12.2023 Edition

Powered by 7shifts​

Editor: Justin Khanna​

Hey Reader,

We spent a lot of time in the “clouds” over the past few newsletters - I wanna get back in the “dirt” this week.

I made a video all about a sliver of a moment of a micro-action of a line cook’s day: cooling something down.

We’ve all had those projects on the prep list for the day: a slow-simmered stock, a painstakingly made sauce, a velvety smooth vegetable purée…in my case, it was a garlic chive oil.

Considering it’s bright green, I look at it as a component that benefits immensely from cooling down quickly…not to mention the guidelines that health and sanitation departments put on restaurants and the scale that a lot of you folks operate at.

The TL;DW of the video is: exactly how much faster is a metal container (versus a plastic one) when cooling something down? Spoiler alert: it’s literally 2x faster. If I didn’t stand there stirring the plastic one, the delta would have probably been even larger.

I look at this result and I was STOKED to have that math. Now I can use this data to teach!

But as the internet does, I was pretty surprised to see some of the comments:

• “They teach this in 4th grade!”
• “Everyone already knows this…”
• “Why are you explaining insulated vs conductive materials?”

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take the boost in engagement any day of the week, but what really struck me about these comments was the prevailing culture of “If I know something, everyone automatically knows/should know it too”.

And I might be reading into things but this type of rhetoric is almost undercut by this air of: “…and you’re an idiot if you don’t know this or try to teach it to new people”.

We, as an industry, gotta stop that.

I was putting together a deck for Repertoire this week and I landed on a pretty surprising stat. Depending on where you get your numbers, less than 35% of hospitality professionals get a degree.

That means nearly 2 out of every 3 people in a restaurant have just been learning as they go along. They’re picking up knowledge from experience. Combine this with the varied learning styles that everyone comes equipped with, and you’ve got an environment that depends on information transfer.

Plus, everyone’s got a different “way” of doing it. Insert meme of “this is how we did it at my last restaurant”

To me, there’s zero downside in teaching the "ways" in as many "ways" as it takes until someone learns it.

I made the garlic chive video because “here’s how to cool your mise en place down twice as fast” gets a certain type of person more excited than “here’s how the thermodynamics of conductive materials function using stainless steel and lipids”.

Now, could I have positioned the point of the video a bit better? 100% - that part’s on me, my bad 🤷‍♂️

But if we continue to bash education, make motivated/engaged team members feel guilty for being hungry for more knowledge, or fail to pass along what we know to the next generation…we might deserve what the “doom and gloom” people are saying about the hospitality industry.

I look at those pessimistic and cynical comments and get even more motivated to show up and work on this.

Here’s how you can use this information:

• If you’re even 6 months into your career, you’re above the bottom of the ladder. Try and see how much you can “absorb” from the folks 1-2 rungs above you by asking pointed questions about what they're working on, and ask yourself how you can be a responsible steward of the learnings you possess and share with anyone that’s below you on that ladder. It’s never too early to teach.
• Ask yourself: can I teach this? A fantastic test of your level of understanding is being able to distill it into a lesson that can be repeated by someone else. Even if you’ve done something a million times, if it’s all muscle memory for you or all-in-your-head, chances are you could deepen your knowledge of that skill by attempting to teach it. Plus, it’ll feel awesome to help someone!
• Try it another way - if you’re banging your head against the walk-in door because someone isn’t wrapping their head around a concept or skill, take a step back and try it from another angle. If you haven’t been using any numbers in your explanation, add some. If everything you’ve been communicating has been auditory, take some pictures/videos of you doing it on your phone and show that instead. Ask the person, and if they say they learn by doing, walk them through a hands-on trial of that project and give feedback along the way.

To those of you that are doing this already for your team mates on the day-to-day, I’m giving you a round of applause 👏🔃 the kudos is well deserved, and I know you don’t get enough of it - keep up the strong work!

​If you improved by 1% every day, how far would you have come after 365 days? *

The answer may surprise you ⤵️

​
You'd be 37x better than where you started. So how do you actually measure that, and where do you start?
​
Justin Khanna will be sharing his key strategies and practices that you can try immediately to feel growth again. This session is specifically tailored for the hospitality industry 🔥

Join us on Tuesday, April 4 at 1pm EST – grab your (free) spot, because the session completely sold out last time!

