DayMark Safety Systems now offers online training in food safety, alcohol service, human resources and nutrition education. Customers have the ability to choose from many available courses. Upon completion of the food safety program, students have the ability to apply for certification in NEHA or ServSafe. Sign-up and payment is easy, and done through the online portal.
DayMark offers the only online training of it's kind. Get educated today from company that is number 1 in food and personal safety!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Sharing information can make science of restaurant food safety easier to apply
THE NUMBERS ADD UP TO A TREMENDOUS opportunity" Every week, Americans consume an average of 4.2 meals that are prepared away from home--that's 218 meals per year and increasing. By 2010, the restaurant industry will operate more than 1 million units, with sales of $577 billion capturing 53 percent of the consumer food dollar. Will one or more of those units be yours? It can happen--if you have the right recipe for restaurant success.
Most baby boomers can easily remember when "going out to eat" was a special event; today, restaurant meals are an integral part of our everyday lives. Whether we're grabbing a sandwich on the run, sitting down to a leisurely gourmet dinner at a five-star establishment or enjoying one of the many choices in between, we're eating out more than ever--and the trend is expected to continue. There's never been a better time to open a restaurant.
Experienced restaurateurs say that this is definitely a business where you can make a lot of money quickly--but you can lose it even faster if you don't have three key ingredients: industry experience, adequate capital and a thorough knowledge of the market you're serving.
Start With a Job
Successful restaurateurs agree that the best preparation for owning a restaurant is to work in someone else's first. Think of it as getting paid to be educated. "You'll learn a lot about things you never thought about," says industry expert Rich Melman, chair of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., a Chicago-based company that owns, manages and consults with restaurants throughout the country. "There are hundreds of little things, each not being of great consequence as a single issue, but of big consequence when you put them together."
Certainly you should read books and take courses, but plan to work in a restaurant for at least a couple of years doing as many different jobs as possible. And if you're not actually doing the job, pay attention to the person who is--you may find yourself doing it when your own restaurant is unexpectedly shorthanded. "I've had to cook when I've had chef problems," says LaVerna Gilbert, 42, co-owner and general manager of Shelly's Courthouse Bistro in Santa Ana, California.
"With experience will come the knowledge that you know what you want to do," says Melman. "Are you certain you're going to love it, or is it going to wear off? It's your love for what you're doing that pulls you through difficult times." Ideally, work in a restaurant similar to the type you want to open. You may find you don't like the business. Or you may find you're more suited to a different type of operation than you originally thought. You might even discover you're in exactly the right place.
"As I started working in restaurants, I realized this was my passion," says Scott Redler, co-owner and founder of Timberline Steakhouse & Grill in Wichita, Kansas. Redler, 42, got his first restaurant job at 15 opened a Chinese fast food restaurant at 26 that failed in eight months, and now has five successful steakhouses. He also opened two Freddy's Frozen Custard restaurants. "When you have a busy restaurant and you're watching everything happen as it should," he says, "it's a wonderful feeling of satisfaction."
"Everyone likes the idea of owning a restaurant, but it's easier to invest money than it is to work it," says Gilbert. Her advice: If you don't like the work but you still want to own a restaurant, find a good operator to partner with.
Decision Time
Armed with practical experience, you're ready to decide what you want to do and put together your business plan--the most critical element of your restaurant. Map everything out on paper before you buy the first spoon or crack the first egg. Melman says 80 percent of what makes your restaurant a success will take place before you ever open the doors.
Your business plan should include: a clear definition of your concept; a description of your market; menu and pricing; detailed financial information, including start-up capital (amount and sources) and long-term income and expense forecasts; a marketing plan; employee hiring, training and retention programs; and plans to deal with challenges restaurateurs face every day. Bill Ellison, 30, and Frank Perez, 31, co-own and operate Frasier's, a sports bar in Apopka, Florida. Ellison recommends including an exit strategy. "Know how you'll get out if things go bad, as well as how you'll get out if things are going good," he says.
