Guests often bring up the names of Food Network and Cooking Channel chefs to me at work. The jokes usually go right over my head. People assume that I am somewhat familiar with these chefs because of my job. It is actually quite the opposite. After spending a shift staring into a kitchen wondering if […]
Tag Archives | customer service
Learning Restaurant Spanish (Nouns)
Restaurants are growing more multilingual everyday. Hard working immigrants from throughout Latin America are respected and appreciated members of the restaurant world. The language barrier can be daunting, but overcoming it will help you appreciate some of the most interesting people in your restaurant. Learning enough Spanish to be able to communicate effectively is often […]
The Rules of Serving: Rule Four
Rule Four: Guests do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care We have truly become a nation of cynics. We doubt the sincerity of others and feel that no deal comes without a catch. We have good reason. Every special offer comes with fine print. We are constantly being […]
Foodie Friday: Health and Environmental Issues of Salmon
The planet Earth produces more food than ever before. Tremendous advances in food sciences have lead a higher percentage of our planets population to be fed than in any time in the modern era. No person is more responsible for this than one of my personal heroes, Norman Borlaug. It is estimated that the advancements […]
Understanding Restaurants: The Owner’s Perspective
This is the final installment of a four-part introduction. If you missed the previous posts on the overview, the guest’s perspective, and the manager’s perspective, click the links in this sentence. People ask me on occasion if I aspire to open my own restaurant one day. It always reminds me of the old Mitch Hedburg […]
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.