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The lockdown allowed all of us a lot more time than we ever imagined we could handle. It gave me the chance to teach my daughter, mathematics. I soon realized that the school had not polished her foundation of math's. Started in right earnest and tweaked my teaching style to fit her learning. Her eyes twinkled with joy once she realized how easy it was. It reminded me of eating a taco. A taco is soft and juicy. If you had to bring it up to your mouth and bite, the juices would be allover you. Instead you lean forward, tilt your head and savor it. You don't bring the taco to you, you go to the taco. As a business owner an employee is pretty much the same. Every employee is an individual in his/her own right. You cannot generalize your behavior towards them. You need to reach out to each of them, lean forward, make that effort individually to bring out their best. The difference would be visible in their efforts at the workplace. You work to make their work easy, not the other way round. So next time you bite into a taco, remember to reach out. The dividends are endless. #ChefBane #tacos #employeeengagement #motivation #training #business #teaching #management https://www.instagram.com/p/CSOmvF5rnGd/?utm_medium=tumblr

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A bit of afternoon baking. Banana Walnut Cake, my fav. Cherry tomato and masala bread. #ChefBane #bananacake #walnutcake #bananawalnutcake #masalabread #freshbaked #bakersofinstagram #chefsofinstagram #cheflife #homebaker https://www.instagram.com/p/CQvSyltlLHZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

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9th in the 10-part series of common mistakes made by owners opening a cloud/ghost kitchen or restaurant. Vocal on Social: Social is the name of the game today. Be it a cloud kitchen, restaurant, pub or café. Use social media tools to bang on the doors of your prospective customers/TA. Do this well before launch date say a month. Keep people aware of introductory offers, unique selling propositions, specialties of the house and combo deals based on customer profile and demographic. Create a buzz before you open. Hire an agency to do the buildup to launch, using clever brand positioning, posting at the right time during the day with attractive photography. This will create waves within your prospective client base with many of them clamouring for the product on launch day and beyond. The first few months are your best shot at weaning clients off competition. Ensure you have a robust website tested (if e-commerce) and preferably short 10-15 second teaser videos on YouTube (public attention span has drastically reduced). Instead of traditional social media ordering platforms offering third party delivery which eat into your profit and do not share data, go tie up with new age service providers which charge way less and share data with you. Most restaurateurs are opting for delivery services which do not make a dent in your pocket. Go in with drums banging, cymbals clanging and your project will surely be noticed over others. #ChefBane #Socialmedia #Vocal #launchday #projectlaunch #brandpositioning #demographic https://www.instagram.com/p/CQbA3fKKIeb/?utm_medium=tumblr

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8th in the 10-part series of common mistakes made by owners opening a cloud/ghost kitchen or restaurant. Under or Over Pricing the Menu: When you are newly opened, you will be judged more than ever. More reason to have priced the menu correctly before you open. Judgement is all about creating value and you need to provide exceptional value. Only then will the judgement be in your favor. Accurate pricing along with great food and service is the complete package which then reached out to your chosen clientele will ensure your project becomes a success. Appropriate pricing is however tricky and not all seem to achieve it. The reason for it can be a variety of factors being miscalculated. Recipe cost, apportioning costs for electricity, gas, water, staff, maintenance, transport, depreciation, mortgage installments, ROI, amortization must be done judiciously with meticulous planning for each of them at the planning stage. Add to these factors like perception pricing (for ex: veg is cheaper than meat), competition pricing, demographic of target audience, current market spend, will play an important role in shaping pricing. If you have national expansion plans, keep in mind that your pricing will have to be same throughout. Cost of renting space will be higher in some places than the others, so a policy to choose location with pre-determined parameters would help safeguard your pricing. All in all, pricing is the single most factor which, if off, can destroy all your efforts, no matter how sincere, turning the tide against a great project. #ChefBane #cheflife #consultant #menu #pricing #restaurant #strategy https://www.instagram.com/p/CPvE_fzKmHc/?utm_medium=tumblr