Be thorough, but don't write your plan in concrete. "You have to go into it being flexible," Ellison says. "Don't say 'This is what I have to offer; take it or leave it.' Open with an idea, then evolve to what the customers want."
Putting the Plan Into Action
Once you've decided on the concept and market, begin scouting for a location. Issues to consider when choosing where to put your restaurant:
* Area demographics: Do the people who live and work in the vicinity fit the profile of your target market?
* Traffic: Consider foot and vehicle traffic. How many pedestrians and cars go by daily? How accessible is the location to passers-by?
* Parking: Is the parking adequate, convenient and safe?
* Nearby businesses and other elements: What's around the location, and how might it affect your operation?
* Future development: Check with the local planning board to see if anything, such as additional buildings or road construction, is in the works.
If you're considering a location that has been the site of another restaurant, study its history so you know why the previous operation failed--and be sure it's something you can overcome.
It's the Food
Advertisement
Service, ambience, management--it's all important, but most restaurants are known by their menus. Create a menu that is memorable and appropriate to your concept and to your market. Frasier's menu includes items from similar establishments as well as unique dishes. "Every restaurant should have signature items," Ellison says.
Setting prices can he a mathematical challenge. To calculate prices, consider your food costs, labor (for preparation and serving), overhead and profit. Survey other restaurants to get a sense of what price levels the market will support. If a dish isn't both delicious and profitable, take it off the menu.
Got Money?
A thorough plan should show how much money you'll need to open your restaurant--building, furniture, fixtures, equipment, inventory, liquor license and working capital. With that figure in mind, look at your financial resources. If you don't have or can't raise enough, scale the number back.
Redler says raising the money wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be. The key is to demonstrate to investors that you have a solid plan and the experience to implement it. Also, you must be willing to significantly risk your own funds. When Redler opened his first Timberline, he contributed $24,000 of his own money and walked away from a high-paying corporate position. Because he was willing to risk so much, his backers felt confident taking a chance with him.
Follow the Rules
Though we don't think of food service as a heavily regulated industry as we do medical services or public utilities, the reality is that many aspects of your operation are strictly regulated and subject to inspection. Fail to meet regulations, and you could be subject to fines or get shut down by authorities. And if violations involve tainted food, you could be responsible for illness and even death. Issues such as sanitation and fire safety are critical. You must provide a safe environment in which your employees can work and your guests can dine, follow the laws of your state on sales of alcohol and tobacco products, and handle tax issues, including sales, beverage, payroll and more.
Most regulatory agencies will work with new operators to let them know what they must do to meet the necessary legal requirements. Your state's general information office can direct you to all the agencies you'll need to be concerned with.
The science of safe food handling in restaurant kitchens is well known. From microbiology we know that time and temperature, personal hygiene, cross contamination, and cleaning and sanitizing are essential for fighting bacteria. HACCP, a science-based approach, identifies critical points in food handling and requires that controls be put in place to prevent food contamination. And new work in the behavioral sciences shows how management practices and organizational behavior processes can undermine food safety goals.
But while the science of food safety is well-organized and firmly established, the practice of it in restaurant kitchens is less so. Although restaurant operators throughout the country are frightened of the possibility of a food-borne illness outbreak occurring in their restaurants, they are hindered in their efforts to prevent one for several reasons.
First, restaurant owners, managers and cooks are not scientists. They neither think like scientists nor act like scientists.
Advertisement
Second, food handlers are not easily convinced of the need to handle food safely given that the consequences of not doing so are not immediately apparent. The effects of food-borne illness are delayed and hard to trace, and food handlers know that. They are aware that safety rules can be violated repeatedly with no adverse consequences until the day a food-borne illness outbreak occurs.
Third, scientific-based food safety solutions can be costly to implement. Also, many solutions, such as proper hand-washing procedures, are not practical.
Lastly, operators and their employees have no easily accessible place to go to find out what works and what does not.
