Hey there, Roger back at you with the podcast. So glad you’re here. Today’s guest, Simon Zatyrka, has moved his way up over a long career in kitchens to become a sous chef, a manager, a consultant, and now a podcast host. He is known as the cook. culinary mechanic. I was so fortunate to be on his podcast a while back, so I just had to share.

 he’s a great guest and we had so much in common. Very passionate guy. We’re going to talk all about leadership. We’re going to talk about systems and profits and mostly company culture and what it takes to get the most out of our people and really have a positive influence on our people that then Translates into great guest experiences.

So thanks for tuning in. I’d like you to note that you can follow us on your favorite podcast player, also you can get every episode if you subscribe to our YouTube channel. So. Don’t miss out on that. And I also wanted you to know if you have any restaurant questions or any business challenges, reach out to me, Roger, spelled R O G E R, at restaurantrockstars.

com. I’d be glad to give you my input on that. Now, on with the episode.

You’re tuned in to the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast. Powerful ideas to rock your restaurant. Here’s your host, Roger Beaudoin.

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Hey, everybody. Welcome back. This is the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast. Simon, how are you today?

I’m

doing

great, man.

Thanks for having me on. I love talking shop with fellow hospitality professionals and those that are passionate and, something that you believe in and something I read on your website really struck me, you came for the food and stayed for the people, that’s really awesome.

Do you want to give us a background on that or what that means to you?

Yeah, I come from pretty big family, so I fall into a little bit of a cliché as a kid I was always around the kitchen loved hanging out with grandma, right? Got in when I first needed a job, mom said, There’s a restaurant down the street, go.

And so that just made sense and I got in and I fell in love with being in the kitchen and the community of the kitchen but I also fell in love with the things that could be done with food and wow, like I can actually feed myself better than I did before. I can help feed others. Became just crazed about learning about the food but as time went on in my career, say 10, 15, almost 20 years in.

I realized I can do great things, but I can’t do them without having great people around me and great people bought into the mission that I’m on. And I can’t do it without their support and their ability to continue on what I’m trying to do. And so I really, like I said, I really Began to fall in love with how to lead people and how to truly get things moving at a kind of

light speed through your people.

Sweet. You’ve had a long restaurant journey. So you started in the kitchen, then you moved up to sous chef. You became a manager. Now you’re consulting with clients and you’re a podcast host. You get a wealth of information to share. So I’m really excited to dive in. What really stands out to you over your career?

All those different positions. Do you have any key learnings that really stuck with you that you now try to pass on to other restaurants that you work with?

Yeah. I think for me, what it has become is, especially as time has gone on and the, that loud authoritative authoritarian sort of style of command management has fallen a little bit, hopefully it’s fallen away, but I will dare say it’s fallen away slowly.

The biggest thing for me is ask before you speak, right? Like I try to add when I’m managing people and leading people, I’m trying really hard to understand what got them to make that decision so that I can help them with their decision making. And so really for me, it’s about, it becomes about asking a couple of questions to get them like primed to understand what it is because i think if people start to speak out loud what they’re doing they go oh actually that’s not what you said yesterday yeah exactly so that’s been the big one awesome and I think that the, just the power of taking care of people,

right,

The power of just yeah the power of, Hey man, I’ll take care of that problem for you.

But when I need a problem taken care of, I’m going to need some help, and working together. So that’s really been the biggest thing for me.

That word hospitality is the foundation of our business, and it’s not just about the way we treat our guests, it’s the way we treat each other in an organization, team members, and leaders, and all that kind of stuff, and everyone wants to be treated the way they would hope to be treated, but it goes so much above and beyond.

It’s it’s about caring for other people, and I think you just said that best.

 Simon, every industry, restaurants included, use the word manager as a default. You’re a general manager, you’re a dining room manager, bar manager, whatever. And It’s really about leadership.

I’m hearing the word leadership come across with what, your approach to this business. What do you think the difference is and what does leadership really mean to you?

