The Upside to the Recession

Two years ago, even last year it seemed like every restaurant was short staffed. The quality and caliber of a lot of the cooks that were being hired was bad. Chefs were having to hire people who were under qualified because their was such a need for cooks in the industry. Cooks were a hot comodity and they were restaurant hopping like never before. There was always a new restaurant opening and lots of new oppourtunities for everyone. Under these circumstances the quality of the food can suffer.
Last year restaurant managers were hiring people with less serving expierence to fill job openings. This can effect service. The servers who survive through the recession are proffesional and expierenced. Smart restauranteurs know that the slow times are when it is even more important to impress customers with solid service and all the little extras.
Now that lots of cooks are unemployed the ones that do have jobs are holding on to them with dear life. Natural selection, survival of the fittest is taking place. The good restaurants are using the recession to weed out the hacks and add new strong cooks. Cooks that can bring special skills such as charcuterie and other house made specialties . The quality of the food is going up because chefs have the time and the experienced cooks to do things that weren’t possible before. There is a lot more time when suddenly every cook in the kitchen is solid and nobody is babysitting or picking up anybody else’s slack. Good restaurants are building dream teams during these slow times, tightening up menus and patiently laying in wait for busy times to come. When business picks up again they will be armed with new house made charcuterie and innovative techniques. The bar gets raised when the best cooks come together and have time to do tests.