January, First, Two Thousand and Ten

January 1st 2010, is finally here. I have been waiting this years arrival for what seems like for ever. Now its time to start writing my cookbook,  and get this restaurant refocused on what we can control. Some examples may be, giving the guest a exceptional dining experience, or sourcing out the best sea salt to finish our beef short rib. There are countless  ways, and the point is that we can not control the economy or new taxes or laws that are hurting our small business but we can look for ways to  improve and become more efficient so when we do have business we will be operating at the highest level we possibly can. I think the restaurant industry  has done a good job of weathering this fiscal nightmare and its ready to start growing again. Stronger and better than ever. There have been a lot  of changes in Lake Geneva and it has positioned us in a favorable position in 2010. I am looking forward to this new season and I am excited to see what the fruits of our labor will bring.

Now for the biggest conflict that I have had my entire career. That conflict  is the fact that it is January 1st and that means new years day. Which also means INVENTORY. Now the cook in me hates inventory, I mean it absolutely sucks to have to walk around and count everything in the restaurant and then type it onto a spread sheet while updating pricing and making sure that it is all done before your first sale of the new month. Once more I am guessing that most chefs are hung over from probably one of the busiest nights prior, being New Years Eve. That being said I fortunately do not drink so that part does  not bother me any more, but it is always something as a cook I would rather not do.  Well as a chef I love inventory, It means the closing of one period and the opening of another. I can get a lot of information from taking inventory and I use it to create our menus. It also helps to confirm our Food cost, and tells me if there are any leaks in our cost controls.  So it is something that I have learned over the many years that I have been taking it , to accept and to learn from .

We also started the new winter menu tonight so I will talk a little more about that tomorrow,  as I think that this may be one of our more well rounded January menus, and the response tonight was pretty encouraging.