28.2023 Edition

Hey Reader,

I heard an anecdote this week that really made me stop in my tracks:

“Many variables exist, therefore many variables must be studied.”

(I must admit, that quote was paraphrased by someone and also potentially mis-attributed to B.F. Skinner - I can’t seem to find the original across both Google and AI searches…)

This quote hit so hard for me because we live in a world of “hacks”, “60-second tips” and “get _____ quick” advice.

Of course it’d be incredible if there was just one variable we could tweak to achieve that goal we’ve set.

But that’s not how anything worth-working-towards works.

Personal finance requires budgeting, investing, increasing your income and enough additional advice to fill the books of entire sections of stores.

Fitness requires nutrition, cardio, strength work, mobility, sleep.

Try as we might, fully cranking the knob on just one of them doesn’t guarantee success.

I present this frame because that quote came into my world right at the moment that I’m applying the same philosophy to Repertoire’s flagship course, Total Station Domination.

The goal is to put real variables behind what makes someone a high-performer in a professional kitchen, and follow that up with real skill development in each of those variables.

Because everyone benefits from the size of that cohort going up.

Owners benefit because they can trust their teams more.

The quality of the product goes up because the people executing it are more capable and confident.

Restaurant teams become healthier, more resilient and less likely to experience turnover.

Guests benefit because the quality of their experience with a killer team is more memorable and enjoyable.

Even the business benefits because all of this summed together is a godsend for the bottom line.

If you’ve ever read the work of Lisa Abend, Michael Ruhlman, Per-Anders Jörgensen, Hervé This, or others, you’ll know how they write about high performance.

“It was like a dance”

“Their movements seemed effortless”

“Watching them was a display of finesse”

But when you’re in those environments, as a part of that team, that’s just about the worst advice you can give someone.

What am I supposed to do, start dancing?

Decrease my effort?

You want me to finesse harder?

This update of Total Station Domination solves that problem, not by giving you a single “trick”, but by presenting the variables, the objective metrics behind each one, and then unpacking how to progressively improve.

In-line with our philosophy of “building in public”, I wanted to share them all here as we wrap up our final rounds of curriculum review, considering we’ll be shooting an entire suite of updated content next week.

As a line cook, chef-de-partie, or anyone who runs a station, can you:

I’ll be spending the next few weeks diving deep into each of the nine, discussing why they're important, how to measure success, and ultimately how to improve.

If you have questions on Total Station Domination or want to inquire about getting your team enrolled in the program, simply respond to this email - we read every response!

Top Hits 💥

We Finally Know What Blackbird.xyz Is Up To

It's not new news to know that I've been keeping an eye on what Ben Leventhal (previously of Resy) has been up to. Part crypto, part restaurant, part technology platform, part media company...what is it?

Well, they finally announced their $FLY token, and it's...well, I'll just let you read it:

"a fungible token to power the restaurant economy of the future. $FLY will be Blackbird's on-platform token, designed to incentivize mutually beneficial behavior among platform participants, and ultimately shift the economics of how restaurants connect with their guests."

Our Take: Now, I'm no Balajis, but I did do an entire segment of a podcast in 2019 where I talked about restaurant loyalty, QR codes, and how to make technology + hospitality marry in a more cohesive way.

If we learned anything with those trends becoming more mainstream post-pandemic, getting apps and user behavior changed is one thing, introducing new systems of payment and changing incentives is an entirely different one. Blackbird is certainly taking a huge risk by putting that work on their shoulders.

As with most of these shifts, the first-movers typically have to endure the most grunt work, and it's not even guaranteed that they'll be the big winners at the end of it all (see: MySpace "walking" so Facebook could "run").

We hope to see this benefit the entire triangle of the ecosystem (the restaurant, the technology, the guest), but it's unclear if this will be the winner and we'll continue to keep an eye on it.

Why Flynn McGarry Is Closing Gem

“[Gen Z wants] to have experiences and they want to be in charge, and from the experience standpoint, if you fork over a bunch of money for a ten-course tasting menu, which is what we serve at Gem, or you go up to a traditional “gourmet” place like Daniel, you’re not in charge — you choose your wine, maybe, and a course or two — but you’re not in charge; there’s a captain, there are all these servers, you are in their ecosystem.”

Our Take: I don’t think anyone is pointing to a single-location restaurant in NYC and proclaiming that place’s owner has all of the answers to the future of such a massive industry - but I do think that Flynn has a unique combination of experience, age, skin in the game and skill that at least made his perspective worth hearing out here.

In particular, myself, Joshua Weissman, and now Flynn have all come out discussing this “sameness” in food that doesn’t yet have a clear path forward.

What I am a fan of is the emphasis of the hospitality experience driving more value than ever.

ICYMI 🙌

🎙️ I had the immense pleasure of joining Chris Spear for his celebratory Episode 200 of The Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast!

We dive into some BTS in how I'm building Repertoire, tease some of those Total Station Domination metrics and also tease topics for you folks at the end for us to discuss in future episodes 👀

📲 Short on time but still want to listen to the best clips of the podcast? - Checkout Repertoire’s Instagram for clips

This Week, We Learned… 🧠

Monster, the beverage company, is the answer with a staggering 87,560% gain - who knew?
Atlanta is getting a Michelin Guide
Sweetgreen is creating an "Infinite Kitchen"
How to start a sourdough company with profits from modeling
Laminated cubes, squiggles, circles, breakfast cereal and baguettes...do croissant shapes know any bounds?
Will Kroger and Albertson's merge?