Wow. At its core, I would really say that leadership is the expansion of influence. I think that the best way to get somebody to help you with a problem or to follow you is to make sure that they understand what it is you believe in and what it is that you’re trying to do.

And so I think that as oftentimes leaders, Become these folks who have like they wield the broad sort of power, right? I’m the leader I’m in charge and it gets convoluted a little bit and I feel like those become managers, right? Versus the leaders. I think the leader I think for me leadership really is about Having a vision having a Thought that you want to push something forward, whatever that may be, and having people understand it and really grab onto it.

So that for me is the core of it is expanding influence. And I think that you can get way more into something, you can read a John Maxwell book and get seven layers of leadership and all this stuff. But at the end of the day, it is the expansion of influence.

Excellent. so much for sharing.

Yeah, I really want everyone to understand that because, again, just because you hold that title of manager doesn’t mean that you can inspire other people to greatness, that you can motivate them and recognize talent in them and lead by example. And that’s so foundational along with hospitality.

So I really like that, that that idea and that definition. But it goes beyond that. And there’s a culture element here too. And we’re going to get into that, but your current mission right now is to improve culture, systems, and profit, not only for chefs, but for restaurateurs and to improve overall operations.

Let’s tackle each of those one at a time. Let’s talk about what culture really means and how you achieve culture.

I think for me, when I think about culture, I think of. The way, whatever way it is I guess the best way to explain it is however you do something that is that should be the way that it’s done.

If you mop, you should mop and you believe that mopping left to right and pulling back towards you, as opposed to walking forward with the mop is the way, then that’s the way. And I think that culture becomes how we, as a group, Do something, right? And I think that, there’s a whole lot of other things to be in there, but at its simplest for me, it’s how we, as a group do things and do what we do.

And that, and again, I try to keep these definitions as simple and as just fundamental because there’s so many layers of culture. Culture can be how we eat, how we take care of the guests, how we take care of the vendors, how, all those things in the restaurant, but at the end of the day it becomes, it comes all the way back to how we do things.

I think my wife would agree with that because she’s always telling me how you do one thing is how you do everything. Okay. So that’s really important to keep in mind. With so many different personalities in a restaurant, is there a way to get everyone on board so that we’re quality minded and that literally how you sweep the floor?

It’s There’s a consistency, uniformity, and a structure to what we do, because ultimately the guest experience is affected by numerous people in a restaurant from start to finish. That’s hard to achieve, isn’t it? But it’s all, but that goes back to leadership. So what do you think the key is to that?

Systems. All day long. Systems. I think that setting expectations, making clear the standards, and then. Lining out what is step one? Step one, let’s go back to the mop, right? We’re going to go from left to right and we’re going to back out of the space. So it’s a clear definition, a clear, setting that clear expectation and a definition of the standards and the steps that go into that.

And that’s, once again, step one. It’s super simple definitions that can be built on over time, but for me, that’s what a system is, right? It goes back to the way. How do you do it? This is the way we do it. What are the steps that go into it? This is the system we use.

As long as we’re on the subject.

Simon, this is really important right now because no one needs to hear again. There’s a labor challenge going on. So many restaurants are struggling with this labor thing. And I remember, I’ve hired literally in multiple restaurants, a couple of hundred people over the years, probably for all these restaurants.

And I had a low turnover and, we had great morale and team spirit and all that and culture and all that kind of stuff. But I do coach, and I travel across the country a lot, and I hear frequently from restaurant owners and general. They’ll call themselves general manager. I’ll call them general leader.

But they ask me all the time. It’s like, why don’t people do what we expect? Why don’t they show up on time? Why is their performance on target sometimes, but they’re not consistent and all that. And then there’s that element of this person has a really solid skillset and I need this person, but they got a toxic attitude.

It’s like, how do we turn it around? Do I let them go? But we seem to need these people more than these people need us. And I’m sure that’s a common thread with so many of our listeners right now. What do you have to say about that?

Toxic people have to go. I’m, I am far I said this recently to a friend of mine.

