1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,200 Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast. 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:04,880 I'm your host Andre Natara. On today's episode, we're going 3 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:07,160 to talk menus and creativity. Stay tuned. 4 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,120 So before we get into it, brief update For those of you that are 5 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,280 looking for the book series that I have on Chef's PSA. 6 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:29,070 Those books have officially been translated into Spanish, so for 7 00:00:29,070 --> 00:00:31,710 those of you that needed them in Spanish, they're now available. 8 00:00:31,990 --> 00:00:34,270 Now that I've finished doing that, my next project is I'm 9 00:00:34,270 --> 00:00:37,510 going to start translating the books into Italian, and I'm also 10 00:00:37,510 --> 00:00:40,350 going to create another ebook for free. 11 00:00:40,350 --> 00:00:43,590 I'll give it away on the three-part series that I did on 12 00:00:43,590 --> 00:00:45,630 Food Cost. A lot of people really enjoyed 13 00:00:45,630 --> 00:00:47,710 that podcast series. A lot of people told me they 14 00:00:47,710 --> 00:00:50,270 learned more about money and finances than they ever had in 15 00:00:50,270 --> 00:00:52,230 their life. So if that's something that 16 00:00:52,230 --> 00:00:54,470 you're interested in, go back and listen to that three-part 17 00:00:54,470 --> 00:00:57,550 series on food cost. And I'll create an accompanying 18 00:00:57,550 --> 00:01:02,180 guide based off what was said in that three-part series. 19 00:01:02,380 --> 00:01:05,740 So I just put up a poll on Instagram and it was what was 20 00:01:05,740 --> 00:01:07,140 today's podcast going to be about? 21 00:01:07,140 --> 00:01:11,420 It was going to be about interviewing best practices or 22 00:01:11,420 --> 00:01:13,700 the journey that one has to take to become a chef. 23 00:01:14,380 --> 00:01:16,700 Or was it going to be about menus and creativity? 24 00:01:17,100 --> 00:01:19,820 Menus and creativity one, polls are closed. 25 00:01:20,140 --> 00:01:23,100 So that's what we're going to talk about on today's podcast is 26 00:01:23,180 --> 00:01:27,010 creating menus, what my process is when I create menus and how 27 00:01:27,010 --> 00:01:30,330 the creative process ties into. I did a video on Instagram the 28 00:01:30,330 --> 00:01:34,170 other day, which was part of a class that I had done during the 29 00:01:34,170 --> 00:01:36,130 pandemic. It was called how to lead like 30 00:01:36,130 --> 00:01:38,530 an executive chef or how to manage like an executive chef. 31 00:01:38,930 --> 00:01:41,610 And we went, you know, we treated it like master class and 32 00:01:41,610 --> 00:01:46,090 we went through every single aspect of running a hotel and 33 00:01:46,090 --> 00:01:48,210 menu engineering was a part of that. 34 00:01:48,210 --> 00:01:52,010 So I did a small little clip of that and I put it up on social 35 00:01:52,010 --> 00:01:56,850 media and it talked about the 7030 rule or the 8020 rule. 36 00:01:57,490 --> 00:02:01,170 And I was actually surprised by how much good feedback I 37 00:02:01,170 --> 00:02:02,930 received on that. I didn't realize that that was 38 00:02:02,930 --> 00:02:04,290 such a foreign concept to people. 39 00:02:04,290 --> 00:02:07,010 So I talked about, you know, creating a menu that 80% of it 40 00:02:07,010 --> 00:02:10,410 or 70% of it are items that are going to do the majority of the 41 00:02:10,410 --> 00:02:12,410 heavy lifting on the menu. It's everything that's going to 42 00:02:12,410 --> 00:02:14,970 sell what I like to call the fastball down the middle and 43 00:02:14,970 --> 00:02:18,350 then 20 or 30% depending on how you break that down is going to 44 00:02:18,350 --> 00:02:23,030 be your area to play and create. So I do want to talk about that. 45 00:02:23,590 --> 00:02:25,910 I also want to talk about the creative process and how that 46 00:02:25,910 --> 00:02:28,790 ties in to building your own menu. 47 00:02:28,790 --> 00:02:32,270 Now before we get into all of this, I will say not every 48 00:02:32,270 --> 00:02:35,790 restaurant is the same and not every kitchen is the same and 49 00:02:35,790 --> 00:02:38,750 it's not a one-size-fits-all. What works for one restaurant 50 00:02:38,750 --> 00:02:40,710 doesn't necessarily work for another restaurant. 51 00:02:40,870 --> 00:02:44,150 And and you have to use a little bit of intelligence to figure 52 00:02:44,150 --> 00:02:47,400 out like, hey, this what you said applies to what I'm doing, 53 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,160 but this definitely doesn't. So I'm going to trust that you 54 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,440 all are going to take what is useful and specific to your 55 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:58,000 restaurant and discard what is not and maybe just help a friend 56 00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,800 out who might need it. But not everyone's going to need 57 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:01,520 everything I say. So first thing when you're 58 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,280 creating a menu, I think the first thing that you have to 59 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:07,040 discover is what your brand identity is for the restaurant 60 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,040 that you're creating a menu for. And there's a lot of different 61 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:11,920 ways to do this. Some people have a brand 62 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:13,240 statement or a mission statement. 63 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,550 They have a vision board, but regardless of what that is, you 64 00:03:16,550 --> 00:03:20,030 need to establish parameters of what falls into the box of your 65 00:03:20,030 --> 00:03:22,630 restaurant and its menu and what doesn't. 66 00:03:22,710 --> 00:03:25,350 Because where I see a lot of chefs go wrong is that they 67 00:03:25,350 --> 00:03:28,430 create really delicious food or not delicious food. 68 00:03:28,710 --> 00:03:30,870 And they put it on the menu where it doesn't make any sense. 