What You Need to Know Before Opening a Restaurant

Modern cooking styles were developed and simplified from the days of the great chefs Georges-Auguste Escoffier (1847-1935), and Marie-Antoine Careme (1784-1833) with the advancement of equipment and available food products. That being said, technological expansion plays only a small part in cooking evolution, as modern-day chefs continue to experiment and analyze new foods and unique flavour combinations. Escoffier and Careme paved the way for generations of chefs to inspire and amaze people with stunning displays and coveted taste, but at what point does a chef choose to break free from simply leading the kitchen to actually owning it?
The decision to open a restaurant does not come lightly. A great chef does not automatically become a great entrepreneur, so there are some key questions that a chef needs to answer before making the move.

1) What type of establishment do I want to open?
Being a chef doesn't restrict you to opening a restaurant. The first consideration should be whether you want to open a commercial business (restaurants, hotels, catering, etc), or an institutional business (hospitals, prisons, schools, etc). With each type of establishment comes very specific rules and regulations, so be prepared to familiarize yourself with them all before you decide.

2) How large do I want my establishment to be?
The number of patrons you can house as well as the volume of food you will be turning out is directly related to how much staff you will need to hire. Smaller restaurants can usually get away with having one chef, and two or three line cooks to assist, but a large-scale restaurant may require a large portion of the *classical kitchen brigade.

3) What kind of menu will I have?
Whether you're opening a five star resort or a fast food joint, your menu needs to correspond with the type of establishment you're opening. To add to that, pricing of the menu is also pertinent - focus on your target market.

4) What do I have to work with?
If you've already scoped out potential buildings for your new business, then you should have a good idea of what kind of equipment you have, and what kind of problems you foresee. Make your food fit your kitchen. In other words - if you don't have a pizza oven, don't open a pizzeria.

Once you have founded your business, you'll need to maintain professionalism at all times. You are a role model for your employees, so you need to display the behaviours that you expect from them. The most important things to consider are:

Eagerness to learn - Even executive chefs still have things to learn. There are so many possibilities when it comes to running a kitchen that it's impractical to expect one person to know it all. Don't be afraid to admit you don't know. If anything, showing your human side will make you more approachable to your team.

Team player - Being able to work with others is important. If you aren't a team player, then you'll bring the whole group down. You are all on the same team.

Experience - All the cooking shows and cook books in the world will not give you the experience that you get from doing something over and over and over. A common phrase in the kitchen is "You don't know how to do it until you've done it a thousand times". You may feel that making hundreds of tomato rosettes each day is mindless work, but the day will come when you master it, and then you will no longer have to think about it.

Skills - A passion for cooking is a great thing to have when running or working in a kitchen, but it's not enough. You can enjoy the job, but if you don't have the skills, you'll be dragging the team down. Develop your skills and keep practicing them. A great skill can become secondary nature once you've mastered it.

A positive attitude - If you hate your job, you'll never be able to approach it in a positive manner - when you're in the middle of service and stress is high, staying positive can mean the difference between a successful service and a failed attempt.

Staying power - Being a chef, or even a cook, is a gruelling job that requires stamina. Teach your employees to stay home when they're unwell. Not only is it a health issue to have cooks sneezing on everyone's plates, a sick cook is a useless cook.

Quality - Would you feed it to your family? Would you feed it to guests? Creating quality food is the most important thing you can do. Your dining room d'cor may be outdated, and your establishment may require people to travel twenty minutes down a dirt road, but if the food is good, the people will come. Customers are your main form of advertising. Happy customers tell their friends and family, who try your food, then share their thoughts - the food must be good - one unhappy customer can cost you thousands of potential patrons.

So, the basics have been laid out, now all you have to do is determine whether or not this is something you can do. Keep in mind that after you've started, you'll need to deal with accounting, mortgage or lease, insurance, staff and payroll, equipment and tools, advertising, sanitation and health codes, etc.
It's not an easy path but, done properly, it can be very rewarding.

*The "classical kitchen brigade" is the team of chefs/cooks and their respective positions:
Chef - Also known as the "head chef", or "executive chef", this person leads and manages the kitchen.
Sous chef - Usually responsible for overseeing production while the chef is busy with other tasks.
Chefs de partie (station chefs) - Deal with specific areas of the kitchen:
• Saucier - sauces, stews, saut's, hot hors d'oeuvres
• Poissonier - Handles fish and seafood
• Entremetier - Soups, eggs, vegetables, and starches
• Rotisseur - Braised and roasted meats and accompanying sauces
• Garde manger - Salads, pate's, cold hors d'oeuvres
• Patissier - Desserts and pastries
• Tournant - The swing cook, goes wherever assistance is needed

About the author

Colleen Ludgate, Editor, FunAdvice.com

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for preventing automated spam submissions.