June 10, 2025 • 35 mins
If your kitchen’s running hot but your margins are cold, this one’s for you.
Guy Leggatt didn’t just work the line—he studied the system. From Vancouver fine dining to corporate ops and back again, Guy built a career turning chaos into clarity. Now, through his consultancy Line Check Strategy, he’s helping independent restaurant operators build restaurants that actually run.
We get into the mindset shift that changes everything: why food cost and labor cost are symptoms—not root causes. We break down how productivity, routine, and menu engineering drive better numbers and better lives. And we go deep on what independent operators can borrow from corporate playbooks—without losing their soul.
This one’s a field manual for any operator who wants to get out of the weeds and lead with intention.
→ Don't build your way out alone. Book a Call
Connect with Guy Leggatt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyleggatt
Connect with Simon
Email: simon@culinarymechanic.com
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Website: https://www.culinarymechanic.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening toHeritage Radio Network.
I.
From kitchen chaos to well-oiled machines.
Get ready for newfangledtechnology and old school Know-how
(00:21):
stories and a good bit of fun.
I'm Simon, and this iscalled Area Mechanic.
Simon (00:31):
Welcome back to the Culinary Mechanic.
Joining me today is Guy Legett.
Guy.
Welcome to Culinary Mechanic.
Hey, thanks Simon.
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
Um, you know, I think it's,it's been, it's been fun.
You and I have been kind of on the,on some of the same calls and I
(00:51):
thought that, uh, having you on to,to chat about the industry and see
where things are and see where thingscan go is probably a great idea.
So let's, uh, let'spress on the gas buddy.
Uh, how'd you get into the industry?
Well,
Guy (01:10):
it's, uh.
Started when I was, uh, 15 years old.
Um, someone knew somebody in arestaurant, uh, I needed a job.
Um, and so I ended up washing dishes,uh, when I was 15, uh, at this, uh,
Italian, busy Italian restaurant in, inNorth Vancouver, uh, where I grew up.
(01:33):
And, uh.
It was interesting.
I, I, I kind of had a love-haterelationship, uh, with this job.
Uh, it was like so busy.
Like I would come in at 4:00 PM andthere would be just like stacks of
dishes from lunch and pots and pansfrom prep and like boxes of prawns to
peel and calamari to, to clean and.
(01:55):
But for, for whatever reason, Ijust, I had a good work ethic.
I got in there, uh, worked hard,worked my way up onto the line.
Um, and then I stuck aroundthere for about three years.
And, uh, the owners, the owner of, uh, therestaurant, these two brothers, Italian
brothers, Mario and Antonio, uh, Corsi,they, uh, uh, I remember going to Antonio.
(02:18):
I said, Hey, you know, I don'tknow if I wanna spend another
summer in a hot kitchen.
And, uh, so I gave him my notice.
And, uh, and, and that was it.
I, uh, I went to university after,after high school and I was gonna
go and get my business degree.
Um, and that lasted like a year.
(02:38):
It didn't go very well.
Um, and ended up working at ahotel, uh, VA Valley parking cars.
Uh, and uh, then I became a bellman.
I actually eventually ran thatdepartment and then I went on this,
uh, kind of like random holiday where Idrove down the west coast, uh, through
(03:02):
Washington, Oregon into the Napa Valley.
And I drove past the, uh, culinaryInstitute of America, uh, in San.
Oh wow.
But just before that,uh, just before that.
Vacation at the hotel I was workingat, uh, one of these, uh, uh, brothers,
(03:23):
Italian brothers, Mario Corsey justhappened to be walking by the front
door when I was there, and we hadn'tseen each other in a number of years.
And he was like, oh, hey,so great to see you, guy.
I, uh, I still think you, youhave, you know, lots of talent
and you should be in restaurants.
Like, why aren't you in restaurants?
This was just before I went on that tripAnyways, I knew I knew a thing or two
(03:45):
about the Culinary Institute of America.
Uh, I was driving by it.
I was like, holy crap, look at that.
Uh, pulled into the parking lot,walked inside, had a little tour,
and said to myself as I walkedout, I think I wanna be a chef.
And when I got back to Vancouver,I enrolled in culinary school.
And that was kind of,that's how I got started.
(04:08):
Man, I loved that building.
I started like 25 years old when Iwent to cooking school, so I was like,
you know, I, I had those three yearsin high school washing dishes and
cooking online, but, uh, I hadn't, um,uh, I, it was a pretty late start to
go to cooking school for most people.
Simon (04:26):
Yeah, but I, I think there's something to that, right?
Like you, you, you have someintention at that point.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, I, I've talked tofolks who've gone back, gone to culinary
school at 30 plus, you know, even, evenone friend of mine went, went when he was
40, and like, he smoked people becausehe, he actually had already understood.
(04:49):
Like he understood how his limbs worked.
I, that is the only way I can describe it.
Right?
Like, he already knewhow to work a little bit.
xx (04:56):
Yeah.
You know.
Simon (04:57):
Um, but I think that just a couple years, like I, I cringe
every time I see an 18-year-oldgo to culinary school personally.
Right?
Like, you guys, you don'tknow what you want yet.
Like you're supposed to go fuck thingsup first and then, then go to school.
But, ah, it's just me.
Um.
Well, cool.
So culinary school and then, uh, andthen instantly you were a chef, right?
Guy (05:22):
Yeah, that's right.
Um, yeah, I mean, I did, like yousaid, I, I did really well at school.
I was very focused on what I was doingnow, uh, you know, graduated with honors.
Um, you know, I was lucky enoughto have some, some friends who knew
friends, uh, and knew chefs in the,in Vancouver and Vancouver was kind
(05:42):
of popping off when it came to, uh.
The culinary scene and restaurants.
Um, and I said to myself, Hey, Igotta work in the best restaurants
in the city right now and, and in theworld, uh, you know, if I'm gonna,
if I'm gonna do something with this.
And so that's what I did.
I apprenticed under a couple ofreally, uh, the, probably the.
(06:03):
Considered the two best chefsin Vancouver at the time.
Um, went and did a stage atGordon Ramsey in, uh, in London.
Um, and that was, that wasgreat because I, it kind of
like, was like a test for me.
Like where, where do Ireally fit in in all this?
Like, can I really run withthese, the big dogs here?
(06:24):
And uh, and I've figured out that I could.
And, uh, and yeah, so I spenta lot of time in fine dining.
Um, yeah, and, and then,and then moved to Calgary.
Uh, and then that sort ofstarted a whole new chapter.
Wow.
All
Simon (06:42):
right.
So tell me how you get from thereto where, what you're doing now, and
tell me a, tell me a little bit about,you know, what your own business is.
Guy (06:53):
Yeah, so now I've, uh, got my own.
Um, I guess it's a restaurant consulting,uh, company that I'm building.
Uh, I've called it theline check strategy.
Uh, kind of an homage to, uh, mykitchen days, uh, doing line checks.
Um, I never actually did a linecheck until I started working for
(07:13):
a corporate restaurant company.
Um, but that sure taught me a lot.
Um.
So, you know, I, I work for acorporate, uh, a corporate company.
I learned, almost got like a, abusiness degree working for them.
Um, yeah, learned how to makemoney in the restaurant business.
Uh, you know, after I'd had, uh,some, some time learning about
(07:35):
the culinary side of things.
And, uh, then I actually gotinto the, uh, front of house.
Um, I took on a GM role, uh,some regional, uh, restaurant
role operations roles, and, uh.
Then I worked, uh, my, my latestjob was with, uh, Cisco, the food
distributor, uh, as kind of an in-houseconsultant, uh, for Cisco customers.
(08:00):
So working with, uh, the corporatechef in the test kitchen.