69 00:03:30,870 --> 00:03:33,990 And the example I'll give is you have an Italian restaurant and 70 00:03:33,990 --> 00:03:35,430 you're putting tacos on it like it. 71 00:03:35,510 --> 00:03:37,710 That just doesn't make sense for you to have on your Italian 72 00:03:37,710 --> 00:03:39,030 restaurant. Or vice versa, you have a 73 00:03:39,030 --> 00:03:42,690 Mexican restaurant and then you go put pasta carbonara on it. 74 00:03:42,770 --> 00:03:45,170 That doesn't make sense. So the first thing that you need 75 00:03:45,170 --> 00:03:49,650 to do is you need to identify what the guardrails are for your 76 00:03:49,650 --> 00:03:51,890 restaurant. Because a restaurant has to have 77 00:03:51,890 --> 00:03:53,690 an identity. It can't be something 78 00:03:53,770 --> 00:03:56,850 one-size-fits-all for everybody. A lot of restaurants are 79 00:03:56,850 --> 00:03:59,050 starting to fall into that category because they don't 80 00:03:59,050 --> 00:04:02,610 identify who they are, what their identity is, what is the 81 00:04:02,610 --> 00:04:04,290 brand that they're trying to go for. 82 00:04:04,770 --> 00:04:07,530 And so they end up putting whatever's trendy on the menu, 83 00:04:07,530 --> 00:04:10,550 and it just becomes this messy menu of a whole bunch of things 84 00:04:10,550 --> 00:04:13,470 that really don't make sense. To give you a good example of 85 00:04:13,470 --> 00:04:16,829 what I mean, there was a period in time where everyone had a 86 00:04:16,829 --> 00:04:20,070 cheese border charcuterie board, Brussels sprouts, and we just 87 00:04:20,070 --> 00:04:22,270 called it New American Kitchen. So I get it. 88 00:04:22,270 --> 00:04:24,710 You just want to throw whatever's trendy, whatever was 89 00:04:24,710 --> 00:04:26,710 in Bon Appetit for the week. And we're just going to say it's 90 00:04:26,710 --> 00:04:28,190 New American and it's going to stick. 91 00:04:28,670 --> 00:04:32,230 And yes, that food is delicious, but it didn't really have an 92 00:04:32,230 --> 00:04:34,630 identity, and those restaurant concepts sometimes can be 93 00:04:34,630 --> 00:04:37,670 shortlived. So really good exercise that I 94 00:04:37,670 --> 00:04:40,940 did to identify what is the brand as we got in a room and we 95 00:04:40,940 --> 00:04:42,340 put all the stakeholders in the room. 96 00:04:42,340 --> 00:04:44,580 So anyone that has a vested interest in the restaurant and 97 00:04:44,580 --> 00:04:47,300 we said what is the restaurant and we create 2 columns. 98 00:04:47,300 --> 00:04:51,020 It is this, it is, you know, we listed out 1010 things that we 99 00:04:51,020 --> 00:04:54,140 felt identified the restaurant and said OK, if it falls in the 100 00:04:54,140 --> 00:04:57,180 category of these 10 things, it could go on the menu. 101 00:04:57,260 --> 00:04:59,420 But if it doesn't, then it shouldn't even be discussed. 102 00:04:59,420 --> 00:05:02,020 So again, we're going to use the Italian restaurant as the 103 00:05:02,020 --> 00:05:03,980 example. If you said your restaurant, 104 00:05:04,420 --> 00:05:09,980 again the identifying words, it's Italian local seasonal from 105 00:05:09,980 --> 00:05:14,300 Sicily focused on seafood. Let's just say we're using those 106 00:05:14,300 --> 00:05:17,060 five. If someone came and said OKI 107 00:05:17,060 --> 00:05:21,940 have this great, also buco dish from a different part of Italy, 108 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:24,420 well then that shouldn't go on the menu. 109 00:05:24,420 --> 00:05:27,580 It's not seafood, it's not Sicilian, it wasn't local. 110 00:05:27,580 --> 00:05:30,660 So even though it is Italian, it doesn't fall into the parameters 111 00:05:30,660 --> 00:05:34,520 of what that menu is. So you have to clearly identify 112 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,720 what the guardrails are for your restaurant. 113 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,520 And I'm not saying you can't ever color outside the lines, 114 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:42,360 but you need to have some sort of predictability for your 115 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:44,880 customer coming in that they could look at your website and 116 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,520 it says Italian coastal Sicilian seafood restaurant. 117 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:50,880 They say, I kind of get it, I I think I know what I'm going to 118 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,120 walk into. They're not going to go to your 119 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,000 Italian coastal Sicilian restaurant and expect you to 120 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,280 have ahi tuna tacos on it, right? 121 00:06:01,170 --> 00:06:04,450 Some common sense needs to be involved in this menu creation. 122 00:06:04,450 --> 00:06:07,050 So first thing you have to do is identify what the guardrails are 123 00:06:07,050 --> 00:06:08,370 for the restaurant. And then there's the 124 00:06:08,370 --> 00:06:10,850 conversation of what level are you trying to go for, right? 125 00:06:10,850 --> 00:06:13,610 Are you just going for the local neighborhood restaurant or are 126 00:06:13,610 --> 00:06:15,610 you going for something extremely high end? 127 00:06:15,610 --> 00:06:17,810 Are you pushing for Michelin 3 star? 128 00:06:17,810 --> 00:06:19,810 Are you pushing for just, you know you want to be busy and you 129 00:06:19,810 --> 00:06:22,530 want to feed the neighborhood? Again, very different ends of 130 00:06:22,530 --> 00:06:25,530 the spectrum. If you're going for the three 131 00:06:25,530 --> 00:06:29,050 star versus neighborhood, you would have put something that's 132 00:06:29,510 --> 00:06:32,190 you'd expect that a three star Michelin restaurant on the 133 00:06:32,190 --> 00:06:34,150 neighborhood restaurant and you wouldn't put something from the 134 00:06:34,150 --> 00:06:37,510 neighborhood restaurant on the extremely high end menu, at 135 00:06:37,510 --> 00:06:41,550 least not without adding a lot of finesse and Polish to it. 136 00:06:42,990 --> 00:06:46,190 It has to fit the concept so your customers again can come in 137 00:06:46,190 --> 00:06:49,310 and know what to expect. You have to approach this from a 138 00:06:49,310 --> 00:06:53,110 business mindset first, right? So establishing what the 139 00:06:53,110 --> 00:06:56,470 guardrails are is establishing what the business mindset is for 140 00:06:56,470 --> 00:06:59,140 the restaurant. We're going to talk about 141 00:06:59,140 --> 00:07:02,180 creativity here in a SEC, but let's kind of establish the 142 00:07:02,180 --> 00:07:05,060 framework, The bones business first, right? 