*Sponsored by 7shifts​

Top Hits 💥

​Future of Commerce: 2023 Report​

Square partnered with Wakefield Research to survey North American consumers, retail owners and restaurant owners to uncover insights about the 2023 commerce landscape.

Younger consumers in particular want small businesses to succeed. The majority of Gen Z consumers (51%) would rally behind smaller businesses who might be struggling. That mindset also translates into who is looking to jump into the entrepreneurial pool, with Gen Z and millennials the most likely of all consumers to consider starting a business right now.

And young people aren’t alone in their entrepreneurial thinking. More than 3 in 5 consumers agree that with the technology and tools available today, it’s never been easier to start a business.

The future of doing business looks like…

• Multi-hyphenate businesses are on the rise.

• Automation is enhancing customer and staff experience.

• The conversation with customers is changing.

• Social and mobile commerce continue to grow.

• Younger generations may fuel business growth.

Our take: This is wildly important to pay attention to. The business owners who choose to look at "where the puck is going" will be the winners in their communities.

Often times, this doesn't even require you to change your core product - many of these trends focus on removing headaches, saving customers time, or opening your business up for additional revenue streams!

​5 Factors That Determine a 🔥 Spot​

Why do we yearn for the toughest tables in town? Well, exclusivity has always had its allure — just ask Charlie Chaplin — and in today’s post pandemic world, chic and vibe-y restaurants are akin to the new velvet roped clubs, or even the new catwalks .

There’s also the perceived accessibility factor. Not only is going out for dinner a form of entertainment that one can do seven days a week should one so choose, but restaurant reservations are ostensibly democratic (there’s no snobby doorman superficially sizing you up before mercilessly shunning you); all one must do is buckle down and snag that resy before someone else with a smartphone does.

“There is no exact formula to guarantee an operator catch lightening in a bottle, but by checking as many of the 5 boxes below... a spot might well set itself up for success, and maybe even attain that elusive hotness we all want a piece of.”

Our Take: This is a double edged sword - similar to looking to a biography on the Red Hot Chili Peppers to get advice on how to "make it" in music or using The Rock as a blueprint for fitness.

I don't like to use the word "unrealistic" to describe their success, because it is real; they accomplished it, you can see their achievements. However, what folks fail to acknowledge is the graveyard of attempted "Shmorrisi's" compared to the singular success of Torrisi.

What about audience? This list can almost certainly benefit the entrepreneur who's opening in Santa Monica or Soho, but does it work in Indianapolis? Milwaukee? Spokane?

Pardon the pun, but picture each of these details like ingredients on the shelf. If you dump an entire bottle of "Have a strong take" into your coffee shop concept, you run the risk of losing potential customers - see this segment of an old podcast where I ranted on this topic.

At the end of the day, having a 🔥 spot might feel good to see the posts on IG or the celebrity names on your Resy dashboard, but if you really sit an owner down, getting this kind of reputation is just straight beneficial for business. You have to spend/work less on marketing, word of mouth works behind the scenes for you, and you can actually establish some long-standing favorites on your menu. Where the magic happens is being able to maintain it year after year - and when profits allow owners to achieve that, that's what we get excited about 📈

ICYMI 🙌

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This Week, We Learned… 🧠

• The legendary Romanoff’s (1939-1962) was run by a reformed con artist.
• ​POV: Head Chef at a Top London Restaurant
• NYT Made You a Meal Plan - The New York Times
• The Best Eater-Approved Gifts for Food Lovers
• Our friends at meez started a podcast, and their first episode is with Chef Wylie Dufresne!
• Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It

Comment from you folks:

To Peep 👀

• Justin's doing a pop up in Seattle on 4/17! There are only 9 seats left - you coming?
• ​The Hungries is hosting a private showcase of the permanent opening of Koan in Copenhagen and there are only 2 seats left (members only)
• Town Cutler has a gorgeous new eXo Blue Line and this bundle is $39 off right now

Quote I'm Pondering 💭

Thanks for reading, as always,

👊Justin​

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