March 2010 Blog Posts (119)

What You Must Know to Get Your Resume Read by a Recruiter

As a restaurant recruiter, I typically review 70+ food service resumes per day from candidates looking for restaurant jobs in a variety of leadership roles. Since I work for the restaurant client and am charged with finding the best candidate for their position, I must quickly review resumes to determine if I should contact this person now, later, or never. I will typically take 5-10 seconds to scan a restaurant resume. Here is how that 5-10 seconds goes:

I first fix on the most… Continue

Added by Brian Bruce on March 31, 2010 at 7:25pm — 6 Comments

Non-Operator Menu Labeling in the Health Care Reform Bill

Within all of the complicated and controversial new laws and regulations written in the US Health Care Reform Bill lies a national menu labeling law. The bill will affect all chain restaurants in the country with 20 or more location and will preempt all state and local menu labeling laws.

Of course I'm stoked that soon we won't have to worry about many different pocket laws and differing regulations across the country.

Here’s a little bit more about who will be affected… Continue

Added by Alyson Mar, RD on March 31, 2010 at 5:12pm — 9 Comments

Gratitude. Free to express and priceless when received.

Technological advances rolled out in the past decade are having a profound impact on the way we interact with loved ones, friends, customers and business clients. These advances are most certainly intended to make our lives easier and more convenient (so they say). They are intended to save time so that we have more time for other “more important” things. I don’t know about you… but it has only made my life busier and at times a bit more complicated. How was I spending the same amount of time… Continue

Added by Doug Golden on March 31, 2010 at 12:52pm — No Comments

Operator Close the gap between restaurants and people with nut allergies

I am conducting a study to see the effects of peanut allergies and how they are affecting the restaurant industry. Restaurant owners, managers, sous chefs please help me out by filling out a quick 6 question survey. This survey will not reveal anything about a restaurant. No names will be used, unless you want them to be.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z9F5BSQ

Added by Colin Trievel on March 31, 2010 at 11:03am — No Comments

Non-Operator 64 Suggestions for Bar Customers

Sharing public space is something a lot of humans don’t do well. When you throw alcohol into the mix, a lot of people really suck at it.

A few caveats and disclosures:

•The list is geared towards bars in restaurants, rather than dive bars, nightclubs, sports bars or beach bars where jungle rules apply.

•I omitted some of the obvious items that endlessly appear on every other list about bar etiquette.

•Some obvious items made the cut because they need to be… Continue

Added by Patrick Maguire on March 31, 2010 at 8:42am — 6 Comments

I'm Not Your Typical Waiter

I often find myself unwittingly stepping into the long, dubious shadow cast by uncaring, indifferent waiters who have gone before me. On these occasions, I can sense the guest's apprehension as I approach their table. Their eyes scan me up and down, often narrowing as I open my mouth to speak. Shell-shocked and battle weary, I can tell that they have a very low opinion of my profession, that they've been the victims of horrible service, and that they… Continue

Added by Michael Biesemeyer on March 31, 2010 at 12:30am — 15 Comments

Non-Operator I've Been Keeping This Quiet! My New Book

Well, I’ve been keeping this quiet… A few weeks I decided to finally take the advice of some trusted readers of this blog and have written my first book!

I say written…What I’ve done is take more than 100 of the most read, commented on and re-tweeted blog posts since I launched the blog not nine months ago and compiled in an easy to read paperback!

I have followed lots of the suggestions and tips taken from the more than… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 30, 2010 at 11:32pm — No Comments

Non-Operator A Year-and-a-Half After CBS News First Visited, Town Hit Hard By Recession Still Struggling to Bounce Back

I posted the original CBS newstory documenting the economic crush and its impact on a small Illinois restaurant and the staff. Here's the link to a follow-up story. There's also a link to the original story for more background.

Paul

In Elkhart, Few Signs of Recession's End

A Year-and-a-Half After CBS News First Visited, Town Hit Hard By Recession Still Struggling to Bounce Back

By Seth… Continue

Added by Paul Paz on March 30, 2010 at 5:08am — 5 Comments

Non-Operator FohBoh Fohcus Groups * A directory - ( work in progress)

BEER, WINE, LIQUOR

Louis Glunz Beer Culinary Council

Beer Lovers

The Perfect Beer

Riesling… Continue

Added by Paul Green on March 30, 2010 at 3:00am — No Comments

A Cheesey Friday Night

What are we doing for dinner tonight? It was Friday, in Lent, and we couldn’t have meat.

