Communication

Other than good technique and good ingredients, I think that communication is the most important thing for a successful restaurant. Over externship I learned how important communication is because sometimes people would ask me to do something for them, but I didn't know what the final product was supposed to look like. So after making the mistake of not asking enough questions, I learned how important it is to find out exactly what is expected of you before you do anything. This saved a lot of time, food, and money. As good as people were there were definitely a lot of communication problems at the restaurant. One of the worst communication problems I saw was one of the cooks would choose to go to the chef when he had a problem with someone instead of going directly to the person. Immediately everyone loses respect for that person, and I think that is the worst way to deal with any problem. If you find its necessary to express a problem you have, then you build up the courage to talk to the person face to face or just don't say anything at all. Another problem I found was when something was done wrong, the station wouldn't tell me and would pick through the bad ones. This is also bad because there is no way to fix the problem if you don't know there is a problem . Its also important when someone does something really well that you tell them, not only to boost confidence, but so they know exactly what you want and will remember how they did it.