143 00:07:05,380 --> 00:07:08,740 As we talked about, it's the lifeblood of any restaurant to 144 00:07:08,740 --> 00:07:09,980 make sure there's money coming through. 145 00:07:10,180 --> 00:07:11,940 Now every restaurant is going to be different. 146 00:07:11,940 --> 00:07:16,180 Like I said, some restaurants apply the 444 rules. 147 00:07:16,180 --> 00:07:20,700 So like 4 starters, 4 main courses for desserts. 148 00:07:20,700 --> 00:07:22,620 Yeah, that's that's a smaller type restaurant. 149 00:07:22,620 --> 00:07:24,340 Some people are going to go into a tasting menu. 150 00:07:24,340 --> 00:07:28,840 Only some people might have a large menu with like 50 items on 151 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:30,520 it. You know, every single 152 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:31,960 restaurant is going to approach it differently. 153 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:37,000 But when you're creating a menu, a good way to look at it is the 154 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,080 amount of inventory and the amount of means and plus that 155 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,200 you need to create the menu. There's a lot of factors that 156 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:43,320 you have to consider. So you have to consider how much 157 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,360 inventory do you need to execute this menu? 158 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:47,480 How many cooks do you have on the line to execute the food 159 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,600 that you're trying to put out? I'm going to get off the 160 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,730 subject, but at one point in my career I was the chef of a 161 00:07:53,730 --> 00:07:56,850 restaurant where we were doing a tasting menu and it was, it was 162 00:07:56,850 --> 00:08:00,730 complex and we were punching above our weight. 163 00:08:01,530 --> 00:08:04,810 What I mean by that is we were we were looking at like what El 164 00:08:04,810 --> 00:08:07,090 Bulli was doing is like we got to be as good as El Bulli. 165 00:08:07,370 --> 00:08:11,090 Yeah, this is when bubble food was all the rage and what we 166 00:08:11,090 --> 00:08:14,970 were trying to do with like 5 cooks was just not feasible. 167 00:08:14,970 --> 00:08:18,450 It was it was not realistic to do that level of food with only 168 00:08:18,450 --> 00:08:21,900 five people tasting menu only and all the other things that we 169 00:08:21,900 --> 00:08:24,780 had to deal with, right. And what ended up happening is, 170 00:08:25,220 --> 00:08:27,420 you know we spread ourselves too thin And then what we were 171 00:08:27,420 --> 00:08:30,500 trying to execute, we just executed it sloppy just because 172 00:08:30,980 --> 00:08:32,940 we didn't have enough people to execute it well. 173 00:08:33,100 --> 00:08:35,620 Where you see that where a lot of chefs are pushing to really 174 00:08:35,620 --> 00:08:38,659 achieve the most that they can with whatever goal they have in 175 00:08:38,659 --> 00:08:43,179 their specific market. And they spread themselves too 176 00:08:43,179 --> 00:08:46,970 thin and they spread their team too thin and it ends up not 177 00:08:46,970 --> 00:08:49,730 working out very well because there's only so many hours in a 178 00:08:49,730 --> 00:08:51,730 day and there's only so much a human being can do. 179 00:08:52,970 --> 00:08:56,010 Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't push yourselves to 180 00:08:56,010 --> 00:08:59,250 excellence. Sometimes I would go into 181 00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:01,410 meetings with people like we'd have menu meetings and I was 182 00:09:01,410 --> 00:09:02,890 ambitious. So I'd say I want to do this, 183 00:09:02,890 --> 00:09:06,570 this, this, this, this, and I'd get pushed back from some of my 184 00:09:06,570 --> 00:09:09,090 sous chefs and be like, that's too hard, It's too ambitious, 185 00:09:09,090 --> 00:09:11,850 this, that and the other. And I would get frustrated and I 186 00:09:11,850 --> 00:09:14,330 would say I don't need to be surrounded by a bunch of people 187 00:09:14,410 --> 00:09:16,930 telling me what we can't do. I need to be surrounded by 188 00:09:16,930 --> 00:09:19,370 people telling me what we can do, what can we achieve. 189 00:09:19,370 --> 00:09:23,450 If we want to be the best, we need to be able to push and 190 00:09:23,810 --> 00:09:25,930 saying we can't do it. We're not going to have any 191 00:09:25,930 --> 00:09:29,930 success behind it. A lot of times, like I needed 192 00:09:29,930 --> 00:09:33,570 some people to push back on me, but other times I needed to push 193 00:09:33,570 --> 00:09:36,790 them a little bit because sometimes, sometimes as the 194 00:09:36,790 --> 00:09:38,390 chef, you have to know where that line is. 195 00:09:38,390 --> 00:09:41,510 You have to know that you've pushed your team too far and 196 00:09:41,510 --> 00:09:45,750 they're on the edge of breaking and and it's just not healthy or 197 00:09:46,310 --> 00:09:48,110 you haven't pushed far enough, right. 198 00:09:48,110 --> 00:09:50,910 And you know, take a take a good look around your kitchen. 199 00:09:50,910 --> 00:09:53,110 Are people busy? Are they screwing off on their 200 00:09:53,110 --> 00:09:55,070 phone half the day? Well, then you could probably 201 00:09:55,070 --> 00:09:58,590 push harder, right? I mean, use some common sense 202 00:09:58,870 --> 00:10:01,310 and some discretion when you're designing your menus. 203 00:10:01,750 --> 00:10:04,950 Now when we're talking about what's going to go on the menu. 204 00:10:04,950 --> 00:10:07,940 So again we we to discuss the guardrails that someone needs to 205 00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:09,700 have on the menu. So everything that goes on the 206 00:10:09,700 --> 00:10:14,540 menu has to pass the test of does it fall on the brand and in 207 00:10:14,580 --> 00:10:16,580 in the guardrails of what we're trying to achieve. 208 00:10:17,340 --> 00:10:19,900 Once that's been taken care of, then we need to say okay, the 209 00:10:19,900 --> 00:10:23,420 8020 rule, what I was talking about earlier is like 80% of 210 00:10:23,420 --> 00:10:25,860 your dishes should be familiar because that's going to carry 211 00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:28,740 the bulk of your sales. So 80% of the dishes on the menu 212 00:10:29,060 --> 00:10:32,190 should be easy for someone to understand. 