The story of a cook

Chapter 346 Serving as Executive Chef
I have been a chef for ten years, and I am already 30 years old.

At the age of 30, people begin to enter middle age and begin to no longer look young.

At the age of 30, I am married and have a family. My wife is pregnant and is about to give birth. I have no house, car, or savings. I earn 2000 yuan a month by going to work.

[-] was the beginning of my second decade as a chef.

My younger brother-in-law Zhihao got married in the Gregorian calendar year. Lin Yan and I went back to our mother-in-law’s house to attend the wedding. At that time, Lin Yan was already five months pregnant, and she was still busy with her big belly for her younger brother’s wedding. It hurts to look at it.

After attending my brother-in-law's wedding and returning to the provincial capital, I was appointed by the chairman of Linjiangxuan to be the executive chef of Linjiangxuan restaurant.

The head chef stopped working at the end of the year, saying that he was going home to rest, and by the way to recuperate and recuperate the body.When the head chef resigned, both Du Dapeng and Wang Chunlai wanted to be the executive chef, and both of them talked to the chairman. In the end, the chairman chose me instead of them.

The best candidate to replace the chef should be Zhang Chunming, the deputy chef of the kitchen on the second floor, but he has already been selected by the chairman as the candidate to go to Japan, and his wife also went to Japan with him, and the relevant procedures for going abroad have been completed. Immediately ready to go abroad.

I became the best choice.

I'm not interested in the position of executive chef, in other words, I don't want to be one.Because Linjiangxuan's job is not easy to do, if you don't become an executive chef, you may be able to do it for a longer period of time. If you become an executive chef, you may be laid off soon. This is my judgment on the situation at that time.

He wanted to dismiss this position, but the master said that he couldn't. He had already dismissed it once, and it would be a little rude to dismiss him again.After thinking about it, I accepted the chairman's appointment and started to be the executive chef of Linjiangxuan.

When becoming an executive chef, the first thing to do is to conduct a thorough inspection of the entire kitchen, so that you know what you are doing.

Let’s start with the kitchen on the third floor. There are two chefs on the third floor, both of whom have worked with me for nearly half a year.The two chopping boards were brought out by myself, so I can rest assured.

Zhang Chunming is the head chef in the kitchen on the second floor, but he is leaving soon and has to find a chef to take his place.

There are two candidates for the sous chef, one is Lao Cao, a Sichuan master hired from outside, and the other is Wang Chunlai, who the chairman asked me to bring.

The chairman wanted to transfer Wang Chunlai from the old store to the new store as the sous chef, and asked me to take him.I understand the meaning of the chairman, and it is to give Wang Chunlai a psychological comfort. This time, I did not arrange for him to be sent to Japan, nor did I let him be the executive chef, so I transferred him from the old shop to be the sous chef. Salary is also a consolation.

I don't express my opinion on the chairman's arrangement. Although I don't like to see Wang Chunlai very much, the chairman can't help but agree.So Wang Chunlai was transferred to the new restaurant as the head chef, and the old restaurant promoted a chef who had worked for eight years to take over Wang Chunlai's position and became the head chef.

There are a total of eight chefs in the kitchen on the second floor.The two chefs of Sichuan cuisine, both surnamed Cao, are brothers.There are two sous chefs who are the nephews of the second proprietress.There are also three chefs who are relatives of the third wife's hometown, including Du Dapeng.Wang Chunlai is the head chef and mainly manages the hot food kitchen on the second floor.

On the second floor there are six cutting boards and six walnuts.The owner of the chopping board is surnamed Wang, and his name is Wang Hu. He is in his 30s. He is an old employee in the kitchen, and he is also an old chopping board.Now he is doing a good job on the chopping board, and at the same time leading the other five chopping boards to make the whole side dish work in an orderly manner.

The kitchen on the first floor belongs to the open stalls, including three stalls of cold dishes, noodles, and casserole.

There are seven people in the cold dish. The boss, Liu Liang, is an old employee, and Du Dapeng is a cousin.

Linjiangxuan's most famous cold dish is hand-made skin-lifting on site, which is a must in the provincial capital, and many customers come here for skin-lifting.There are three laid-off female workers who make the facelifts, one shakes the facelifts, one produces the facelifts, and the other is responsible for mixing the facelifts. The three form a facelift assembly line. Minimum sales of 150 copies.