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8th in the 10-part series of common mistakes made by owners opening a cloud/ghost kitchen or restaurant. Under or Over Pricing the Menu: When you are newly opened, you will be judged more than ever. More reason to have priced the menu correctly before you open. Judgement is all about creating value and you need to provide exceptional value. Only then will the judgement be in your favor. Accurate pricing along with great food and service is the complete package which then reached out to your chosen clientele will ensure your project becomes a success. Appropriate pricing is however tricky and not all seem to achieve it. The reason for it can be a variety of factors being miscalculated. Recipe cost, apportioning costs for electricity, gas, water, staff, maintenance, transport, depreciation, mortgage installments, ROI, amortization must be done judiciously with meticulous planning for each of them at the planning stage. Add to these factors like perception pricing (for ex: veg is cheaper than meat), competition pricing, demographic of target audience, current market spend, will play an important role in shaping pricing. If you have national expansion plans, keep in mind that your pricing will have to be same throughout. Cost of renting space will be higher in some places than the others, so a policy to choose location with pre-determined parameters would help safeguard your pricing. All in all, pricing is the single most factor which, if off, can destroy all your efforts, no matter how sincere, turning the tide against a great project. #ChefBane #cheflife #consultant #menu #pricing #restaurant #strategy https://www.instagram.com/p/CPvE_fzKmHc/?utm_medium=tumblr

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7th in the 10 part series of common mistakes made by owners opening a cloud/ghost kitchen or restaurant. Not testing/training the services enough: You've finally received the equipment, installed and commissioned it. Interiors have been done or are on the verge of completion. The management has been hired, the staff below has been hired. You've completed your training manuals beforehand so that when the staff is onboarded, they get accustomed to the entire service cycle and are thorough with it. Use the time before opening to tech them. No system made is foolproof. There will be initial kinks in the system that you will need to iron out. The only way to get rid of those is to continually invite guests in and entertain them so that all aspects of the process are optimized. At the start you will notice that the process takes a lot longer than expected. This is normal. Once the staff get into the rhythm, smooth swift operations will follow. Most owners make the mistake of not doing this enough. They feel trial runs are an avoidable expense. However, it is necessary that the first impression is one of professionalism and not a half-baked process with little thought to standards. These standards you set will carry your project through the initial turbulence. It will ensure that your restaurant business keeps growing through word of mouth and stabilizes in 6-8 months. #ChefBane #restaurant #opening #Staff #management #dryrun https://www.instagram.com/p/CPfLbzgqz_k/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Sixth in a ten part series of common mistakes made by owners setting up cloud/ghost kitchens and restaurants. Too little Too late: Hiring staff in batches is necessary keeping in mind project planning, equipment installation and commissioning and dry runs. Ideally the management should be hired during the planning phase so not just are they thorough with the plan but can teach it to the staff being hired later on. Getting the management earlier on also instils a sense of ownership amongst them as they see a dream taking shape right in front of their eyes. The years of experience they have can and should be expertly utilized for customizing the plan to its individual needs. Departmental Standard Operating Procedures, Food safety audits, software implementation and training are all an integral part of this management team. In case more outlets have to be opened this core team can smoothen the rough edges for the coming ones. The operational staff should be interviewed two months prior to launch date, bearing in mind a month notice period. Do not hire staff who join at random, they will leave you in the lurch someday. The Ops staff can join a month before for training and dry runs. Ensure you take in 20-30% extra. Some people will surely leave, and you do not want quality to suffer right away. Most owners understaff with the thought of saving on cost, thereby compromising the single most important thing, the first impression. By the time they realize it, it is too little too late. The bird has flown its coop. #ChefBane #Staff #hiring #restaurant #management #consultants https://www.instagram.com/p/COsk7D0qpGq/?igshid=1cicadz8pcoos

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Fifth in a ten part series of most common mistakes to avoid when setting up a cloud/ghost kitchen or restaurant. Creating a concept note: This is probably the most missed point of opening a food and beverage outlet and is even more relevant when it comes to restaurants than cloud/ghost kitchens. As consultants, we always insist that the stakeholders and us spend a considerable amount of time brainstorming and thrashing out ideas as to what the project would be best described as and how would it look. This concept note should contain all the elements of menu moot points, design, image, look, textures to be used, color palette of walls, light fixtures, furniture, and fixtures, uniform color, everything that will describe the physical aspects of the project along with the perspective and keeping in mind the theme we are all playing to. So, for example if the theme is a posh bakery café, then a sea green color defines the perspective a lot better than any deep color. Once the concept note is approved by all involved, then it is signed and sealed. Any further changes, if at all, should be done with the consent and approval of all involved after thorough discussion and keeping in mind the original theme. This concept note can be given to any person who joins the team later and needs to know the concept perspective so that all are on the same page. This ensures that all work towards the same goal or else you will end up with restaurant interior that does not speak to the bar design and the lights do not complement the food presentation. There has to be a common thread which binds all the elements of the project together and it has to be the concept note. #ChefBane #cloudkitchen #ghostkitchen #restaurant #concept #interiordesign #perspective https://www.instagram.com/p/COcxNOeqDoC/?igshid=1ajj7a8dolrl5

