Building a better back-of-the-house: a design for efficiency and quality

Nation's Restaurant News, March 27, 1995 by Alan Liddle

Delivery people are escorted the entire time they are in the restaurant to reduce the likelihood "They'll carry something in and walk out with something else," Lakey adds.

On a typical day, Lakey says, he's in by 9 a.m. and checking the restaurant for security and cleanliness. Next, he says, he checks a "daily log" to see if there were any problems encountered or questions raised during his days off or time away from the restaurant.

Lakey says he leaves after the rush," which ends between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Before he does, however, he says he often has completed most, if not all, of the following and more:

* Filled out the daily list of prep

chores.

* Done the preliminary meat inventory.

* Placed food orders for the following

day.

* Loaded prime ribs into the slow

roaster.

* Checked the schedule of deliveries

due in that day so he can work

around them.

* Butchered fish and rib-eye steaks.

* Cut the onions used for Bloomin'

Onions.

* Made Caesar dressing and remoulade

sauce.

* Monitored the setup of the hot line

beginning at about 3:30 p.m.

* Observed the kitchen rhythm and

the quality of food turned out during

"Happy Hour" to make sure

that all systems are ready for the

later rush and that all shift posts are

filled.

Lakey floats between stations during the dinner rush and notes and reacts to any problems that might occur.

"Every day involves food training," he explains. "If you don't see something going out as presentable as you'd like, you mention it to them [the cooks]."

"For example," Lakey continues, if you can't see the [char] diamonds on the fish or chicken, one of two things is wrong: Either the grill is not hot enough, or it is dirty. And when it comes to the steaks, we want to make sure they are seasoned thoroughly and laid flat before the weight is placed on top."

If the food at Outback is anything, it is thoroughly seasoned: There is french-fry salt, meat spice, poultry seasoning, seafood flavorings, seasoned flour for the Bloomin' Onions and special butter for veggies. Prime rib and the "chicken fingers" from the kid's menu are about the only two center-of-the-plate items prepared without a special blend of herbs and spices.

The kitchen managers at Outback restaurants receive a base salary and monthly bonus based on sales and profits, Avery says. All other kitchen help, he says, are hourly wage earners.

Avery says that beginning in February Outback began offering hourly employees health-care insurance on a co-payment basis.

Matilda Management Co. is looking into the feasibility of profit sharing for hourly kitchen workers, but until such a program is implemented, if ever, Lakey indicates he has some other incentive-building tricks up his sleeve.

Lakey says he occasionally puts $50 in $5 and $1 bills, where they can be observed from the line, and "every time I see something start to go out that [a competitor] might serve that I know Outback wouldn't, I take one [bill] down." At the end of the night, he says, the kitchen crew splits whatever cash is remaining.

When Lakey worked in Florida, he says he sometimes opened a tip-sharing jar, which servers could contribute to in recognition of the hard work being done by their back-of-the-house counterparts.