There are more employees in the noodle group.Ten dumpling workers, two cook dumplings, one is responsible for steaming dumplings, and one is dedicated to frying dumplings.The fried dumplings were "Binghua fried dumplings". At that time, there were four dumpling restaurants in the provincial capital that could make "Binghua fried dumplings", including "Linjiangxuan", "Qinghua Pavilion", "Fuji" and "Hongji".

"Fuji" was the first to make "Binghua Fried Dumplings". It is the oldest dumpling restaurant in the provincial capital. It started in the Qing Dynasty and has a history of 200 years. The ancient dumpling restaurant can be directly found in the Guinness Book of World Records.

In addition to making dumplings and steaming and boiling, there is also a stuffing master and a group leader.The stuffing master is Li Dashan, and the group leader is Zhang Chunming's lover, who is going to go abroad soon, and a person needs to be selected from the dumpling workers to replace her.

The pastry team leader of the old store was transferred to replace Zhang Chunming's lover. This team leader has worked in the old store for ten years and is very dedicated.

Two people are in charge of the casserole stall, and the person in charge is Dajun, who is a relative of the third owner's family.There are a total of eight products in the casserole stall, and the sales are not bad, and two people are more than enough to take care of them.

Every day, two master chefs come to work at night. One is Master Zhao, a veteran craftsman who makes good pickles.The other person who was in charge of helping him was the elder brother of the third boss's wife, that is, Du Dapeng's third uncle and the third boss's uncle.Master Zhao and Uncle San are in charge of making all the pickles in the old and new stores.

As the executive chef of Linjiangxuan, he is responsible for the management of two kitchens at the same time, managing the old store and the new store together.

There are two more months until the Spring Festival. Before the Spring Festival, the chairman has to go to Tokyo, Japan to open a dumpling restaurant. I just took over here, and I am not very familiar with everything. In addition, the kitchen staff is not very stable, and many old chefs are not very good to me. Accept it, I think it is a bit unreasonable for me to be an executive chef for a chef who has just been here for less than half a year.The shortest of their jobs have been in Linjiangxuan for more than three years, and they are not very satisfied with me, a newcomer.

I told the chairman and Mr. Huo not to take over the kitchen management of the old store before the Spring Festival, but to devote all my energy to the kitchen management of the new store, and to take over the kitchen of the old store after the new store's kitchen is stabilized, which is safer.

The chairman and Mr. Huo agreed with my style of play, so I started working in the new store.

Master continues to be his production director, and he has the same opinion on me as an executive chef. He knows that once he becomes an official in Linjiangxuan, he will be laid off. Just talk about it, don't be serious, because I only have the right to manage but not the right to dismiss, and I don't have the power to set wages for others, so I don't have the strength. In the end, I am still the boss protecting my relatives.

Master is right, but I am just thirty, and I still want to do something.

"Qinghua Pavilion" is developing very fast. It is also a dumpling restaurant. The development of Linjiangxuan is far less fast than that of Qinghua Pavilion. They have already developed in the whole country, with more than 30 branches. Linjiangxuan only has two stores, and others It's poorer than less.

When "Qinghua Pavilion" opened its first branch in Binhai, the boss of Binhai approached me and wanted me to be the head chef. Considering that Lin Yan was pregnant, she didn't want to work in other places. Even though the salary was low at Linjiangxuan, But I was able to take care of Lin Yan, and Lin Yan didn't want me to go out of town, so I didn't go there. I found two chefs, one of whom was the head chef.

Looking back now, if I left Linjiangxuan earlier, I might have developed better. I missed several good opportunities during the time I was working in Linjiangxuan.If you miss it, you will miss it. No one knows what they will develop into in the future, and there is nothing to regret.

Once a person makes a choice, he needs to be responsible for his choice, block all the escape routes, and maybe win by fighting to the death.

The third boss and I talked with Mr. Huo about the future development of Linjiangxuan, and made a plan to open [-] dumpling restaurants in this province within three years, and at the same time release other places to join.Make the new store kitchen a technology output training base. As long as a branch is opened, training will be carried out in the new store kitchen to ensure the quality of dumplings and dishes, so that the newly opened store can accommodate customers and occupy the market as soon as it opens.

