Ken Burgin

Restaurant Productivity

Kitchen Management

Restaurant Crisis Planning

No-Crisis Planning for Restaurants & Cafes

Crisis and drama seem to be part of daily life in hospitality – something most of us learn to put up with and live through. We often have it for breakfast! But, with a little thought and planning, you could thrive instead of just surviving. Your life would be less stressful, costs would be lower and your businesses more profitable! Effective crisis planning and management is a must. That’s if you want to stay sane

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honest staff

Creating a Culture of Honesty in Foodservice

The hardworking and committed staff you want are looking for a positive, honest and respectful workplace. Creating and maintaining that is a powerful way to attract and keep good people. It also flows through to the quality of service and care of customers. The elements of a positive culture include: A Code of Conduct – in writing and publicly available. Short points about your commitment to honesty and hard work, plus care and respect for

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Increase Dessert Sales

How to Make More Money with Dessert Sales

The lack of dessert sales in most restaurants and cafes is positively unAustralian! Considering how profitable they can be, this needs to be fixed immediately – it’s usually the result of unattractive appearance, poor sales skills, the wrong menu placement, or prices that are too high relative to main course items. Desserts can create a strong first and last impression, and there’s money to be made when you mix sugar, air and water with flavour!

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Restaurant Systems

Hospo Reset’s Product of the Week

Every week in the Hospo Reset Newsletter, we share a product or service that’s caught our eye – for kitchen & beverage management, staffing, facilities management, marketing and overall productivity. This is not an endorsement, please do your own assessment of suitability for your business. Here’s the list so far, and it’s updated every month. Food, Menus and Kitchen Management Restoke manages back of house functions like recipes, menus, ordering, work lists, staff training, plus

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Profitable Cafe

How Can Automation Make Your Cafe More Profitable?

You’ve seen the videos – hot, fresh pizza from a machine, a robotic arm that cooks perfect fries, or a cocktail robot with flashing lights. No people = no wages – sounds like a good move, but what will the customers think? If their priorities are consistent quality, speed and value, more automation can help you achieve that. I talked with cafe owner Matt Lucas of the Coffee Pedaler cafes in Gundagai and Tumut NSW

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Restaurant Managers

Podcast 19: Developing Restaurant Managers for the Digital Age

Management is a lot more than carrying a big bunch of keys and covering the roster. A massive increase in operational complexity makes the manager role more demanding, and also more effective if the data available is harnessed accurately to show real-time results. Ken Burgin interviewed Liz Perkins from The Hospitality Company on this very interesting topic – she has a background as a chef and business owner. Liz now coaches hospitality operators on how

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Restaurant Standards

How to Set Clear Restaurant Standards to Avoid Mistakes & Frustration

It’s often easy for staff to misunderstand or ignore instructions. About the correct way to serve drinks, greet a customer or balance the till – if the standards aren’t crystal clear, someone will take shortcuts. There are five key issues to cover so everyone understands – not hard to write down, but they’re often overlooked. And every time you ignore someone who’s done the job incorrectly, you’ve actually set a new, lower, standard. Standards are

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Reducing Food Waste

Podcast 18: Reducing Food Waste – New Strategies and Solutions

Dianne McGrath has been doing some remarkable work on sustainability in the hospitality industry. While everyone believes in reducing food waste and improved sustainability, she has done detailed research on how the problem shows up in restaurants and foodservice, and how to make practical improvements. Ken Burgin interviewed Dianne to find out what he’s learned from her research, and how that can be used by operators and the wider food production industry – the production

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Building Teamwork

Podcast 17: Building Teamwork in Restaurants and Cafes

Wherever there are people working together, there will be team dynamics, negotiation and the sharing of tasks and responsibilities. A good leader guides this process to get the best from their people – and chef Glenn Flood has many years of experience making this work. It was great to talk with him about Building Teamwork in Restaurants and Cafes – in the kitchen and front of house, and improving relations between the two sections. In

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Kitchen Front of House

Reducing Tension Between Kitchen & Front of House

Friction between floor staff and kitchen is wasteful and unnecessary, but it won’t go away by itself. It usually needs intervention by senior management to bring all parties to their senses – here are the key issues that need to be understood and resolved: Make sure everyone understands the word ‘teamwork’. Think in sporting terms – a successful team has agreed rules, a variety of skills, they chase a good score, they have good leaders,

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