Time to bring out the chefs (Part 1)

Of all the times you have dined at restaurants, how often have you seen a chef move out of his kitchen to learn what his guests really want and to give them the perfect dining experience? Even in these contemporary times, almost all chefs are confined to their kitchens and many would consider it most unusual for a chef to step away from the organised chaos in the kitchen to hobnob with the customers. Thus the rare appearance of the chef may arise from several circumstances:

• Some overbearing customer is ‘whining' about the food and demands to speak to the chef.
• The chef recognizes some customer complaint is legit, and appears to make amends.
• The restaurant is near empty, and the work load is less. If the chef is a personal friend of the diner, he or she may actually come out to socialize a bit.
• It's part of a brief public relations stunt by the restaurant to please diners following negative publicity.

People are happy when the person who has cooked their meals comes to their table. They are more likely to soon come again - should the chef offer to change their dish to their preference if they wish, on their next visit. This is an ideal platform for capturing guest loyalty. However, from an operational perspective, it may not be practical. One simply cannot imagine a full-time chef engaging full-time with diners in the restaurant. Yes, a ‘pop-up’ dinner sometimes offers guests the opportunity of a personal interaction with the chef. But these ticketed dinners, which are gaining popularity all over the world, are a one-time food event and keeping the chef perpetually away from the kitchen simply won’t work!

How then does one put the chef in the spotlight? We’re not talking here about TV chefs either! Take the thousands of cooks, whose job day in and day out is to cook for countless people in restaurants. Nearly, if not all of them, finish their shift, not really knowing if anyone enjoyed their meal or what their experience was like. Many of these chefs would love to have the guests put right in front of them so that they can really discover what these guests think about their food – even tell the diner in detail about the ingredients and where they come from.

The Hawthorne effect 

Those who are aware of the Hawthorne effect (also referred to as the observer effect), know that it is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed. In most instances, this increased attention leads to enhanced productivity. People who seek eye contact while speaking are regarded not only as exceptionally well-disposed by their audience, but also as more believable and passionate.

Interestingly, a somewhat similar study conducted by the Harvard Business School concluded that better food would seem to be served in restaurants where there was eye contact between chefs and diners. Over a fourteen day period, researchers experimented with four different scenarios in a cafeteria they had converted into a veritable laboratory. The results showed that when the cooks could see their customers, the food quality got higher scores. The researchers deduced that contact , (be it even merely visual), with the end-users of their work, boosted the chefs, who thus realising the importance of their job and feeling greater appreciation of what they were doing – were motivated to do their best.

To be continued

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