The third boss and Mr. Huo agreed with my plan. Agreeing does not mean support. They both want to develop, but the big boss and the second boss didn't nod. It's just an idea.

I do some basic management work first.

Looking back now, Jiangxuan missed the best time for development. If we started to make efforts at that time, I believe it will be a very large catering group now.

People can't be too comfortable, too easy to lose the motivation to move forward.

The chairman is going to hold a meeting of all kitchen staff and announce that I will be the executive chef. I don't agree with her, and I plan to gradually intervene in the management, and it will not be too late to announce after the general approval of the staff.If the kitchen staff doesn't approve of me at all, announcing it is the same as not announcing it.If the employees express their recognition and support to me, there is a reason for declaring and not declaring.

Mr. Huo wanted to talk to me.

"Tan Zi, I know you are under a lot of pressure, and you are in danger."

"Let's do it first, and if it doesn't work, you can replace me." I said.

"Do you feel that some people are difficult to control?" Mr. Huo asked.

"The most fearless thing in management is managing people." I smiled and said to Mr. Huo: "It is true that some people are difficult to manage, and they are not convinced. It can be said with certainty that 80.00% of the old employees do not recognize me."

I'm speaking matter-of-factly.

"Yes, the chairman and I both know about this." Mr. Huo said, "But we can't live without a head chef. If there is no one in charge of the kitchen, things will go wrong."

"That's true, but you can hire an outside expert to manage it, but I can't."

Mr. Huo smiled and said: "I know the situation of our family best. It's just a matter of one or two months. In the end, these old employees will have to go, especially Du Dapeng and Wang Chunlai. , who can control them? They formed a clique, and now most of the kitchen staff are found by them from their hometown, and sometimes the head chef can't speak as well as the two of them."

Mr. Huo was also talking about the current personnel situation in Linjiangxuan's kitchen.

"You know this and still call me the head chef. Isn't that forcing me to be laid off?" I joked.

"You are different. You have the ability to manage our kitchen well, and you also have a way to understand Du Dapeng and Wang Chunlai."

He has confidence in me.

"Mr. Huo, you really think highly of me. I don't have that ability."

Mr. Huo said with a smile: "You are capable. The chairman and I are optimistic about you. I believe you can manage our kitchen well."

"I try my best."

"We will also give you a ride after helping you on the horse. You can adjust the salaries of the kitchen staff and increase them all when you just take office." Mr. Huo said, "As soon as the chief chef takes office, he will raise the salaries of the staff so that the work can be carried out smoothly. Some."

"That's a good idea." I said, "But Mr. Huo, have you considered one thing? A good salary increase is a good thing, but a bad salary increase is a bad thing. If it doesn't work out well, it's a bad thing."

Mr. Huo didn't understand what I meant, and asked, "Why are you bulging?"

"Employees work hard and look forward to a little salary increase. No one cares about money, the more the better." I said, "But employees still have a comparative psychology, that is, two people who do the same job, one does a better job." Well, if one does not do well, how can I get a raise? If they are raised together, then the one who does well will feel unbalanced, and will say that he will get the same salary as me for what he did, and I will not work hard in the future. In this way, the original Employees who did a good job began to stop working hard. We raised wages, but the effect did not appear, which was counterproductive.”

"We will raise the wages of those employees who perform well." Mr. Huo said.

"What is good performance? Is there a standard? What is good performance?" I asked directly.

Mr. Huo looked at me, and it seemed that he couldn't answer.

I said: "When there is no standard for anything, we have no basis to say who is performing well and who is not performing well, so wages are not easy to increase."

"Let me give you an example from our family. Let me take Wang Chun as an example. All the employees know that he is an old employee in our family, and he is also a relative of the boss. In less than a month, he can take them away, am I right?"

Mr. Huo nodded, "That's right."

"A chef like this is not used by other restaurant owners, but in our family, he is not only used, but also the head chef. What does this mean? Does it mean that we are not good at being bosses? Or are executives not good at employing people?"

Mr. Huo didn't speak.