And, uh, did that for a couple ofyears and kind of thought to myself,
wow, you know, like I've actuallygot quite a lot of knowledge.
And, uh, uh, there's a, a, a lot ofpeople out there running restaurants that.
I actually really need help.
Um, they don't have the experiencethat I have and haven't gone through
(08:24):
the ups and downs that I have.
And I think like, unless you do that,uh, and you really learn from it, it's
hard to, it's hard to run a restaurant.
Like those margins are thin.
Uh, there's so much going on all the time.
Uh, time is a, is a, is a bigthing that operators and owners
don't necessarily have a lot.
And, uh.
(08:45):
I really love helping people.
Um, you know, and I, I feel like I'm ata point in my career where I just wanted
to, uh, share what I know and, uh, youknow, if I could turn some restaurants
around, like I'd done that in my career.
I really, um, I really love turninghard situations around and, you
know, I've turned a couple of.
(09:06):
Restaurants that weren't making moneyinto really profitable operations.
And I get a lot ofsatisfaction out of that.
And so, yeah, I just kind ofthought, Hey, why don't I, why
don't I take a stab at this andsee if I can just do it for myself?
And it's been one of the bestdecisions, uh, I think I've ever made.
Um, and yeah, I work with a, a greatgroup of consultants, uh, like yourself.
(09:29):
Um, always learning still.
And uh, yeah, it's beenbeen a lot of fun so far.
I. And, uh, looking forward tohelping as many people as I can.
Simon (09:40):
Awesome.
You know, you mentioned something thatreally got my brain going and that is
you worked for some, like some smallerrestaurants and then you worked for
a corporate restaurant and I, and I.
For me, like thinking back allof a sudden, I'm like, huh.
Yeah.
Because sometimes like I find some ofthe smaller restaurants that I talk
(10:02):
to and um, I mean, I've even got oneclient and they're doing pretty well.
You know, they're probably makingclose to $4 million a year,
but they're still running like.
What I would describeas a mom and pop, right?
And so as I'm working with them, I'm,I'm putting in little pieces of, of
that sort of the, some of the corporatetools that, that worked real well.
(10:25):
And it's always real interestingto me that like, there's
such a difference, right?
Like the corporationsthat they figured it out.
And some people, you say theword corporate and, and it's
like a dirty word, right?
Yeah.
But for me, I'm like, ah, you cancall it dirty word if you want, but.
That shit works.
Like there's no reason that there's like30 restaurants, a hundred restaurants,
(10:47):
a thousand restaurants, right?
Like there's a reason that standardthat, that they, that you can go to.
I mean, the worst one, the best andworst example is McDonald's, right?
You hire 17-year-old, 18-year-oldkids, they're running that joint.
Like the managers sometimes are like, man,I got socks over in those little fuckers.
But.
(11:08):
You know, it's like they, but they run abusy restaurant, right to the standard.
You know, it's the sameburger you get here.
It's the same burger you get over there.
And we know what that quality is,uh, really great, but it's the same.
And so I just love when like tohear another chef or former chefs
say, I worked, I worked over here,and then I worked in corporate.
(11:32):
And then like you start to realize.
Oh, there's really somethings that you can employ.
You don't have to employ all of them.
Right.
Uh, you talk about a line check ina, in a, in a corporate restaurant.
It's like I worked for one place and wehad the, the, the, the typeface was so
small on that line check that you hadto like squint to be able to get it.
(11:53):
Yeah.
But they wanted everything stuck inthere and they wanted you to like.
They wanted like taste and textureand temperature and is it all right?
And I'm like, man, how about this?
Taste the liquids.
Are the liquids good?
Yes.
Great.
Now move on to some of the otherthings and then maybe you'll
get to like the canned olives.
'cause you probably don't need totaste the canned olives every day.
(12:16):
Right.
And I used to say, I'm like, how aboutif you got like one station done really
well versus filling out the form?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's just, it just got into my braina little bit of like, how fun, how
such a, such a funny thing it is.
(12:36):
Like corporate restaurantsversus non-corporate.
Um, one of the guys that you and I, um,both know has said in the past, it's
like I've been in restaurants all my lifeand then I got out and I started being
a consultant and that's when I realized.
Boy, I, the rest of the world is differentthan the world I was in, and he was in
(12:59):
corporate restaurants, and it's, and it's
Guy (13:01):
really
Simon (13:01):
true, right?
Guy (13:02):
Yeah, no, it is.
I mean, I think that's, uh,there's a, there's a great
opportunity to blend the two.
Um, you know, I think what, uh,independent restaurants sometimes lack
is, uh, just the con, the consistencyand routine of corporate restaurants.
And I think like if youapply those two things to.
Every part of the business you're gonnado, you're gonna do more than Okay.
(13:27):
Um, totally.
But you know, there's nothing to say that,you know, you don't, you don't have to
fill out every little box, but can yourstations be, you know, really beautiful?
Is your meison pla perfect,um, before service?
Yes, absolutely.
So I think there's, uh, yeah, definitelysome, there's different ways of doing
(13:47):
it, but uh, you can definitely make it.
Make it work.
That blend, I thinkis, is, is really good.
I,
Simon (13:54):
I tell you lately, I have been, you know, as I the, as I continue down
the road, I'm realizing I almost alwaysnow start whether, I mean, whether I
plan to or not, I almost always endup in the first month of meeting these
folks and getting to work with them.
Starting with time management.
xx (14:16):
Yeah.
Simon (14:17):
It's like, huh.
You're really good.
You're a good cook, right?
Yeah.
Like you're the chef and you're areally good cook, but damnit you
don't know how to manage your timethat well because you, you're getting
stuck on all these things and thenyou're like, I don't have any time.
And it's like, okay, let's.
Let's work on PRI time management,and then we're gonna work on your
(14:38):
prioritization skills, right?
Like what can you give away?
And then, and then doyou know how to delegate?
You know, like, God, if you couldteach people those three things, like
you, you could just start to move.
But needle, like before you everget to like heavy duty systems,
Guy (14:57):
you know?
Yeah, no, for sure.
I think one of the, when I, uh, got intocorporate, probably the most important
thing I learned was having a routine.
You always knew what you were doing onany given day at any time, and it was
always gonna be something productive.
Yeah.
Um, you.
You just, you just did it.
You just knew, knew what you shouldbe doing and, uh, you know, it
(15:17):
was easy to get out of, uh, timewasting conversations when you knew
what you were supposed to be doing.
Simon (15:23):
Yeah.
At noon you're supposed to start this.
Yeah.
At, at three o'clock youneed to be doing this.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, and I think if you.
Yeah.
And in my, in, in the company I wasin, they, they had us sort of create
like what our week should look like.
And you, you were actually supposed topost it on the outside of your door so
your sous chefs knew where you were too.
(15:45):
And your and your GM knew, knew whereyou were gonna be, so that if it, if
every Thursday at three o'clock you werework, you were supposed to work on your
schedule, then that's what you were doing.
And like, stay away.
Guy (15:57):
And everybody had their own routine, uh, and everybody, and everybody knew
what everybody else's routine was.
So, you know, you alwaysknew what was going on.
Um, I mean, and the resultsjust came, you know?
Yeah.
Because people were doing whatthey were supposed to be doing.
Simon (16:12):
Right.
Yeah.
But I think the lessonfor me in that is, huh?
If you communicate what you're, whatyou're doing, then you have group,
group accountability, and it's like, oh.
That's why that works.
Okay.
Right.
Like nobody, people, everybody has theirroutine and they know what your routine
is so that they can, you know, interface.
(16:34):
I, I think that was the other part.
Well,
Guy (16:35):
at
Simon (16:35):
the end of the day, I,
Guy (16:36):
I
Simon (16:36):
like to
Guy (16:37):
say how you do one thing is how you do everything.
