Eating out is a regular behavior for Americans much more than in other countries. In this respect, restaurant businesses are necessary for the US economy. Whenever I think about the meaning of success in the USA, the phrase "American dream" comes to my mind. It sounds as if there are huge opportunities to create a successful life in this country, even for foreign people. Actually, it might have been correct before.

I am really interested in opening my own restaurant some day. However, I am not sure how to realize the dream yet. Especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it is supposed to be harder to establish a new business, and the restaurant business is not an exception. Hospitality might be more important, and food trends are changing faster as well. So I would like to look over here what is the necessary resources for operating a successful restaurant, the type of chefs in a restaurant, and what customers really desire in a restaurant when they eat out, quoting some real examples.

A cornerstone of America's economy, restaurants are the nation's largest private-sector employers, generating an annual economic impact of $1 trillion. Every dollar spent dining out generates more than two dollars for other industries (National Restaurant Association, 2002, ¶ 3).

The National Restaurant Association economist (2002) says the worst of the recession is over. A preview of the 2002 Restaurant Industry Forecast is now available. The nation�s 858,000 restaurants will hit $407.8 billion in sales in 2002, an increase of almost 4 percent over 2001 (National Restaurant Association, 2002, Cornerstone of Economy, ¶ 1).

Examining the most recent results from my ongoing survey, 100% of respondents eat out or buy prepared-meals at least few times a week (Nakayama, 2002). It includes 60% people who purchase meals more than once a week, and 25%people who dine out everyday.
These answers were from people, ages between 18 to 65, and 75% of answers were from people 35 and above. As a result, they are likely to prefer a full-service restaurant, even though 85% of them spend up to $10 per person for daily meals.

On the other hand, 75% of them spend over $10 per person for special occasions. The results also show that 40% of people spend more then $20 per person for special meals. This shows us if you want customers to visit your restaurant on a daily basis, you had better set the price range up to $10. Also, if you want them come to your restaurant on special occasions, you can prepare the dishes that costs over $10.

In addition, 60% of respondents said they usually dined out for dinner, and 30% of people ate out for lunch. It might be connected with the price they spend for their meals that I have mentioned above.

The next classification of chefs comes from the CuisineNet (CyberPalate LLC, 1998, The Chef's Ladder). It might be help you to reconfirm the chef's position in a restaurant.

Chef de Cuisine
This is the apex, the chef whose initials are etched into the silver flatware, and embroidered onto the washroom towels. This chef has the vision, conceives the dishes, imbues the whole restaurant with his/her personality. This would be the person who appears on television. Sometimes, if need be, chefs de cuisine even cook.

Executive Chef
This is a nebulous title, as only the biggest, most famous chefs de cuisine follow themselves with executive chefs. Executive chefs run the whole kitchen when the big boss is not around and are often employed when a chef has more than one restaurant. They hire and fire the staff, determine costs, revamp the menu, take care of all administrative tasks, interact with the dining room managers, and generally oversee the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller, less flamboyant restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.

Sous-Chef
Next under the Chef de Cuisine or Executive Chef, depending on the restaurant, this chef is always in the kitchen. He/she comes up with the daily specials, takes inventory, watches over the staff, expedites (see Expediter, below), and basically does all the hands-on work. There are two kinds of sous-chefs: those who will soon move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Chefs de Cuisine, and those who will remain as they are, preferring the rhythmic rigors of the kitchen to the bright lights of chef stardom.

Expediter
Generally the sous-chef, the expediter serves as the liaison between the customers in the dining room and the line cooks. He/she makes sure that the food gets to the wait staff in a timely fashion, so that everyone sitting at a particular table is served simultaneously. This job is all about coordination and timing.

Pastry Chef
The pastry chef is like the sous-chef, but reigns over the pastry section, which is usually tucked far away from the heat and bustle of the main kitchen (to protect delicate souffl�s, fragile spun sugar, and temperamental chocolates). The pastry section has always been assigned less status than the main kitchen -- possibly because pastry was a traditionally female province (if there were any women in the kitchen at all, you might find them in the pastry section). Fortunately, this is changing.

Line Cooks
The line cooks are the people who actually cook your food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.) or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor shouts out an order (they always shout), the line cooks jump to prepare it. Most cooks work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to sous-chef.

Chef de garde manger
The person in the garde manger section -- also known as the cold station -- plates all the dishes that do not require heat, such as salads, terrines, and sometimes desserts, if there is no assigned pastry person on the line.

Do you know the existence of star chefs? It actually means celebrity chefs who are featured in the several magazines, web sites, and on TV shows. Their own restaurants are frequently very famous and popular with gourmet fans. Occasionally, the media focuses on even their private life or biography, as well as other celebrities.

Have you ever heard of "Iron Chef" ? As Iron Fans Online (Shaun Ortolano, 2002, Iron Chef USA, ¶ 1,4,5) tells us, this is the phenomenally successful Japanese culinary show. Basically, the show brings a Challenger (chef) into the Chairman�s "Kitchen Arena", a giant cooking stadium, where he competes against one of four Iron Chefs who specialize in Italian, French, Chinese, and Japanese cooking. The competing chefs are given one hour to prepare an exotic meal in which each course must feature a secret ingredient that is revealed shortly before the battle begins. A panel of four celebrity judges tastes and critiques the dishes and then determines the winner.

This show also became popular in the USA. "Iron Chef USA: Showdown in Las Vegas", are two one-hour, all-new, American-style specials based on the format of the Japanese, "Iron Chef" staged in a sporting event-like atmosphere, "Iron Chef USA" features frenetic culinary battles between today�s most talented chefs as they race against the clock to create outstanding original cuisine.

They are actually very famous now. However, they all have extensive training and work experiences. To keep your fame, you shouldn't forget your roots.
One of Star chefs, Jody Adams (references) says,

"If you're going to work in the restaurant business, you have to love it. The stress is high, the hours are long and the pay is nominal. The reward is in the culture. It's full of interesting, creative people who excel in the art of performance and making people happy. I can't imagine doing anything else."
~ Jody Adams (2002)

Graphic from Solvang . Used with permission.

However, you might have seen that the only one factor, "service," was evaluated slightly different in the USA. Americans are likely to be severe regarding the service when they eat out. Probably it is connected with their custom of tipping. Through my survey, I received many answers from people outside of the USA, and some of them did not mention service as a necessary factor. To the contrary, I realized how much Americans value service in a restaurant, through the e-mails that I have shown above, and the survey results of the people in the USA. All of the e-mails and the survey respondents from America mentioned service issues.

According to the book, Remarkable Service (The Culinary Institute of America, 2001), 62% of customer complaints--from nationwide 50,000 customers-- were about service. On the other hand, complaints about food ranked high but with only 11%. They might feel like they have the right to receive good service so that they are willing to pay for the service.

The most important thing for a restaurant is how you can respond to your customers expectations. This means that restaurant business requires the operators to have communication skills with their customers, through their meals and their service, as well as to have hospitality. I discovered this basic, but a crucial factor to a successful restaurant, thanks to this research in my homepage.

If you consider the customer needs seriously, you would try to figure out new food trends. Also, even though restaurants are expected to have consistent quality, it includes not only food but also service, amenities, and price. These consistencies are the main diffrence from home meals. Restaurant operators should keep in mind the important role again, especially at this time when more people will have more meals outside the home in the USA.

A chef <[email protected]>*. (2002, Mar. 1). My thoughts. E-mail to Miki Nakayama <[email protected]>.

A male travel lover <[email protected]>*. (2002, Mar. 1). Consistent quality and good staff. E-mail to <[email protected]>.