Culture eats skill for breakfast, right? We have to define our culture and we have to know. What it is we believe in and if the, and if what we believe in is treating everybody in our path and everybody in our circle with respect and dignity and treating them as we really truly want to be treated, then that’s part of the culture and that’s what’s got, that’s the standard that’s got to be set.

And for me I, Probably have been guilty in the past of holding on to people that were amazing performers like that grill guy doesn’t, he’ll put out 300 steaks in an evening and It’s flawless, right? Like he doesn’t make a single mistake, but he’s a dick. 10 15 years ago I might have kept that guy for a while and then eventually he would have fired himself because that’s what they do But nowadays I’m far more inclined to say, you know what?

That’s not gonna fit with your culture. I can train the next guy to be the beast on the grill. Let’s go ahead and do that. I’m much more inclined nowadays to say Get the people that believe what you believe and how you believe it. in standing next to you and you’ll be far more powerful and you might have to tweak the menu a little bit so that you because you have fewer people for a while you may have to make some you may have to hold the door just a few minutes to make sure that newer team can do it but in the end you’re going to come up with a group that is much more Being there much more excited about working together and getting that gal over there out of the weeds or that guy working together an absolute pack of dogs, you know I’m just going where the problems are as opposed to oh look you’re you’re you’re awesome most of the time But you’re having a bad day and you’re faltering and now We’re just going to let you go, right?

We’re just going to let you just drown in the weeds. Cause at the end of the day, the customer really doesn’t care. And I think that our business as leaders is to guard that business. So I’m all for get rid of toxic people and make some of those. Fast little adaptations and pivots to make sure that your team feels taken care of.

And there’s nothing more taking, there’s nothing more to support that feeling than to get rid of the jerk who’s causing drama.

Thank you so much for sharing. And that’s tough decisions. For a lot of people to make, but I absolutely agree with you. I’ve been there myself. I once had a chef that threw pots and pans and yelled at the front of house staff constantly, amazing culinarian, put on amazing food, could handle the pressure and the heat in the kitchen, but he just lost his temper so often.

And I just said, you know what, this just doesn’t work. And like you said, the staff stepped up, they all figured out we can do what he does. We don’t need this guy. And. Their morale and their happiness and the team spirit was enough to overcome that toxicity. So I’m glad that you said that and that everyone’s listening because you’re right.

We used to call it weeding the garden. You gotta do it. If everything isn’t as you expect, thank you very much for sharing that. What about recognition and rewards? People work for a paycheck. Everyone wants to get paid, needs to get paid. But people personally work for so much more than that.

They’re looking for fulfillment. They need to know that their voice matters, their opinion counts. But recognizing people, have you seen, or in your past, have you, implemented any recognition rewards that really stood out and people just looked forward to it and they loved the program?

I think we’ve been a part of a number of organizations where there was an employee of the month or an employee of the quarter, and I always liked those.

Honestly,

at its best for me, it’s like that morning ritual of meeting for two minutes before service starts and looking at that person going, Hey, you guys, looking at the team that was there for yesterday’s lunch going, you guys killed it yesterday. That was awful. The tour bus pulled up, and it just mobbed us, and you guys handled it like champs.

There was no drama, there was nothing. Thank you. And, oftentimes connected like an A look in the eye and a handshake is amazing. And then, if there’s a gift card kicking around I worked for one hotel and they did these tokens. So every time you had a great day, you got a couple of tokens.

If you had a flawless service and the chef really saw that you were killing it, there was tokens. And at some point, I think it was 25, you could cash them in. Awesome. I was cashing in 25s all the time because I was like let’s see. I can make more money than I make now. Great. Here, let me help you.

Here, let me help you. And it drove, but that becomes contagious. Oh yeah. And I think that, so that, that was good. I worked for a company and they gave out 15, 20 gift cards to Starbucks when people were doing it and it was. Public. And I think that’s the thing is in front of the team.

