3 key aspects of Christian Gaudreault's management style are how he feeds staff after every shift, involves them in the introduction of new menu items, and how he searches for quality ingredients as a way of instilling pride in the product.
Gaudreault, owner of Vancouver-based Tomato Fresh Food Café, says, "At the end of the night, they sit down, and our head chef, James Campbell, will prepare for them whatever we have on hand from our fresh sheet. I have staff who have been with me for 10 years. For me, they are like my family. My style of working with them is to get involved with them. If the staff are happy, the food comes happy, and the customers are happy."
Making menu adaptations can often be a challenge for restaurants, but Gaudreault keeps his staff involved in such changes, and this knowledge of the product filters down to the customer. "When we want to put a new item on the menu, I get very involved with my chef and my sous-chef. Then we do a soft run in the restaurant. We do a tasting. You've got to have your staff involved, too. For some of them, they will be tasting for the first time, so you have to take that into consideration. We have 37 staff here - all the people in the kitchen get involved, and then we make the final decision as a group."
The commitment to buy ingredients locally, even at higher than average prices, is an aspect of his business that Gaudreault says definitely returns dividends in staff pride and customer appreciation.
"We are very interested in buying locally," he says. "I serve about 15 varieties of local tomatoes. Suzanne, of Glorious Garnish, will tell you I buy 350 kilos of greens a month from them - and that's just leafy greens, so it's really a lot. I'm their biggest buyer. I also buy about 400 to 500 pounds of potatoes a week. This year, we were invited by the Minister of Agriculture to an event in Abbotsford to help show how this locally grown produce can be served in local restaurants. It's my commitment to local agriculture." An honour like this also helps to engender staff pride. Adds Gaudreault, "Many restaurants are worried about margins, so they don't buy locally. Suzanne's greens are to die for - it's the way for me to say thank you to our local producers. When more people buy more, maybe eventually the price will be more accessible."
Deliberately and overtly maintaining high ingredient standards isn't just a means of pleasing the customer, Gaudreault says, it's also a way of demonstrating to the staff the fact that customers are happy when they receive the very best. In this veteran restaurateur's experience, there is a direct relationship between buying the best available ingredients and instilling a sense of pride in restaurant staff.
In turn, it's one sure-fire way of turning pride into profits.
