‘Creep checks’ and personal expression encouraged: How hospitality culture is evolving
“Keep the polenta chips!” Industry experts share their tips at the Good Food Hospitality Symposium in Sydney.
Sometimes, you just need to keep making polenta chips. Golden, salty and served with rich gorgonzola sauce, polenta chips became a beloved signature dish at Clare Van Vuuren’s Newtown restaurant Bloodwood, but after 13 years they disappeared from the menu.
“I was sick of making them – I wanted to reinvigorate the kitchen,” chef Van Vuuren told the sold-out crowd at Sydney’s second Good Food Hospitality Symposium on Monday. “But every week, customers would sit down and ask where the polenta chips were.”
The experience taught Van Vuuren a valuable lesson: “You need to keep an open mind as a leader, listen to what people say and don’t be stubborn,” she said.
“Don’t have a chef ego when you come into the kitchen – it will definitely help your business in the long run.”
The chips have since been reinstated, the community is happy and that’s one major reason for Bloodwood’s enduring 15 years of success.
The Good Food Hospitality Symposium presented by Lightspeed is a new, ongoing initiative developed in response to the daunting number of cafe, bar and restaurant closures this year. With the help of industry leaders, it aims to find solutions to industry problems.
Van Vuuren joined fellow panellists Jeremy Courmadias (CEO, Fink Group), Petrina Baker (director, Baker and Frost), Alexander Kelly (co-owner, Baba’s Place), Bridget Raffal (owner and sommelier Where’s Nick) and Pete Learmonth (product manager, Lightspeed) on a panel discussion hosted by head of Good Food Sarah Norris. Bloodwood, Baba’s Place and Where’s Nick are Lightspeed customers.
Workplace culture took centre stage on Monday after a joint Good Food and The Sydney Morning Herald investigation that revealed a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and assault in several prominent Sydney bars and restaurants.
“The hospitality sector as the Wild West of entrepreneurship isn’t working. There’s something seriously awry,” Kelly told Good Food in response to the “disappointing, but not shocking” allegations.
Kelly told the crowd that people at the top, who were not representative of the industry as a whole, had dominated the industry for far too long.
“We need more organic bottom-up mobility and conversations and solidarity,” he said. “I don’t want to be a dictator – I want to be a provider.”
That means more listening to staff and customers and incorporating their feedback, as Van Vuuren did with her polenta chips.
Panellists found significant cultural success in adopting a bottom-up approach to management this year, implementing regular feedback sessions with staff, and providing space for staff to “speak their mind” in extracurricular activities such as book clubs.
Hospitality business consultant Petrina Baker said staff retention was becoming increasingly critical to success in an era of diminished spending, higher costs and changing workplace culture.
“Success is getting people right. It’s one of the … biggest expenses, but it’s also one of the most important resources,” she said.
The change in approach could lead to the end of the “hospitality martyr”, said Raffal, referring to an old-school mentality that “when you’re sick and you’ve had a terrible week and you’ve broken your leg and you still turn up to work the double shift because you don’t want to let the team down”.
Raffal, formerly sommelier at three-hatted Stanmore restaurant Sixpenny, said she was trying to create an inclusive working environment in which boundaries were respected, personal expression was encouraged (within reason – “no offensive slogans and no nipples” for T-shirts, but pits are OK), and a mental health day is considered a genuine reason to call in sick.
“[My staff] don’t have to squeeze into a different model or version of themselves [at work], and they get to be authentic, and so the service is authentic,” she said.
Five fast tips from panellists at the Sydney Good Food Hospitality Symposium, presented by Lightspeed
- Implement a ‘creep check’
Where’s Nick wine bar creates a safe working environment for its staff by empowering them to “check” guests who violate rules of conduct: no touching, no creepy compliments and no patronising or inappropriate nicknames. “The venue will always back the staff member ... [customers] can’t come in and treat people however they want because they’re spending money,” said owner Raffal. - Plan ahead and stick to it
A well-considered six- to 12-month plan for your brand identity is essential, especially when the going gets tough, says Fink’s Courmadias. “That plan can be agile, but it means you won’t go into a panic mode and start deconstructing and damaging your brand just because you had a bad week ... it helps to have a long-term perspective.” - Branding is key to success, but keep it simple
Make sure you can communicate your brand identity in a single sentence if you want customers to get on board, said hospitality consultant Petrina Baker. “It doesn’t matter what size your business is, if you can create some intellectual property, that’s how you can commercialise it outside those four walls.” - Don’t phone your staff
Adapt to younger generations to improve staff retention, says Bloodwood’s Van Vuuren. “I would never call my 20-year-old staff on the phone – it would scare them. I even digitised the way they receive menu information, because there’s no way they’d read documents [if I printed them].” - Bigger doesn’t always mean better
It has become harder than ever to expand to multiple venues, panellists said, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. “Maybe success [can be] just the one, [it might] seem like succumbing to the reduction of the horizon but there are thousands of restaurants in suburban Sydney that have one spot and have been there forever ... maybe there [should be] a shift of what we understand as success.”
Bianca Hrovat – Bianca is Good Food's Sydney-based reporter.