"In terms of being a human being, Wang Chunlai's character is not good, and in the kitchen he has no cooking virtue." I continued, "Now let's look at Wang Chunlai from another angle. Take work as an example. Through this paragraph Observing over time, there are four points that I can prove that he is a more responsible person for his work.”

"Which four o'clock?" Mr. Huo asked.

"First, he has never been late or left early, and he has never taken a day of personal leave or sick leave within three months. No one in the hotel can compare with him in terms of attendance."

President Huo nodded in approval.

"Secondly, his dishes have the lowest customer complaint rate. He is very strict about his products when cooking, and there are almost zero incidents of debris in the dishes. What does this mean? It means that he is serious and responsible for the dishes. If our family Chefs cook like him, and I can guarantee that the customer complaint rate of our dishes will drop a lot.”

Mr. Huo nodded and motioned for me to continue.

"Third, whether it is personal hygiene or environmental hygiene, he is the best, and everyone in the kitchen has to admit this."

"That's right, he's pretty clean."

"Fourth, in terms of communication with the front desk, he is the most polite person in our family. At the same time, he still communicates effectively and can solve problems in a timely manner, unlike other masters who just scold people and intensify conflicts. In the end, not only did not solve the problem, but also It magnifies the problem."

"You're right and comprehensive."

"Then let's sum it up. As a chef, Wang Chunlai should be an excellent chef based on these four points, and his salary must be raised. If he looks at his cooking ethics and character, he should be laid off, right? Mr. Huo? "

Mr. Huo nodded.

"There is a problem here. We don't have standards. Without standards, it is difficult to define a person's good or bad, or as the two of us just said, good or bad performance."

Mr. Huo said, "Can you be more specific?"

I said: "Mr. Huo, take this matter of preparing to raise the salary of the employees as an example. I know that you and the chairman are treating me well, and I want to send a signal to the employees, that is, to let the employees know that Xiao Tanzi has been working hard. When I come up to be the head chef, I will give everyone a salary increase and help me establish an image so that my work can be carried out smoothly."

"But we don't have a salary increase standard now, so it's not easy to raise wages for employees. Take Wang Chun as an example. Look at the four points I just said, then he should have a salary increase, but if he is really raised, what else? Employees will say, "If you have such a poor character, you can get a salary increase, so we don't have much interest in doing it." This will have a negative effect. If it is raised for others but not for Wang Chunlai, the negative effect will be stronger with respect to his character. "

"Almost." Mr. Huo said.

"Wage increase is obviously a good thing, but it becomes a bad thing in our family if the salary increase is not good, which shows that our family does not have a good standard."

"Tan Zi, how do you set the standard you mentioned?"

"Let's put it this way, we all hope that all employees are the good employees we hope, or excellent employees, but first of all, we need to know whether the excellent employees are hired from outside or cultivated by ourselves? Needless to say, we know this question , Excellent employees are cultivated by ourselves. Then this is simple, we only need to solve one problem, that is, how to cultivate excellent employees, and what kind of employees are excellent employees?"

"We set several steps, or processes, and each step has a standard. As long as the employee meets the standard, we can give him corresponding rewards, or link the salary setting with the step standard. To put it bluntly The goal is to get what level of wages to meet the standards, so that employees will not be psychologically unbalanced because their wages are different from others. If there is any imbalance, you will not be able to get as high as others Salary, if the adjustment is not good, they will be eliminated and laid off."

"I kind of understand what you mean by the standard. Are you talking about performance appraisal?" Mr. Huo asked.

"It's a bit similar to performance appraisal, but it's different. Performance appraisal attracts all employees' attention to performance. I'm talking about attracting employees' attention to work. There is still an essential difference."

"If you have time, let's study the 'standard' you mentioned. Now let's settle the matter at hand. According to what you said, how should we increase the wages of our employees this time?"

"Since this is a general salary adjustment, and all employees have to be unable to pick out faults, then find a common point to adjust, and let's adjust according to the length of service." I said.

"No one can say anything about this business," Mr. Huo said.

"You can say anything, just say less." I smiled: "I don't participate in the decision of how much you will be the boss."

"But there must be a standard, and we have to implement it according to this standard in the future, so that employees can be convinced."

(End of this chapter)