Systems

Talent isn't repeatable. Systems are.

A kitchen doesn't run on skill alone — it runs on the systems that make skill consistent, night after night, with whoever's on shift.

You can't get a clear read on a kitchen from the office. I get in, work services alongside the cooks, sweat through it with them — and that's when the real paperwork, the real gaps, and the real fixes show up. Everything below gets built from what that reveals, tailored to the kitchen in front of me.

Operations & inventory

Kitchen audit sheets

Where the kitchen's operations actually stand today, station by station.

Stock control & par levels

What to order, what's wasted, and what's quietly going missing.

Opening & closing checklists

The same standard opens and closes the kitchen, no matter who's on shift.

Prep & par lists

Daily prep quantities by station, so nothing runs short or gets over-prepped.

Equipment maintenance log

Small problems caught before they become expensive breakdowns.

Money & performance

Margin calculation sheets

Real cost per dish, weighed honestly against the menu price.

Profit sheets

A clear read on where the money's actually coming from — and where it's going.

Menu engineering matrix

Every dish sorted by what's profitable, what's popular, and what's neither.

Labor vs. sales forecast

Staffing matched to real demand patterns, not gut-feel rotas.

Cash flow & P&L tracker

The financial pulse of the business, kept visible instead of discovered at year-end.

People

Hiring sheets

A structured way to bring on the right people — not just whoever's available.

Onboarding checklist

The first 30/60/90 days mapped out, so new hires hit the standard fast.

Training sheets

The standard written down, so it survives staff turnover.

Staff performance review sheet

Honest, structured feedback instead of guesswork at review time.

Outside-in

Supplier & vendor comparison

The same product, compared honestly across suppliers.

Competitor analysis sheet

An outside read on where the operation actually stands in its market.

Customer feedback tracker

Scattered reviews and comments turned into patterns worth acting on.

Recipes & compliance

Recipe sheets

Standardized recipes, so every plate leaving the kitchen matches the last one.

HACCP & health & safety checklist

Compliance built into the daily routine, not bolted on before an inspection.

How it fits together

None of these are off-the-shelf templates. Every sheet is tailored to the kitchen it's built for — because a kitchen doing 40 covers a night needs different systems than one doing 200. This is the "Improve" phase of the consulting method — the part where a diagnosis actually turns into something the kitchen runs on every day.

See the full method