And, uh, you know, I think the routineis one of those things that if you do
that well, you're pretty much, you're.
It was a pretty, pretty certain, agood certainty that you're gonna be
doing a, a bunch of other things.
Well, because you're, you'replanning rather than reacting, right?
Simon (16:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The intentionality of it all.
Right.
Yeah.
Ha.
Having, knowing, knowingwhere you're going.
I was just talking to somebody today aboutthe difference between being reactive and
being intentional and how, if you, if youjust have some intention on one or two
details, it's amazing what else falls in.
(17:16):
Yeah.
Good stuff.
Um,
what are your, I mean, what are, what isit you're starting to see as you're out
there in the world talking to restaurants?
I mean, I love the, the concept of,of the in-house consultant with Cisco.
Like what are the things that thoserestaurants are struggling with?
(17:38):
Well,
Guy (17:40):
like, I think, I think what they think they're, uh.
Struggling with is always food costand, uh, labor like that, that seemed
to be what everybody thought they were.
And the more, the more I sort of diginto, uh, what I'm doing now and,
and helping people, it actually,those two things are kind of less
(18:04):
important than you think they are.
Um, what I'm discoveringis that productivity is.
Probably the most important thingwhen it comes to restaurants.
Like, how productive are your kitchens?
How productive are your front of house?
Um, menu engineering is something that I,I don't think enough people talk about.
(18:24):
Um, because if you're menus engineered,uh, there's just so many benefits to that.
You know, your, your sales willincrease, um, you know, your.
Prep time, uh, in, in thekitchen, uh, can come down.
And so if we're talking about,uh, productivity first, then the,
(18:46):
basically the food cost percentageand the labor cost percentage, uh, are
they just benefit from productivity.
Uh, they'll, they'll, they'llcome down and, and I think that's.
The better approach to, um, runninga restaurant than just trying to
cut hours and raise menu prices.
(19:10):
Yeah.
Uh, and it's, it's actually so cool forme, who's been in this, uh, industry for
over 30 years, uh, to, to realize thatthere is a, a different way of doing it.
And, uh, so I think that's prettyexciting is because the corporate,
the corporations have actually.
Mostly figured that out, butit's the independence that
really need the help with that.
(19:31):
Um, yeah, and that's whoI want to help, you know?
Um, you know, I think there's justso much opportunity for independent
restaurant owners to be doing waybetter, uh, and have their lives
actually be way less stressful.
Simon (19:47):
Totally.
Uh, you mentioned mentioning menuengineering and I, I was having
a conversation recently and.
I was telling somebody aboutthat and they're like, uh,
my food cost is pretty good.
And I was like, you arenot even understanding.
Like, you're not evengonna scratch the surface.
Yeah.
Uh, I said start by, right start.
(20:07):
First of all, start by gettingall your recipes consolidated and,
and compiled and accurate, right?
Like, make sure you'refollowing the recipes and then
consistency gets better, right?
And, and if consistency's better,then you probably have less.
Oh shit, which is gonna takea percent or or two off your
food cost right off the bat.
(20:29):
But the biggest value to having yourmenus written is that you can then
cost them, and then if they're costed,then you can go into engineering.
But I tell people, I'm like,until you restaurant and tell
you, get all of your recipes.
Documented and costed like you haven'teven gotten into the gateway yet.
(20:49):
Right.
For sure.
Recipe costing's a gateway drugbecause all of a sudden then you
have this, you have this abilityto, like, it's now on the map.
xx (20:59):
Yeah.
Simon (20:59):
Right.
It's otherwise you're justdriving around in the desert.
Right?
Guy (21:02):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And it's a big taskcosting, costing your menu.
But there are tools now that,uh, make it a lot easier.
Uh oh.
Stunning ways to do it.
Without that costing for sure.
Like I'm, I'm working with a, a clientright now and, um, waiting for his
recipes, uh, uh, to come my way.
Like he's gonna send them to me, butI know that he doesn't have them all
(21:25):
costed out and, uh, you know, so I can,I can look at his sales mix and say,
okay, well you sell a lot of this andyou sell a lot of that, but we don't
actually know if those are the itemsthat we really want you to be selling.
Like, what if he's selling 10,000?
Units of an item that has terrible margin.
Right.
(21:46):
We don't know that.
And, you know, so yeah, we'regonna, we're gonna get as menu
costed out, um, for the first time.
And it's, it's gonna be a, it'sprobably gonna be a big eyeopener.
I
Simon (21:57):
am right there with you.
I, I have an, I have a, I haveone chef and he's, he, he told me,
he's like, oh, I've costed my menu.
I'm like.
Cocktail nut cocktail napkins.
Don't fucking count.
He's like, he's like, well,it's a little better than that.
I'm like, is it, is it really?
I'm like, can you show methe cost of all of 'em?
(22:18):
He's like, oh, I did the costing.
I'm like, so you, you scrolled it out andyou made sure that you weren't egregious.
Cool.
But let's, let's get it so that wecan look at it and just like you
said, like be able to look and go.
All right.
This one sells 10,000, and yourmargin is really good on it.
(22:40):
Or isn't great on it,and you can make tweaks.
Um, and I mean, beyond that, like the,the next step after the, all of those
things is to like start to really diginto where things are on the menu.
That's the part that, thatjust blows my mind, right?
Like, oh, make it the third item on thelist, not the first, not the second.
(23:01):
Make it the third and watch what happens.
Right?
You know, put your chickenAlfredo in the third slot and
watch your food costs go down.
You know what I mean?
Like, you know, it's gonna be anice, a, a, a great costed item
and you're gonna sell a ton of'em because Woo Chicken Alfredo.
Right.
Um, but it's, it's that kind of stuff.
(23:23):
Like I, I worked for a guyand he was so good at that.
Like he had, I don't know where he learnedit, but somebody had spent time to teach
him and he was always the guy to like.
You know, like kind of he is,he is like, kill this item, kill
this item, and kill this item.
And now we have space and he puta box in the middle and then like,
(23:43):
just throw, throw the like highmargin items in there and just go.
That's amazing.
Guy (23:49):
Right.
And, uh, I think what the, the, the goodthing that, uh, corporate restaurants
have done is they've kind of reinventedthe restaurant, uh, operation and,
you know, because they're always.
They're always looking tomake more money and Totally.
You know, they have a lot of, a lotof different, uh, a lot of talent, you
(24:11):
know, in these, in these corporations.
And, uh, you know, they havethe, the ability to just really
think everything through and
xx (24:19):
mm-hmm.
Guy (24:20):
Without that, you can't, like, you always gotta reinvent.
Uh, you gotta reinvent.
What you're doing, uh,I think in restaurants.
Yeah.
You know, like the good thingabout restaurants, especially
small restaurants, is the abilityto pivot, uh, really quickly.
You know?
Uh, a small restaurant canchange its menu pretty quickly.
Um, you know, if it's, ifit's not working, um, yeah.
(24:43):
So, yeah.
Yeah, it's fun.
That's the fun part of, of operationsis, uh, when you can find new
ways of doing, doing things.
And, uh, when you startto see results, it, uh,
Simon (24:56):
it's great.
I, there's nothing better to me thanworking with an operator, whether it's
the owner or the GM or, or the chef,and just getting them to see something
new like that aha, light bulb that pops.
There's just nothing better than that.
I, you know, they're like, Inever thought about it that way.
You know?
(25:16):
I was talking to one guy and I waslike, how often are you teaching?
He's like, oh, I don't have time to teach.
I'm like, you are so backwards right now.
If you taught one thing a day, you,you eventually could then like give
that task to somebody and then youwouldn't have to do it every day.
And he's like, well, Inever thought about that.
(25:38):
I'm like, no, 'causeyou're too busy running.
