When Escoffier defined his five mother sauces, he did so based on a proud culinary tradition that dated back to Careme and others. These were flexible sauces that stood the test of time. Fortunately, he could not predict how boring the average consumer would become. In most modern chain restaurants the mother sauces would be […]
Tag Archives | customer service
A Food Critic Intervention
There have been several instances while writing posts for this blog where I have felt the need to place blame for the things that drive me crazy about the restaurant business. I have always managed to stop short of that because I do not want this to be a blog that complains about the problems […]
How To Memorize Orders
(Note: In yesterdays post I discussed why I feel it is beneficial to memorize orders.  I will not recap to avoid redundancy, which itself if redundant in this post.) I am terrible with names. Not particularly good with faces either. I will forget three things every time I take a trip. I promise I will […]
Cost vs Profit
In a previous post about why restaurants charge for different extras, I discussed the difference between the guest’s perception of profits and reality. It is not uncommon to hear a guest say, “I can buy this for half as much at the grocery store.â€Â The problem is that food in a restaurant carries far more […]
About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.