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So is a random business guy hiring a chef to run his restaurant kinda the startup equivalent of a business guy hiring a dev to build his startup? Both seem in

So is a random business guy hiring a chef to run his restaurant kinda the startup equivalent of a business guy hiring a dev to build his startup? Both seem in a similar boat. A restaurant is nothing without a good chef. A programming startup is nothing without a good developer. Both have cases where the chef/developer starts their own companies.. and many more cases where an outside guy with some money comes in and tries to make it happen. You can succeed in both paths, but it sure as heck seems a lot harder! I cannot image funding a software startup if each MVP I wanted took say 30k to make (instead of a few hours of time). It seems reasonable that cooking is similar..

anigbrowl 9y ago
You can be a great cook but a terrible chef. A chef is an experienced cook who can also manage a kitchen. Management ability without cooking skill is what you get at fast food franchises and meal manufacturers like Sysco. Being a foodie is a negative hiring signal in those contexts.
- marak830 9y ago
  Actually it's a little more in-depth(well it useto be, I'll explain that lower). When I started out it was: cook: two years training(while on the job), basics of most styles of cooking. Chef: 4 years training (most of the time, on the job), with a day of University each week. Learnt basic cooking skills. Plus how and why of ingredients, how to cost and manage a kitchen, basic logistics(to understand how distance effects produce and the best ways to minimise the effects to ensure top quality ingredients), and a whole assortment of similarly unthought of information (put it in way most techs would understand: backend coding). Recently most chef's qualifications have been reduced to 2 years, But that's a whole 'nother story :-p To sum up, a chef isn't an experienced cook who can manage a kitchen - they are someone with the training to manage the staff, costings, health and safety checks, menus, discover and cater to local and new tastes, research upcoming trends, minimise risk(be it personnel, upcoming laws, basic food and hygene, ingury management and mitigation etc), as well as prepare and cook every dish on the menu (in a timely and cost controlled fashion). While some cooks can manage and run a kitchen, (and I have met some amazing ones over the years), to say they are eanywhere near chef's in general, is akin to saying a student programmer is a full stack dev
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    Agree completely - sorry for my lack of clarity. I meant 'manage' to include everything on the operational side of the business, vs the financial/investment aspect that an accountant or tax lawyer would be concerned with, without regard to the fact of it being a restaurant.
    - marak830 9y ago
      My apologies I do actually agree with your point, I just wanted to expand upon it with my own experience :-)
dasil003 9y ago
One difference is that you can be a decent food critic without being a chef. So I think it's theoretically more feasible to start a restaurant as Joe-rando business guy. That said, I think in both cases the business guy needs to bring domain knowledge (or an insane amount of hustle) to the table. Figuring out the type, location, and marketing of a restaurant is just as much of a make-or-break proposition as having the right chef. Similarly, on the software side you need either pitching/fundraising or some kind of go-to-market skills, whether it be enterprise sales or consumer marketing. Entrepreneurial chefs and developers at the top of their game enough to offer something compelling may be able to do this themselves, but in most cases a partnership with the right business person will have a multiplicative effect on the results.
- marak830 9y ago
  Depends on the critic. Infact I'd go as far as to say that a critic has no place running a restaurant. (Caveats below). Someone who knows the industry and understands what the local population wants? Good chance, most critics (imho) don't, they want the best possible food and service for the (generally) lowesat price. (There is nothing wrong with that). A good critic doesn't make a good restaurant owner though. Akin as a good blogger about tech wouldn't necessarily be the best person to run your startup.
- greedo 9y ago
  A chef does far more than just create and execute a menu.
marak830 9y ago
I would say yes. It's akin to running a successful port or delivery system, you can't just buy one and hope for the best, you need to actually either a) have experience and know what your doing or b) hire someone with that knowledge. Hospitality is a little more difficult as the margins are so tight though, hence the most successful are owner/operators.

anigbrowl 9y ago

You can be a great cook but a terrible chef. A chef is an experienced cook who can also manage a kitchen. Management ability without cooking skill is what you get at fast food franchises and meal manufacturers like Sysco. Being a foodie is a negative hiring signal in those contexts.

marak830 9y ago
Actually it's a little more in-depth(well it useto be, I'll explain that lower). When I started out it was: cook: two years training(while on the job), basics of most styles of cooking. Chef: 4 years training (most of the time, on the job), with a day of University each week. Learnt basic cooking skills. Plus how and why of ingredients, how to cost and manage a kitchen, basic logistics(to understand how distance effects produce and the best ways to minimise the effects to ensure top quality ingredients), and a whole assortment of similarly unthought of information (put it in way most techs would understand: backend coding). Recently most chef's qualifications have been reduced to 2 years, But that's a whole 'nother story :-p To sum up, a chef isn't an experienced cook who can manage a kitchen - they are someone with the training to manage the staff, costings, health and safety checks, menus, discover and cater to local and new tastes, research upcoming trends, minimise risk(be it personnel, upcoming laws, basic food and hygene, ingury management and mitigation etc), as well as prepare and cook every dish on the menu (in a timely and cost controlled fashion). While some cooks can manage and run a kitchen, (and I have met some amazing ones over the years), to say they are eanywhere near chef's in general, is akin to saying a student programmer is a full stack dev
- anigbrowl 9y ago
  Agree completely - sorry for my lack of clarity. I meant 'manage' to include everything on the operational side of the business, vs the financial/investment aspect that an accountant or tax lawyer would be concerned with, without regard to the fact of it being a restaurant.
  - marak830 9y ago
    My apologies I do actually agree with your point, I just wanted to expand upon it with my own experience :-)

dasil003 9y ago

One difference is that you can be a decent food critic without being a chef. So I think it's theoretically more feasible to start a restaurant as Joe-rando business guy. That said, I think in both cases the business guy needs to bring domain knowledge (or an insane amount of hustle) to the table. Figuring out the type, location, and marketing of a restaurant is just as much of a make-or-break proposition as having the right chef. Similarly, on the software side you need either pitching/fundraising or some kind of go-to-market skills, whether it be enterprise sales or consumer marketing. Entrepreneurial chefs and developers at the top of their game enough to offer something compelling may be able to do this themselves, but in most cases a partnership with the right business person will have a multiplicative effect on the results.

marak830 9y ago
Depends on the critic. Infact I'd go as far as to say that a critic has no place running a restaurant. (Caveats below). Someone who knows the industry and understands what the local population wants? Good chance, most critics (imho) don't, they want the best possible food and service for the (generally) lowesat price. (There is nothing wrong with that). A good critic doesn't make a good restaurant owner though. Akin as a good blogger about tech wouldn't necessarily be the best person to run your startup.
greedo 9y ago
A chef does far more than just create and execute a menu.

marak830 9y ago

I would say yes. It's akin to running a successful port or delivery system, you can't just buy one and hope for the best, you need to actually either a) have experience and know what your doing or b) hire someone with that knowledge. Hospitality is a little more difficult as the margins are so tight though, hence the most successful are owner/operators.