The story of a cook

Chapter 564 Adjusting the Menu Structure
Real life is flat, without so many ups and downs.Many people want their life to be rich and colorful, to make their life tasteful, but they don't know that life is like this, and being able to live an ordinary life with flavor is the best life.

From the day I came out to work, I never thought about becoming rich and powerful, just want to get rid of poverty, let my mother live a good life, let myself start a family, marry a wife and have a baby, and the whole family can provide for me. Just be safe.You don’t need a lot of money, just enough to spend, and a little savings is a good life.Buying a house, bringing up a child, and setting up a family for him will be regarded as the completion of the task in this life.

I think many people think the same as me, but they take a different path.

Every man wants to have three wives and four concubines, so he must have the strength to support it.On the other hand, it is impossible for a person to have too many emotions at their disposal in this life. It is good to be able to give wholeheartedly to a person, not to mention parents and children?

One woman is husband and wife, two women are extramarital affairs, three, four, N women are bullshit, purely for desire, without emotion.

Men need to be ambitious.Regarding career, how do you treat it? My point of view is that the job you do is your own career. You don’t have to be a boss to be a career. If that’s the case, the Chinese are all bosses.

I like catering, and I just need to understand catering in this life.

Yan Li called me to the office after returning from the inspection in the provincial capital.

"How is it? Did the inspection go well?" I asked.

She said with deep feeling: "The harvest is very great."

"First of all, let me tell you about your friends, they are very interesting, very enthusiastic, and take good care of me." She said.

"They're all right, we're all fine," I said.

"The first thing I went to was Hung Kee. I was received by Master Qiao, and I visited their old store first. His old store is as big as ours, and the business is good. When I went there at noon, it was full." She said .

"The business of his old store has been very good." I said.

"That's the dumpling restaurant. It's very well done. The ordinary home-cooked dishes are delicious, and the common people love to eat them."

"His old store is similar to ours, but ours has more seafood."

"Yes. Master Qiao said that his family eats dumplings and home-cooked dishes. It costs more than 4 yuan a day, which is the same all year round."

I said, "The provincial capital is not a tourist city, unlike Binhai, where the off-peak season is obvious. Every year, business is slow in March and April."

"I ate it at his old shop at noon. The dishes are good, I didn't say anything, but the smoked pickles are not as good as ours. His old shop is full of steamed dumplings and no dumplings, which is weird." She said.

"People in the provincial capital like to eat steamed dumplings. In addition, it is easy to prepare only one kind of dumpling, which can make it unique. His family's steamed dumplings are the first in the provincial capital." I continued: "This is also a way of cooking. There are three stores in his family in the provincial capital. The old store specializes in steamed dumplings. The [-]th line store is large and has both steamed and fried dumplings. The Tiexi store only sells boiled dumplings, so that customers can also choose. Go to the old store for steamed dumplings, and go to Tiexi for boiled dumplings. For high-end stores, go to the twelfth line, divert the customers by yourself, and there is no competition."

"That's what happened." She said, "Master Qiao told me too."

Then chat until she goes to the shop on the [-]th line.

"I saw that his store on the [-]th line is as big as our new store, but the business is much better than ours. It usually sells [-] yuan a day, and can sell [-] yuan on weekends." She said.

"Almost." I said.

"I saw his food. It's home-cooked food with seafood. It's not expensive, but it's cheap. There are many people eating. It's full at noon and evening. Private rooms have to be booked in advance. If it's late, they don't have it at all." She said, and then said: "That's called business."

I asked, "What didn't Chef Qiao tell you?"

"Tell me the positioning of his home: high-end decoration, mid-range consumption, high-ranking officials have face when they come, and ordinary people dare to spend when they come in." She said: "I think his home's positioning is very accurate, and our home should be like that."

I said: "It should be like that. Didn't you go to his kitchen to see it?"

"Go, Mr. Qiao is very interesting. Get me a piece of work clothes. I will put them on and go into the kitchen to have a look. His kitchen is well managed, clean and tidy. Everything has a place to put it. Standing at attention. I went to them Looking at the dumpling making room, the process is the same as ours, but the shape of the dumplings is better than ours. They roll the skins so well that they can make six at once with two hands, while ours can only make two." She said.

I said: "Rolling dumplings is a skilled job. They are an old shop for more than ten years. Ours has only been five years old, so we can't compare with others." How much is it?"

"How much?" she asked.

