, but the menu seemed to offer a few dishes that
were kid friendly and we were not in the mood for a restaurant
scavenger hunt. Just as we had finished reviewing the menu posted
outside, it started to rain. We headed inside and were seated
in the restaurant which was a little less than one-third full
at the time. But with the rain came an onslaught of patrons.
By my estimation, there were about thirty people who were seated
at the same time. I began to cringe.
There I was with a tired family in a small restaurant. Thirty
patrons seated simultaneously. A very small kitchen. Only two
servers were on the floor. For those of you with hospitality
experience, you can appreciate the mental math that was going
through my head. I could not figure out how they were going
to pull this off, and to be honest I did not give them very
good odds of doing so. I braced for the worst, keeping the kids
entertained to the best of my ability, and then hoped for the
best as I watched the two servers go to work.
Our salads and garlic bread arrived quickly, as they were prepared
in advance. That helped to keep the grumbling tummies in order
for a few minutes. With the kids content, my attention began
to shift more towards the actions of the two servers and two
cooks. The servers moved through the restaurant with incredible
precision, while the cooks were busy but not out of control.
My attention bounced from family to restaurant staff, back and
forth. Within just ten minutes, our food had arrived. I thought
we were fortunate to get our meals first, but when I scanned
the restaurant, nearly every patron already had their entrée.
It truly was an operational miracle, or was it?
Dissecting a Miracle
When our server had delivered food to all of her tables, she
checked back to ask us "so, how is everything. Is there
anything I can get you?" My response caught her off guard.
"That was a thing of beauty," I told her. I then had
to explain my hospitality background and congratulate her and
the rest of the restaurant's staff on their recently completed
performance. And a fine performance it was. Thirty people fed
in just over ten minutes in an a la carte, full service restaurant.
Before leaving, I took a closer look at the "kitchen."
This was the piece of the puzzle that pushed my astonishment
over the top. The entire equipment package consisted of two
countertop six burner ranges, a single six-foot refrigerated
preparation table, and a conveyor toaster. That was it. End
of story. Being the sick, hospitality geek that I am, I arranged
a time to return the following day to the restaurant, during
off-peak hours, and interview the manager to find out just how
they did it. I wanted to know how they made it work.
The interview was great and incredibly enlightening, because
the system was so simple. They had implemented terrific menu
planning and cross utilization of product. They had developed
a menu of hot entrées that could all be prepared in a
similar manner - by sauté on the range. They prepared
cold entrée salads from the same refrigerated preparation
table used to support the hot a la carte station. The salads
were pre-made and the garlic bread was run constantly. With
just three pieces of cooking equipment and a refrigerator on
the line, they were able to offer incredible service.
And not to be overlooked, I believed that the attitude of the
staff played an essential role in the restaurant's ability to
perform. Let me give you one quick example. During my interview
with the restaurant manager, I asked what they did when the
single conveyor toaster went down. How would they produce their
garlic bread? He said that they were pretty fortunate. The toaster
was extremely reliable and did not go down much - maybe once
or twice in a season. Usually, he shared, damage to the toaster
was a result of an impatient server poking the conveyor to try
and get their bread out quickly and, in the process, destroying
one of the heating elements. "What would you do then?"
I asked as a follow up question. I was then informed by the
manager that there were three simple steps to remedy the situation.
First, he would berate the server (half jokingly, half seriously)
for being so impatient. Second, he would take an unused sheet
pan and throw it on top of the back burners, which were raised,
on one of the countertop ranges. Finally, when the shift was
over, he would spend thirty minutes unsuccessfully trying to
find the element he ordered before season for an event such
as this before giving up and calling a service technician to
repair the unit. I think you see what I mean by attitude playing
an important role. The staff all took their jobs seriously enough,
but not too seriously.
Lessons from the Miracle
So what can we learn from this dining experience? Plenty. But
there are two primary lessons that I derived. Let's start with
the menu planning. The restaurant featured a menu and an equipment
mix, despite being limited, that worked well together in total
harmony. Both cooks could work on hot or cold entrées
at the same time. The method of production was similar for most
dishes. The cross utilization of food ingredients had been well
conceived. When the menu and the equipment mix are not in harmony,
seamless production is a near impossibility.The
next lesson has to do with the planning process as well - planning
and design of the restaurant. What helped their success was
thinking through the operation during the initial restaurant
planning process, but not over-thinking.
Some
of the clients I have worked with in the past insist that the
kitchen will "never work" unless they have every single
piece of equipment they can conceive in exactly the right place.
I am not sure I agree with this, as kitchens always evolve,
and often do so between the time the design is completed and
the time the restaurant opens. Then, I have had other clients
that have not thought through their operation enough before
engaging in the planning and design of their facilities. This
is not good either. I do not mean to sound like Goldie Locks,
but the level of planning needs to be just right. Think through
the operation, but don't over-think. Keep things simple and
logical. Whether in a quick service environment or a five star
luxury resort, just the right amount of planning will increase
the likelihood for success exponentially.
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