- 1
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- Joined Mar 21, 2010
Hello, this is my first post and I hope a chef here can give me some much needed advice.
I am the owner of a small bakery cafe in central PA. I would describe our style as upscale comfort food. We are a scratch made bakery restaurant feasuring rustic all sourdough breads, fresh baked every day pastries pies and tarts with an emphasis on locally sustainable and eco friendly product. We are growing as a business even in this current economy. Our lunches are 40-60 covers on average and our check average is 40$pp. Dinner we do on the weekends and thursdays and fridays during the busy season. Lunch is our biggest shift. Our clientelle has $$ and don't feel bad about spending it on the quality I feel we offer. My wife and I have have limited experience i running a restaurant so as we grew we hired a chef to oversee the kitchen and are now looking to hire a pastry chef to manage and run the bakery under my supervision. Currently I run the bakery end of the business and the chef runs the kitchen under our oversight. There are 5 full time cooks, 1 full time baker, one part time and myself. My wife runs the FOH. As many of you know working the day to day takes away from the management of the restaurant which really needs more of my attention. 7 days a week at 12-15 hours a day are taking a toll on me and my health, this is the reason I need a pastry chef. We are also buying a number of high quality frozen desserts for 4-5 dollars each which we would like to eliminate and make everything in house 100%.
I have found a pastry chef who is really good perhaps better than we need for our place. His backround for the last 10 years or so is fine dining at a 4-5 star restaurants, he has the experience in all the things we are trying to build our business into. Things like wholesale, retail cakes, catering, you name it he has some experience doing the job, he has excellent references and a great resume. The position requires someone who can problem solve and think on their feet as well as someone who can keep the costs in line and see the big picture. We think we have found this person. The Pastry Chef we are considering said he knows we can make everything we currently buy and bring the cost to a more realistic <1$ per portion while providing a superior product. I believe it seeing the things he has made already with little effort.
Here is the problem, he recently lost his job due to the economy and I know he cannot last too much longer on unemployment, last year he made 60+K a year with benefits. Right now we are trying him out for a month under the table at 20$ an hour, we do not currently offer benefits. So far we have been happy with the quality of work and he has made a few changes that have increased sales, cut costs and have streamlined the operation to our benefit. We need to be at about 20K sales a week to be comfortable right now we are at 13-16K a week. I would like him to stay on but am unsure how to sway him to consider a lesser salary without the benefits. The chef has spoken to him about this and while he likes working here and he fits in he said the $$$ would be the dealbreaker. I can not affort what he would like to make or pay for benefits (right now-we are looking into it). I'm not trying to be cheap here it is just the reality of my operation. In 2 weeks we will discuss salary and am looking for suggestions that I can make in order to convince him to stay. With his knowledge I feel we can build the business to where it should be, I would like the bakery revenue to be 40% of the total sales. The chef 8 years experienced is making 45K a year and would not be pleased to learn the new pastry chef 20 years experienced is making more-another quandry.
Could anyone offer any insight on this for me? What kind of package would be fair for this type of work? Would hourly be better for him than salary? I see him working 45-50 hours a week at salary and additionally as needed. Should a pastry chef make as much as the chef, I am not sure how these things work.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Joseph.
I am the owner of a small bakery cafe in central PA. I would describe our style as upscale comfort food. We are a scratch made bakery restaurant feasuring rustic all sourdough breads, fresh baked every day pastries pies and tarts with an emphasis on locally sustainable and eco friendly product. We are growing as a business even in this current economy. Our lunches are 40-60 covers on average and our check average is 40$pp. Dinner we do on the weekends and thursdays and fridays during the busy season. Lunch is our biggest shift. Our clientelle has $$ and don't feel bad about spending it on the quality I feel we offer. My wife and I have have limited experience i running a restaurant so as we grew we hired a chef to oversee the kitchen and are now looking to hire a pastry chef to manage and run the bakery under my supervision. Currently I run the bakery end of the business and the chef runs the kitchen under our oversight. There are 5 full time cooks, 1 full time baker, one part time and myself. My wife runs the FOH. As many of you know working the day to day takes away from the management of the restaurant which really needs more of my attention. 7 days a week at 12-15 hours a day are taking a toll on me and my health, this is the reason I need a pastry chef. We are also buying a number of high quality frozen desserts for 4-5 dollars each which we would like to eliminate and make everything in house 100%.
I have found a pastry chef who is really good perhaps better than we need for our place. His backround for the last 10 years or so is fine dining at a 4-5 star restaurants, he has the experience in all the things we are trying to build our business into. Things like wholesale, retail cakes, catering, you name it he has some experience doing the job, he has excellent references and a great resume. The position requires someone who can problem solve and think on their feet as well as someone who can keep the costs in line and see the big picture. We think we have found this person. The Pastry Chef we are considering said he knows we can make everything we currently buy and bring the cost to a more realistic <1$ per portion while providing a superior product. I believe it seeing the things he has made already with little effort.
Here is the problem, he recently lost his job due to the economy and I know he cannot last too much longer on unemployment, last year he made 60+K a year with benefits. Right now we are trying him out for a month under the table at 20$ an hour, we do not currently offer benefits. So far we have been happy with the quality of work and he has made a few changes that have increased sales, cut costs and have streamlined the operation to our benefit. We need to be at about 20K sales a week to be comfortable right now we are at 13-16K a week. I would like him to stay on but am unsure how to sway him to consider a lesser salary without the benefits. The chef has spoken to him about this and while he likes working here and he fits in he said the $$$ would be the dealbreaker. I can not affort what he would like to make or pay for benefits (right now-we are looking into it). I'm not trying to be cheap here it is just the reality of my operation. In 2 weeks we will discuss salary and am looking for suggestions that I can make in order to convince him to stay. With his knowledge I feel we can build the business to where it should be, I would like the bakery revenue to be 40% of the total sales. The chef 8 years experienced is making 45K a year and would not be pleased to learn the new pastry chef 20 years experienced is making more-another quandry.
Could anyone offer any insight on this for me? What kind of package would be fair for this type of work? Would hourly be better for him than salary? I see him working 45-50 hours a week at salary and additionally as needed. Should a pastry chef make as much as the chef, I am not sure how these things work.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Joseph.