"Two thousand and five. Our dumpling workers are one thousand and five yuan, which is 1000 yuan short." I said.

You get what you pay for, and technology is the same.

Afterwards, she told the story of going to Linjiangxuan and Gao De.Mr. Huo received her when she went to Linjiangxuan, and led her to visit the front desk and kitchen. She received the whole process at Gaode Laosi, and visited both stores.

She said: "Gold gives me the same feeling as Fisherman's Wharf. It mainly focuses on seafood and new home-cooked dishes, and it does very well. Waiting for Hung Kee's [-]th line store is the same as our new store, but its positioning is well-defined. , business is much better than ours.”

I asked: "Besides these, how about these front desks?"

She said: "The service is also good, the management is higher than ours, and there is a team atmosphere. Among other things, they have more momentum than us when they hold regular meetings, and the employees are energetic after the regular meeting, and they seem to be full of energy. "

I said: "I always communicate with them. Now the provincial capital restaurants, as long as they are of a certain size, are building teams. Some southern hotel management models have begun to be introduced, and the effect is really good. For example, dancing before regular meetings, doing store exercises, The display of corporate culture, including employees' spare time into management, improving employee benefits, improving living conditions, organizing employee travel, and conducting outward bound training, in general is to make employees have a sense of belonging, and it is no longer a slogan to treat the hotel as a family , but put it into practice.”

"Our family is doing it now," she said.

I said: "We are just starting out in enterprise construction. You are the boss, and you can grasp the general direction. In terms of management, you have a professional background and are more professional than us. I just listen to things like corporate vision, service purpose, mission, and goals." Say, tell me not to come out all the time. You know these things, you decide. I'm a professional in the kitchen, and I'll do it."

"I'll take care of the construction of corporate culture." She said: "Isn't Mr. Wang transferred to the office now, and I don't tell him to be idle, but tell him to sort out the textual things, and we sit together and study after finishing."

I asked: "I haven't seen Mr. Zhang in the new store for a few days. Has he asked you for leave?"

"Well, he said something happened at home, and the old father was sick, so he asked for a few days off." She said.

"He is very professional in doing these things, and you can also ask him to do it." I said.

"Don't use him, just save face."

It seems that she has a bad impression of Mr. Zhang. In fact, Mr. Zhang did not give me a very good impression. It seems that he did not see what kind of work he did after he came. It was because he came to calm down when the employees of the new store went on strike last year. The employees were meritorious for the strike, and the old man asked him to be the general manager of the new store.I didn't have any positive communication with him. He also participated in every weekly meeting, and left when he was sharing.In his eyes, I can't share any management with him, and he feels that I am not qualified.

Whether you are qualified or not will be discussed later, many things are proved by strength.

I said, "Mr. Yan, we should reposition the new store."

"Yes, it can't be cost-effective. I think it should be the same as Hongji's positioning, high-end decoration, mid-range consumption, so that ordinary people can come in and eat." She said.

"Yes, our family is also a dumpling restaurant. The dumpling restaurant should be down-to-earth. When the restaurant will have to rely on the common people to eat, it will not be enough to rely on the rich, and there are not so many rich people. Let's start first It has to be popular, no matter at noon or night, there must be people, and it will be lively." I said.

"This inspection has touched me a lot. I used to think that as long as the food is high-end, the dishes are well prepared, and the service is well done, I can make money. Now I see that's not the case, and I have to do it again. As ordinary people For the Lord," she said.

I said: "Actually, the new store is just an enlarged version of the old store. Just operate according to the model of the old store. Let's make it the largest dumpling restaurant in Binhai. People can come in and eat dumplings. If it is full every day, it will win."

She looked at me and said, "So do it, you start adjusting."

I said, "As long as you make a decision."

To be honest, it is psychologically stressful to make adjustments to a new store. If you make a good change, you will be a sinner through the ages.

Adjustments are not made with much fanfare, so the masters will not be able to adapt at once, but they will not know how to cook.He communicated well with Li Shuangliang, and he also agreed to lower the grade.In fact, anyone who is a catering person can see what's wrong with the new store, but no one will do it, for fear that the boss will not accept it, and even more afraid that they will be laid off.

If you don't adjust your business, you will be laid off.

We plan to adjust the menu structure of the new restaurant throughout April, and create new Northeast dishes with seafood, plus high-grade abalone, shark's fin and sea cucumber, highlighting the traditional dumplings and smoked flavor, and take away special staple food.Reduce the unit price of customers to [-], attract ordinary people into the store, and hype the popularity.

