GROUP DINING PITFALLS

I am not a big fan of eating out in groups. To me a group I am comfortable with is no more than four people in total. I personally think four people are manageable. When having a dining experience with a lower number of people your minds tend to be in the same place with regards to overall dining experience.

Let's use a couple as an example. Going out with a couple is easy, you both know each other and are comfortable with voicing your opinion about what food type you want, athmoshpere, and price range. It's normally pretty easy. There are very little surprises. Even if you go and sit down and both look at the menu only to realize it was more than you bargained for you either suck it up, one covers for the other knowing they will return the favor or pay back, or you both leave.

Two couples get together. When the first couple invites the second couple out at the very least the first couple are pretty much in synch with their dining habits. Most likely one party of the first couple is friendly with the one party of the second couple and it was the two of them who agreed and planned this dinner outing. Therefore, the individual planning parties of each couple are now responsible for being sure their respective partners in their own coupling are fine with the overall dining experience. Yet again no problem!

Things start getting a bit tricky with five or more. Typically when I go out in a group that big it is due to a celebration. But is it every just five? No when you start inviting five there is always a last minute person. Here is a perfect example:

KB's friend had a birthday recently. KB not being one to jump on a group dinner invite was very cautious when the E-vite arrived. I typically hang out with the group of people on the E-vite and it is a fairly modest group. The entire E-vite consisted of 7 people. Yes more than KB's approved number in an outdoor dining experience. However, the guest of honor chose a very modest place for dining. KB didn't really approve of the venue for the food but understood the need to go there for two reasons:

Birthday Boy Love's IT
KB Loves The Budget

Now you are begining to think KB is cheap, far from the truth! I just don't like paying for overzelous people who forget there is a large group and top of the line Scotch ads up. (Another friend who should remain nameless has a habit of ordering top of the line cocktails at group functions knowing the cost will be spread over a larger number of people.) KB just prefers to save his $100 dinners with smaller groups, knowing the dinning experience will be much more pleasurable. You won't be talking over others to have convesation at the other end of the table, food will be shared (KB likes to get a taste of differnt items on the menue and smaller groups tend to feel the same.)

Think before you group dine!

Good Kitchen Help in San Francisco

It really pains me that the people who are creating all the food that actually bring customers into a restaurant are not being compensated correctly. Why is it that the front of the house gets all the credit but the back doesn't see it?

I am referencing this article in the SF Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/12/MN1DSNR7D.DTL&tsp=1

I too have worked in the kitchen of a Bay Area restaurant, the now closed Roxanne's in Larkspur. When i was working for her I was making a whopping $12.50 an hour. I would get to the kitchen by 5:00am and stand on my feet until 5:00pm or longer. It made me sick to see how little I got paid for the work I performed. It was this very reason I chose to leave the restaurant industry and get back into the corporate world and please my passion in other ways.

I too was one of those people graduating from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. At that time I paid $40,000 for a 15 month program. I am still paying that loan off and struggle to do so each month and I am making much more than a chef. Shouldn't the restaurant owner take on some responsibility and provide more salary to the kitchen help? The Golden Gate Restaurant association is suing the city of SF because they are trying to provide access to health care www.healthysanfrancisco.org to the uninsured. But does that make sense to sue when you have $12 per hour kitchen staff working between 8 and 12 hours per shift with no way to get preventative care to help fend off a more serious illness?

Come on people get it right! Yes I understand that waiters have face to face contact with the customer but they are making far more money and less hours. That wealth needs to be shared with the back of the house. If it wasn't for the good food coming out of some of these Bay Area kitchens then the front of the house wouldn't have anyone to service.

It just doesn't seem right. I really hope the Golden Gate Restaurant Association wins their law suit and then all the great chefs leave San Francisco. Good luck to the restaurants. I bet they will then start paying to woo these talented young chefs back.