 David Starace (Chef DS) is a 1979 graduate of the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He has worked as both an Executive Chef and a Food and Beverage Director in restaurants, hotels, catering houses, and country clubs, and has served Hakins Meetings & Incentives’ corporate clients since 1990.
Chef DS loves the challenge of the meeting and incentive industry because it keeps him fresh with the latest in food and beverage around the world, and it allows him the opportunity to use his hospitality management degree to produce win-win-win meetings and incentives for clients, suppliers, and Hakins.
Hakins Meetings & Incentives Insider (HMI)
How can corporations reduce out-of-sight food and beverage on-site expenses during the current belt-tightening and “not-so-robust” meeting and incentive budget climate?
Chef David Starace (Chef DS)
Food and Beverage (F&B) takes the largest bite out of corporate meeting planner’s on-site budgets for meeting and incentive programs. When you look toward cost containment, you’ve got numerous ingredients to consider:
- The working budget can act as a guide when investigating unique venue purchasing methods (e.g., using local wines and regionally-grown products, planning menus based on the latest creations of the venue chef, etc.)
- Working toward more accurate F&B guarantees with the help of Hakins technology tools – giving me up-to-date attendee tracking reports
- Tracking all F&B on banquet event orders (BEO’s) from start to finish
- Locking in costs in writing ASAP – planning in 2006 for a 2007 event means requesting 2006 prices
- Keeping an eye on venue “extras” like carver fees and fuel costs for supplier deliveries
- Size of the venue and how the room can be most efficiently staffed
- Understanding and negotiating F&B contract clauses
It’s all about balance – helping clients understand the importance of working with a venue to make every meal work. I balance the realities of both sides of the discussion so everyone wins.
HMI
With the services you bring to the table, how do Hakins clients benefit from your experience?
Chef DS
Hakins is the only meeting and incentive company providing the services of a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef to develop menus and manage food and beverage costs for clients. That’s an important distinction for two reasons:
- Attendees demand more – and better – food choices at corporate events and I’m in tune with what works creatively and logistically.
- Companies must trim the fat from on-site F&B budgets and, having extensive experience with food costs, I recognize, for example, seasonal product price-spikes and offer suggestions for more cost-efficient substitutions
Twenty-five years as an Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director gives me credibility both in the kitchen and the front office. I have immediate rapport with the Executive Chef and the Catering Manager… because we’re speaking the language of food and client satisfaction.
HMI
Cost-containment is more than a concern du jour. What issues are under the heat lamp?
Chef DS
Shrinking planner staffs, shorter lead times for preparation, and tighter budgets. To combat these pressures, you’ve got to wear many hats and learn more savvy negotiation techniques. Having expert product and service knowledge on both sides of the kitchen door is how Hakins drives client success in planning and operations.
HMI
How high on the food chain does F&B rate as a meeting or incentive component?
Chef DS
Food has become an experience, an opportunity for attendees to have fun and enjoy themselves. There’s an increasing level of sophistication in the American palate. We’re a society consumed by food, fueled by the rise in popularity of TV cooking shows, culinary magazines, and the internet. Meals are highly anticipated punctuations in days crammed full of meetings and planners need to position them as pleasurable experiences – instead of distributions of the day’s rations. As an example, I work with the venue on utilizing creative buffet props and theming to enhance the dining experience.
HMI
What are your concerns once on-site?
Chef DS
I work alongside venue Catering Managers and the Executive Chef, as an industry professional and as a partner – well before the program begins– to become acquainted with the food resources at their disposal, meet the service staff, get a back-of-the-house tour, and place any possible difficulties in service, dietary requirements, or meal timing on my radar.
Six points are the focus of my short list once on-site:
- Items – I ensure what we were sold is what we receive (e.g., if the BEO states ‘chilled sliced tenderloin of beef,’ I don’t want to see ‘roast top round of beef.’ The difference is in more than just the name – about $5. per pound.
- Amounts – I need to see our advanced planning implemented (i.e., all attendees need entrée choices, appropriate breakfast buffet leftovers could be used for mid-morning breaks, per person pricing rather than per piece pricing on items like shrimp takes the guess work out of the budget process)
- Quality – I need to see and taste the same ingredients we ordered
- Presentation – I let a venue know we’ll work with them to hold down labor costs by encouraging them to consolidate buffet lines when the majority of attendees have passed through. This allows the venue to show full stations without preparing extra food and creating costly waste. It’s all about collaboration.
- Wholesomeness – I know food, how it should be served, and at what temperature. I have been certified by the National Restaurant Association Serve Safe Program, and have recently met the qualifications to teach the class. I’m another set of eyes out there on the venue floor or in the blazing sun at the Caribbean ocean-front buffet, making sure guests have safe, wholesome foods.
- Service – I participate in every pre-meal function meeting, and make my presence, as well as the clients’, known.
HMI
What’s hot right now for clients who want to contain costs but make F&B a crowd-pleaser?
Chef DS
Venues around the globe are promoting F&B offerings that go beyond traditional meeting and incentive fare. Elements such as creative breaks, menu samplings, interactive dining, and highlighting the accessibility, flexibility, and ingenuity of the chef allows planners to provide attendees with memorable experiences.
The more interaction you add to an event, the better it flows. I look at a course and ask, ‘Can we make this an action station instead?’ With a nouveau barley/pilaf bar, utilizing whole grains and alternative proteins, I’m proactively watching waistlines during a low-carb craze, adding an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ experience, and reducing bottom lines by requesting station servers to attend dual sides of a buffet, where possible.
HMI
Do you have any recent tales from the corporate planning front-lines… or the buffet lines?
Chef DS
I’m helping plan an upcoming wine dinner for a corporate client during an off-site meeting. The banquet manager and I agreed on a 5-course dinner at $75 per plate, including passed hors d’oeuvres and a unique wine accompaniment for each course. Then the banquet manager resigned. Subsequently, the restaurant owner took over the contract negotiations and informed me the 5-course “dinner” was more along the lines of a tastings menu with “very small” amounts of food. Knowing the client would not be pleased, I asked the owner to sit with the chef and come up with a price that would permit this 5-course dinner to be a wonderful meal.
The owner came back to me with a $105 per person quote. Knowing I was looking at 20% tax and service on top of the original $75 per plate price, the owner and chef were not giving themselves much leeway to create a memorable meal experience for the client. At Hakins, we are looking to do the “right business” with both clients and suppliers.
I had a $150 per person budget for this function, so I remembered the key to successful negotiations: ‘If you have to negotiate, negotiate up.’ I told the owner I would need to pay $125 per person to ensure each and every attendee had a memorable meal… while not constraining the creativity of the chef. They were thrilled. The client is under budget. Guests will be feted with everything from international cheeses and smoked salmon to Turkish fig arugula salad, kobe beef, ahi tuna carpaccio, and lamb with black truffles… all accompanied by distinctive wines from the clients’ own vineyard, and brought to a fitting denouement as guests enjoy roasted Georgia peaches stuffed with nutmeg tapioca.
Bring on the next course…
HMI
Any other tips?
Chef DS
The proverbial on-site F&B glass is neither half-empty nor half-full. If concerns arise, no matter who or what I’m working with, my first thought is always ‘it’s the wrong size glass.’ I make sure the glass is sized correctly. It’s all about service!!! |
