Big Chef, Little chef..

hiroofheroes said:
Why the hell did little 'chef' ever hire employees to prepare food that don't even have basic cooking skills?
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It's all part of their business model. Cheap food, cheaply prepared, with the only consideration being profit margin. It's basically reducing food to production line values and cutting costs wherever possible.

I'll admit that some of the chefs, and I use that word with caution, that work for Little Chef know how to cook food. After all they've got to feed themselves and their families. But people that know how to cook food for customers cost more money than people who can blindly follow instructions. Money they could easily get elsewhere. So Little Chef pare down the menu to it's most basic form in order that anyone with a brain can walk into one of their restaurants, read the bible and cook the food.

And the worse the situation gets the more profit has to be made from the ever decreasing takings. So even more corners are cut in the name of profit and the quality of the service decreases until it's at the stage you're seeing now. And it's quite upsetting to see in a way. However, they only have themselves to blame and it'll be a long, tough road to recovery, assuming they ever make it there.
 
And I think that the new menu, or at least parts of it, have been rolled out nationwide. Although having seen today's episode it might not even be Heston's...
 
i always remember the last time i went in one with my mum and dad, dad fancied am omelette to which we got they didn't have any omelettes, but could offer us some fried eggs instead. To which my dad said "if you have eggs why can't I have the omelette?" To which we got "our omelette order didn't arrive this morning." :rolleyes:
 
theboyrob said:
i always remember the last time i went in one with my mum and dad, dad fancied am omelette to which we got they didn't have any omelettes, but could offer us some fried eggs instead. To which my dad said "if you have eggs why can't I have the omelette?" To which we got "our omelette order didn't arrive this morning." :rolleyes:
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i have heard that before.... was angry at the time however it makes me giggle at them now :p
 
"The menu needs pictures, because you know, some people can't read"

That just sums it up really! Idiots eating at an idiot's business!
 
I won't enter a Little Chef as long as it is run by that *****.
On top of that the Staff remind me of other people who continually complain about there job all the time whilst wondering why there jobs are under threat.
I think there is a Damn good reason that Little chefs are empty these days & I think that they are getting what they deserve. ****'em.


Good show though & I aprreciate seeing what has happened to something I once loved.
 
The MD is a Buzzword Bingo players delight.
Halfway through the first show I stood up and shouted BINGO - scared the crap out of the other half. :D There is something about him that that really winds me up.

Then to essentially rip-off all the research Heston has done and bring that out nationwide before he's had a real chance to get his menu running.

Hell, they could have done their own market research and come up with the same results and it probably would have cost less than employing Heston for however many weeks.
 
-Ad- said:
DAMN missed it last night. Final one tonight.

What did I miss ?
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Heston realises his first menu was way out of touch with the British public, some market research takes place, Heston decides to experiment with getting the least qualified LC employee possible to be able to competently manage to produce his new breakfast (which is essentially a full english with some subtle twists). Feedback from the one trial LC on the breakfast is extremely positive and the staff sort of pull it off (albeit with some difficulties). Meanwhile Heston's concerns grow that he doesn't have the full support of the LC boss, and that he wont actually implement his menu, so asks for confirmation in writing that he is prepared to trial his breakfast for 3 months in 3 other LCs which he isn't granted. Later Heston discovers that LC bosses have decided to roll out a new menu (without telling him) which has enrages him muchly, further suggesting they don't have any intention of going with his menu, and they are merely using him for publicity. LC boss insists he has "his wor d" that they will implement his new menu, but first want to get the trial menu in one LC only, before implementing any of it elsewhere, Heston isn't happy and has his doubts (understandably.)
 
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program owns cant be doing much for little chefs image though...

how come a lot of the male staff apear to be gay? that manager seems gay and isnt much of a manager either he doesnt seem to care if his staff cook a meal properly or not aslong as something dead is on a plate with baked beans beside it.

he doesnt really care about hestons meals or if they are cooked correctly either, he jokes around with the staff and acts like a **** :eek:

it should be as simple as heston demands this do it or lose your job, the cooks (if you can even call them that) were openly saying they would stop drizzling the oil and adding garnish because its to much hassle! WTF!

its no suprise the brand is crap and probably losing loads of money when the staff cant be bothered to do anything properly and just want to cut corners.

i remember that mc donalds docu from a few years ago where the european exec on a 6+ digit salary worked as a trainee to see what it was like compared to little chef mc donalds employ the worlds greatest cooks.
 
