Monday, October 08, 2007

In the TV show Kitchen Nightmares, how come you don't see any multi-units portrayed?

How come you don't see any multi-units portrayed in the TV show on FOX called Kitchen Nightmares?

Because Multi-units have what's called Standards of Operations (SOP) or Standard Operating Procedures. As a previous family restaurant operator and a chain GM I learned the difference, clearly.

The TV Show Kitchen Nightmares (for those who have not seen it), has Gordon Ramsay (famous restaurateur) entering into a restaurant that is failing for some reason(s) or another.

Gordon than (correctly and quickly it seems) does a review of the restaurant from the front door to the back. What he finds in each and every mission is a staff that seems oblivious in many facets of restaurant operations.

You would never see so many obvious mishaps in a multi-unit operators store because they have SOP's. A manager or supervisor almost always has a reference as to what to place here, there, and everywhere (for the most part). Then (optimally) how to hire, train, supervise and execute shifts, all with forms of documentation and feedback.

Of course, not all chain stores work this way, but by and large they (the big chains) mostly all have MANUALS.

The restaurant manuals help the operator/owner to stay on some sort of track (including recipes for food served). I am not trying to make it sound easy, because it is certainly not. But if you don't have SOP's how does a staff tell right from wrong in most cases? How you can have accountability without direction?

To sum it up in my opinion, single-unit independents are NOT being swallowed up by chains because of their marketing and ad budgets, but because of no SOP's and therefore poor accountability. It's hard to have pride in hitting the bulls-eye if you don't even have a target.

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