Public Relations

*Updated for grammatical mistakes.  Thanks Reenie!*
Attempting to use myself as the face of our new restaurant.  Here's a bio:

First draft on your questions.

1. “tell us a bit about yourself?”

1. I am born in Hong Kong, and raised in Sydney Australia.  I actually worked in the same company for the last 11 years, transferring from Sydney to New York and finally to Singapore for the last 2 years.  I loved New York, having lived there for 3 years. It was in New York that I experienced a whole range of restaurants all serving great food and providing great service.  It is indeed a place of infinite possibilities, to be able to do what one wants whenever one wants.

One of the great memories I have of New York is of this event called the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party.  Basically the whole Madison Square Park is converted to a food park, with the country's top ribs chefs cooking for 100,000 people over a weekend.  Fantastic food, wonderful atmosphere.

I moved to Singapore to explore the business opportunities here as well as to be slightly closer to my family in Sydney.  I think one of the things that people don't appreciate is that because it is so safe, everyone is so much more relaxed.  It's a great place to live.

2. “how did you end up running a restaurant?” 

2. I once did a personality test!  And one of my top traits was a category called "includer".  I realised how true this was, as I was (and still am) involved in organsing entertainment events.  In the restaurant business, it's all about celebrations, whether it is to introduce a new colleague to the team, a birthday or just a fun night out.  Restaurants help bring people together, whether they are old friends or new ones, and for everyone to have a good time.  It is a great avenue to channel my "includer" tendencies.

Going back to my New York experiences (with the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party), there was so much enjoyment digging in to a shared plate of ribs, getting the fingers dirty, having a laugh.  I like that about my restaurant.  We do give out bibs for those who are a bit on the messier side.

3. “why did you choose morganfields?” 

3. The first time I saw Morganfield's I was impressed by two things:  the first was the rustic charm of the outlet, with its exposed recycled woods, homely furniture and the movable bar top.  The second was how friendly and engaging the staff were.  All this before I had even tried the food!  

Morganfield's is a great new entry to the Singapore market.  Of course there is the ribs. We use spare ribs which are bigger, meatier and fattier, we rub them with our secret spice which really gets the flavours into the meat, smoke them low and slow for several hours in a combination oven to produce juicy, fall-off-the-bone tender ribs with just the right touch of smokiness and then baste them with our special sweet and tangy BBQ sauce as we finish them on the charbroiler.

I feel Morganfield's provides that "whole restaurant experience", a great combination of ambiance, food, and service, from the first hello through the the last goodbye.  It is genuine and warm and delivers hospitality to all out guests.  In my mind, hospitality is there when things that are done for you, it is not there when things are done to you.  I want all my guests to feel that they would want to return and bring their friends to Morganfield's.

Every Day is a Monday

On owning your own business, so true:

"The worries never end. You never sleep. Every day becomes Monday. Every minute becomes 3am Monday morning. Every day there is constant battles and meager successes to drive you forward. And sometimes there are stretches where it’s all 2 steps forward and three steps backwards.

I never once considered going back to the corporate job. It would be embarassing. A failure. I had to keep going forward. But the Mondays never ended. And 17 years later, the Mondays still don’t end. But you get used to it. Heck, it’s Monday right now! And I have 10,000 times more issues than I ever had at a corporate job . But over time the problems that used to be hard get easier. And the problems that you have today become opportunities. And the opportunities get better and better because you learn which ones smell, taste, look, feel better. And it’s no longer two steps forward three steps back. It’s five steps zig-zagged. And one of these days I’ll reach the end of the maze and a unicorn will be there. And I’ll ride her away and never look back."

From James Altucher

Culture

It's one of those intangible things that every good management person talks about.  And once it's established, it is so hard to change, usually because the culture fits with the most efficient way of getting things done in that environment.

We've experienced one culture here in KL.  And with all cultures, there's good and bad. One of the key differences with this culture (at least according to my two managers) is the high level of trust/support that the back of house and front of house provide to one another.  It's something that is really good to see and something that we would want to estsablish.

On the bad side, there is some tension in the team, and some of the managers are not doing their job of managing the personnel issues.  So in specific cases, the respect staff have for their peers is not there.

What I am hearing from my managers makes me happy that I hired them, as I think they embody the attitudes that we want in our team.  I have the values of "push, belief, responsibility, and teamwork" as things that we stand for.  Funny enough, even putting these things down into words makes everyone more committed to it.

Now I just need to make sure that we pass this culture and attitude on to any new staff we hire.

The Slam

It's been a great two weeks up in KL, learning the ins and outs of the restaurant.  I've been focussed on the prep are, getting a feel for the foods that we make.  It's a different world when preparing for 1 hundred people, compared to a family.  Best memory was mixing in 4 kg of butter for a cake mix!

The other area I have been focussing on is the expediter, or "expo" area.  This person's role is to prepare all the food, and make sure that they quality of the presentation (plating, condiments etc) is done according to the specification of the menus and procedures.  In essence, it's the link from front of house to the kitchen.

Generally this job is quite simple, but it starts getting complex due to the sheer number of orders that can come through at once, especially in a large restaurant.  I experienced the "slam" on Friday when I was the expo.  I've never had that feeling before, when my brain half shut down, I just could not process the information that was coming at me.  All I saw were plates of food in front of me, I didn't know what had or had not gone out, it was a mess.  Another one of the chefs had to tae over my position and do the rest of the expo for that lunch.

But it's the only way to learn, and the only way to appreciate the intensity of some of these F&B jobs.  Perhaps it just gets easier with more practice, but either way it's still tough when everyone comes in to the restaurant at once.  Of course, as an owner, that's what we all want all the time!