You're still, again, you're toobusy doing donuts in the desert,
just spanning in circles runningand you're going fast, but, but are
you making any headway or progress?
So yeah, for sure.
I, I love it.
The other part about corporaterestaurants is somebody said to
me, said, of course corporaterestaurants move the, move the needle.
(26:00):
And I said, what do you mean?
He goes.
If you have a hundred restaurants, you gota hundred chances to fuck it up and learn.
And I went, oh, okay.
So it's that, right?
Yeah.
Like you got a hundred different people,like test field testing something for you,
whether, whether or not you're callingit a field test, like, oh, iteration
(26:22):
happens quick when you go, oh, data.
Got it.
And you just Yeah,
Guy (26:26):
that's actually a great point, Simon.
Is, uh, there's also, um, uh, comparison.
Um, yeah, between, between each, uh,location and that tells you a lot.
Like, why are these people doingso much better than these people?
Um, yeah, that's a, that's a huge one.
Simon (26:42):
Yeah.
I mean, I used to tell, I used, Iworked for a seven unit company and I.
For about a year, I screamedcross pollination and
everybody's kind of siloed.
All seven restaurants sortof did their own thing.
And then we started having chef meetingswhere we brought all chefs on, all
seven chefs onto a Zoom call, andwe just would spend a half an hour.
And the last 15 minutesof every call was like.
(27:06):
What do you guys wanna talk about?
And like one guy would go,oh, I'm struggling with this.
And then maybe one of theveterans in the company would
go, oh, this is how you do that.
Let's talk afterwards.
And they ended up sortof buddying up, right?
And so all of a sudden you have like.
You got junior over here and you gotsenior over there and they're talking
to each other and now, you know, the,the, the senior guy, he's struggling,
(27:30):
he's struggling with people and thejunior guy's like, just tell 'em
like this, this is the, what theyoung people want to hear, you know?
And all of a sudden it was like, oh.
So yeah, you're right.
Comparison, but also like there, I thinkwhen leveraged correctly, the community of
a, of a corporate team is pretty special.
Yeah.
(27:50):
Awesome.
Um, we covered a littlebit of ground there, buddy.
Yeah, we did.
Yeah.
That was, we got from, uh, we gotfrom Vancouver to Calgary to corporate
restaurants and mom and pop restaurants.
Um, productivity, I love theconcept that food costs and labor
costs could almost be a symptom of,of, of good or bad productivity.
(28:11):
Yeah.
Like that's a relationship that morepeople need to think about For sure.
Guy (28:16):
Uh, that's actually where I start, uh, with my, with my clients.
Um.
'cause most, most people haven't thought,thought about looking at, at it that way.
Um, even, even covers per labor hour,sales per labor hour, it's actually crazy.
And the, the, the small amountthat you need to move the needle
(28:36):
to actually increase those, uh, ordecrease those, uh, percentages.
Um, yeah, you can raiseyour sales or covers by 5%.
Uh.
And it can bring your labordown two, three points.
Simon (28:52):
Totally.
Um, I think the o you know, the otherone for me is like understanding what
happens when you're like, and this is,this is air quotes too productive, right?
Like the damage that you'redoing to your team when you, when
like those numbers go too high.
Like that was what I neverthought about for years.
And then.
(29:14):
You know, in the last couple, it'slike, oh, I was always just taught to
drive those, you know, if, if I lookedat core, if I looked at productivity,
it was always to drive that number up.
It was never, oh, beyond thispoint is like a bad zone.
xx (29:31):
Yeah.
Guy (29:31):
Yeah.
I get the question sometimes, uh,from clients, well, what's the, what's
the perfect productivity number?
Uh, and I say, well, there, there isn't,it's all relative to your business.
Um, right.
You know, when we, when we take your salesdata and put it into, into the grinder
and numbers pop out, uh, we'll start tosee patterns and uh, and that's basically.
(29:56):
We'll figure out what your number is.
Um, but there can be numbers thatare too low, uh, and too high.
Um, you know, and so interestingthat we're going down this path of
productivity because productivitycan also be, uh, really tightly,
uh, tied with, uh, staff retention.
Absolutely.
So, you know, how does your,do your servers have like 10
(30:20):
table sections or do they have.
Five table sections.
Uh, do they have time to, you know,make the guest experience incredible?
Do they have the time to sellthat second bottle of wine?
Um, you know, and then productivity in thekitchen too, like your menu design, like.
What does the prep day look like?
What does the execution onlinelook like of your menu items?
(30:42):
You know, we've all, we've all beenthere where you're just like, you
know, as a server you're just hangingon, or as a, as a, as a cook, you're
just like barely hanging on, youknow, I'm trying to get your prep done
every day and, you know, is that fun?
Not always.
And, uh, you know, it's,it's, it's actually.
Crazy how quickly you can changethe experience of your, of your
(31:06):
employees, uh, when they come in everyday just by focusing on productivity
numbers and, uh, menu entry.
Totally like
Simon (31:13):
that.
I mean, I, I like to ask people, I'mlike, so do you think that a cook
that is so stressed out that likehe has to drink half a bottle of
something, something caustic at night?
Do you really think that makingthat person more stressed out is
making them produce better food?
Yeah.
And it's like, huh?
Oh yeah.
I never thought about that.
(31:34):
Yeah, you're right.
Damn right.
You never thought about it.
Neither is anybody else.
Well, well, and what, uh, remember
Guy (31:39):
our, um, one of our consultant friends, uh, uh, was, uh, I saw
one of her posts, um, was it Emily?
I think so.
Yeah, Kimberly.
That's right.
Uh, sorry.
She, uh, was saying that, um, it's 70, itcosts, costs companies, or what was it?
(32:05):
Uh.
Sorry, let's get this right.
The, uh, the turnover rates, uh,were 75 to a hundred percent or
something like that in, in restaurants.
And the cost, uh, to those restaurants,uh, like the cost of retention is
something that people don't think about.
Um, so like if we're usingproductivity numbers to impact
(32:27):
retention and your retention isimproving your, all that money.
For training and everything isjust going down to the bottom line.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Simon (32:38):
I mean, I've done some, I've done some, some, you know, some
cocktail napkin, like guessing aroundwhat it would cost, what it costs.
If you pay an executive chef say$80,000 a year, what does it cost if you
lose that chef and then it takes you.
Four months to re, to replace them.
(33:00):
Right.
Because it's not easy to find a good chef.
Right.
And it's like sometimes I've, I reallythink that with loss of productivity
and loss of vision, that thatreplacement cost can be 50 or 60 grand.
xx (33:15):
Oh, for
Simon (33:16):
sure.
On an $80,000 shelf.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's if you get themreplaced in six months.
Replace and trained in six months and,and if it lasts longer, and I've seen
it happen, we've all seen it happenlike the chef, chef leaves because
they're, they're tired and burnt out.
And then you hire somebody who's notqualified or not qual as qualified.
(33:36):
And it's just, it's this likeslippery slope of, of, of just
money down the drain, you know?
Um, that's where, that's where I come in.
Um, I try to be like the.
The chef's older brother sometimes,and I'm just like, here, let's work
on your time management and you'regonna be able to do a job that that
(33:58):
is maybe a little bit outta your,outta your really outta your league.
But if you employ some strategyto it and you're intentional,
like you can make up for a wholelot of talent with, with systems.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, alright man, um, thank you so muchfor playing and, and coming hanging
out in my sandbox for a minute.
Um, welcome.
(34:18):
I really appreciate it.
I'm gonna make sure that in the shownotes that everybody can find you.
Um, I know you're on LinkedIn a fair bitand so we'll get, we'll get that on there.
Um, and any website information, we'llhave it for all of you out there.
Um, you can find me at Culinary Mechanic.
Um.