In spite of those formidable barriers and in addition to legal mandates, foodservice operators have many options for trying to prevent food-borne illness in restaurants.
Technology is a major weapon used to achieve safe food production. Some examples are refrigerated loading docks for the delivery of cold and frozen foods, hand-held computers for temperature monitoring, bar-coded technology that allows for product temperature monitoring, high-tech hand-washing sinks that control and monitor employee use, and no-touch soap and paper towel dispensers.
Some operators require employees to get a Hepatitis A vaccination, some mandate the use of disposable latex gloves and others put food-safety warnings on menus and conduct surprise health inspections. One large, international hotel chain has developed a wordless food-safety-training picture book.
In a lighter vein some restaurateurs play food-safety bingo, a contest during which employees are encouraged to find and identify unsafe conditions. A microbiologist has written several food-safety songs complete with video clips.
In addition, safe food handling in the kitchen is encouraged by the use of color-coded cutting boards, knives, sheet pans, towels, storage bins, brooms, mops, buckets and waterproof rotation labels and marking pens. Antibacterial wash for fruits and vegetables also is gaining popularity.
Obviously, no operator can do all of those things to fight food-borne illness in the kitchen. In fact, a recent informal survey suggests that most operators are doing little or nothing, while others are doing only what the law requires.
What are you doing? We have set up a Web site at the School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University. Visit our user-friendly site at http://hospitality.fiu.edu/FoodSafety and share with us your innovative ways for managing food safety. Tell us what works for you. If you have something in writing, such as an effective policy or procedure, you can copy and paste it in the box provided at the Web site. If you do not have a formal policy, you can just write down your ideas at the Web site.
After we receive your suggestions, we will compile all of the information and make it easily accessible for contributors to share those innovative food safety tips.
Along with employee recruitment and retention, food safety will be the major problem facing the restaurant industry over the next decade. While our research project will not be able to solve all the barriers to making the science of food safety practical and useful, it is at least a start. Through our Web site you can share with others your success stories so that we all may benefit.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors and management at Nation's Restaurant News.
Professor David Talty teaches at Florida International University's School of Hospitality Management. David Walczak, Ph.D., teaches in the General Education and Kitchen Management program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
Most baby boomers can easily remember when "going out to eat" was a special event; today, restaurant meals are an integral part of our everyday lives. Whether we're grabbing a sandwich on the run, sitting down to a leisurely gourmet dinner at a five-star establishment or enjoying one of the many choices in between, we're eating out more than ever--and the trend is expected to continue. There's never been a better time to open a restaurant.
Experienced restaurateurs say that this is definitely a business where you can make a lot of money quickly--but you can lose it even faster if you don't have three key ingredients: industry experience, adequate capital and a thorough knowledge of the market you're serving.
Start With a Job
Successful restaurateurs agree that the best preparation for owning a restaurant is to work in someone else's first. Think of it as getting paid to be educated. "You'll learn a lot about things you never thought about," says industry expert Rich Melman, chair of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., a Chicago-based company that owns, manages and consults with restaurants throughout the country. "There are hundreds of little things, each not being of great consequence as a single issue, but of big consequence when you put them together."
Certainly you should read books and take courses, but plan to work in a restaurant for at least a couple of years doing as many different jobs as possible. And if you're not actually doing the job, pay attention to the person who is--you may find yourself doing it when your own restaurant is unexpectedly shorthanded. "I've had to cook when I've had chef problems," says LaVerna Gilbert, 42, co-owner and general manager of Shelly's Courthouse Bistro in Santa Ana, California.
"With experience will come the knowledge that you know what you want to do," says Melman. "Are you certain you're going to love it, or is it going to wear off? It's your love for what you're doing that pulls you through difficult times." Ideally, work in a restaurant similar to the type you want to open. You may find you don't like the business. Or you may find you're more suited to a different type of operation than you originally thought. You might even discover you're in exactly the right place.