213 00:10:32,390 --> 00:10:35,030 It shouldn't be so complex that they don't know what they're 214 00:10:35,030 --> 00:10:37,670 looking at like. The expression goes chefs 215 00:10:37,670 --> 00:10:40,350 cooking for other chefs or chefs cooking to impress themselves. 216 00:10:40,750 --> 00:10:45,230 If 80% or 100% of your menu is chefs cooking for chefs or chefs 217 00:10:45,230 --> 00:10:49,070 cooking to impress themselves and it's not in the right 218 00:10:49,070 --> 00:10:51,310 neighborhood, most likely you're going to fail. 219 00:10:52,150 --> 00:10:55,630 The the reality is, is you are not going to be able to serve 220 00:10:55,630 --> 00:10:59,050 that super intricate food in every type of setting, right? 221 00:10:59,050 --> 00:11:01,650 There has to be a little bit of common sense in determining 222 00:11:01,650 --> 00:11:04,850 what's going to go on your menu. So like I said, 80% of the 223 00:11:04,850 --> 00:11:06,970 people that are coming in, they're going to have simple 224 00:11:06,970 --> 00:11:07,930 pallets. They're going to order the 225 00:11:07,930 --> 00:11:08,890 things that are familiar to them. 226 00:11:08,890 --> 00:11:12,250 You know, empires can be built off chicken parm or a hamburger 227 00:11:12,450 --> 00:11:16,330 or really good pasta or really good tacos, like the basics do 228 00:11:16,330 --> 00:11:19,690 well for a reason. And to not have the basic things 229 00:11:19,690 --> 00:11:22,050 on the menu that are going to sell is actually going to hurt 230 00:11:22,050 --> 00:11:25,650 your restaurant because you don't want someone to come into 231 00:11:25,650 --> 00:11:28,330 your restaurant and say I need a translator for what this is. 232 00:11:29,970 --> 00:11:31,610 I don't understand any of it, right? 233 00:11:33,170 --> 00:11:36,450 Early on in my career, I remember someone had come up to 234 00:11:36,450 --> 00:11:39,530 me and they wanted to put this weird shit on the menu that I 235 00:11:39,530 --> 00:11:42,050 really wasn't jiving with. And I remember thinking, you 236 00:11:42,050 --> 00:11:44,130 know, I'm a pretty serious chef. There's no way I'm going to put 237 00:11:44,130 --> 00:11:45,610 that on the menu. And I remember having a little 238 00:11:45,610 --> 00:11:50,230 back and forth with my boss. And they, they caved in because 239 00:11:50,230 --> 00:11:53,550 when I was a young chef, I just wanted to do amazing food. 240 00:11:53,550 --> 00:11:57,750 And I could care less sometimes about would it sell or would it 241 00:11:57,750 --> 00:11:59,990 not. And in retrospect, that was 242 00:11:59,990 --> 00:12:01,390 stupid. They should have fired me 243 00:12:01,550 --> 00:12:04,230 because now when I go and consult with people and 244 00:12:04,510 --> 00:12:07,750 occasionally I come across with chefs that'll say I don't want 245 00:12:07,750 --> 00:12:10,870 to do it, that's not my food. I was like, well, the food that 246 00:12:10,870 --> 00:12:12,670 you're trying to do is not this restaurant. 247 00:12:13,710 --> 00:12:15,790 You're going to end up closing this person's business because 248 00:12:15,790 --> 00:12:18,990 you want to do your food. There has to be a good balance 249 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,800 on the menu. Now let's talk about the 30 to 250 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,840 20% that you have to play with. That's where I would start to 251 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:27,920 introduce things that are maybe on the fringe. 252 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:32,720 So new techniques, obscure ingredients, things that maybe I 253 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:35,000 like or my team wants to experiment with. 254 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,880 So a lot of chefs that work with me be like I want to experiment 255 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:39,840 with this particular ingredient. I'll say great, we'll put on the 256 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,640 menu, but it's going to be in that 30% range. 257 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:45,920 That's not going to be something that I would anticipate that 258 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:47,880 will sell. And and usually I was right, 259 00:12:48,220 --> 00:12:50,700 like we'd put something obscure on the menu and then you'd look 260 00:12:50,700 --> 00:12:55,820 at your menu abstracts and it's like the chicken parm sold 100 261 00:12:55,820 --> 00:12:58,140 and that one sold zero or that one sold two. 262 00:12:58,340 --> 00:13:02,060 Because the reality is like if you're putting it on the menu 263 00:13:02,060 --> 00:13:04,140 and no one else is liking it, it doesn't matter. 264 00:13:04,140 --> 00:13:06,620 You're you're not cooking for yourself and you're not cooking 265 00:13:06,620 --> 00:13:08,780 at home. In many cases you're cooking for 266 00:13:08,780 --> 00:13:12,140 the audience that's coming in. But I think there is a certain 267 00:13:12,140 --> 00:13:14,580 level of experimentation because you will be proved wrong on 268 00:13:14,580 --> 00:13:16,820 occasion. You'll put something on the menu 269 00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:19,980 thinking that it's for the chefs and next thing you know, 270 00:13:20,100 --> 00:13:23,420 everyone's getting it. But that 30% should be where you 271 00:13:23,420 --> 00:13:25,780 experiment with new techniques and new ingredients. 272 00:13:26,020 --> 00:13:28,820 It should be learning, but that should be a rotational thing, 273 00:13:28,820 --> 00:13:29,940 right? So those are coming off. 274 00:13:30,100 --> 00:13:33,940 Another portion of the menu is the portion for me, like in 275 00:13:34,020 --> 00:13:35,700 restaurants that I would run, there was a portion that would 276 00:13:35,700 --> 00:13:38,620 never change. So we had our signature items 277 00:13:39,020 --> 00:13:41,380 and let's just say it's, you know, these five items, they've 278 00:13:41,380 --> 00:13:43,740 never come off the menu. We may adjust a little here or a 279 00:13:43,740 --> 00:13:46,140 little there, but the fact of the matter is those don't change 280 00:13:46,420 --> 00:13:49,310 because those are our greatest hits and everyone comes in to 281 00:13:49,310 --> 00:13:51,510 get that. It's the example of, like, when 282 00:13:51,510 --> 00:13:53,670 you go to a concert, like you want to hear all their new 283 00:13:53,670 --> 00:13:56,270 stuff, but they play like the same five hits. 284 00:13:56,790 --> 00:13:58,590 It's like, well, that's what makes them the money. 285 00:13:58,590 --> 00:14:01,310 That's what everyone really wants is the five hits. 286 00:14:01,310 --> 00:14:03,390 So you see it a lot in the music industry. 