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arknor said:
program owns cant be doing much for little chefs image though...
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What?

arknor said:
how come a lot of the male staff apear to be gay? that manager seems gay and isnt much of a manager either he doesnt seem to care if his staff cook a meal properly or not aslong as something dead is on a plate with baked beans beside it.
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What on Earth has someone's sexual preference, implied or otherwise, got to do with anything?

arknor said:
he doesnt really care about hestons meals or if they are cooked correctly either, he jokes around with the staff and acts like a **** :eek:
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If you're talking about the guy who's been at LC for 25 years and started off as a pot-washer, he actually said Heston's revised Olypic Breakfast was 'to die for'.

arknor said:
it should be as simple as heston demands this do it or lose your job, the cooks (if you can even call them that) were openly saying they would stop drizzling the oil and adding garnish because its to much hassle! WTF!
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Not his job. He's doing the food; the management of the staff is up to Little Chef.

arknor said:
its no suprise the brand is crap and probably losing loads of money when the staff cant be bothered to do anything properly and just want to cut corners.
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Now we're getting some sense out of you. That's a relatively good summary of the situation.

arknor said:
i remember that mc donalds docu from a few years ago where the european exec on a 6+ digit salary worked as a trainee to see what it was like
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Back to the Floor?

arknor said:
compared to little chef mc donalds employ the worlds greatest cooks.
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Well, I'd disagree with you there. Calling anyone who worked at McDonalds a 'chef' would be stretching the word to its limits.

Admittedly it's not much better with the staff at Little Chef, but we're only seeing a small slice. I bet there are people out there who can cook, enjoy cooking, know how to cook for paying customers and are a credit to the brand. It's the other numpties that drag it down.
 
Fast food these days is incredibly competitive, and Little Chef just isn't good enough or cheap enough to compete.

Burger King at service stations are a level above Little Chef, yet are cheaper.
 
The owner of little chef is actually a *****, and none of them look like they know what they are doing, Heston included.

He is the wrong man for the job, leaving beans out when there is so much demand? He wants to "change" the way people eat and Little Chef is not the firm for that. Yes the company needs a drastic shake up, but look at their target market? They are coming in for a breakfast/meal and then going out again. If Little Chef was taken down and a Cafe was put in its place I think the same people will come in and order the same thing, its not about brand loyalty, its just convenient.

The management just needs to sit down, eat and re-asses their menu and meals, essentially just going back to basics with some quality produce. Refurbish the stores and bring them up to date as well as giving their staff some sort of training. I don't think they need Heston to do that, while he is one of my favorite chefs (I was addicted to his "Perfect" cooking series) he is just making it hard for everyone with his little "twists" or "touches" that after a while no-one will bother practicing.

So far, the owner is just taking Heston for a ride and using it as a publicity stunt as well as making himself look like an idiot. What was he on? "Me and Heston have that chemistry you know?" shut up you idiot.
 
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The owner of little chef is actually a *****
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he is just making it hard for everyone with his little "twists" or "touches" that after a while no-one will bother practicing.
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Isn't that what Heston was asked to do though? The guy was going on about the reason they chose Heston over the other celebrity chefs is that he can do something different - apparently they want Heston to bring his "magic" with him...

I'm sure if Heston was left to his own devices he *would* have gone for simple stuff just done well with decent product. Trouble is, the boss wouldn't even give him figures to work with.
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Exactly.

As much as the first episode seemed to make us want to think that all the little touches and experimental foods were Heston's idea of what the public wanted, in reality this was all in-line with what Little Chef had briefed him and asked him to do. He's not stupid. He knows damn well that there's no way you could do those experimental dishes on a large scale and was simply going along with the brief and giving the MD what he thought he wanted.

He'll have known all along that his ultimate goal is to revamp the menu and utilise both his technology knowledge and mastery of food to bring Little Chef's food into the 21st century but with that Heston touch in there somewhere. most of the dishes from his first Perfection series and plenty that are on the menus of the Hinds Head and Fat Duck are modern British classics.

In fact most of the recipes we've already seen in this short series are from the Hinds Head and Fat Duck. Only a few of them were truly new dishes, created specifically for the programme.
 
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