Chef Manager, The [Paperback]

Michael Baskette (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0137549121 | ISBN-13: 978-0137549122 | Edition: 1

For courses in Culinary Management, Culinary Supervision, and Introduction to Hospitality Management. This text gives student chefs the opportunity to learn detailed management and human relation skills from an author with industry experience and classroom knowledge. It examines the role of chef as kitchen manager, team coach, and culinary innovator, while employing real work applications. Written on a level students can comprehend, with true-life culinary examples and applications of management theory, this book helps to pioneer a new study in the role of chef as manager and business person.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Chef Manager examines the managerial responsibilities of the modern executive chef and applied accepted business management, human resource management, and quality management practices to the world of food service hospitality.

Topice discussed in detail are:

• the chef as supervisor
• personnel management and communication
• quality planning and control
• teamwork and leadership
• personal career planning and goal setting
• production and menu management

The Chef Manager explores in detail the realm of Total Quality Management, and for the first time applies Deming's fourteen points to actual food service scenarios. Strategic planning, quality control, concept engineering, and the controlled use of creativity and innovation are a few of the business practices explored from a professional chef's point of view. Together with a library of recipe and technique books, The Chef Manager completes the set of books needed for the student chef and professional chef to procure themselves a lucrative and challenging position in the hospitality industry.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

The modern hospitality industry demands more of its chefs than ever before. Competitive markets and diverse workplaces have forced chefs to balance culinary artistry with business management and human relations skills. The role of chef has evolved. It is time that the education of young culinarians reflects the changes in the industry, and that working chefs are given the opportunity to learn management and human relations skills from those who have both industry experience and classroom knowledge.

The Chef Manager examines the role of the chef as kitchen manager, team coach, and culinary innovator. While a complicated study, The Chef Manager reflects practical experience and real life situations. Modern theories of management and human relations skills are explored in detail and given a hospitality twist that can be easily digested by culinary students and working chefs. Students can then practice their new knowledge in their workplaces and witness firsthand the transition of their kitchens and dining rooms from food factories to efficient, quality-inspired operations.

The Chef Manager also explores the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM), a theory of management that helped revolutionize the industries of post-World War II Japan and made Japan a leader in the world's economy. TQM strategies now influence many American industries as they, too, try to improve efficiency and increase productivity with an emphasis on quality. A management theory founded by Edward Deming, with contributions from Philip Crosby and Joseph Juran, TQM promotes quality improvements through continual assessments of the efficiency of production and service processes.

For the hospitality industry, TQM reaffirms the customer's role as the ultimate inspector of quality in product, service, and value. TQM asks for input from all levels of employees and prescribes a teamwork approach to quality improvement. Management is asked to put aside quotas and incentives, and to focus their energies on developing and maintaining a quality workplace.

The team concept is a natural outcome of TQM implementation. Chefs take on the role of coach and use motivation and inspiration as tools of their new trade. The emphasis is placed on recruiting, training, and keeping quality employees. Everyone has an important role to play, and each contributes to the success of the operation.

There are many books that address culinary production and artistry, and many on cooking techniques and innovations. The Chef Manager helps pioneer a new study in the role of chef as manager and business person. The chef as manager has become the newest and most dramatic trend to affect the culinary profession since the invention of steel cooking pans and utensils. All professional chefs need to expand their culinary portfolios to include the people skills and management tools that The Chef Manager puts on the proverbial table.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Chef Manager would not have been possible without the help and inspiration of many. My personal thanks and gratitude to my wife, Elaine Baskette, for her patience and understanding through the enormous process of research and writing. Together we sacrificed many weekends and evenings to see the project come to fruition. A special thank you goes to Neil Marquardt, Marion Gottlieb, and the people at Prentice Hall who were first inspired by the prospect of a book on kitchen management.

My professional gratitude goes to Chef Jim Morris, CCE; Chef Thomas Macrina, CEC; Chef Dan D'Angelo, CEC; and Chef Nancy Longo, who each contributed their own inspiring stories to the text. They are consummate professionals who are always ready to help a fellow chef or culinary student in the quest for success in this exasperating industry.

I would like to thank John D. Britto, San Joaquin Delta College; and Stephen E. Carlomusto, Johnson and Wales University for reviewing the manuscript.

I also want to give special recognition to the efforts of Barbara Kuck and her staff at the Culinary Archives and Museum at Johnson & Wales University, who go out of their way to preserve and promote our rich culinary heritage. It was through their efforts that the photos of the world's great chefs became available for reproduction in The Chef Manager.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (July 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137549121
• ISBN-13: 978-0137549122
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,334,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Chef Manager, by Michael Baskette, July 30, 2001

By 

Detra Davis (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chef Manager, The (Paperback)

Excellent! Long overdue. Culinary Art Schools are rolling out baby chefs in record numbers and although they may have the culinary knowledge, only time and experience will give them the managerment skill needed to operate a first rate, organized, efficient and effective restaurant. Management is tough in any field, but particularly so in the restaurant business and I hope Chef/Owner Managers will read and apply the management practices discussed in this book. Chef Mangers who did not have the opportunity to get formal culinary training may also find this book useful. The information on Total Quality Management could and perhaps should have been a separate book. Simply written, The Chef Manager deserves two thumbs up.