And it doesn’t have to be massive, right? But it does need to be public. It does need to be, Hey, this guy did a great job. He’s killing it. And it needs to be consistent, right? It can’t just be like the favorite son or the favorite daughter. It needs to be, Hey, you killed it and you killed it and you killed it.

Thank you. And sometimes, it costs a little money to the organization, but the goodwill that it brings.

It’s just unparalleled. It comes back to you in spades and the guest experience definitely improves. And the guest walks in the door and they can tell if a restaurant’s running on all cylinders or if it’s controlled chaos, they can tell if the team has, camaraderie and team spirit and everyone’s pulling together.

And those are the kind of restaurants you want to go to because if the team are happy, then the guests are happy. So I’m glad that you shared that as well. Let’s talk about systems. What are those key systems that are super important for any restaurant?

I think for me, the ones that really, really make a difference for me are just things that give me numbers to look at, so in the form of in the form of schedules, like I’m a big fan, whether it be I’m a big fan of the scheduling tools, whether it be a seven shifts or a hot schedules or a schedule fly back in the day, I wrote my own.

I created my own templates for schedule, costed schedules on Excel and they worked fine. But I think that no matter what those are, I want to be able to understand where the number is, right? I want to understand how that’s going to compare to the expectations that are being set for me. And a scheduling tool is probably the first one.

The second one is great order guides, right? I want lots of information in there. I want PARs and I want PARs to be active. And when I say that, I mean, every person that’s doing an order that’s going through should be looking at where that PAR lives in connection with reality.

So if I, If the par is six and I continually use three every time I order, then maybe I should make the par five and then we’ll see where we are and see if there’s not an aberration. And maybe if it’s really continuing to use three, then I’ll bring it down to four. And so I do that by always making notes in the left margin of that thing.

But pars, always recording on hands, always recording, Ordering what I order and making it clear. And my order guides in pretty much all the restaurants I’ve run in the last 20 years, there’s always a spot for the date and the day so that if something is weird it’s really clear and we always sign off.

Everybody puts their initials right. So there’s accountability so that if the order is really weird, you can go back to Jimmy and go, Jimmy, what’s going on? And I think. Those are the two big ones for me. After that, it’s, it’s great recipes are written on the line. If it’s a big restaurant with a lot of things, I like to do like station guides where it’s a little piece of paper that’s laminated and it’s stuck right in front of the cook.

And then it’s a quick build on all their salads or all their sandwiches, and it’s all in the order that it’s supposed to go. Those are those things that allow us to be to be consistent, huge portion guy, like creative

ways,

creative ways. Whether it’s sometimes it’s we’re going to buy 20, one cup measuring cups, and we’re going to have them in every place that you need about a cup of something.

Or it’s just you have the little paper boat and you fill the paper boat up with fries and it’s level and you put your hand across it, boom, that’s fries. Whatever that may be just having, the Having different ways to, to measure that is super, super important for

1. Yeah, because all that impacts food costs and all that sort of thing.

And so many restaurants just don’t have the basic standards, a cost sheet, a photo of what the plated dish should look like with the specs, and the checks and balances to make sure that all the cooks that are making the same items are doing it with that consistency. You’re absolutely right about that.

Yeah.

I think one step farther beyond that is, And this comes from some of the restaurants that I’ve been that were a little more corporate. And I know that corporate can be a bad thing sometimes in people’s minds. But for me, corporate means consistency, right? Like when I really think about corporate restaurants, those guys have found dozens and hundreds of ways to be as consistent as possible so that you get what you expect when you walk in, right?

Like them or don’t. Like a corporate restaurant or don’t. You can, the honest truth is, when you go into an Applebee’s, like Applebee’s is Applebee’s, right? Going higher on the chain, you go to a Darden restaurant, like a Capital Grill or an Olive Garden, and the standards are the same. And I’ve tested that a couple of times.

I’ve been in a Capitol Grill here in Seattle, gone to a Capitol Grill in Atlanta and been like, wow, this is just the same. And it’s great. And that’s what I want from my guests day in and day out to be able to get the same thing. So whatever that takes, and a lot of times for me the big system is a training calendar.

