Having a unique idea and branding is essential in the highly competitive restaurant business. This is what’s going to help you stand apart, secure all-important custom, and ultimately make your name. But, all of that could fall as flat as your souffles if you don’t find the right chef to help you bring that dream to reality.
After all, without a great chef, even the best ideas will struggle to create real impact. Your food certainly won’t meet the standard that you’ve set out with your branding and everything else. But, with this being true across the industry, every restaurant is fighting it out for top chefs in the area. So, how do you make sure that they choose to work with you?
Know your point of difference
Knowing your restaurant’s point of difference is going to help you to perfect your marketing and brand. When it comes to attracting a top chef, being able to cite what makes your restaurant different from countless others will also help to prove why you’re worth choosing. After all, most chefs take great pride in what they do and are keen to embrace new challenges and ideas. If you’re easily able to prove why your restaurant is a more exciting concept than, say, any other standard Italian, etc., then you make it far more likely that a chef will take a chance with you.
Make yourself an appealing employment prospect
Top chefs, like any top career candidate, will typically have their pick of a few different employers, and may even be weighing up different offers alongside yours. When this happens, the position they accept will most likely be the one that’s the most appealing employment prospect overall.
As such, developing a decent benefits package, and even securing a comprehensive insurance package with the help of a company like Tivly, is sure to work in your favor. It’s also worth making personal connections that show you’re interested in that specific chef for a reason, such as highlighting similarities between your restaurant’s style and their previous work or stating your reasons for believing that you’d make a good pairing.
Give them some say
In some restaurants, chefs are given a set menu and asked to deliver it in a certain way. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it will inevitably attract a less experienced chef. That’s because high-quality, experienced chefs will have their own style and even preferences for running the kitchen. While that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll want to give complete control to an outside chef, it does mean that you could find some benefit in leaving your menu open for interpretation or turning it into a collaborative process. That way, you’ll show that chef how much you value their input, and should even end up with a more refined, expertly executed menu as a result.
Working with a top chef who can turn your restaurant dream into a reality is a privilege, and it’s one that you can start employing by attracting top talent in these ways.