(34:39):
On YouTube, wherever you consume yourpodcasts, please like, follow, subscribe,
and um, leave me a five star review.
'cause every time wedo, we get one of those.
Um, life gets just a little bitbetter and I get to do this a little
bit longer and I appreciate it.
So, um, so you out there, I'llcatch you on the flip side guy.
I'll catch you next time.
(35:00):
Hey, thanks a lot Simon.
Appreciate you inviting me.
Absolutely.
You're listening toHeritage Radio Network.
I.
From kitchen chaos to well-oiled machines.
Get ready for newfangledtechnology and old school Know-how
(00:21):
stories and a good bit of fun.
I'm Simon, and this iscalled Area Mechanic.
Simon (00:31):
Welcome back to the Culinary Mechanic.
Joining me today is Guy Legett.
Guy.
Welcome to Culinary Mechanic.
Hey, thanks Simon.
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
Um, you know, I think it's,it's been, it's been fun.
You and I have been kind of on the,on some of the same calls and I
(00:51):
thought that, uh, having you on to,to chat about the industry and see
where things are and see where thingscan go is probably a great idea.
So let's, uh, let'spress on the gas buddy.
Uh, how'd you get into the industry?
Well,
Guy (01:10):
it's, uh.
Started when I was, uh, 15 years old.
Um, someone knew somebody in arestaurant, uh, I needed a job.
Um, and so I ended up washing dishes,uh, when I was 15, uh, at this, uh,
Italian, busy Italian restaurant in, inNorth Vancouver, uh, where I grew up.
(01:33):
And, uh.
It was interesting.
I, I, I kind of had a love-haterelationship, uh, with this job.
Uh, it was like so busy.
Like I would come in at 4:00 PM andthere would be just like stacks of
dishes from lunch and pots and pansfrom prep and like boxes of prawns to
peel and calamari to, to clean and.
(01:55):
But for, for whatever reason, Ijust, I had a good work ethic.
I got in there, uh, worked hard,worked my way up onto the line.
Um, and then I stuck aroundthere for about three years.
And, uh, the owners, the owner of, uh, therestaurant, these two brothers, Italian
brothers, Mario and Antonio, uh, Corsi,they, uh, uh, I remember going to Antonio.
(02:18):
I said, Hey, you know, I don'tknow if I wanna spend another
summer in a hot kitchen.
And, uh, so I gave him my notice.
And, uh, and, and that was it.
I, uh, I went to university after,after high school and I was gonna
go and get my business degree.
Um, and that lasted like a year.
(02:38):
It didn't go very well.
Um, and ended up working at ahotel, uh, VA Valley parking cars.
Uh, and uh, then I became a bellman.
I actually eventually ran thatdepartment and then I went on this,
uh, kind of like random holiday where Idrove down the west coast, uh, through
(03:02):
Washington, Oregon into the Napa Valley.
And I drove past the, uh, culinaryInstitute of America, uh, in San.
Oh wow.
But just before that,uh, just before that.
Vacation at the hotel I was workingat, uh, one of these, uh, uh, brothers,
(03:23):
Italian brothers, Mario Corsey justhappened to be walking by the front
door when I was there, and we hadn'tseen each other in a number of years.
And he was like, oh, hey,so great to see you, guy.
I, uh, I still think you, youhave, you know, lots of talent
and you should be in restaurants.
Like, why aren't you in restaurants?
This was just before I went on that tripAnyways, I knew I knew a thing or two
(03:45):
about the Culinary Institute of America.
Uh, I was driving by it.
I was like, holy crap, look at that.
Uh, pulled into the parking lot,walked inside, had a little tour,
and said to myself as I walkedout, I think I wanna be a chef.
And when I got back to Vancouver,I enrolled in culinary school.
And that was kind of,that's how I got started.
(04:08):
Man, I loved that building.
I started like 25 years old when Iwent to cooking school, so I was like,
you know, I, I had those three yearsin high school washing dishes and
cooking online, but, uh, I hadn't, um,uh, I, it was a pretty late start to
go to cooking school for most people.
Simon (04:26):
Yeah, but I, I think there's something to that, right?
Like you, you, you have someintention at that point.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, I, I've talked tofolks who've gone back, gone to culinary
school at 30 plus, you know, even, evenone friend of mine went, went when he was
40, and like, he smoked people becausehe, he actually had already understood.
(04:49):
Like he understood how his limbs worked.
I, that is the only way I can describe it.
Right?
Like, he already knewhow to work a little bit.
xx (04:56):
Yeah.
You know.
Simon (04:57):
Um, but I think that just a couple years, like I, I cringe
every time I see an 18-year-oldgo to culinary school personally.
Right?
Like, you guys, you don'tknow what you want yet.
Like you're supposed to go fuck thingsup first and then, then go to school.
But, ah, it's just me.
Um.
Well, cool.
So culinary school and then, uh, andthen instantly you were a chef, right?
Guy (05:22):
Yeah, that's right.
Um, yeah, I mean, I did, like yousaid, I, I did really well at school.
I was very focused on what I was doingnow, uh, you know, graduated with honors.
Um, you know, I was lucky enoughto have some, some friends who knew
friends, uh, and knew chefs in the,in Vancouver and Vancouver was kind
(05:42):
of popping off when it came to, uh.
The culinary scene and restaurants.
Um, and I said to myself, Hey, Igotta work in the best restaurants
in the city right now and, and in theworld, uh, you know, if I'm gonna,
if I'm gonna do something with this.
And so that's what I did.
I apprenticed under a couple ofreally, uh, the, probably the.
(06:03):
Considered the two best chefsin Vancouver at the time.
Um, went and did a stage atGordon Ramsey in, uh, in London.
Um, and that was, that wasgreat because I, it kind of
like, was like a test for me.
Like where, where do Ireally fit in in all this?
Like, can I really run withthese, the big dogs here?
(06:24):
And uh, and I've figured out that I could.
And, uh, and yeah, so I spenta lot of time in fine dining.
Um, yeah, and, and then,and then moved to Calgary.
Uh, and then that sort ofstarted a whole new chapter.
Wow.
All
Simon (06:42):
right.
So tell me how you get from thereto where, what you're doing now, and
tell me a, tell me a little bit about,you know, what your own business is.
Guy (06:53):
Yeah, so now I've, uh, got my own.
Um, I guess it's a restaurant consulting,uh, company that I'm building.
Uh, I've called it theline check strategy.
Uh, kind of an homage to, uh, mykitchen days, uh, doing line checks.
Um, I never actually did a linecheck until I started working for
(07:13):
a corporate restaurant company.
Um, but that sure taught me a lot.
Um.
So, you know, I, I work for acorporate, uh, a corporate company.
I learned, almost got like a, abusiness degree working for them.
Um, yeah, learned how to makemoney in the restaurant business.
Uh, you know, after I'd had, uh,some, some time learning about
(07:35):
the culinary side of things.
And, uh, then I actually gotinto the, uh, front of house.
Um, I took on a GM role, uh,some regional, uh, restaurant
role operations roles, and, uh.
Then I worked, uh, my, my latestjob was with, uh, Cisco, the food
distributor, uh, as kind of an in-houseconsultant, uh, for Cisco customers.
(08:00):
So working with, uh, the corporatechef in the test kitchen.
And, uh, did that for a couple ofyears and kind of thought to myself,
wow, you know, like I've actuallygot quite a lot of knowledge.
And, uh, uh, there's a, a, a lot ofpeople out there running restaurants that.
I actually really need help.
Um, they don't have the experiencethat I have and haven't gone through
(08:24):
the ups and downs that I have.
And I think like, unless you do that,uh, and you really learn from it, it's
hard to, it's hard to run a restaurant.
Like those margins are thin.
Uh, there's so much going on all the time.
