I Need How Many Sinks? RestEquipper’s guide to Americanizing Your Concept

I Need How Many Sinks? RestEquipper’s guide to Americanizing Your Concept

Posted on September 20, 2011 by joeferri

“Give me,” he demanded in his thick accent “twelve clean sheets of paper.” Now I knew that this was going to be a long job meeting. He intended to show us foolish Americans the proper way to build his new restaurant. After all, this is the way they do it over there. “Why do we need so many sinks?” “Why must we put a hood over every open flame?” “Why can’t I get the same equipment here that I use in Europe?”

We Americans like everything bigger, stronger, faster, louder, colder, hotter, safer, and blander. If you’re thinking of doing an ethnic food concept here in the States, you should think about the equipment ramifications. Aside from the obvious code issues (and there are many), operators typically fail to take into account the practical issues such as training staff and keeping the “engines hummin’”.

Successfully translating a concept for the American palate can be tricky. We rarely venture too far afield in our culinary adventures as consumers, so a blend of the exotic and familiar is often the only path to success. Gelato is good as long as vanilla chocolate and strawberry is offered. Greek is great, if there are burgers on the menu. Take-out-Asian will do fine – make mine an order of hot wings.

Many of the specialty pieces of equipment that are required for a particular menu item can readily be procured from our domestic producers. Some hardware is just too specialized and may need to be imported or custom manufactured This is especially the case with food preparation, rather than primary cooking, as cooking equipment around the globe really hasn’t evolved much in the four millennia of recorded history. Bringing in equipment from overseas can be tricky when considering power requirements and agency approvals (NSF, UL, AGA, etc.). Foreign made items must also be supported by service and parts availability.

Operators are often put-off by our ventilation requirements, especially when it comes to solid fuels. Sinks and warewashing is always an issue. I am certain that the single bowl handwash/scullery/mop/prep that I witnessed in the Caribbean is the norm around the world, and so, when told that they’ll need at least 7 separate sink bowls, we get that “look”.

Tapas, hummus, curry sausage, tandoor, helado, iskender, doner kabop, gyro, shawarma, we’ve seen them all in the past year. Each has its own challenges. Living in the New York metro area and sampling the latest culinary trends from around the world has been culturally gratifying. Working here to help operators bring these to the table has always been professionally rewarding.

Late Summer

This time, the smell was different. It was no longer scented with the blooms of spring or early summer.  Musty, it was perfumed with wet earth, and rotting leaves.  The four days of late season thunderstorms had subsided.  I was finally able to venture outside for some sunshine.  This was the time of year that I loved most growing up, but I also hated it.  You see, like most kids I hated giving up my freedom to go back to school.  I know, it’s hard to believe that a nerd like me hated school, but I did.  I think we all are inherently upset at the season’s change.  We look at autumn’s arrival as though we are staring down the barrel of a shotgun. 

But it is time to get back to school.  Not only the children, but the adults as well need to continue their educations.  How about you?  Have you ventured out of your comfort zone?  We decry the lack of training and knowledge in our industry, but rarely invest our time to better ourselves and the business at large.  I was surprised at the lack of my peers at a recent end-user conference (even though it meant that I personally had better networking opportunities).  There are also tradeshows, seminars, webinars, blogs, Twitter feeds, E-mag’s – we have more avenues for learning than ever before.  Do we take full advantage of them?

Learning opportunities abound.  We give great lip-service to education, but usually don’t “walk the walk”.  An investment of our resources will invariably pay great dividends to ourselves, our businesses, our communities and our industry.

The corn is tasseled, the leaves are mostly still on the trees.  We still have time to enjoy the rest of the summer.  The great recession still affords us ample opportunity to re-tool our skills, to get back to school, to learn a few new tricks.  But we’ll need to give up some of our freedom, to get out from behind our desks, venture out and attend some events.  Who knows, you just might learn something.

Late Summer

This time, the smell was different. It was no longer scented with the blooms of spring or early summer.  Musty, it was perfumed with wet earth, and rotting leaves.  The four days of late season thunderstorms had subsided.  I was finally able to venture outside for some sunshine.  This was the time of year that I loved most growing up, but I also hated it.  You see, like most kids I hated giving up my freedom to go back to school.  I know, it’s hard to believe that a nerd like me hated school, but I did.  I think we all are inherently upset at the season’s change.  We look at autumn’s arrival as though we are staring down the barrel of a shotgun. 

But it is time to get back to school.  Not only the children, but the adults as well need to continue their educations.  How about you?  Have you ventured out of your comfort zone?  We decry the lack of training and knowledge in our industry, but rarely invest our time to better ourselves and the business at large.  I was surprised at the lack of my peers at a recent end-user conference (even though it meant that I personally had better networking opportunities).  There are also tradeshows, seminars, webinars, blogs, Twitter feeds, E-mag’s – we have more avenues for learning than ever before.  Do we take full advantage of them?

Learning opportunities abound.  We give great lip-service to education, but usually don’t “walk the walk”.  An investment of our resources will invariably pay great dividends to ourselves, our businesses, our communities and our industry.

The corn is tasseled, the leaves are mostly still on the trees.  We still have time to enjoy the rest of the summer.  The great recession still affords us ample opportunity to re-tool our skills, to get back to school, to learn a few new tricks.  But we’ll need to give up some of our freedom, to get out from behind our desks, venture out and attend some events.  Who knows, you just might learn something.

www.pecinkaferri.com

Many Unhappy Returns

Okay, we’ve all been here before – the knives that are “too sharp” and the char broiler that is “too hot”.  And we’ve probably heard the “I’m throwing ‘your equipment’ out onto the street if you don’t resolve this” line more times than we’d like to admit.  What happened to the individual responsibility of the purchaser for the choices that were made?  Is our disposable culture of the “no quibble warranty” so pervasive that there’s no other way to resolve issues than to send the E&S back in exchange for new?

