Surely you’re asking yourself what we’re talking about here. Poker, in the kitchen? Maybe my cooks are playing poker, too? (Yeah, right!)
Of course, we’re not talking about actual poker games, but everybody knows that cooks – whenever they get multiple orders at once – then they, figuratively speaking, are playing poker. They are shuffling orders so they can match how many identical meals have been ordered so they’ll know in what order to start cooking. If any cooks are reading this, you definitely know how tired you can get from all this and how time-consuming it can be, especially in the middle of the tourist season when the kitchen is running at full force!
Apart from counting all the orders, you’ve probably had to deal with the issue of delegating assignments between, for example, the main grill cook and head chef (if their kitchens are too far away from each other, or even if they are not), the cooks will yell at each other from afar, they’ll make doodles on order notes and even talk on walkie-talkies if they are in different rooms! The head chef will ask the main grill cook or the pizza chef how much time they need for certain meals and other stuff like that.
This can get really tiresome…
Not to mention that you also have to keep track of your waiters and how much work did each one of them has, how much time each one of them needs to process an order… But, you have no idea how much time does it take your chef Pero or your cook Ivo to make a certain dish at a certain time depending on the occupancy rate of your establishment… (Along with that, how can you additionally stimulate your cooks?!)
Maybe you’re aware of (even if you are not aware of, your cooks certainly are) those moments when waiters and stewards (depending on who is doing meal deliveries) come to the kitchen and ask that familiar question: When will the order for my table XY be done?
Not to mention how much the cooks hate those situations!
The tipping point is when the order is done, then we get to that famous bell ring (just like at a train station) that signals the entire restaurant that a meal is done and then a waiter closest to the kitchen shows up – even better, a couple of them at the same time if they all have tables waiting – to take their order back to their assigned table.
Guests seated at the tables that are closest to the kitchen will most likely decide never to book those tables again, maybe even not come back to your restaurant ever again, because they were so annoyed by constant bells ringing!
These are just a couple of obvious examples of badly arranged kitchens and poor coordination between the kitchen and restaurant staff, and it can have a negative impact on your business.
In order to level-up your restaurant and to finally be able to offer your guests a serious standard of customer experience – and by this we mean taking care of all the problems we have listed here, as well as many unmentioned ones – then Utiliter is exactly what you need!
Plain and simple.
Reach out to us 🙂
