|
Vol.7 Holidays: The Revenue Myth
November 2006
The holiday season is the most food-centric time
of the year. For two celebratory months all diets are out the window
as the entire country indulges in travel and eating to excess with
family and friends. It’s truly the most wonderful time of
the year—unless you’re a chef. Chefs dread the holidays
like a looming HACCP inspection. Why?
Front of house is tempted to overbook and as the
parties grow larger and larger, set menus with predictable options
of Turkey or Goose and Apple Cobbler or Pumpkin Pie take over. Set
menus tend to make for a lot of extra ordering and prep. While the
extra-long hours deteriorate the morale of cooks unable to go home
for the holiday, guests’ tensions rise. When it comes to the
dishes themselves, nostalgia rules and even the most adventurous
fine diners who might normally go for barnacles,
yearn for classic roasts and hearty pies—this is not the time
for fussy dining and experimentation. It’s no wonder that
for chefs, whose families wait up for them at home as they work
through one special day after another, the magic of the season is
thoroughly drained.
So why bother? Chefs are used to working hard while
the rest of the country gets time-off. Holidays for most professionals
mean longer, busier nights in the restaurant industry but more importantly,
profit. Restaurants are businesses after all, and revenue is the
bottom line. Holidays, with their set menus and high alcohol orders
bring in a lot of revenue in a short amount of time. In our Culinary Trends Survey
chefs cite New Year’s Eve as the most lucrative holiday
of the year, second only to Mother’s Day.
Only 11 percent of our readers cite the more family-oriented days
of Christmas and Thanksgiving as their biggest money-making days.
Families like to camp out for a long meal as they would do at home,
meaning tables aren’t turning as fast as they should be. And
try telling a ten-top on Christmas Eve that they need to clear out
by 9 for the next party.
That said, is it worth it? Chef
Bob Kinkead of Kinkead’s
in Washington DC says no. He believes chefs gain far more from closing
the restaurant and the goodwill it promotes from their staff than
the money he would have made staying open. Kinkead closes on Thanksgiving
and Christmas to bring back a team of happy, rested cooks for a
packed New Year’s Eve dinner. Like all chef/owners Kinkead
wants to make money, but not at the expense of his team’s
sanity. On New Year’s he does a regular menu spiced up with
a few specials and a complimentary box of take-home nougats and
chocolates by Pastry Chef Hichem Lahreche. For more dessert ideas
check out our Holiday
Baking feature which includes a special list of our favorite
Dairy-Free
Desserts.
Of course not every restaurant has the luxury to
shut down, even for a day. For small restaurants dependent on the
extra revenue they anticipate at the end of the year, closing is
simply not an option. In the case of Chef Kate Rench of Café
Diva in Steamboat Springs, the restaurant relies on the seasonal
tourism brought in by Colorado’s Winter sports and holidays
and she welcomes the challenge. To prepare for that upcoming turkey
delivery, check out Kate’s advice and recipes in Turkey
Tips.
For hotel restaurants, the rules are similarly
fixed. A hotel is under obligation to its in-house guests who come
to be relieved of holiday-related stress. Guests who stay at hotels
rely on their decorations, friendly staff and holiday dinners to
make them feel at home. Peter Timmins is Executive Chef of The
Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia where their "Winter
Wonderland" theme brings in guests year after year piano concerts,
horse drawn sleigh rides through the snow, themed ice-carvings,
and dinner and dance evenings. Timmins recently hosted the 3rd Annual
Club Chef’s Institute. The three days of workshops from the
proper use of a Thermo-Circulator to experimenting with hydrocolloids
are recapped with recipes in our upcoming CCI coverage.
While the kitchen is definitively tough and it’s
common knowledge that chefs work hard year-round, the holidays are
no doubt the roughest time of the year to be in the business and
not necessarily the most profitable. Finding a suitable balance
between making ends meet and keeping cooks happy can be tricky,
so from everyone at StarChefs we wish you the best of luck as you
prep for the holidays!
Cheers!
Antoinette Bruno
Editor-in-Chief
Please provide feedback
on this feature or other content on our site by CLICKING
HERE.
|