Trader Joes provided the whole wheat pizza dough, but we needed a topping worthy of the Ruffino Reserva Ducale Chianti Classico that would be opened.

I recalled reading somewhere that traditional Neapolitan pizzerias (“VPN”’s) don’t use what we call “mozzarella” at all. In Italy that cow’s milk cheese is known as fior di latte. Real mozzarella there is all made from buffalo… Continue

Added by Joe Ferri on March 29, 2010 at 7:42pm — 2 Comments

Ready, Willing , and Able....(yes...ready, able,......errrrrrrmmmmmm Willing?) cya......

A $50 Lesson:

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.' Her parents beamed with pride. 'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do… Continue

Added by Joe Archuleta on March 29, 2010 at 7:00pm — 3 Comments

Non-Operator 59 Free Cocktail Menu Templates For Your Bar

If you run a bar and you don’t have a cocktail menu, you are leaving A LOT of money on the table. Cocktails allow you to take an ordinary spirit, add an ingredient or two and charge a lot more than you normally would.

Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the extra margins cocktails can give you? I came across this great free website during the week that allows you to choose from over 50 different professionally designed cocktail… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 29, 2010 at 6:10pm — No Comments

Non-Operator "Revenues are Down"

Last week I read about another local restaurant that bit the dust. Scary, eh?

For those restaurateaurs out there who quake in their boots every time they read stuff like this, allow me to put a different slant on things.

The restaurant in question was a very high end job in a pricey hotel and it had a decided wine theme. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on a state of the art kitchen and uber cool dining room. But oops! Forgot to train the staff!

A… Continue

Added by Dorothy Frisch on March 29, 2010 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Hire “significant” people- train them well

Fellow Foodies~ from time to time I am synergized when I get an email from our C.E.O. sharing his experience of what he "got" out of whatever conference he attended! Our staff attends respective confererences tailored for our individual expertise and we also attend together so we can keep the fire burning longer upon returning to our desks. This one however, I missed and I was so charged after reading the email that I wanted to share it with you:

Fellow… Continue

Added by Joe Archuleta on March 29, 2010 at 2:47pm — No Comments

Non-Operator FohBoh+Facebook+Linkedin=Social Networking Success

As a member of FohBoh, you are able to engage with thousands of industry professionals. Between the blogs, discussions, groups, and other features, you have a variety of tools to build your social networking platform. It's time to take it a step further.

Follow us on Facebook, and stay connected to the most important activity on FohBoh. Join our Linkedin Group and start networking with other restaurant industry professionals. When you starting using these resources together, you'll… Continue

Added by FohBoh on March 29, 2010 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Culinary matching 101: wines for classic blackened tuna

In the mid-eighties Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish permanently entered the vocabulary of the average American restaurant-goer, but you can argue that all the variations of blackened tuna have become even more ubiquitous in restaurants and bars, and practiced by adventurous home cooks.

For over thirteen years I worked with one of America’s… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on March 28, 2010 at 7:18pm — No Comments

Chatroulette: What Will They Think Of Next?

What happens when a 17 year old boy from Russia is able to imagine, create, and release a social networking tool to the World Wide Web from the comfort of his bedroom?

My FohBoh friends, I give you Chatroulette. Keep an open… Continue

Added by Michael Biesemeyer on March 28, 2010 at 11:52am — 3 Comments

Non-Operator FYI - How to save printing costs

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched the default font on its e-mail system from Arial to Century Gothic.

With printer ink running about $10,000 a gallon saving 30% in ink use can add up pretty fast.

Read article here

Added by Paul Green on March 28, 2010 at 10:21am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator I think Austin Bar Owners Got Sick of SxSW This Year

Every year, thousands of tech geeks, rockers and hipsters descend on Austin, TX for the annual South by South West Festival (SxSW). It’s a week of conferences, discussion panels, tech launches but most of all partying, networking and more partying.

It might be a lucrative week for the bar owners, but it;s not an easy one, with all-nighters common and a few too many drunk revellers to handle.

I think this particular bar owner had enough. What do you think…? (warning: bad… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 26, 2010 at 11:24pm — No Comments

Non-Operator Does Your Bar Suffer From Multiple Personality Disorder?

I was reading the newspaper recently and stumbled across the details of a new bar opening locally. The piece spoke about the investment that was being put into building a great Mexican Bar & Restaurant, complete with Tequila Bar, authentic furnishings and decor, the best Mexican food in the area…oh and Macaroni & cheese, Cheeseburgers & Chicken Wings…

Am I the only one that sees the problem here? So is it going to be a… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 26, 2010 at 11:17pm — No Comments