287 00:14:03,390 --> 00:14:06,110 You can learn something from the music industry as a chef, right? 288 00:14:06,110 --> 00:14:10,470 The greatest hits, The Rolling Stones, Satisfaction, Wu Tang 289 00:14:10,470 --> 00:14:13,110 Clan, Playing Cream, great songs, by the way. 290 00:14:14,110 --> 00:14:17,810 But the point is, you might want to listen to the new the Fringe, 291 00:14:17,810 --> 00:14:20,690 but they're going to play the classics. 292 00:14:20,690 --> 00:14:22,410 The same thing has to hold true in your restaurant. 293 00:14:22,410 --> 00:14:24,610 You want to make sure that the classics don't move, maybe 294 00:14:24,610 --> 00:14:27,370 adjust them a little bit. So again, you have that 30%, you 295 00:14:27,370 --> 00:14:29,770 have the classics, and then there's something that I like to 296 00:14:29,770 --> 00:14:33,130 call the sucker shit. And I think having sucker shit 297 00:14:33,130 --> 00:14:35,770 on your menu now is more important than ever as we move 298 00:14:35,770 --> 00:14:38,250 into the age of social media and Instagram. 299 00:14:38,250 --> 00:14:41,250 So what is sucker shit? Sucker shit is the kind of thing 300 00:14:41,250 --> 00:14:44,170 that influencers come in and they take their phone out 301 00:14:44,170 --> 00:14:47,170 because it comes to the table. It's the Salt Bay action, it's 302 00:14:47,170 --> 00:14:50,530 the gold plated tomahawk. It's the obscure thing that's 303 00:14:50,530 --> 00:14:55,210 shaped into a cake. It's truffle oil on French fries 304 00:14:55,210 --> 00:14:57,810 like that. That is kind of like the crack 305 00:14:57,810 --> 00:14:59,730 for influencers. Like, Oh my God, I had they have 306 00:14:59,730 --> 00:15:01,730 truffle fries. Like most people know. 307 00:15:01,730 --> 00:15:06,810 Like, I personally hate truffle oil, but I'm not opposed to 308 00:15:06,810 --> 00:15:08,810 putting truffle fries on the menu because I know it's going 309 00:15:08,810 --> 00:15:11,110 to sell, right? So that that's that fastball 310 00:15:11,110 --> 00:15:12,990 down the middle, but it's the it's the sucker shit. 311 00:15:12,990 --> 00:15:14,590 So I'll, I'll tell you a funny story. 312 00:15:15,230 --> 00:15:18,470 When I would be designing menus with my chefs every now and 313 00:15:18,470 --> 00:15:20,590 again, we talk about like we need some sucker shit on the 314 00:15:20,590 --> 00:15:23,230 menu stuff that the influencers are all going to pull out their 315 00:15:23,230 --> 00:15:28,310 phone for dinner. And so right before the pandemic 316 00:15:28,310 --> 00:15:30,710 happened, I was working with my pastry chef and I said I want to 317 00:15:30,710 --> 00:15:35,330 come up with the most obscene ice cream sundae and I want to 318 00:15:35,330 --> 00:15:38,170 make house made ice cream. And I want you to make your 319 00:15:38,170 --> 00:15:41,650 homemade magic shell. And I want to use the most 320 00:15:41,650 --> 00:15:46,730 expensive cherries and have on glaze and 10X vanilla bean ice 321 00:15:46,730 --> 00:15:47,850 cream. And I said I just want you to 322 00:15:47,850 --> 00:15:51,210 make it so over the top and garnish it with gold leaf and go 323 00:15:51,210 --> 00:15:54,730 to the table and pour it tableside and serve it on a 324 00:15:54,730 --> 00:15:57,290 silver platter and make you know a whole bunch of pomp and 325 00:15:57,290 --> 00:16:01,050 circumstance around the dish. We're going to sell it for $50 326 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:07,440 Sunday for four, for $50.00, and I want every single table that 327 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,680 comes in that's a party of four or more to get it so they can 328 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:12,120 all take their phones out and record it. 329 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,400 And I want to be on everyone's Instagram when we're doing this. 330 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:20,200 And it was, it was that, I mean, it was, you know, sucker shit, 331 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,120 but it was delicious too. Like, I'm not going to lie, 332 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:23,560 sometimes sucker shit is delicious. 333 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:27,830 And so we put it on the menu and we put it on for like 60 bucks. 334 00:16:27,830 --> 00:16:29,630 People would buy it all the time and everyone wanted to take 335 00:16:29,630 --> 00:16:31,030 pictures with it. And it worked, right? 336 00:16:31,030 --> 00:16:34,550 The the tableside ports, the souffle coming that everyone's 337 00:16:34,550 --> 00:16:37,790 going to take their phone out. Or the giradon being wheeled to 338 00:16:37,790 --> 00:16:40,310 the table depending on what type of restaurant you are, where 339 00:16:40,310 --> 00:16:42,830 they're slicing the meat or they're, you know, slicing the 340 00:16:42,830 --> 00:16:45,430 rib eye at the table. It's the it's the chocolate 341 00:16:45,430 --> 00:16:49,500 pinata that is kind of the stuff that you know is going to bring 342 00:16:49,500 --> 00:16:51,620 attention to your restaurant. So what I would tell my chefs is 343 00:16:51,620 --> 00:16:54,740 you want that to get them in and then you show them the cool 344 00:16:54,740 --> 00:16:56,740 stuff that you're working on, but that's the stuff that makes 345 00:16:56,740 --> 00:16:59,060 your restaurant go viral on social media. 346 00:16:59,340 --> 00:17:02,700 We had a dish that we did and it was, I'm sure everyone's done 347 00:17:02,700 --> 00:17:03,740 it, but this is what we were doing. 348 00:17:03,740 --> 00:17:08,300 We were doing tater tots with aerated Greer cheese and black 349 00:17:08,300 --> 00:17:12,220 truffles, and we would sell it for a certain price and we kept 350 00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:14,020 raising the price, but no one ever complained. 351 00:17:14,140 --> 00:17:16,819 No matter how much we raise the price, people would still buy it 352 00:17:18,130 --> 00:17:21,650 and my chef de cuisine at the time would come up to me, like, 353 00:17:21,650 --> 00:17:22,849 I want to take this off the menu. 354 00:17:22,849 --> 00:17:25,770 It's not as intricate, you know, we want to, we want to push. 355 00:17:25,770 --> 00:17:28,770 I said look, push on all this other stuff, but keep that on 356 00:17:28,770 --> 00:17:30,770 the menu. I know it's not like the most 357 00:17:30,770 --> 00:17:34,730 Swannier thing, but trust me, it's the one thing that everyone 358 00:17:34,730 --> 00:17:38,290 comes in and takes photos of it. Every single table gets it and 359 00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:41,010 it's a cash cow. Don't take it off the menu. 360 00:17:41,010 --> 00:17:43,050 I think to this day they still have it on the menu, I think. 