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Fourth in a ten part series of common mistakes made by owners when opening cloud/ghost kitchens and restaurants. Business plan on Excel: A lot of owners start looking for a location without putting down anything on excel first. A customized business plan would include the footprint size of your outlet. You probably need a 1000 sqft and you’ve gone and booked a 2000 sqft store size. That’s tripping up even before you’ve started. A proper plan would include all capital needed, opening costs, launch, packaging, marketing, training, and 3 to 6 months of labor and food cost to see you through the preliminary phase. If you are opting for investment, it should have at least a 5-year projected revenue sheet with ROI, EBITA and YOY sales. An exit strategy for your investor would be needed in case your contract stipulates as such. The project report would include amortization, bank loan EMI (in case of debt equity) and depreciation. The report would also include expansion plans in the given time which would be the basis for your year-on-year growth/revenue. This project report will be your guide for every monthly and yearly budget meeting to keep track of any deviation from planned sales and steps to be taken in case of discrepancy. #projectreporting #project #chefbane #businessplanning #revenuemanagement #privateequity #cashflow #restaurantbusiness #restaurants https://www.instagram.com/p/COVYuUmKu8e/?igshid=o6r6jen5sppv

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Third in part of a ten series post, common mistakes to avoid before opening a cloud/ghost kitchen or a restaurant. Renting before Planning: Once you sign the lease on a place, the clock is ticking. Avoid that. Prior to finalizing a space, get all your planning in place. This would include space utilization for kitchen, bar, stores, mis-e-place, packing and receiving. You will need to draw a bill of quantity based on your proposed amount of business i.e no of outlets you’d be catering to if it is a cloud/ghost kitchen or no of covers if it’s a restaurant. Based on these would be your storage capacity, cooktop ranges, bratt pans, soup kettles, combi ovens, rotary ovens, pizza ovens, bartenders’ station, bar back fridges, walk-in chillers, freezers and so on. Also, to plan would be your audio-video setup, cameras, HVAC, television screens, DJ console, Software and Hardware requirements and back of the house areas like packing and dishwash/potwash. Once the drawings for these are finalized, signed off by every director/owner and vendor, should one go ahead and sign on the dotted line for the site. It does not matter that you get fixturing period or free month’s rent, that irrelevant. Customized equipment takes 2 months at times to get ready and deliver. Once your rent starts, each day lost is sales that will never come back. Its eating into your capital expense. Imagine if your outlet has a sale of 1 million USD per month. A daily loss on sale would be on an average of $ 33000. Contractors have to start working on site from day one. For that they need the plans ready. So, if you want to draw tenders or approve them on the basis of quality, do so well in advance. The day you sign the lease for the site, it should be two months in advance. #ChefBane #planning #renting #restaurant #cloudkitchen #ghostkitchen https://www.instagram.com/p/COH22oJlsQG/?igshid=1gigmtp5ux2ze

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50 posts!

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This one goes out to Chefs both pro and home. If your employer made mandatory the use of these Stainless Steel Finger Guards on Health & Safety grounds would you: A) Use them? 😎 Refuse to use them? C) Quit Or D) Other (please specify) 😃 https://www.instagram.com/p/CM6Eni3lzT4/?igshid=mq7wfpt47qww

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Grilled prawns and paprika couscous tossed with celery salt, garlic and cooked prawn head stock topped in baked zucchini cups. #chefbane #grilledprawns #zucchini https://www.instagram.com/p/CMwuArvlil5/?igshid=14vhm5igq3le

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Classic Bourdain https://www.instagram.com/p/CMuZwbalT-Z/?igshid=1mcddotfl4nr4

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Lobster’s journey from prison food in the 17th century to elite food in the 21st century. How value is perceived as regards supply. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMT7OOqlJB4/?igshid=1hrilziypb3cl

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Chicken and leek pot pie (without the savory crust) #onepotmeal . Chicken, leeks, broccoli, zucchini, mushroom, onion, garlic, olive oil, bay leaves, peppercorns, mixed herbs, paprika powder, white pepper powder, chicken stock, milk, cream, butter, flour, Gouda and parsley. Clean the chicken. Heat oil add peppercorns, bay leaves, chopped onion, garlic, butter and leeks. Add mixed herbs, paprika and white pepper powder and flour. Sauté well. Add the chicken. Sauté well till half done. Add the veggies brunoise. Mix well. Let it stew together a bit. Then add the liquids, cream, milk and chicken stock. Let that all come together. Grate some lovely Gouda and let it blend in. Finish with finely chopped parley. Slice a French baguette diagonally. Toast it with some garlic butter. Serve hot. #chefbane #chickenandleekpie #easyrecipes #easydinner https://www.instagram.com/p/CJBT00qlfWO/?igshid=n975nb4mxyi9