And this is something that not everybody talks about, but like I’ll lay out the menu across the, Two months and every day we’re going to train something new and we’re going to get the guests, I’m sorry, get the staff. Both front and back of house to see it and taste it as it’s supposed to be down to every single little speck and every little piece and the proper technique.

It’s going to get cooked correctly and then put out. And that way you can see what it is. And. That system alone saves thousands and thousands of dollars.

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Yeah, and so there is a challenge in that, because everyone’s different, their approach is different, their personality is different, and certain people will think about the consistency and the quality and the care, and other people will do things haphazardly, but the checks and balances have to be there, because as you pointed out, the consistency, whether you’ve got it One single location, you want to create lots of regular repeat guests that every time they come in, if they order the same menu item, because they love it so much, you want it to be absolutely the same every time.

If you have a chain restaurant, five, six, ten locations, and the menu is the same, people travel to a different location, they want everything to be the same. And that, that unto itself is a very important system for sure. And that’s hard to achieve, but without the standards, without the expectations and the training, like you mentioned, and right down to the little nuances, and the portion controls everything about it.

I always called this the, the business of a thousand details because there really are there,

absolutely.

How about financials? How about in your practice when work with different clients, do you see them taking inventory? Are they costing out their menus that are so important right now and analyzing their menu profit as prices rise?

And we’re paying huge labor costs now, mostly in the kitchen. Are they analyzing their labor costs week to week? And these are controls and systems also. What do you see there?

I’m seeing a mixed bag. Usually if they’re calling me, they’re calling for some help to really up the game of their chef, right?

Get their leadership bigger. So they’ve probably already got past some of that fundamentals, but not always. I recently came into a restaurant group with four units and they didn’t take inventory and they didn’t have a recipe book anywhere. Man, was their food tasty and it was really good. But because product costs had just gone a little screwy, I think this was almost two years ago that I first stepped in with them and there was a big lettuce thing going on, right?

Romaine lettuce went from 26 to 94 a case. And all of a sudden that cute little side salad that they serve with everything. They realized that. A, it’s costing them way more than it used to. And then upon further inspection, they looked and realized that they would have one of the cashiers, help out in the kitchen.

It was a quick serve restaurant. So she would make the salad, all the salads for it to go. She’d maybe do 15, 20 of them. And one day the owner is sitting with me and he looks over my shoulder behind me and he goes, wait, What are you doing? And he goes over to the young lady and he talks to her and he says, what’s the portion?

She says, I don’t know. I always just fill it up. And so he went and he got a scale and I said, what is the portion? He says, Oh, I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. And I was like, okay, so you don’t, and I’d been brought into, to to build his recipe book and cost it. So I watched and he’s Oh no, it should be more like this.

And I So it’s just what you say. Okay. And that’s really common. I see that all the time. At some point in people’s evolution, right? There’s, Oh, the owner says, and then it becomes the director of their, the, whatever the manager comes over and goes, Oh, I want to see it like this. Oh, but the manager said, or the owner said, and then it’s a, he said, she said, so I see.

All the way back to the beginning with some people, right? Where they’re not, they haven’t costed anything out. And then I’m more and more, I’m seeing people that are taking the time to get the costs and the recipes built. I see scheduling tools pretty much across the board. I don’t know how or why, but I think that comes down to the ability to message out to them and, just it makes it easier to get the employees to.

To them by having a scheduling tool that’s online and they can access it and they can interact. So I feel like that has become something that is far more Adopted in this current age, whereas people are still getting, some people are still getting to the place of, talking. Just yesterday afternoon, I was talking to a restaurateur and she was describing how good the chef was with numbers.

In fact, he could take his recipe and put it on a napkin with a Sharpie and cost it out right there. And I was like, Oh my God. Okay. But tell me he does it other ways too. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I’m like, okay, good. Because I had this vision of going into his office and finding a clipboard full of napkins, but he, they swear to me that he actually does put it into a spreadsheet and has it costed.