361 00:17:43,050 --> 00:17:45,450 But it it's one of those things that you have to have a good mix 362 00:17:46,310 --> 00:17:49,550 of that sucker shit on the menu that everyone wants to come in 363 00:17:49,590 --> 00:17:51,910 and take photos of and like I said then you get them with the 364 00:17:51,910 --> 00:17:53,590 other stuff. This doesn't apply to all 365 00:17:53,590 --> 00:17:56,670 restaurants, but it applies to a lot where you do tasting menus, 366 00:17:56,670 --> 00:17:58,550 you have the opportunity to have supplements on there. 367 00:17:58,550 --> 00:18:02,030 I think having that on especially from a incremental 368 00:18:02,030 --> 00:18:03,590 revenue standpoint is a good thing. 369 00:18:03,590 --> 00:18:06,710 So let's say you have a tasting menu and you see this with a lot 370 00:18:06,710 --> 00:18:09,030 of high end restaurants, they'll have you know the supplemental 371 00:18:09,030 --> 00:18:12,830 caviar, the supplemental truffle, the supplemental A5 wag 372 00:18:12,830 --> 00:18:17,180 you that's a good way to increase and add value to what 373 00:18:17,180 --> 00:18:19,940 you're already doing. So for example, let's just use 374 00:18:19,940 --> 00:18:22,420 that tater tots as an example that I had earlier. 375 00:18:22,580 --> 00:18:25,940 I could say we have tater tots with aerated grier cheese on 376 00:18:25,940 --> 00:18:29,660 top, but for X amount of dollars more, we could supplement black 377 00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:31,780 truffles or you could supplement caviar, right. 378 00:18:32,180 --> 00:18:35,820 That is adding value to what you're doing. 379 00:18:35,900 --> 00:18:37,700 It's it's those Lux items, right. 380 00:18:37,700 --> 00:18:40,120 So if you have a tasting menu, then you have this course or 381 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:43,000 that course orange for extra supplement, you could add in the 382 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,880 lobster, or you can add in the A5, right? 383 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:48,320 So for $25 more, $50 more, whatever the case may be, you 384 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:50,000 add in those more expensive items. 385 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,520 And then once you've written your menu, you should hopefully 386 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:54,840 go through some sort of process to vet it. 387 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:57,400 Make sure you do tastings, make sure everything's correct, and 388 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:00,240 you should be reevaluating your menus quickly so you're 389 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:02,480 adjusting them as needed. You know what's selling, what's 390 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:04,160 not. A good practice is to run the 391 00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:07,560 menu analysis at the end of every month and evaluate what's 392 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,080 selling, evaluate what's not and adjust as needed, right? 393 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:13,320 The longer you delay, the more it's going to affect your bottom 394 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,320 line. Now the last thing I'm going to 395 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,560 talk about when it comes to creating menus, when you want to 396 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,240 introduce things but you're not sure how to introduce them. 397 00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:25,120 This is something that I do. This is just this is just my pro 398 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:30,000 tip is if I wanted to introduce an obscure ingredient, I might 399 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,710 introduce it. For example, everyone loves 400 00:19:33,710 --> 00:19:35,710 beets, but not everyone loves foie gras. 401 00:19:36,030 --> 00:19:39,910 So maybe I will create a beet dish with foie gras versus a 402 00:19:39,910 --> 00:19:42,630 foie gras dish with beets. So if the first thing on your 403 00:19:42,630 --> 00:19:44,990 menu that you see is beets, a lot of people are going to be 404 00:19:44,990 --> 00:19:47,190 likely to order it. But if the first thing that you 405 00:19:47,190 --> 00:19:49,910 see on your menu is foie gras, they may be less likely to order 406 00:19:49,910 --> 00:19:51,950 it. So when I needed to introduce 407 00:19:52,150 --> 00:19:54,910 things like that, I would introduce them, You know, I'd 408 00:19:54,910 --> 00:19:59,030 partner them up with someone that was really popular, right? 409 00:19:59,030 --> 00:20:02,770 So if. You know, I I I would introduce 410 00:20:03,010 --> 00:20:05,370 the obscure friend with a really popular one. 411 00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:08,690 So like I said beats with frog bra and I know that's not that 412 00:20:08,690 --> 00:20:11,250 obscure, but sometimes in some parts of the country it's very 413 00:20:11,250 --> 00:20:13,370 obscure. And I think that's a good way to 414 00:20:13,370 --> 00:20:17,490 look at that is to to introduce people to things that they might 415 00:20:17,490 --> 00:20:20,770 not be comfortable with by having something that they are 416 00:20:20,770 --> 00:20:22,450 comfortable with on the plate already. 417 00:20:22,530 --> 00:20:26,450 I I do believe that creativity is a collaborative process. 418 00:20:26,650 --> 00:20:30,590 So when I'm designing menus, I usually get as many stakeholders 419 00:20:30,590 --> 00:20:34,030 in the room and we would write down ideas and we would just 420 00:20:34,110 --> 00:20:36,110 throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. 421 00:20:36,110 --> 00:20:38,950 So if I had five people, I'd tell everyone come with five 422 00:20:38,950 --> 00:20:40,510 ideas and let's just go through them. 423 00:20:40,790 --> 00:20:43,390 And sometimes you what you'd end up with is a dish that's a 424 00:20:43,390 --> 00:20:45,790 mishmash of several people's ideas. 