All I needed was a pair of decent shoes to hold up my bung feet, but $300 for a pair of treads that had soles on them that were about 5mm thick was way to steep for a tight arse like me.
“If you’ve got a $10 head young man, you’ll get a $10 hat, won’t you?”
“I’m not paying that much old man” I thought, but I liked the way he worked. He got me thinking, but no sale from this cat.
That was about 2 years ago, and still one of the best lines I’ve had a salesman throw at me. We do get what we pay for in this world, most of the time anyway.
My feet and back are rooted. Having one foot a few mm shorter than the other gives me a bit of grief at the ripe old age of 35, but provided I’ve got good treads and some muscle on my back, I’m good as gold.
$150 is my shoe budget, not the $300 old mate was trying to flog off to me, but I’m glad I meet the old codger.
Being a qualified chef in this day and age is definitely not what I expected it to be.
I undertook a diploma in management a few years back to better position myself when and if I decided to become a head chef.
The knowledge I now hold was meant to hold me in perfect stead with managing teams, budgets and all the other bits and pieces that come with being a head chef.
You can have all the training in the world, but if you dont have the resources to accomplish it, you can find things pretty difficult if you continually chase the perfect working life.
I’ve pulled up a small extract from my manage operational plan module, its the basic outline for a prime plan.
Operational planning is the process of linking strategic goals and objectives to tactical goals and objectives. It describes milestones, conditions for success and explains how or what portion of a strategic plan will be put into operation during a given operational period, in the case of a commercial application, a fiscal year or another given budgetary period. An operational plan is the basis for and justification of an annual operating budget. Therefore a five year strategic plan would require five operational plans funded by five operating budgets.
It draws directly from agency and program strategic plans to describe agency and program missions and goals, program objectives and program activities.
It addresses four questions-
• Where are we now
• Where do we want to be
• How do we get there
• How do we measure our progress
An operational plan is the first and last step in preparing an operating budget request. At the first step it provides a guide for resource allocation. At the last step the OP may be modified to reflect resource re-allocation. They should be prepared by people who implement them. There should be significant cross department dialogue as plans created by one part of the organisation inevitably have implementations for other parts.
OP should contain-
• Clear objectives.
• Activities to be delivered.
• Quality standards.
• Desired outcomes.
• Staffing and resource requirements.
• Implementation timetables.
• A process for monitoring progress.
Types of operational plans-
• Single use plan- developed to carry out a course of action not likely to be repeated.
• Standing plan- developed for activities that re-occur regularly over a period of time.
• Action plans- a plan to achieve a particular goal (e.g. get fit, get better skills at something). Generally creating a schedule to make sure more practice time is allocated.
• Annual regulatory plan- government agency’s release these early in the financial year to help businesses and governments understand changes in regulations, there impact and a source of information for businesses. Mainly to provide stakeholders with information on changes in the coming financial year.
• Project plan- a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary use of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, document approved scope cost and schedule baselines. These may be summarised or detailed.
• Debt management plan- is a formal agreement between a debtor and creditor/s. They help reduce outstanding and unsecured debts over a fixed period to help regain control of finances.
• Tactical plan- is an objective that has an immediate short term desired result of a given activity, task or mission. Usually entrusted to the lower positioned management in a three tier organisations structure. In the fields of front line/desk managers, middle management and executive management.
Sounds great hey, but who the fuck has the time or skill to realy implement this kind of thing.
Imagine all the time, resources and staff required to produce such a monstrosity, then more importantly deliver it.
This information about strategic planning I have never come across in any work situation I’ve been involved in as a head chef. Only the team that helped me study for it had something similar going on, as they trained me and allowed me to implement it.
Having set guidelines about your objectives in a job makes sense right?
Most of the time I’ve heard lots of dribble, but rarely do you see anyone wiping it up until it’s too late.
What doesn’t evolve becomes extinct. Just ask the Dinosaurs, the Dodo or Blockbuster videos.
I think I’ve made brulee at nearly every restaurant I’ve ever worked at. Always standard. As a chef all your skills are based off something someone’s taught you, or a recipe you’ve found somewhere.
The trick is, when you run your own kitchen, you’re doing something that separates you from other places, and hoping you’ve enhanced something you’ve previously learned. So how do you improve something that is prime on its own? Put it in a sandwich, the Australian way.
Evolution is slowly taking place in my convict home, but we’re definitely well behind the rest of the major cities in Australia.
People want big restaurants with fancy food, but the population dictates other wise.
Only the really good places do it and survive, provided the food is good also.
The hospitality industry is booming in a big way at the moment, a little too much for the qualified guys to handle in my experiences.
I get to work and set a standard. If it’s good enough, people come and I keep my job. If not, I’m out the door. But in general, the masses of good chefs are just not around anymore and the resources aren’t there to keep them either.
I currently run two and a half sections every night of the week. Pans, grill and half of larder (fryer) and just scrape through when we get busy. We’re a country pub and for the most part, no one gives a fuck about what they’ve seen on master chef, they just want to be fed. This is my cup of tea. Being a good chef in the city of Launceston has brought me nothing but trouble, so I’m content being out of the city limelight.
It’s probably the same everywhere else in the world and I’m not having a teary here, I just like to go to work, get paid and come home. I’ve never wanted to be a great chef, I take pride in what I do, it’s just how I was brought up. I’ve seen the pursuit of it shatter good people and I wont be taking that path.
In reality though, my home town can not sustain the big brigade kitchens that I spent the majority of my career in. The best kitchens and restaurants have at least 3 chefs, qualified and apprentices, per service to be able to maintain overall solid menus, without killing and ripping off their chefs.
I’ve been silly enough in previous jobs to bite off more than I can chew, and paid the price for it.
I’ve been known to get the shits with the boss or owners, but in reality, the money coming back in was in the most part never there.
Too many restaurants, not enough qualified professionals, and not enough patrons in there spending the cash.
I have always worked with an attitude of keeping my standards as high as I can maintain, as well as keeping everyone’s feet planted firmly on the ground.
Operational plans are great things, but they require everyone being on the same page and working as a team to achieve them.
Pulling your socks up, digging the fuck in and sucking up a few shit tasks is vital for taking an average establishment and turning it into a great one.
Having a goal then building a team you’re going to take with you is the foundation, let the specifics be put into place as you go along.
It’s a big task down in the convict state, but hopefully we’re getting there.
Tales of a Tassie Chef 