"As I started working in restaurants, I realized this was my passion," says Scott Redler, co-owner and founder of Timberline Steakhouse & Grill in Wichita, Kansas. Redler, 42, got his first restaurant job at 15 opened a Chinese fast food restaurant at 26 that failed in eight months, and now has five successful steakhouses. He also opened two Freddy's Frozen Custard restaurants. "When you have a busy restaurant and you're watching everything happen as it should," he says, "it's a wonderful feeling of satisfaction."
"Everyone likes the idea of owning a restaurant, but it's easier to invest money than it is to work it," says Gilbert. Her advice: If you don't like the work but you still want to own a restaurant, find a good operator to partner with.
Decision Time
Armed with practical experience, you're ready to decide what you want to do and put together your business plan--the most critical element of your restaurant. Map everything out on paper before you buy the first spoon or crack the first egg. Melman says 80 percent of what makes your restaurant a success will take place before you ever open the doors.
Your business plan should include: a clear definition of your concept; a description of your market; menu and pricing; detailed financial information, including start-up capital (amount and sources) and long-term income and expense forecasts; a marketing plan; employee hiring, training and retention programs; and plans to deal with challenges restaurateurs face every day. Bill Ellison, 30, and Frank Perez, 31, co-own and operate Frasier's, a sports bar in Apopka, Florida. Ellison recommends including an exit strategy. "Know how you'll get out if things go bad, as well as how you'll get out if things are going good," he says.
Be thorough, but don't write your plan in concrete. "You have to go into it being flexible," Ellison says. "Don't say 'This is what I have to offer; take it or leave it.' Open with an idea, then evolve to what the customers want."
Putting the Plan Into Action
Once you've decided on the concept and market, begin scouting for a location. Issues to consider when choosing where to put your restaurant:
* Area demographics: Do the people who live and work in the vicinity fit the profile of your target market?
* Traffic: Consider foot and vehicle traffic. How many pedestrians and cars go by daily? How accessible is the location to passers-by?
* Parking: Is the parking adequate, convenient and safe?
* Nearby businesses and other elements: What's around the location, and how might it affect your operation?
* Future development: Check with the local planning board to see if anything, such as additional buildings or road construction, is in the works.
If you're considering a location that has been the site of another restaurant, study its history so you know why the previous operation failed--and be sure it's something you can overcome.
It's the Food
Advertisement
Service, ambience, management--it's all important, but most restaurants are known by their menus. Create a menu that is memorable and appropriate to your concept and to your market. Frasier's menu includes items from similar establishments as well as unique dishes. "Every restaurant should have signature items," Ellison says.
Setting prices can he a mathematical challenge. To calculate prices, consider your food costs, labor (for preparation and serving), overhead and profit. Survey other restaurants to get a sense of what price levels the market will support. If a dish isn't both delicious and profitable, take it off the menu.
Got Money?
A thorough plan should show how much money you'll need to open your restaurant--building, furniture, fixtures, equipment, inventory, liquor license and working capital. With that figure in mind, look at your financial resources. If you don't have or can't raise enough, scale the number back.
Redler says raising the money wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be. The key is to demonstrate to investors that you have a solid plan and the experience to implement it. Also, you must be willing to significantly risk your own funds. When Redler opened his first Timberline, he contributed $24,000 of his own money and walked away from a high-paying corporate position. Because he was willing to risk so much, his backers felt confident taking a chance with him.
Follow the Rules
Though we don't think of food service as a heavily regulated industry as we do medical services or public utilities, the reality is that many aspects of your operation are strictly regulated and subject to inspection. Fail to meet regulations, and you could be subject to fines or get shut down by authorities. And if violations involve tainted food, you could be responsible for illness and even death. Issues such as sanitation and fire safety are critical. You must provide a safe environment in which your employees can work and your guests can dine, follow the laws of your state on sales of alcohol and tobacco products, and handle tax issues, including sales, beverage, payroll and more.
Most regulatory agencies will work with new operators to let them know what they must do to meet the necessary legal requirements. Your state's general information office can direct you to all the agencies you'll need to be concerned with.
