E.U. Owner Still Raging at Former Chef
E.U. owner Jason Hennings was pretty hot when we spoke to him last week about fired chef Justin Smillie. We thought when we saw an e-mail from him that he perhaps regretted coming down too hard on this chef, whom he accused of managing 45 percent food costs owing to his commitment to the Greenmarket. But no! Hennings was just getting started.


Greenmarkets aren't in question here!
A chef's ability to use it or his staff correctly is...

We never said we had an issue with the market only the chef who would buy chanterelles, morels, bee pollen, wild chamomile and wild lavender whole organic pigs and Lamb (exhausting huh!!)with no bi -product or any discernible difference to our menu and complete neglect of the kitchen business!! The E.U. never wanted to be compared to Blue Hill, Gramercy Tavern. Using the greenmarket and using fresh ingredients is a CHEF'S DUTY, not AN EXCUSE for ridiculous food costs and labor costs; i.e. a twelve dollar an hour cook taking a twenty dollar cab for ten dollars worth of artichokes twice a week. That is a perfect example of a non-sustainable eco nightmare -- it's ludicrous, shortsighted and couldn’t break even much less make a profit. Not firing Justin immediately and giving him 6 months was simply the time to adjust and to no avail; not spin. I love and honor the likes of Blue Hill and the like, but when you're spending someone else’s money to create your own name, not a sustainable restaurant, you're failing yourself and the industry. WE are a downtown neighborhood restaurant that honors traditional European FOODS. End of story.
http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/06/eu_own...ormer_chef.html



Giving a chef this sort of responability is just plain poor management.
The menu items should be costed out when they are created and monitored weekly.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING...........JUST LET THEM COOK!!

I LOVE THIS TOWN!!!!

ohhhhh yah. i've heard this song before. many a time

hah ha aha HA i could make up a few "blind items" myself off of this tune as a matter of fact, but sorry this particular homegirl right here don't exactly play that.

[consider yourselves lucky on that note and APPRECIATE THAT SHIT, BITCHES.]

i'm just sayin.

and yah-- i agree with the Moneyman. MICROMANAGEMENT is KEY. (you don't even knoooow how tired i am of stupid idiot money-spending fuckheads right now.)

Any owner with common sense would hire a Chef that understood cost control. I've NEVER worked in a restaurant where the Chef didn't have a basic understanding of costing out recipes and keeping food costs as low as possible. An owner shouldn't have to micromanage a Chef.

That's true but unfortunatly it's not always the case of not knowing, sometimes its plain laziness. Also Chefs sometimes lie when they get hired, they say they are conmmited to kepping costs down but the in action they just don't do it right. Of course owners don't want to have to micromanage, but that alot of times they don't have a choice.

A Chef that does not have control over spending can feel like their creativity is being stifled....inredients can change seasonaly or by avaiability....They don't want to ask permission every time they buy something.

The chef should only set the specifactions of the dish

Ownership should have a system in place that tells what happens to the cost of the dish if they replace button mushrooms with morels.

And that, seems to be the problem, lack of a system or tools to accomplish theoretical costing.
Most places do this by hand...........(I don't have time for this!).....if at all.

Plan and Tool are four letter words.............no Plan + no Tool..............=high costs