The first thing to move is the staple food.Discuss with that sister, cut off the bad ones, keep only "Osmanthus crisp" and "Brown sugar pot helmet", then transfer Zhou Jing to the new store, teach the pastry to make "butter big rolls", and serve cornmeal big rolls at the same time. Steamed dumplings stuffed with sauerkraut.Only four products are kept in the staple food room, and the production of six people is a bit too much. Two younger brothers are transferred to the dumpling room to make dumplings, and the remaining four people are responsible for the same, and the quality immediately improves.If one person is in charge, if he fails to do well, he will be laid off.

The "Big Cream Roll" was welcomed by customers after it was released, and it is almost a must-order on every table.Steamed dumplings with cornmeal and big stuffing are also very popular, and many people eat them at once, and it has become a hot-selling product in the staple food room. "Osmanthus crisp" and "brown sugar pot helmet" sold well in the past, and they still do.Since many staple foods were cut off, customers had a clear choice when ordering staple foods. There were only four staple foods, and if they didn’t like it, they could order dumplings. The click-through rate of dumplings began to increase, and the atmosphere that a dumpling restaurant should have.According to my opinion, the four staple foods are also cut off, and only dumplings are sold. Yan Li said that some customers don't like dumplings, so they can choose to keep a few staple foods.

After the staple food was adjusted, Zhou Jing was sent to Fisherman’s Wharf to teach how to make big rolls, and I started to focus on hot dishes.

The adjustment of the hot dishes is subtle, starting with the Northeast dishes, and it went smoothly with the cooperation of Yang Zhijun.A total of eight chefs of Northeast cuisine selectively kept three dishes they were good at, and then allocated two dishes to each of the good dishes sold in the old shop, and then asked each of them to serve three home-cooked Northeast dishes. Between thirty and forty-eight.

There are not eight chefs who adjust together, but two and two. Every day I also cook with them on the stove, communicate with each other by the way, and adjust the dishes without knowing it.In this way, we can understand the characteristics and actual level of each chef’s cooking, and there will be no fluctuations caused by the adjustment of dishes. If the chef does not fluctuate, the dishes will be ready.

I made adjustments to the Northeast dishes, and Li Shuangliang made adjustments to the seafood. We cooperated very well.

Adjusting the menu structure is easy to say, but complicated to operate. Sometimes because a dish has to be trial-produced repeatedly for several days, you have to listen to the feedback from the customers at the front desk every day during the trial sale, and then adjust it repeatedly according to the feedback from the customers until it is well received by the customers. This dish is finalized, and it can only be regarded as a primary product, which will continue to be improved and upgraded in the future production process.

During the adjustment of the dishes this time, I feel that my cooking level has improved. This improvement is in the feeling, as if I understand what a "dish" is.

Dish, eat it by mouth.The main flavor is first, and the ingredients are used to spread it. The five flavors are reconciled, and the original flavor cannot be covered. It can satisfy the hunger, relieve hunger and cold, and strengthen the body.

All materials are used, the original taste is the main, the complexity is reduced to simplicity, and the original is returned to the truth. The way of eating, following the nature, is like returning to a baby.

With rivers and seas in your heart, you can cook everything; with mountains and rivers in your chest, all delicacies are delicious.The gluttony is like a kunpeng, which is extremely possible to be greater than nothing, and it is easy to accommodate all kinds of flavors.

It seems that I have an understanding of the dishes, and my mind is broadened.Take the raw materials and think about it to make a dish, simple cooking, it is delicious when it comes out.When I started working on the stove, there were still people who were dissatisfied. They always felt that I was a chef in a long-established shop. After a few days, the doubts became less and less. After a few days, they began to call me a master.

After I discussed the growth and production of sea cucumbers with A Jun, the chef of Shangza, and operated them myself, the whole kitchen staff had a new understanding of me, and felt that I, the director of kitchen affairs, really had two brushes.

After a month of adjustment, the results are still there.In mid-April, the guests said that the food was more delicious than before, and it was more affordable. In the second half of April, the guests said that your food is not only delicious, but also cheaper.At the end of the month, guests began to serve.

I remember very clearly that April 29th and NO.30 were Friday and Saturday, and they sold [-] and [-] in those two days.

(End of this chapter)