And I think, I’m hoping that we can look at that. down the road as I get to working with them to get it even a little more tuned.

Pricing certainly seems to rise more than it goes down. So it just emphasizes the importance of costing out your menu and redoing it a couple of months in, because, you cannot control the volatility, the markets and the rising costs.

You can’t control the high labor costs that we all have to pay in restaurants now, but you can control menu profit. You mentioned portion controls, that’s certainly part of it, but then there’s also the rising ingredients, and you mentioned the spike in the romaine lettuce, recently, again, eggs went through the roof, and if you get a breakfast place, goodbye, right?

Avocados, chicken wings went through the roof not too long ago, like all these things, and if you don’t stay on top of it, you’re losing money on menu items in a margin of error. That’s, a short shrinking margin business already. It’s so dangerous. So thanks for emphasizing that, once you cost out your menu and you see where things are going up, you got to adjust your pricing of course, or your portion control standards, or even you’re a chef.

I used to always work with my suppliers and they knew what I was buying now, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. They bring in all kinds of different products all the time. And I was always asking what is comparable to what I’m buying now, but maybe you bought it in a larger quantity. You’re getting a better price on it.

And now you can pass that on to me. And if you don’t ask, it’s And I always tasted a sample. I’m like, bring me a sample of that. And if the quality and if the flavor profile is all right there, then we switched all the time. And again, one of those details that really saves your bottom line.

It’s so important, right?

I think that, Being able to look at your vendor, whether they be the produce or, the french fry guy, and go, what are my options? Cause oftentimes they’re, a perfect example is tomatoes. Once upon a time I was doing like big, huge slices of tomato on a sandwich and the tomatoes, they just started coming in green.

And I called the guy up and I was like, get me red tomatoes. He’s Chef, I’m sorry. Like we, we are stuck in this in this market right now. And we have about two weeks and then we transitioned to buying them from Mexico as opposed to California. And then you’ll get the red tomatoes you want.

And I was like all right, stop. Not all tomatoes come from the same place. What else can I do? And he goes you can bring in Roma’s. They’re coming in beautiful right now. And so we, For two, three weeks, we sliced twice as many Roma tomatoes and put those on our sandwiches because it was the right thing to do, right?

Like I’m not serving green tomatoes and I didn’t want to take them off. It was just too much of a part of the flavor profile. But it’s, what are my options? Cause they have them, they have plenty of options.

Oh my gosh. Yes. It always amazed me, the vendors and the account managers or the sales reps that we deal with when we own restaurants, the number of products that they need to stay on top of and new products are coming in the door all the time, they’re like an encyclopedia of knowledge.

If you’ve got a really solid rep, That person can be a huge benefit to your business. I’ve always marveled at that. That’s a skillset for sure, but they are, they work for your business and they’re there to help and improve, your restaurant operation. Let’s talk about the pricing thing, because you already talked about making the tough decisions when you got to get rid of toxic people.

Sometimes we have to make menu changes based on rising prices. When something really spikes. Suddenly the value proposition is lost because you can’t charge 35 bucks for a cheeseburger or, 50 bucks for a plate of wings. And I know I’m exaggerating, but you get what I’m saying here. It’s what do you do when you get a ceiling on what the guest still believes is a value for what they’re receiving?

The price just went through the roof, but your place is known for wings. It’s what do you do?

I

mean,

sometimes you break, sometimes you Oh, there’s a couple of ways to do it. I think number one, sometimes you got to take some price increases, right? And you got to understand where that ceiling is.

And beyond that if that’s still going to be your driver, then maybe it’s time to get known for something else. I was, I worked with a regional director who he had this approach to it that was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and that was. He’d look at me, he’d come in for a visit every couple months and he’d look at me and he’d say, chef, what do you want to sell tonight?

