Friday, April 15, 2011

Starbucks coffee cake and Zagat restaurant salary levels

Sautéed eggplant and potato
Today's Food Diary
Breakfast: Rolled oats with toasted coconut, banana, sunflower seeds and flaxseeds
Lunch: Sautéed eggplant and potato
Dinner: Lentils with sourdough flaxseed bread
Baking/sweets: Sourdough flaxseed bread, chocolates

The sautéed eggplant and potato was prepared simply with garlic, ginger, chilli, mustard and hint of chinese 5-spice. Relatively effortless preparation with fairly good result. I love eggplant, even if its simply sauteed with garlic.

Today's Favourite Photo
Starbucks coffee cake



Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: Zagat
Great article discussing salaries within the restaurant industry. I watch Top Chef and other programs where top chefs working for big names talk about money, usually lack of it. This surprises me a little since I expect them to be flush with cash. Here are the salary levels:
  • General Manager: $40,000–$60,000 annually
  • Beverage Director: $42,000–$56,000
  • Executive Chef: $48,500–$77,685
  • Sous-Chef: $35,000–$46,302
  • Pastry Chef: $30,000–$46,750
  • Waiter: $7.60–$10.62 hourly (salaries for waiters and bartenders can increase 100%–500% after tips)
  • Bartender: $7.76–$11.09 hourly
  • Host/Hostess: $7.75–$9.89 hourly
  • Busboy: $5.95–$8.07

Assuming 40 hour weeks waiters earn $16,000–$22,000 before tips, and up to 5 times more after tips. So in effect waiters can earn more than all the other staff, assuming they keep the tips. Waiters get to eat good food, chat with customers, party after service and walk away with decent amount of cash.

It is also interesting to see that the general manager earns less than the beverage director and the executive chef. The pastry chef seems unappreciated, with their salary below the sous chef. I suppose desserts aren’t the biggest part of a meal. Even though customers generally don’t go to a particular restaurant for the dessert, some customers may take a peek at the dessert menu first!

Final thought, here is a quote from an executive chef: “The more refined the food, the more it is touched and handled.”

8 comments:

  1. Love your daily yummy links. Keep that coming :)

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  2. Did you eat for your lunch only that what's on the plate? :)

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  3. Ooo I love the idea of five spice on eggplant! Thanks for inspiring me!

    So maybe I should become a waiter then? Hmm.

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  4. hmm the eggplant and potato dish looks very tasty- I think that is just as great a photo as the coffee cake but I love Mary's blog- One Perfect Bite! She knows her stuff.

    I worked as a managing hostess during my last year of grad school (2009-2010) but I've served and hosted before as well. The managing position I just had paid $10/hr plus tip share- which was 3% from the bartenders & servers pooled and split among the host & bussers. Because I got the better hours (2-8), it worked out to usually be a $50-60 tipout plus $60 base-- I loved that job because my main duty was to make guests happy- change out their meal, check on them, chat em up- and also do the same for servers/bartenders- make sure everyone was doing okay or fix any issues. I basically made everyone enjoy being there - guest or staff- and in turn guests tipped better, staff got better tips, and I had fun!

    It was a cool gig but I love that I now have the norm 9-5 with 3 weeks paid vacation and weekends off.

    Ok, im done now. great post!! have a nice weekend!

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  5. Very interesting post about the salaries. I am going to have to try your eggplant and potato recipe. I tend to bake eggplant so I am delighted to find a new way of preparing it and one that loves spices.

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  6. Ellie: thank you, I will keep them coming:)
    Sonia: you are welcome
    Marina:yes I try to eat a small portion and eat more in the afternoon
    Joanne: maybe, or with your skills you should be head chef or general manager:)
    Laural: very interesting to hear your thoughts and experiences.
    Hester: thank you, glad you liked the potato and eggplant dish

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  7. Wow thats not an attractive salary specially for the executive chef, I thought it would be bigger than those amounts.

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