Over the past twenty years, the number of restaurants in the city where I live has grown at a dizzying pace. At least eighty restaurants have opened in my neighborhood in the course of the last two years.
What was once a dark street now has competing restaurants on the block, each newer and more illuminated than the other. Exhaust fumes from air conditioners mask all appetizing aromas that could escape through the doors, choking potential clients that walk by.
The new restaurants all have one thing in common, a rigid caste system of restaurant managers, assistant restaurant managers, dining room managers, kitchen managers, each proudly displaying name and rank on the name tag pinned to his or her chest. Every client shouldn't forget to investigate a candidates tags to see if he has attended and honorably graduated from a restaurant or hotel management school.
This state of affairs does not make the food taste any better. It certainly does not speed up service, but rather the opposite. Just like the saying: Too many cooks spoil the broth when each of the cooks is guarding his or her station hoping to do better than the other cooks around them.
Succeeding, obviously, is gaged by monetary terms, not the quantity of devoted clientele. I am convinced that at those restaurant and hotel management schools a course is offered on how to combine dishonesty and intimidation when recommending the most expensive meal on the menu.
The entrepreneurially-minded assistant to the assistant manager next employs these talents to complement his or her own earnings. This depends on the assistant managers clever use of intimidation to extract exorbitant and undeserved tips.
At one time, restaurants that were successes were run by individuals who cared. Not only did they care about the restaurant, they also cared about their clientele. They were often family-owned eateries, where the owner, manager, his son, daughter or employee, no name tags, no caste system, would develop personal relationships with the local butcher, fishmonger or vegetable vendor. They were not above going to market and buying the freshest products available to use for cooking dishes, not ones bearing long unpronounceable names imported from across seas and horribly mangled.
Long gone are the days of asking an employee at a restaurant what is good, and worth ordering on any given night. Hotel and restaurant management schools have changed the way things are done over the past several decades. The manager, owner, waiter, kitchen boy, whomever, would answer you honestly and enthusiastically. The locals have a way of saying that their roasted poultry is so delicious that you might end up eating your fingers. Of course they're joking as they tell you this with a hint of a smile but inevitably they are correct. - 15478
What was once a dark street now has competing restaurants on the block, each newer and more illuminated than the other. Exhaust fumes from air conditioners mask all appetizing aromas that could escape through the doors, choking potential clients that walk by.
The new restaurants all have one thing in common, a rigid caste system of restaurant managers, assistant restaurant managers, dining room managers, kitchen managers, each proudly displaying name and rank on the name tag pinned to his or her chest. Every client shouldn't forget to investigate a candidates tags to see if he has attended and honorably graduated from a restaurant or hotel management school.
This state of affairs does not make the food taste any better. It certainly does not speed up service, but rather the opposite. Just like the saying: Too many cooks spoil the broth when each of the cooks is guarding his or her station hoping to do better than the other cooks around them.
Succeeding, obviously, is gaged by monetary terms, not the quantity of devoted clientele. I am convinced that at those restaurant and hotel management schools a course is offered on how to combine dishonesty and intimidation when recommending the most expensive meal on the menu.
The entrepreneurially-minded assistant to the assistant manager next employs these talents to complement his or her own earnings. This depends on the assistant managers clever use of intimidation to extract exorbitant and undeserved tips.
At one time, restaurants that were successes were run by individuals who cared. Not only did they care about the restaurant, they also cared about their clientele. They were often family-owned eateries, where the owner, manager, his son, daughter or employee, no name tags, no caste system, would develop personal relationships with the local butcher, fishmonger or vegetable vendor. They were not above going to market and buying the freshest products available to use for cooking dishes, not ones bearing long unpronounceable names imported from across seas and horribly mangled.
Long gone are the days of asking an employee at a restaurant what is good, and worth ordering on any given night. Hotel and restaurant management schools have changed the way things are done over the past several decades. The manager, owner, waiter, kitchen boy, whomever, would answer you honestly and enthusiastically. The locals have a way of saying that their roasted poultry is so delicious that you might end up eating your fingers. Of course they're joking as they tell you this with a hint of a smile but inevitably they are correct. - 15478
