Restaurants and Institutions

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earth2table: Staffing 101
March 22, 2007

This whole teaching at a culinary school thing has been paying off in many ways.

Let’s talk about management structure. For myriad reasons—including my propensity for being a megalomaniac, Oregon’s minimum-wage law and various other cost issues—I am going to act as both chef and general manager for Terroir.

Cole Danehower (r.) will be the wine and beverage manager/consultant (see my earlier entry, “Billy Bailey Invented the Moonwalk”), operating under a management-consulting contract. As for the daily, front-of-house management, I hired an extern from the Western Culinary Institute’s Hospitality & Restaurant Management program as my front-of-house assistant manager. She has a lot of previous experience and currently is working with me on all policies and procedures, mostly simplifying things and making sure our culture and philosophies are coming through. Manuals and hiring materials are set to roll out April 1.

I will not need or have a sous-chef, at least for the opening period, but I will be extremely particular about hiring (written and practical tests for all) and paying appropriately for experienced and multitasking line cooks. I am working on hiring a talented-but-young pastry person who will need some guidance but who is, shall we say, extremely hungry. Sounds like just the sort of person who may be in culinary school but has a little experience too. Thank you, Peter Edris (dean of Western’s Pâtisserie & Baking Program) for weeding out prospective applicants.

Cheers!

Stu

Posted by Stu Stein on March 22, 2007 | Comments (0)