And I said man, the halibut came in great. Price was awesome. The preparation is dope. We’ll have it for the next two weeks. And he’d say, okay, fire two of those. Fire him up. He’d say, how do they look? I’d say, they look great. Take him out. He’d gather the staff and go, come on over. I want you to see this.

And he’d have me explain it top to bottom, left to we’d get them eating it. And he’s I need everybody to sell a minimum of six of these. He goes, this is a great value for your guest. It’s gonna do great good things for your check average. It’s great for the chef’s food cost. It’s awesome.

Everything we want, I want you to sell these tonight. And they would go out and it would just be like, all hands on deck for Halibut. And I’d, usually I’d shift a second cook onto the fish station, and we’d just run. And it was amazing, and as I got comfortable doing that, I learned that if something’s kicking my ass, if filet mignons are just going, and every time I sell 40 filet mignons on a Friday, my food cost jumps a half a percent, then that’s not what I want.

So I started coming up with cool, inventive, very au courant, very of the day specials with a great top sirloin cut that I would get, I would smoke it and we’d come up with a cool sauce and then we’d just promote the hell out of it.

Yes. And get the servers on board.

And I, so anybody that’s listening to this, I really want them to know that Not only is it the chef’s job, the manager’s job to come up with that food or run that dining room, but also direct that staff where you need them.

Because they want to do what’s good for the restaurant. Nobody wakes up and says, I think I’ll screw people over today. They want to do well. And they want the restaurant to do well because it brings a sense of pride. Give them the tools, right? Show them what is going to be the best thing for the restaurant.

And that is, if that’s selling meatloaf, like hand over fist, let’s sell meatloaf. And I think that we as the people that are costing things out and really designing that menu, we have the power to be able to shift people’s minds, right? If you get people excited about a product, they’re going to go sell it.

This comes full circle with lots of things we’ve talked about and things you’ve brought up. We talked about the importance of a pre shift meeting, and yes, tasting is important, but knowing the profitability based on costing out your menu and what’s going to make a lot of money for the restaurant that the guest is also going to enjoy and appreciate, and really guiding them strategically in how to do what’s best for the restaurant, like you said.

So that’s another thing, It all comes back to leadership. It comes back to costing out your menu. It’s all about regular training and that company culture and that team spirit and the recognition rewards and just creating an environment that’s fun. And I think, everything you said sums all those things up that the guest wins, the restaurant wins, right?

What’s better than that?

That’s a busy restaurant, moving.

Any other ideas you want to share? We covered a lot of ground today, Simon.

I think that my biggest message lately has been really about not only teaching and the importance of teaching, and we teach, this is how you do it.

I want more leaders to be teaching how, not just how. But why? Like, why do we do that? Why, or why don’t we do some certain technique, right? Like, why do we do that? And more than that, I want leaders to teach how they want others to teach. If I’m teaching, if I’m teaching you how to, To execute a dish, I’m going to, I’m going to explain it and I’m going to go back and have you show me what you’ve just learned and there’s a way to to teach and to train.

And I think that for me lately has been lost. Man, when I say lately, about the last 10 years, I think there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of me, and I really want more we happening. I want more people to be. Enwrapped in the community of teaching and the culture of teaching.

So that’s my soapbox for today is teach more about how and why and how you want others to teach. Cause that’s what matters.

That is so great. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. And you’ve been a great guest on the podcast, Simon. Thanks for joining us. You’re a credit to the industry. Again, I enjoy talking to you.

I think we are very like minded on operations and systems and profit and all those things. And I think you’ve been a benefit to our audience today. Awesome. Just try to add a little value along the way, man. That was the Restaurant Rockstars podcast. Thanks so much to our audience for tuning in.

Thank you to our sponsors of this week’s show. Can’t wait to see you all in the next episode. stay well, We’ll see you there.

People go to restaurants for lots of reasons, for fun, celebration, for family, for lifestyle. What the customer doesn’t know is the thousands of details it takes to run a great restaurant. This is a high risk, high fail business. It’s hard to find great staff, costs are rising and profits are disappearing.

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