A No-Menu Restaurant, Automating Finances and Finding Peace in Delegation
51.2021 Edition
What's up Reader?
This week, I wanted to change "sides", if you will. Let's talk about being a guest.
In the Mugaritz cookbook, Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz talks about surprises, expectations and failure when presenting a menu.
"Giving diners an option on a menu more often sets up expectations, and promotes failure."
In other words: if I use words on my menu to talk about my dish (whether I say Spaghetti Bolognese or Crab/Apple/Radicchio), the guest will form expectations about that dish.
At Mugaritz, for this reason, they don't present a menu.
They take note of dietary restrictions at the start of the experience, and proceed to serve 20 courses, talking about them when they arrive.
Whether you like a course or not is still subjective, but you don't await (or experience) a dish with any expectations.
Am I suggesting we all botch the idea of a menu and cook by the seat of our pants? Of course not.
But if this is one "end of the spectrum" in menu writing & presentation: giving a written menu at the end of the experience, with no pre-dictated presentation of dishes.
The other side might be: the UBER safe, run-of-the-mill, "everyone's seen it before" menu. Maybe it's even complete with pictures, to make sure that you can visually see and craft your expectations of what's to come after you order.
If you fall anywhere in-between these "ends" of the spectrum, there's a lot of work to be done to manage expectations. It's a strange no-man's-land where you have to do more work to fight against these mental pressures that the guest is bringing to the experience.
It's an art to communicate clearly enough what a guest might order so that they don't get decision fatigue.
It's another art to generate new and creative menu ideas as to inflict intrigue in a guest, and offer them something they've never had before.
Regardless, it's important that we keep in mind the fact that expectations are natural human behavior. Getting upset that a guest doesn't like your presentation isn't always their fault. It might be that you fell somewhere inside the spectrum and didn't do a good enough job at talking about your food.
BONUS: I'm curious what opportunities might exist if we acknowledge this fact. We already serve separate dessert menus because it's a logical "separation" in a standard dinner experience. What about doing a separate appetizer menu?
What about surprise side dishes as part of an experience? You pick the "steak" but the sides could be something new and exciting, constantly changing with what the kitchen is creating.
This place called Fogón here in Seattle does a 4" tostada with refried beans, cotija cheese, cilantro and avocado salsa within 2 minutes of placing your order as a "surprise" snack, individually plated, for the each member of the entire table.
Every time I go eat there with friends when we're in Capitol Hill before or after a night out, it always impresses people if its their first time. It's simple, quick to make, and delicious; but what makes it special is the fact that you weren't expecting to get it.
Highlights from the week to share 💥
To Read 📚
Counterfactual theory of value - There’s a belief, that hard work is inherently good, which causes people to work much harder than they need to, but what if they are compensated by a Counterfactual Theory of Value? This goes out to all the work-a-holics out there...I feel your pain.
The problem isn’t that life is unfair – it’s your broken idea of fairness - Life is just playing by different rules and unless you’re winning, most of it will seem unfair to you. How can you unlock your understanding of the world and all of your potential? Click in to read...
To Binge 📺
Off Grid Cabin In The Woods....Start to finish - Dave Whipple built an off grid cabin in the remote woods of upper Midwest. In this video he documents the process of building it from start to finish. I watched this start-to-finish and felt transported - if you find yourself in a concrete jungle right now, settle into this with a cup of coffee and enjoy.
How I Automate My Finances - In this video Thomas Frank explains how & why he automates his finances, including bill payments and investments, and a version of this that I adopted from Ramit Sethi's book completely changed how I approach money management. And this was back when I was barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, because I wanted to build the habits that would serve me for when I increased my income. I break this down even further in a conversation I had with Brendan McCaughey.
To Peep 👀
3 types of professional knowledge - Alex Lieberman, Executive Chairman of Morning Brew defines Context-Specific, Work-Agnostic and Context-Agnostic Knowledge...fascinating way to think about how you progress through your career.
The 60-sec Ratatouille edit we didn’t know we needed 😭 👇
December 3rd 2021
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Current experiment I'm running 🧪
I'm going to share an experiment that I ran 2 years ago and is still paying dividends to this day: acknowledging where you're the bottleneck, and using elimination or delegation as the solution.
Doing the very small experiment of asking someone else to edit the podcast for me "broke the seal" on me thinking I had to do everything myself. It dispelled all of the fears I had that the quality would go down or that someone couldn't "understand my vision" for a project or execution.
If I'm being honest, it was the first time that I ever actually felt "success" as a creator or entrepreneur...all because I was willing to spend the $100 to have a freelancer follow clear instructions that I laid out, and trust their judgement as a contractor.
Fast forward to today, and I'm about to start working with my third contractor as part of the team that helps produce my content, we're obsessed with SOP's (standard operating procedures) and systems, and I can distinctly connect it to my desire to put my systems and lessons onto paper which is ultimately becoming the course (details on that next week!).
If you aren't in a leadership position yet, I'd encourage you to keep this experiment top of mind and run it as soon as you can. The pride of "not delegating" slowly grows into something really harmful, and I wish I would've started doing it earlier.
Quote I'm Pondering 🤔
...a share of this newsletter! Links are below and I'd love to provide some value to a friend or colleague you think this would be perfect for.
👊Justin
Surprise Throwback Video - This week’s surprise throwback video is the FIRST EVER episode of the This Place Called series, and we went to Bateau in Seattle. Bateau, french for “boat,” is both a nod to their first restaurant, Boat Street Café, as well as an attempt to reimagine the American steak house around quality, sustainability and animal welfare. Give it a watch for one of the most confusing short rib presentations I've ever had.