425 00:20:45,790 --> 00:20:49,270 So I might say let's do the beef this way and someone else may 426 00:20:49,270 --> 00:20:53,070 say with this sauce and and this vegetable and then before you 427 00:20:53,070 --> 00:20:55,830 know it maybe we have an amalgamation of a lot of 428 00:20:55,830 --> 00:20:57,910 different ideas. So think about it like this, 429 00:20:57,990 --> 00:21:00,470 this If you're changing your menu and you have a couple of 430 00:21:00,470 --> 00:21:04,270 items that don't change, right? So you know your greatest hits, 431 00:21:04,270 --> 00:21:07,510 and then you have, you know, the sucker shit that might not 432 00:21:07,510 --> 00:21:09,390 change. And so you're experimenting 433 00:21:09,390 --> 00:21:12,190 with, you know, 30 or 40% of the menu that's going to change for 434 00:21:12,190 --> 00:21:15,750 the season or whatever. That might only be like six or 435 00:21:15,750 --> 00:21:18,710 seven items. But if you have five people 436 00:21:18,710 --> 00:21:23,430 coming up with 10 dishes apiece, that's fifty ideas, 50 menu 437 00:21:23,430 --> 00:21:26,230 ideas that you only need 5 or 6, right? 438 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,280 And so then you're able to really push the creativity. 439 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,680 Now once we've determined what those items are, we'll go out 440 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,400 and we will cook them. And so the way that I would do 441 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,160 it is everyone would, would cook the dishes, we'd sit there and 442 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,080 then we'd pick the dish apart. Because sometimes on paper 443 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:43,120 things sound delicious and then you try them and they just don't 444 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:46,400 work. And it might be an idea that 445 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,160 just it's time hasn't come or you fully don't understand the 446 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,020 technique yet. Got to let the cake bake, as 447 00:21:54,020 --> 00:21:56,420 they say. So when we get into the creative 448 00:21:56,420 --> 00:21:58,020 process, we're all trying the dish. 449 00:21:58,020 --> 00:22:02,420 And the creative part is super fun because that's where you get 450 00:22:02,420 --> 00:22:04,620 to experiment. That's where it's okay to fail. 451 00:22:05,020 --> 00:22:06,940 You know, the guardrails are a little bit looser on the 452 00:22:06,940 --> 00:22:11,340 creative portion of the venue. And honestly, that's also 453 00:22:11,340 --> 00:22:14,300 sometimes the place where you could get that attention that 454 00:22:14,300 --> 00:22:18,100 you need for your restaurant. It's the local press, the write 455 00:22:18,100 --> 00:22:19,860 up in the newspaper, whatever the case may be. 456 00:22:20,100 --> 00:22:24,020 Sometimes that comes from that 30% because the the people that 457 00:22:24,020 --> 00:22:26,580 are writing about food usually write about what's on the 458 00:22:26,580 --> 00:22:28,140 fringe. They don't ever write about, you 459 00:22:28,140 --> 00:22:29,460 know, the roasted chicken that much. 460 00:22:29,460 --> 00:22:33,780 They they write about, you know, the octopus bubbles. 461 00:22:34,260 --> 00:22:38,820 Anyway, you get my point. So playing with that 30% on the 462 00:22:38,820 --> 00:22:41,300 fringe sometimes is what's going to get you the recognition that 463 00:22:41,300 --> 00:22:43,660 you need. And then when my group of chefs 464 00:22:43,660 --> 00:22:46,860 would get together and taste if if the dishes up there, we'd all 465 00:22:46,860 --> 00:22:51,990 really pick it apart. And for me, in that creative 466 00:22:51,990 --> 00:22:55,550 process and that menu ideation phase, it's the time to be the 467 00:22:55,550 --> 00:22:57,670 most critical. So we would taste it and we'd 468 00:22:57,670 --> 00:23:00,110 say we'd look at it this way. That's how I would look at it. 469 00:23:00,110 --> 00:23:02,190 Say we'd look for something balanced, what is the, what's 470 00:23:02,190 --> 00:23:04,630 the salt level, what's the heat level, what's the acid level, 471 00:23:04,630 --> 00:23:07,110 what's the fat level. And we'd want to make sure, you 472 00:23:07,110 --> 00:23:09,910 know, kind of like an equalizer on a stereo, You adjust all the 473 00:23:09,910 --> 00:23:13,830 knobs until until the dish just is delicious. 474 00:23:14,510 --> 00:23:17,270 And so like, add a little bit more acid, add a little bit more 475 00:23:17,270 --> 00:23:20,850 fat, add a little bit more heat, add a little bit more sugar, add 476 00:23:20,850 --> 00:23:24,090 a little bit of this, add this gas streak, finish it with olive 477 00:23:24,090 --> 00:23:26,290 oil, boom. Then you get it or you know, 478 00:23:26,570 --> 00:23:29,530 brighten it up with freshness, maybe it needs more fresh herbs 479 00:23:29,530 --> 00:23:31,970 or whatever the case may be. Then you add the texture. 480 00:23:32,690 --> 00:23:37,410 And once we'd be really happy with how the plate tastes, then 481 00:23:37,410 --> 00:23:40,730 we start with refining the presentation on it. 482 00:23:40,730 --> 00:23:43,410 So the presentation was, was after the taste. 483 00:23:43,410 --> 00:23:46,210 So do another podcast on taste versus presentation. 484 00:23:46,210 --> 00:23:49,600 So presentation came after taste. 485 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:51,800 Once it tastes good, then we can work on the presentation to make 486 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,600 sure it looks good, right? And this was a good exercise for 487 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,440 us to really be critical and pick things apart to make sure 488 00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,280 that that final product was excellent. 489 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:05,120 Now a lot of restaurants don't change their menu that 490 00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:09,080 frequently. So, you know, pro tip when 491 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,520 you're changing your menu, make sure that everything's costed 492 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,600 weight measures. Make sure everyone has recipes 493 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,040 before you start. Before you roll the menu out, 494 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,060 make sure people have seen it. There's nothing worse than a 495 00:24:19,060 --> 00:24:22,620 menu change when you walk into work and you have no idea 496 00:24:22,620 --> 00:24:23,980 because you've never seen any of the dishes. 