The market has certainly matured for foodservice equipment and supplies. Years ago, I recall a dealer telling end-users who were concerned with scratches on the stainless steel on equipment that he was delivering “what were you expecting, jewelry?”  But that was then and this is now.  The consumer empowerment contagion of the big box retailers, and websites that are all too willing to accept returns – no questions asked – has spilled over into the commercial arena.  The expectations are unmanageable.

A certain celebrity ordered a half size convection oven to roast his Thanksgiving turkey in his Manhattan apartment.  Neither he, nor the dealer bothered to check if there was enough power, space to mount the unit, or of a way to deliver it (I’m sure that the celebrity’s building doorman was thrilled).  Given the fact that, oh by the way, the cavity of a commercial half size convection oven is actually smaller than a domestic oven, Mr. Hollywood now wanted to return the oven.  My partner saved that particular voice mail message for many months. 

What dealer showroom or rep facility isn’t filled with the OOPS inventory of salesman errors?   What service agency doesn’t have the dead inventory of yesterday’s (or this morning’s) outdated solid state components?  In a society rushing headlong towards the latest, greatest, state-of-the-artest, we’ve seen controls that are obsolete before they make it into production after being introduced at a trade show.

Get it right the first time?  With all of the variables in utilities, sizes and options, thousands of possible permutations for each model can be configured.  Mistakes happen despite the shop drawing procedures that most factories have in place, and the configurators that many more have on-line.  Take the school cafeteria line-up that was signed off on, produced and delivered, only to be rejected because it was the mirror image of what was called for.  

Can you say “restock” and “charge back”?  I personally know of no words that are more dreaded in the dealer community than these (except maybe “freight charge”).  There is no-one that wants to absorb these fees, no matter how justified they may be.

With razor thin margins, how can we afford to continue on this path?  Without the benefit of the good will that it engenders, how can we not?

www.pecinkaferri.com

There's a Jet Engine Roaring Out of my Fryer

Did you ever have the sneaking suspicion that what you were being told was slightly inaccurate?
We handle lots of technical questions from our end-user clients, but this one was particularly disturbing. The operator had called in to the dealer to complain about flames shooting from their new fryers.
I had been skeptical when it was first proposed to upgrade this pizza shop from economy equipment to high-efficiency deep fryers. But, after all, this independent restaurant was an extremely high volume store. The sale, installation and demonstrations all went off without a hitch. They loved the equipment. It kept up with demand. It was easy to use. Move onto the next opportunity, right? Wrong.
Three months in, the phone calls started. “The equipment works great during the day, but when we start it up in the morning we get a plume of fire shooting up from the flue.” That’s what they should have said. But instead the message we got translated from the original kitchen-Spanglish to the kitchen-Italian, to dealer lingo, then to the rep receptionist, and finally to me was that the fryers are ‘on fire every day, and that if we don’t fix it today they are going to put “my” fryers out on the street’.
Technical service was sent in, three times! No-one could find anything wrong. We decided to investigate ourselves.
One of our reps showed up early enough to watch them start up the equipment, stuck around through meal service, and there it was. Sure enough: flame thrower! We never saw anything like it. The factory service department couldn’t figure it out.
The fry-cook had decided that the fries would drain faster with a blast of heat from the flu. So every batch got drained down the flu, by resting the fry basket on top. It made a great crispy hot French fry, but it also caused a grease fire in the flue every time the fryer was started up.
A simple correction in operational procedure, and we haven’t heard of any problems on the fryers since.
Our industry continues to roll out ever more sophisticated equipment (particularly in NAFEM years). It seems as if each demonstration done is on a new software version of the operation controls. Ah, training, where would we be without it? Who pays for the multiple re-trainings in the high turnover environment of our end-users? Who trains the trainers?

How about a side of profits to go with that double order of growth? - 5Ways E&S controls food costs

We’ve all seen headlines trumpeting the economy’s recovery. With restaurant counts and reservations projected to be up, per-check averages rising, "trading down” is now being replaced by “trading up”.

But are operator profits going to rise? Food and fuel costs are spiraling, and labor costs can’t be far behind.

The foodservice equipment professional’s new mandate will be to assist the operator in keeping a lid on rising costs. We can assist in controlling food costs through the application of available technologies.

•  Spot purchases can be an excellent method of taking advantage of seasonal pricing on produce (and to promote sustainability as well). Blast Chilling & Shock Freezing helps in keeping seasonal items available & fresh all year long. Better temperature control in walk-ins will boost shelf life too.

•  Ethylene control in refrigeration will cut down on produce spoilage.

• Better inventory control can be achieved through planned storage & shelving systems, along with labeling technologies, which can mitigate waste.

• Portion reductions can be averted by utilizing Combi Ovens for greater yields. This method will attain double digit gains in yield resulting in more portions (and better quality) per cut.

• Traditionally lesser grades of proteins can be enhanced through Slow Roasting, and/or Smoking. Here again, the product can be enhanced and additional menu items will be created at lower food costs.

The Equipment Professional must Leverage their equipment knowledge and enhance the profits of their clients. They just might return the favor.  http://www.pecinkaferri.com

Read more: http://fohboh.com/profiles/blogs/how-about-a-side-of-profits-to#ixzz1HRc81TnN