The science of safe food handling in restaurant kitchens is well known. From microbiology we know that time and temperature, personal hygiene, cross contamination, and cleaning and sanitizing are essential for fighting bacteria. HACCP, a science-based approach, identifies critical points in food handling and requires that controls be put in place to prevent food contamination. And new work in the behavioral sciences shows how management practices and organizational behavior processes can undermine food safety goals.
But while the science of food safety is well-organized and firmly established, the practice of it in restaurant kitchens is less so. Although restaurant operators throughout the country are frightened of the possibility of a food-borne illness outbreak occurring in their restaurants, they are hindered in their efforts to prevent one for several reasons.
First, restaurant owners, managers and cooks are not scientists. They neither think like scientists nor act like scientists.
Advertisement
Second, food handlers are not easily convinced of the need to handle food safely given that the consequences of not doing so are not immediately apparent. The effects of food-borne illness are delayed and hard to trace, and food handlers know that. They are aware that safety rules can be violated repeatedly with no adverse consequences until the day a food-borne illness outbreak occurs.
Third, scientific-based food safety solutions can be costly to implement. Also, many solutions, such as proper hand-washing procedures, are not practical.
Lastly, operators and their employees have no easily accessible place to go to find out what works and what does not.
In spite of those formidable barriers and in addition to legal mandates, foodservice operators have many options for trying to prevent food-borne illness in restaurants.
Technology is a major weapon used to achieve safe food production. Some examples are refrigerated loading docks for the delivery of cold and frozen foods, hand-held computers for temperature monitoring, bar-coded technology that allows for product temperature monitoring, high-tech hand-washing sinks that control and monitor employee use, and no-touch soap and paper towel dispensers.
Some operators require employees to get a Hepatitis A vaccination, some mandate the use of disposable latex gloves and others put food-safety warnings on menus and conduct surprise health inspections. One large, international hotel chain has developed a wordless food-safety-training picture book.
In a lighter vein some restaurateurs play food-safety bingo, a contest during which employees are encouraged to find and identify unsafe conditions. A microbiologist has written several food-safety songs complete with video clips.
In addition, safe food handling in the kitchen is encouraged by the use of color-coded cutting boards, knives, sheet pans, towels, storage bins, brooms, mops, buckets and waterproof rotation labels and marking pens. Antibacterial wash for fruits and vegetables also is gaining popularity.
Obviously, no operator can do all of those things to fight food-borne illness in the kitchen. In fact, a recent informal survey suggests that most operators are doing little or nothing, while others are doing only what the law requires.
What are you doing? We have set up a Web site at the School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University. Visit our user-friendly site at http://hospitality.fiu.edu/FoodSafety and share with us your innovative ways for managing food safety. Tell us what works for you. If you have something in writing, such as an effective policy or procedure, you can copy and paste it in the box provided at the Web site. If you do not have a formal policy, you can just write down your ideas at the Web site.
After we receive your suggestions, we will compile all of the information and make it easily accessible for contributors to share those innovative food safety tips.
Along with employee recruitment and retention, food safety will be the major problem facing the restaurant industry over the next decade. While our research project will not be able to solve all the barriers to making the science of food safety practical and useful, it is at least a start. Through our Web site you can share with others your success stories so that we all may benefit.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors and management at Nation's Restaurant News.
Professor David Talty teaches at Florida International University's School of Hospitality Management. David Walczak, Ph.D., teaches in the General Education and Kitchen Management program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
DayMark Offers Online Training
DayMark Safety Systems now offers online training in food safety, alcohol service, human resources and nutrition education. Customers have the ability to choose from many available courses. Upon completion of the food safety program, students have the ability to apply for certification in NEHA or ServSafe. Sign-up and payment is easy, and done through the online portal.
DayMark offers the only online training of it's kind. Get educated today from company that is number 1 in food and personal safety!
DayMark offers the only online training of it's kind. Get educated today from company that is number 1 in food and personal safety!
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