Can we settle this: line cook writes the special or chef writes it?

Had a Friday night at a spot in Denver where our chef threw out a lamb special at 5pm with no cost sheet and we sold 40 of them at $32 but nobody knew the margin, so do you let the line write specials for speed or keep that locked to the chef for numbers, and which way has burned you worse?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

anna_ross191mo ago

The place that worked best for me had the sous write a daily special from a rotating list of approved proteins and the chef signed off in two minutes before service. Line cooks could pitch ideas any time but nothing hit the board without a quick cost check and a price. That way you still get speed and buy-in from the crew, but you never sell 40 plates blind. One time we ran a pork belly special that looked great on the plate and we lost money on every single one because nobody ran the yield on it. After that we kept a sheet taped by the walk-in with cost per portion on our main proteins so anyone could do the math fast. It sounds like a pain but it takes less time than arguing about it later when the numbers come back ugly.

2