Held Hostage by your Inn Chef?

For those in the full service Country Inn world, one of the greatest fears is to be in the middle of dinner service one evening, only to hear shouting from the kitchen as your chef walks out never to return. As this happens not infrequently with "artistic" staff people, it is very important for all Innkeepers to take control of their destiny by planning for this event before it happens. If you are not "held hostage" to your chef, and he or she knows it, you may never have to deal with this issue.

One of the first elements of the plan is to make sure that in the event of any calamity in the kitchen, be it a walk out or simply a work injury, you are able to complete service through other staff members or by your own familiarity with the menu and cooking techniques. Most Innkeepers have some abilities in the kitchen, and by watching and practicing where appropriate, should be able to at least pinch hit for a night or two. At our Inn in Maine, we took that a step further. We had developed the ability to routinely run the kitchen at least once every few weeks to give the chef a needed day off. The chef still prepared all the food prior to actual service, and we learned how to cook and plate it. The result was that the chef knew that we could survive without him if we had to, and this eliminated a lot of ego issues. During the slower Winter seasons, once of us actually became the sous chef, helping with plating and learning his techniques. In a small dining room operation this turned out to be an excellent plan.

In larger Inn restaurant operations, the plan is different. Here, the goal is to make certain that the chef spends as much time as necessary developing the skills of his sous chef, so that in the event of an emergency or a problem, that individual can step up and replace the chef, at least in the short term. In essence the "plan" is similar to what happens in the corporate world, i.e. the chef is required as a part of his job to train his replacement and to have qualified backup at all times. Thus, the care and feeding of the sous chef becomes a very important part of the plan.

The key to proper management of kitchen staff is to be proactive, to make a concrete plan, and to make certain that "hostage" is never a word to be associated with your operations.