Mon, Jan 19, 2009
As the man known as the one who serves 'bacon & egg ice cream' and 'snail porridge', Heston Blumenthal coming in to revamp the Little Chef chain of restaurants scares many of the existing Little Chef front line staff. Before meeting with the company's new CEO Ian Pegler - the man who brought Heston in - Heston decides to eat at a Little Chef for the first time in twenty years to see what's on the menu and sample a wide array of the food. He can see why no one eats there anymore as the food tastes awful and the menu tries to please everyone but in the end succeeds in pleasing no one. After meeting with Pegler, Heston comes away more confused than ever in part because of information which Heston sees as important that Pegler will not divulge. Still continuing on with the project, Heston has his own goals for its success: don't alienate the existing customers, bring British back to the menu and bring excitement back into the brand. His first deadline is to come up with a new trial menu to be tested at one Little Chef restaurant in four weeks time. Some other constraints are the Little Chef kitchens, which have no pots or pans (everything is cooked on a single temperature griddle or in a microwave); the capabilities, or lack thereof, of the existing front line staff; meeting creative expectations for products that will be priced under £10; and the need of the company to have the food consistent from one restaurant to another. But Heston's biggest obstacle seems to be Pegler himself. After gathering whatever information he can including Little Chef customer wants, Heston and his team devise a new menu based on British classics with his own twists. Beyond Heston himself and his team, will anyone that matters like the new menu?
Tue, Jan 20, 2009
Heston's initial trial menu at the Popham location is a failure, with one customer comment - that it is too "poncy" - summing up its main problem. Heston also has to reconcile the difference between what he sees as the customers' wants versus Pegler's wants. Heston decides instead to focus on one portion of the menu, the most popular portion and the one that accounts for the bulk of sales: breakfast, most specifically the most popular single menu item, the Olympic Breakfast. He wants to replace much of what he sees as the dish's filler with fresher and better tasting items on the plate. Heston realizes that for any new and radically different menu to succeed, it needs the support of front line staff. As such, he decides to hire an existing Little Chef line cook to train to be the trainer of other Little Chef staff. After the interviews which consist primarily of a demonstration of cooking skills, Heston decides to take a different tact than he first envisioned with who he hires. As he trains his new chef to cook the re-envisioned Olympic Breakfast, he also does some front line marketing to see what Britons really want in a complete Little Chef menu. In the three day trial of the new breakfast menu at Popham, a key member of the team goes missing in action. But worse, the relationship between Heston and Pegler deteriorates.
Wed, Jan 21, 2009
Despite relations with Pegler totally deteriorating, Heston feels that he can't stop the process at this stage. The trial breakfast menu at the Popham location resulted in Pegler allowing Heston to roll out an entire re-envisioned Little Chef - restaurant look included as well - solely at the Popham location in four weeks, which is not quite what Heston wanted. But taking on that challenge, Heston has many more obstacles to overcome. The food has to be consistent from restaurant to restaurant, meaning that he has to deal with food manufacturers to prepare portions of the meals in advance, so that they can be shipped to Little Chefs nationwide. This process usually takes months to years, let alone weeks. Heston's vision includes front line staff that are knowledgeable about the food they are serving. To train the Popham kitchen and serving staff, Heston brings them to his pub, where they will be performing their Little Chef duties to Heston's Bray customers. And using higher quality ingredients, Heston's revised Little Chef menu items will be higher priced but yield a lower profit per dish than existing, with the thought that more customers will yield a high overall profit. The grand re-opening of the Popham restaurant has many guests to please, including Heston's family, many celebrities, and a bevy of food and restaurant critics, who can in and of themselves make or break this project. But ultimately, Heston will have to please Pegler who will make the decision of where the project will go following this this re-opening.
Wed, Oct 28, 2009
It's been six months since the success of the grand reopening of the Little Chef Restaurant in Popham. During that intervening time, Heston has not visited that or any of the other Little Chef Restaurants or talked to Pegler. Nor has anything happened with any of the other Little Chefs in terms of rolling out Heston's new model and menu. Heston and Ashley visit the Popham Restaurant to see how things are going. They are most worried about the possibility that head office has decided to skimp on the quality of the food to increase profit margin per dish. When they arrive at Popham, they are restricted in visiting crucial areas of the restaurant. What they are allowed to see makes them both buoyed and dismayed. Heston needs to talk to Pegler to get the official story of what has happened and what will happen about a possible roll out to other Little Chef Restaurants. Beyond the future of Heston's model, he is excited and somewhat concerned about an upcoming evaluation of the Popham restaurant to be entered into Britain's Good Food Guide.