497 00:24:23,980 --> 00:24:27,460 So chefs, make sure you're communicating that that's the 498 00:24:27,460 --> 00:24:28,380 worst. Don't do that. 499 00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:31,020 But I'll tell you, sometimes you do get in these creative ruts. 500 00:24:31,100 --> 00:24:33,540 A lot of times people message me and say, what would you do when 501 00:24:33,540 --> 00:24:35,420 you're in a creative rut? Like sometimes it happens. 502 00:24:36,500 --> 00:24:40,540 When I was younger, I was the chef of a place that did a 503 00:24:40,540 --> 00:24:43,740 tasting menu only restaurant and we had to change the menu every 504 00:24:43,740 --> 00:24:47,010 day. My boss at that place happened 505 00:24:47,010 --> 00:24:49,130 to be a big fan of, you know, Thomas Keller and The French 506 00:24:49,130 --> 00:24:52,370 Laundry and Charlie Trotter and said they change their menu 507 00:24:52,370 --> 00:24:53,930 every day. You need to change your menu 508 00:24:53,930 --> 00:24:56,450 every day. And so he never allowed me to 509 00:24:56,450 --> 00:24:59,650 repeat an ingredient twice, which is extremely difficult. 510 00:25:00,210 --> 00:25:04,370 And it sounds good until like you're on day two or day three, 511 00:25:04,370 --> 00:25:06,370 day five, day 20. It's like, shit. 512 00:25:06,790 --> 00:25:09,150 You have to make 8 to 10 courses that are different that you've 513 00:25:09,150 --> 00:25:11,430 never done before. I would do better at it now 514 00:25:11,430 --> 00:25:13,430 because now I think I'd probably come up with a better system. 515 00:25:13,430 --> 00:25:15,470 But back then I thought every single day I had to come up with 516 00:25:15,470 --> 00:25:16,790 something original. You didn't have to do that. 517 00:25:16,790 --> 00:25:20,030 Like you could have said, you know, you make a grit and you 518 00:25:20,030 --> 00:25:22,710 say, here are my sauces, here are my my sides, here are my 519 00:25:22,710 --> 00:25:24,510 beefs. And then you, you kind of like a 520 00:25:24,510 --> 00:25:26,990 matrix and say, let's put this with this, with this today. 521 00:25:27,270 --> 00:25:32,270 But anyway, those types of restaurants are much more create 522 00:25:32,390 --> 00:25:35,750 creative, and they probably don't play in that 7030 role, 523 00:25:35,950 --> 00:25:37,750 especially when you're talking about restaurants on the World's 524 00:25:37,750 --> 00:25:40,150 50 Best. It's their job to play in the 525 00:25:41,190 --> 00:25:46,550 creative in the abstract, right? But let's be honest, not 526 00:25:46,550 --> 00:25:49,270 everyone's in that world. Like, you know, a couple of 527 00:25:49,270 --> 00:25:52,550 people will get on my social and like, talk crap and be like, Oh 528 00:25:52,990 --> 00:25:54,470 no creativity. I'm out. 529 00:25:54,470 --> 00:25:56,470 And then you look at their page and it's like, dude, you're 530 00:25:56,470 --> 00:25:59,440 serving like, filet with asparagus. 531 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,840 What are you talking about creativity anyway? 532 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:06,520 There's true creativity, right? And then there's like, I just 533 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,560 want to cook my food. I don't want to be told what to 534 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,840 do. So, like, everyone needs to calm 535 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:12,520 down and understand that there's a difference there. 536 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,120 And it's extremely difficult to work in these places that change 537 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:17,800 the menu and shout out to restaurants that do that. 538 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,760 Shout out to David Breeden from The French Laundry changes the 539 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,000 menu every day. And one of the best restaurants 540 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:25,800 in the world, those guys are ninjas. 541 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,100 Like you look at what they do and you look at if you change 542 00:26:29,100 --> 00:26:31,740 the menu every day in 10 years, how many dishes is that? 543 00:26:31,740 --> 00:26:33,300 4005 thousand? I don't know. 544 00:26:34,140 --> 00:26:36,140 It's a lot. Shout out to those guys that 545 00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:38,620 have to live that life. It's not for everybody. 546 00:26:38,620 --> 00:26:42,100 It's extremely difficult. It's extremely creative and 547 00:26:42,460 --> 00:26:45,980 very, very elite chefs. Anyway, that's going to wrap it 548 00:26:45,980 --> 00:26:49,790 up. So hopefully now you can leave 549 00:26:49,790 --> 00:26:52,110 with a better game plan and make sure you have a good mix of 550 00:26:52,110 --> 00:26:54,510 items that are going to sell. Make sure you have some items 551 00:26:54,510 --> 00:26:57,310 that are creative and that you can experiment with, but be 552 00:26:57,310 --> 00:26:59,110 ready to take them off the menu rapidly. 553 00:26:59,870 --> 00:27:02,030 Have a couple of things that are going to get people in to take 554 00:27:02,030 --> 00:27:06,870 photos and get them in the doors and gain attention for your 555 00:27:06,870 --> 00:27:09,510 restaurant. But most importantly, cook and 556 00:27:09,510 --> 00:27:10,350 have fun. Anyway. 557 00:27:10,350 --> 00:27:12,310 If you want to support the show, you know what to do. 558 00:27:12,310 --> 00:27:14,910 Make sure you leave five stars. If you're on YouTube, leave the 559 00:27:14,910 --> 00:27:16,270 thumbs up button. Subscribe. 560 00:27:18,060 --> 00:27:19,940 Nothing less than five stars, by the way. 561 00:27:20,100 --> 00:27:21,740 That's it. Five star podcast. 562 00:27:22,500 --> 00:27:24,780 If you don't leave five stars, it's because you're a liar and a 563 00:27:24,780 --> 00:27:26,900 hater and you don't want to be a liar and a hater. 564 00:27:26,900 --> 00:27:29,700 So I appreciate the five stars. Go to chefspsa.com. 565 00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:30,780 That's where you get all the books. 566 00:27:30,980 --> 00:27:33,500 English and Spanish. Now working on Italian. 567 00:27:33,500 --> 00:27:35,860 That'll be out soon. Go get the free ebooks as well. 568 00:27:36,660 --> 00:27:38,740 Get yourself some merch. Thank you very much. 569 00:27:38,740 --> 00:27:39,660 Hit the porno music.