A Chef’s Decision

There are many ways for restaurants to succeed, having a good chef is not really a necessity. The point is serving a well defined clientele what they want at a profit margin. In some cases, the restauranteur will be wise not to employ a Michelin-starred chef.

Chefs have precisely only one way to succeed — to enhance his or her crafts relentlessly. Here lies the conflict between a restauranteur and the chef. Different restaurant models came out of the resolution to this conflict. At one end of the extreme is the fast-food chain that asks only burger flippers. Over the other end is the plush Michelin-styled restaurants that are defined by their executive chefs. Most professional chefs settle somewhere in-between where the foods quality of the restaurant is critically important, but the cooking creativity is curtailed to meet the business needs.

How much a chef can tolerate this creativity curtailing? That is a function of his/her skill level and financial prominence. How good is he? Can he afford to walk away?

To pair the chef and restaurant the wrong way will be perilous. The restaurateur usually decides and picks the chef for a new restaurant. Those who acquired an existing one usually ended up replacing the old chef.

Or, shall we say, they usually part ways.

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