As most fast food outlets will have it, a limited-sized menu, large-shiny equipment of mass production, and also the unwavering wallet-choking (not quite - its still somewhat reasonable haha) rates so that they can be accompanied with offers and promotions. A very crude look at the system, but you will observe that many fast food outlets will do something similar in their processes that enable them to serve a wide range, and also huge number of guests.
On the other hand, we have the traditional restaurant concept - where variety and the quality of the dishes are the focus of attention. However, they of course struggle with different issues - namely somewhat less throughput, high risk of wastage but a higher selling margin in return. Most cafe-styled concepts try to marry the two - but of course we will eventually end up with a 'rojak' where most cafe's still fail to produce their food within a short time frame and instead end up becoming slower in overall as their drinks and beverages generally take longer to prepare, leaving guests with nothing on their tables for a longer period of time.This problem can of course be solved by adding solutions over it, but we are trying to find one that can solve the root of it bottoms up.
To simplify things, we came down to one golden rule: Zero Wastage, followed by the next golden rule: Stupidly Simple. Essentially, that's how we worked on our procedures and preparations for recipes and dishes from the kitchen where we needed to ensure that things will not be too difficult for a newbie to learn from. Also, we needed to keep our operations cost effective, so we tried to make use of just about everything that had side-products.
For example, we will use the clean cuts and 'prime' cuts of lamb to be used for our lamb chops, while smaller and less well shaped pieces were essentially boned and used for mince. The resulting fat was used for stew and sauce preparations, leaving us with the bones - which well - went to our pets :D Its not that we intend to serve our guests with anything less than acceptable - We still practice the other golden rule "If you dare to have this yourself, then you can serve this to the guests," which serves as a very crude, yet somewhat effective means of ensuring all-round quality (don't expect 5-star performances though) without the need for a 5-star chef. Of course, we do have experienced cooks in the house, but we cannot discount the fact there are many occasions the best many not be available!
So how do we simplify complicated preparation procedures so that even a newb can perform them? Well, it does involve a little bit of simplifying, of course (Like the way we stock up sauces used in almost every dish - prepared only by the more experienced crew or suppliers) - but it mostly involves the idea of divide and conquer - Management tips certainly do make their way into a civilized kitchen, where complicated tasks are broken down into smaller, simpler, individual tasks to make up the whole. Nevertheless, balance comes into play since time is a key variable we need to keep small.
Another inside look at some of the things we do here at Myst.