Uh, time is a, is a, is a bigthing that operators and owners
don't necessarily have a lot.
And, uh.
(08:45):
I really love helping people.
Um, you know, and I, I feel like I'm ata point in my career where I just wanted
to, uh, share what I know and, uh, youknow, if I could turn some restaurants
around, like I'd done that in my career.
I really, um, I really love turninghard situations around and, you
know, I've turned a couple of.
(09:06):
Restaurants that weren't making moneyinto really profitable operations.
And I get a lot ofsatisfaction out of that.
And so, yeah, I just kind ofthought, Hey, why don't I, why
don't I take a stab at this andsee if I can just do it for myself?
And it's been one of the bestdecisions, uh, I think I've ever made.
Um, and yeah, I work with a, a greatgroup of consultants, uh, like yourself.
(09:29):
Um, always learning still.
And uh, yeah, it's beenbeen a lot of fun so far.
I. And, uh, looking forward tohelping as many people as I can.
Simon (09:40):
Awesome.
You know, you mentioned something thatreally got my brain going and that is
you worked for some, like some smallerrestaurants and then you worked for
a corporate restaurant and I, and I.
For me, like thinking back allof a sudden, I'm like, huh.
Yeah.
Because sometimes like I find some ofthe smaller restaurants that I talk
(10:02):
to and um, I mean, I've even got oneclient and they're doing pretty well.
You know, they're probably makingclose to $4 million a year,
but they're still running like.
What I would describeas a mom and pop, right?
And so as I'm working with them, I'm,I'm putting in little pieces of, of
that sort of the, some of the corporatetools that, that worked real well.
(10:25):
And it's always real interestingto me that like, there's
such a difference, right?
Like the corporationsthat they figured it out.
And some people, you say theword corporate and, and it's
like a dirty word, right?
Yeah.
But for me, I'm like, ah, you cancall it dirty word if you want, but.
That shit works.
Like there's no reason that there's like30 restaurants, a hundred restaurants,
(10:47):
a thousand restaurants, right?
Like there's a reason that standardthat, that they, that you can go to.
I mean, the worst one, the best andworst example is McDonald's, right?
You hire 17-year-old, 18-year-oldkids, they're running that joint.
Like the managers sometimes are like, man,I got socks over in those little fuckers.
But.
(11:08):
You know, it's like they, but they run abusy restaurant, right to the standard.
You know, it's the sameburger you get here.
It's the same burger you get over there.
And we know what that quality is,uh, really great, but it's the same.
And so I just love when like tohear another chef or former chefs
say, I worked, I worked over here,and then I worked in corporate.
(11:32):
And then like you start to realize.
Oh, there's really somethings that you can employ.
You don't have to employ all of them.
Right.
Uh, you talk about a line check ina, in a, in a corporate restaurant.
It's like I worked for one place and wehad the, the, the, the typeface was so
small on that line check that you hadto like squint to be able to get it.
(11:53):
Yeah.
But they wanted everything stuck inthere and they wanted you to like.
They wanted like taste and textureand temperature and is it all right?
And I'm like, man, how about this?
Taste the liquids.
Are the liquids good?
Yes.
Great.
Now move on to some of the otherthings and then maybe you'll
get to like the canned olives.
'cause you probably don't need totaste the canned olives every day.
(12:16):
Right.
And I used to say, I'm like, how aboutif you got like one station done really
well versus filling out the form?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's just, it just got into my braina little bit of like, how fun, how
such a, such a funny thing it is.
(12:36):
Like corporate restaurantsversus non-corporate.
Um, one of the guys that you and I, um,both know has said in the past, it's
like I've been in restaurants all my lifeand then I got out and I started being
a consultant and that's when I realized.
Boy, I, the rest of the world is differentthan the world I was in, and he was in
(12:59):
corporate restaurants, and it's, and it's
Guy (13:01):
really
Simon (13:01):
true, right?
Guy (13:02):
Yeah, no, it is.
I mean, I think that's, uh,there's a, there's a great
opportunity to blend the two.
Um, you know, I think what, uh,independent restaurants sometimes lack
is, uh, just the con, the consistencyand routine of corporate restaurants.
And I think like if youapply those two things to.
Every part of the business you're gonnado, you're gonna do more than Okay.
(13:27):
Um, totally.
But you know, there's nothing to say that,you know, you don't, you don't have to
fill out every little box, but can yourstations be, you know, really beautiful?
Is your meison pla perfect,um, before service?
Yes, absolutely.
So I think there's, uh, yeah, definitelysome, there's different ways of doing
(13:47):
it, but uh, you can definitely make it.
Make it work.
That blend, I thinkis, is, is really good.
I,
Simon (13:54):
I tell you lately, I have been, you know, as I the, as I continue down
the road, I'm realizing I almost alwaysnow start whether, I mean, whether I
plan to or not, I almost always endup in the first month of meeting these
folks and getting to work with them.
Starting with time management.
xx (14:16):
Yeah.
Simon (14:17):
It's like, huh.
You're really good.
You're a good cook, right?
Yeah.
Like you're the chef and you're areally good cook, but damnit you
don't know how to manage your timethat well because you, you're getting
stuck on all these things and thenyou're like, I don't have any time.
And it's like, okay, let's.
Let's work on PRI time management,and then we're gonna work on your
(14:38):
prioritization skills, right?
Like what can you give away?
And then, and then doyou know how to delegate?
You know, like, God, if you couldteach people those three things, like
you, you could just start to move.
But needle, like before you everget to like heavy duty systems,
Guy (14:57):
you know?
Yeah, no, for sure.
I think one of the, when I, uh, got intocorporate, probably the most important
thing I learned was having a routine.
You always knew what you were doing onany given day at any time, and it was
always gonna be something productive.
Yeah.
Um, you.
You just, you just did it.
You just knew, knew what you shouldbe doing and, uh, you know, it
(15:17):
was easy to get out of, uh, timewasting conversations when you knew
what you were supposed to be doing.
Simon (15:23):
Yeah.
At noon you're supposed to start this.
Yeah.
At, at three o'clock youneed to be doing this.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um, and I think if you.
Yeah.
And in my, in, in the company I wasin, they, they had us sort of create
like what our week should look like.
And you, you were actually supposed topost it on the outside of your door so
your sous chefs knew where you were too.
(15:45):
And your and your GM knew, knew whereyou were gonna be, so that if it, if
every Thursday at three o'clock you werework, you were supposed to work on your
schedule, then that's what you were doing.
And like, stay away.
Guy (15:57):
And everybody had their own routine, uh, and everybody, and everybody knew
what everybody else's routine was.
So, you know, you alwaysknew what was going on.
Um, I mean, and the resultsjust came, you know?
Yeah.
Because people were doing whatthey were supposed to be doing.
Simon (16:12):
Right.
Yeah.
But I think the lessonfor me in that is, huh?
If you communicate what you're, whatyou're doing, then you have group,
group accountability, and it's like, oh.
That's why that works.
Okay.
Right.
Like nobody, people, everybody has theirroutine and they know what your routine
is so that they can, you know, interface.
(16:34):
I, I think that was the other part.
Well,
Guy (16:35):
at
Simon (16:35):
the end of the day, I,
Guy (16:36):
I
Simon (16:36):
like to
Guy (16:37):
say how you do one thing is how you do everything.
And, uh, you know, I think the routineis one of those things that if you do
that well, you're pretty much, you're.
It was a pretty, pretty certain, agood certainty that you're gonna be
doing a, a bunch of other things.
Well, because you're, you'replanning rather than reacting, right?
Simon (16:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The intentionality of it all.
Right.
Yeah.
Ha.
Having, knowing, knowingwhere you're going.
