Food plays an integral part in the life of any restaurant, but the question is, have we gone too far? In Canada we can look back a couple of decades and see the relationship between the start of the Food Network and our gastronomic education.  We can see the rise of the celebrity Chef in … Continue reading Is our fixation with ‘food’ hurting our industry?

Last week in my fourth-year class I asked students if they would rather work Monday to Friday 9-5 or have a schedule that saw them work four days from 10-10 followed by four days off.  A resounding majority of the students stated they would rather work long, tough hours for four days straight and then … Continue reading Are compressed work schedules the answer to restaurant manager retention?

  The province of Ontario has legislated an increase in minimum wage to $14/hour on January 1, 2018.  A year later it will be raised to $15/hour.  This is a complex issue with many points of discussion and sides to the debate. One thing that all will agree on is that the restaurant industry in … Continue reading Students speak up about some minimum wage issues

Last week I was out at a pub with Mike enjoying a sandwich when the server came over to us with two glasses of water unsolicited. Great service you might think. The problem was both glasses of water were served with a straw and a lemon.  I politely informed the server of the environmental impact … Continue reading An interesting and easy way for restaurants to save money

Beyond the experience of a good meal, many of us don’t think about everything behind the scenes that goes into a meal at a restaurant, even when we have a practice of gratitude that causes us to pause before diving in.Envision in your mind the whole sequence of events behind your meal.  There are all … Continue reading What’s next? A company that can calculate the GHG emissions of single menu items