Introduction to Culinary Management (Ritz ain't just crackers!)

Hi! Welcome back! Today, I started the culinary management program at the same school where I completed the culinary arts program. I found this blog a crucial element in helping me absorb the massive amount of information and experiences during that time, and hope to pull it off again.

I externed at a very well-regarded pizzeria in Brooklyn to finish my culinary degree, and continued on as an employee for while afterwards. (You can read about it, as well as my continuing adventures in home cooking and eating at Learning to Feed.) The time I spent slamming dough, baking desserts, and finishing pizzas for a paying clientele brought home the point that food ain't just about the food. It's about where the food is served. And how.

The management program will focus on that other stuff, in addition to the food. It's all related and intertwined. But enough blather, let's get to the meat of the matter: me blogging about my experience!

Class started with an introduction from the Director of Student Affairs, going over rules and regulations, the bureaucracy of being in school, blah blah blah. We're introduced to Richard V., our instructor for the entire length of the course -- in culinary, we were taught in succession by 5 different chefs, but in management it's all about Richard. He's a very well-coiffed man with neatly trimmed Frank Zapppa-like facial hair. My wife and I actually took a multi-week wine course with him, where I found him to be extremely well-spoken, enthusiastic and engaging, so hopefully I lucked out....hopefully it wasn't just the alcohol.

We started with a reading of Ruth Reichl's New York Times Review of Aquamarine under the topic of, "What's Wrong Here?" It's a restaurant with a hoity toity name directly on the Hudson River, which would invite expectations of a river view, a romantic quiet dining, seafood, and upscale surroundings. In reality there were very few windows onto the Hudson, a big bar and loud live music, a menu made up of very little seafood and plastic chairs. After all of that, it didn't help that the food was inconsistent and not very original or special. Suffice to say, that restaurant isn't with us anymore. Somewhere along the line, the concept became unfocused.

Richard introduced us to the theory of the client, the mission statement, and the overall concept of the restaurant. The client dictates what your business should be, as you can't have a business without them. When you figure out who your client is, you need to ask, "What is the client not getting?" and go from there. The mission statement is the statement of intent that kind of defines what your going to do, and the overall concept involves the key elements that will satisfy the client.

As laid out in Reichl's review, there are three elements to a concept for a restaurant: design & decor, service, and food & beverage. It is very rare that you can succeed with one and totally ignore the other two. Going to a restaurant is not just about food, but all the bells and whistles that convinces you to pay $28.95 for a piece of meat you can cook at home for $4.85 and a little homemade stock. The concept is the thread that ties it all together. The concept of Aquamarine seemed to suggest upscale seafood with a relaxing grand river view, but between the walled-off view, the noise, and the jumbled menu, the concept lost its cohesiveness.

Tomorrow, we've been asked to come in with the idea of a concept. The jist of the course is to end with a fully developed business plan based on this concept. I have a kernel of an idea, so I guess thats the kernel of my trade secret! Let me just say...it's about pizza. Strangely enough, for those of you who've been reading me a while.

We got a handful of books, including this year's Zagats guides. Tonight I read the first few chapters of "Management by Menu", basically a text that covers all aspects of managing a food business from the idea that all angles are reflected in the menu. Concept, costs, everything is there in the menu. The first 50 pages of the book is the history of food service, from one-celled amoebas absorbing nutrients through cell walls to the modern fastfood concept like Wendy's and McDonald's...I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same, he he.

Interesting factoid: In the brief history of culinaria we were taught in the cooking program, a central figure was Georges August Escoffier, who invented the brigade system of organizing kitchen workers in 1800s France, catapulting the cuisine to head of the class. What was not mentioned was the front of house man who was perhaps equally important in making Escoffier's restaurants legendary -- Cesar Ritz, from whose name the notion of 'ritzy' comes from.

We had a little game of introducing the person next to you to the class. I introduced Roundhead, who was also in my culinary class. Roundhead (who I shall now nickname Jazzman) was a fellow student in culinary, a young, quiet and competant cook. Hes a NYC native of Dominican heritage, so he grew up bilingual, a distinct advantage in the restaurant world.

There is about 26 of us. There are two Russians, one who proudly said he peed on a statue of Lenin when the Soviet Union dissolved. There is a Slovak who looks like Ricky Martin, an older British woman who once dressed as Bugs Bunny for a job, a woman whose been working at a restaurant for 17 years and wants to expand. One kid, a young looking Robert DeNiro type with pointy eyebrows and a mole just-so, spoke of his family's Italian restaurant in Long Island, and how he has aspirations of opening a national pizza chain. There's another guy who looks like Big Pussy from the Sopranos. Maybe half the class is very young, under 25, most in my age range with a few with a few more years of experience under their belts.

Class will be Mon, Wed and Thursday mornings, so this blog will updated three times a week. It'll be fully tagged out for easy referencing to the left. Thanks again for joining me, I welcome your secret snooping or your blatant comments!