I was just talking to somebody today aboutthe difference between being reactive and
being intentional and how, if you, if youjust have some intention on one or two
details, it's amazing what else falls in.
(17:16):
Yeah.
Good stuff.
Um,
what are your, I mean, what are, what isit you're starting to see as you're out
there in the world talking to restaurants?
I mean, I love the, the concept of,of the in-house consultant with Cisco.
Like what are the things that thoserestaurants are struggling with?
(17:38):
Well,
Guy (17:40):
like, I think, I think what they think they're, uh.
Struggling with is always food costand, uh, labor like that, that seemed
to be what everybody thought they were.
And the more, the more I sort of diginto, uh, what I'm doing now and,
and helping people, it actually,those two things are kind of less
(18:04):
important than you think they are.
Um, what I'm discoveringis that productivity is.
Probably the most important thingwhen it comes to restaurants.
Like, how productive are your kitchens?
How productive are your front of house?
Um, menu engineering is something that I,I don't think enough people talk about.
(18:24):
Um, because if you're menus engineered,uh, there's just so many benefits to that.
You know, your, your sales willincrease, um, you know, your.
Prep time, uh, in, in thekitchen, uh, can come down.
And so if we're talking about,uh, productivity first, then the,
(18:46):
basically the food cost percentageand the labor cost percentage, uh, are
they just benefit from productivity.
Uh, they'll, they'll, they'llcome down and, and I think that's.
The better approach to, um, runninga restaurant than just trying to
cut hours and raise menu prices.
(19:10):
Yeah.
Uh, and it's, it's actually so cool forme, who's been in this, uh, industry for
over 30 years, uh, to, to realize thatthere is a, a different way of doing it.
And, uh, so I think that's prettyexciting is because the corporate,
the corporations have actually.
Mostly figured that out, butit's the independence that
really need the help with that.
(19:31):
Um, yeah, and that's whoI want to help, you know?
Um, you know, I think there's justso much opportunity for independent
restaurant owners to be doing waybetter, uh, and have their lives
actually be way less stressful.
Simon (19:47):
Totally.
Uh, you mentioned mentioning menuengineering and I, I was having
a conversation recently and.
I was telling somebody aboutthat and they're like, uh,
my food cost is pretty good.
And I was like, you arenot even understanding.
Like, you're not evengonna scratch the surface.
Yeah.
Uh, I said start by, right start.
(20:07):
First of all, start by gettingall your recipes consolidated and,
and compiled and accurate, right?
Like, make sure you'refollowing the recipes and then
consistency gets better, right?
And, and if consistency's better,then you probably have less.
Oh shit, which is gonna takea percent or or two off your
food cost right off the bat.
(20:29):
But the biggest value to having yourmenus written is that you can then
cost them, and then if they're costed,then you can go into engineering.
But I tell people, I'm like,until you restaurant and tell
you, get all of your recipes.
Documented and costed like you haven'teven gotten into the gateway yet.
(20:49):
Right.
For sure.
Recipe costing's a gateway drugbecause all of a sudden then you
have this, you have this abilityto, like, it's now on the map.
xx (20:59):
Yeah.
Simon (20:59):
Right.
It's otherwise you're justdriving around in the desert.
Right?
Guy (21:02):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And it's a big taskcosting, costing your menu.
But there are tools now that,uh, make it a lot easier.
Uh oh.
Stunning ways to do it.
Without that costing for sure.
Like I'm, I'm working with a, a clientright now and, um, waiting for his
recipes, uh, uh, to come my way.
Like he's gonna send them to me, butI know that he doesn't have them all
(21:25):
costed out and, uh, you know, so I can,I can look at his sales mix and say,
okay, well you sell a lot of this andyou sell a lot of that, but we don't
actually know if those are the itemsthat we really want you to be selling.
Like, what if he's selling 10,000?
Units of an item that has terrible margin.
Right.
(21:46):
We don't know that.
And, you know, so yeah, we'regonna, we're gonna get as menu
costed out, um, for the first time.
And it's, it's gonna be a, it'sprobably gonna be a big eyeopener.
I
Simon (21:57):
am right there with you.
I, I have an, I have a, I haveone chef and he's, he, he told me,
he's like, oh, I've costed my menu.
I'm like.
Cocktail nut cocktail napkins.
Don't fucking count.
He's like, he's like, well,it's a little better than that.
I'm like, is it, is it really?
I'm like, can you show methe cost of all of 'em?
(22:18):
He's like, oh, I did the costing.
I'm like, so you, you scrolled it out andyou made sure that you weren't egregious.
Cool.
But let's, let's get it so that wecan look at it and just like you
said, like be able to look and go.
All right.
This one sells 10,000, and yourmargin is really good on it.
(22:40):
Or isn't great on it,and you can make tweaks.
Um, and I mean, beyond that, like the,the next step after the, all of those
things is to like start to really diginto where things are on the menu.
That's the part that, thatjust blows my mind, right?
Like, oh, make it the third item on thelist, not the first, not the second.
(23:01):
Make it the third and watch what happens.
Right?
You know, put your chickenAlfredo in the third slot and
watch your food costs go down.
You know what I mean?
Like, you know, it's gonna be anice, a, a, a great costed item
and you're gonna sell a ton of'em because Woo Chicken Alfredo.
Right.
Um, but it's, it's that kind of stuff.
(23:23):
Like I, I worked for a guyand he was so good at that.
Like he had, I don't know where he learnedit, but somebody had spent time to teach
him and he was always the guy to like.
You know, like kind of he is,he is like, kill this item, kill
this item, and kill this item.
And now we have space and he puta box in the middle and then like,
(23:43):
just throw, throw the like highmargin items in there and just go.
That's amazing.
Guy (23:49):
Right.
And, uh, I think what the, the, the goodthing that, uh, corporate restaurants
have done is they've kind of reinventedthe restaurant, uh, operation and,
you know, because they're always.
They're always looking tomake more money and Totally.
You know, they have a lot of, a lotof different, uh, a lot of talent, you
(24:11):
know, in these, in these corporations.
And, uh, you know, they havethe, the ability to just really
think everything through and
xx (24:19):
mm-hmm.
Guy (24:20):
Without that, you can't, like, you always gotta reinvent.
Uh, you gotta reinvent.
What you're doing, uh,I think in restaurants.
Yeah.
You know, like the good thingabout restaurants, especially
small restaurants, is the abilityto pivot, uh, really quickly.
You know?
Uh, a small restaurant canchange its menu pretty quickly.
Um, you know, if it's, ifit's not working, um, yeah.
(24:43):
So, yeah.
Yeah, it's fun.
That's the fun part of, of operationsis, uh, when you can find new
ways of doing, doing things.
And, uh, when you startto see results, it, uh,
Simon (24:56):
it's great.
I, there's nothing better to me thanworking with an operator, whether it's
the owner or the GM or, or the chef,and just getting them to see something
new like that aha, light bulb that pops.
There's just nothing better than that.
I, you know, they're like, Inever thought about it that way.
You know?
(25:16):
I was talking to one guy and I waslike, how often are you teaching?
He's like, oh, I don't have time to teach.
I'm like, you are so backwards right now.
If you taught one thing a day, you,you eventually could then like give
that task to somebody and then youwouldn't have to do it every day.
And he's like, well, Inever thought about that.
(25:38):
I'm like, no, 'causeyou're too busy running.
You're still, again, you're toobusy doing donuts in the desert,
just spanning in circles runningand you're going fast, but, but are
you making any headway or progress?
So yeah, for sure.
I, I love it.
The other part about corporaterestaurants is somebody said to
me, said, of course corporaterestaurants move the, move the needle.
(26:00):
And I said, what do you mean?
He goes.
If you have a hundred restaurants, you gota hundred chances to fuck it up and learn.
And I went, oh, okay.
So it's that, right?
Yeah.
Like you got a hundred different people,like test field testing something for you,
whether, whether or not you're callingit a field test, like, oh, iteration
(26:22):
happens quick when you go, oh, data.
Got it.
And you just Yeah,
Guy (26:26):
that's actually a great point, Simon.
Is, uh, there's also, um, uh, comparison.
Um, yeah, between, between each, uh,location and that tells you a lot.
Like, why are these people doingso much better than these people?
Um, yeah, that's a, that's a huge one.
Simon (26:42):
Yeah.
I mean, I used to tell, I used, Iworked for a seven unit company and I.
For about a year, I screamedcross pollination and
everybody's kind of siloed.
All seven restaurants sortof did their own thing.
And then we started having chef meetingswhere we brought all chefs on, all
seven chefs onto a Zoom call, andwe just would spend a half an hour.
And the last 15 minutesof every call was like.
(27:06):
What do you guys wanna talk about?
And like one guy would go,oh, I'm struggling with this.
And then maybe one of theveterans in the company would
go, oh, this is how you do that.
Let's talk afterwards.
And they ended up sortof buddying up, right?
And so all of a sudden you have like.
You got junior over here and you gotsenior over there and they're talking
to each other and now, you know, the,the, the senior guy, he's struggling,
(27:30):
he's struggling with people and thejunior guy's like, just tell 'em
like this, this is the, what theyoung people want to hear, you know?
And all of a sudden it was like, oh.
So yeah, you're right.
Comparison, but also like there, I thinkwhen leveraged correctly, the community of
a, of a corporate team is pretty special.
Yeah.
(27:50):
Awesome.
Um, we covered a littlebit of ground there, buddy.
Yeah, we did.
Yeah.
That was, we got from, uh, we gotfrom Vancouver to Calgary to corporate
restaurants and mom and pop restaurants.
Um, productivity, I love theconcept that food costs and labor
costs could almost be a symptom of,of, of good or bad productivity.
(28:11):
Yeah.
Like that's a relationship that morepeople need to think about For sure.
Guy (28:16):
Uh, that's actually where I start, uh, with my, with my clients.
Um.
'cause most, most people haven't thought,thought about looking at, at it that way.
Um, even, even covers per labor hour,sales per labor hour, it's actually crazy.
And the, the, the small amountthat you need to move the needle
(28:36):
to actually increase those, uh, ordecrease those, uh, percentages.
Um, yeah, you can raiseyour sales or covers by 5%.
Uh.
And it can bring your labordown two, three points.
Simon (28:52):
Totally.
Um, I think the o you know, the otherone for me is like understanding what
happens when you're like, and this is,this is air quotes too productive, right?
Like the damage that you'redoing to your team when you, when
like those numbers go too high.
Like that was what I neverthought about for years.
And then.
(29:14):
You know, in the last couple, it'slike, oh, I was always just taught to
drive those, you know, if, if I lookedat core, if I looked at productivity,
it was always to drive that number up.
It was never, oh, beyond thispoint is like a bad zone.
xx (29:31):
Yeah.
Guy (29:31):
Yeah.
I get the question sometimes, uh,from clients, well, what's the, what's
the perfect productivity number?
Uh, and I say, well, there, there isn't,it's all relative to your business.
Um, right.
You know, when we, when we take your salesdata and put it into, into the grinder
and numbers pop out, uh, we'll start tosee patterns and uh, and that's basically.
(29:56):
We'll figure out what your number is.
Um, but there can be numbers thatare too low, uh, and too high.
Um, you know, and so interestingthat we're going down this path of
productivity because productivitycan also be, uh, really tightly,
uh, tied with, uh, staff retention.
Absolutely.
So, you know, how does your,do your servers have like 10
(30:20):
table sections or do they have.
Five table sections.
Uh, do they have time to, you know,make the guest experience incredible?
Do they have the time to sellthat second bottle of wine?
Um, you know, and then productivity in thekitchen too, like your menu design, like.
What does the prep day look like?
What does the execution onlinelook like of your menu items?
(30:42):
You know, we've all, we've all beenthere where you're just like, you
know, as a server you're just hangingon, or as a, as a, as a cook, you're
just like barely hanging on, youknow, I'm trying to get your prep done
every day and, you know, is that fun?
Not always.
And, uh, you know, it's,it's, it's actually.
Crazy how quickly you can changethe experience of your, of your
(31:06):
employees, uh, when they come in everyday just by focusing on productivity
numbers and, uh, menu entry.
Totally like
Simon (31:13):
that.
I mean, I, I like to ask people, I'mlike, so do you think that a cook
that is so stressed out that likehe has to drink half a bottle of
something, something caustic at night?
Do you really think that makingthat person more stressed out is
making them produce better food?
Yeah.
And it's like, huh?
Oh yeah.
I never thought about that.
(31:34):
Yeah, you're right.
Damn right.
You never thought about it.
Neither is anybody else.
Well, well, and what, uh, remember
Guy (31:39):
our, um, one of our consultant friends, uh, uh, was, uh, I saw
one of her posts, um, was it Emily?
I think so.
Yeah, Kimberly.
That's right.
Uh, sorry.
She, uh, was saying that, um, it's 70, itcosts, costs companies, or what was it?
(32:05):
Uh.
Sorry, let's get this right.
The, uh, the turnover rates, uh,were 75 to a hundred percent or
something like that in, in restaurants.
And the cost, uh, to those restaurants,uh, like the cost of retention is
something that people don't think about.
Um, so like if we're usingproductivity numbers to impact
(32:27):
retention and your retention isimproving your, all that money.
For training and everything isjust going down to the bottom line.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Simon (32:38):
I mean, I've done some, I've done some, some, you know, some
cocktail napkin, like guessing aroundwhat it would cost, what it costs.
If you pay an executive chef say$80,000 a year, what does it cost if you
lose that chef and then it takes you.
Four months to re, to replace them.
(33:00):
Right.
Because it's not easy to find a good chef.
Right.
And it's like sometimes I've, I reallythink that with loss of productivity
and loss of vision, that thatreplacement cost can be 50 or 60 grand.
xx (33:15):
Oh, for
Simon (33:16):
sure.
On an $80,000 shelf.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's if you get themreplaced in six months.
Replace and trained in six months and,and if it lasts longer, and I've seen
it happen, we've all seen it happenlike the chef, chef leaves because
they're, they're tired and burnt out.
And then you hire somebody who's notqualified or not qual as qualified.
(33:36):
And it's just, it's this likeslippery slope of, of, of just
money down the drain, you know?
Um, that's where, that's where I come in.
Um, I try to be like the.
The chef's older brother sometimes,and I'm just like, here, let's work
on your time management and you'regonna be able to do a job that that
(33:58):
is maybe a little bit outta your,outta your really outta your league.
But if you employ some strategyto it and you're intentional,
like you can make up for a wholelot of talent with, with systems.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, alright man, um, thank you so muchfor playing and, and coming hanging
out in my sandbox for a minute.
Um, welcome.
(34:18):
I really appreciate it.
I'm gonna make sure that in the shownotes that everybody can find you.
Um, I know you're on LinkedIn a fair bitand so we'll get, we'll get that on there.
Um, and any website information, we'llhave it for all of you out there.
Um, you can find me at Culinary Mechanic.
Um.
(34:39):
On YouTube, wherever you consume yourpodcasts, please like, follow, subscribe,
and um, leave me a five star review.
'cause every time wedo, we get one of those.
Um, life gets just a little bitbetter and I get to do this a little
bit longer and I appreciate it.
So, um, so you out there, I'llcatch you on the flip side guy.
I'll catch you next time.
(35:00):
Hey, thanks a lot Simon.
Appreciate you inviting me.
Absolutely.
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