Who’s doing it right, and how?

“It actually surprised me that we were mentioned a few times – it just seems completely normal. It’s just fucking mental that people don’t do it.” – Michael Lavery, Forza Win

“You can’t have a business without happy staff – or rather you can, but you can’t have a GOOD business. And the people who say that they can’t afford it – how much does it cost to retrain a new member of staff six times a year?!” – Terri Mercieca, Happy Endings 

Few topics have created such vociferous debate and passionate conversation as our recent spotlights on staff food. There was such an insistence on food on shift as a basic right that we were perplexed to find that there were still a significant number of businesses who do not offer staff meals, or who offer it as a paid ‘perk’. We heard some horror stories from workers – sandwiches made by the team and sold back to them at a 20% discount. No staff food for people on ‘earlies’, even if they’d put in a full eight hours plus. There were reasons given by employers, too – tight budgets, or tight time, or an impossibility within the structure of the business. People who told us that, as an open-all-day establishment, there was no time or place to cook and eat. Or that, as a bakery, there weren’t the resources on site to offer more than the day’s leftover pastries.

And then there was the outpouring of appreciation for the people who were getting it right, feeding their teams thoughtfully and well – and reaping the rewards of doing so. It did not surprise us that most of the people mentioned are well known in the industry for their positive culture – but it may surprise some (although perhaps only those who fall short in this regard) to learn that a great family meal is not a product of the great culture, not an additional benefit for those rare businesses who can afford to lavish costly perks on their workforce, but instead a core foundation on which a great culture is built. Once you have an understanding of this principle, everything else follows. As Bash of Forza says: “You can’t get to the point where you have a good team unless you show them the level of respect that you show your customers. That act of sitting around the table and eating is vital”.

The following interview with Terri of Happy Endings, and Bash and Michael of Forza Win and Forza Wine, is part two of our series on staff food following on from last week’s feature on Legare, Bubala and e5 Bakehouse – all companies who were singled out by past and present staff members as leading the field.

Our staff food survey found that 21% of you do not receive staff food on shift. If you’re working in one of those businesses, find a way to make sure your boss sees this piece. Let’s ensure that every hospitality business sees both the value and the achievability of this vital provision.

How do staff meals work within the structure of the working day? In a time-pressured environment how do you make time for the cooking, and for the eating?

HAPPY ENDINGS: People who say they can’t do staff food is bullshit. It just means it’s not a priority. We’re in hospitality! Hospitality IS your team! If you don’t nourish them, how can you nourish others?  And the people who say that they can’t afford it – how much does it cost to retrain a new member of staff six times a year?! 

I guess it’s easier for us to schedule in because we’re not public facing – we’re a production kitchen. But there’s still a lot to do in the day of course, so we still need to be smart about structuring – the key is working out what works for your business. So we start at 8am, we work for 2 ½ hours and we know exactly how much we can get done in that time. Then at 10.30 we all break for 30 minutes – that’s when we have breakfast, which is always toast, granola, bread, crumpets… just good bakery stuff, loads of butter or vegan butter, different milks for different peoples’ dietaries. Whack on the toaster and the kettle – it’s really important to have loads of cups of tea. Then at 11am we get cracking again. We make sure that any deliveries come at that time – I don’t want people taking deliveries during their break. The break is not for a different kind of work, like shifting boxes or something, it’s for no work at all.

Lunch is at 1.30, it’s half an hour again. We always cook vegan food, with cheese or yoghurt or whatever on the side for people who want it. Cooking veggie is less of a health and safety risk in a production kitchen, and it’s just so much more inclusive. The point is that we sit, and we rest. Even if you’re running late with your tasks, you take a break and we’ll work it out after. We have paid breaks, so that people aren’t tempted to skip them. That’s vital – it sets the expectation and the culture, and it’s such an important part of the day – time to connect. I mean we don’t force people to sit down, if they don’t want to then they can go do something else – so long as it’s not work. But the tone is set, and it’s clear that this is what we do. And I promise, people actually get MORE done.

FORZA: We sit down at 11am and at 5pm – both of them are pre-shift. Obviously we are open from lunchtime right through to 11pm, so the morning one is easy but at the 5pm someone who’s been working all day and just about to go home covers the customers that are there, while every one else downs tools and eats. They do eat too though – it always seems mental that some places don’t let people who are going home sit for staff food – they’ve just put in 8 hours and you’re telling people to go away? Come on.

We eat staff food in front of the customers – we set up a long table, and whoever is there at 5pm will see us all enjoying our chips. So many places say that you can’t sit in the dining room, in view of customers. It’s such an old-fashioned and insulting approach, to hide the humanity of the people who serve you. We get chefs who naturally try to hide when they’re eating – crouching behind something, or going to sit on the step. It’s just trained into them. We don’t do that here.

In terms of cooking, you just make time. You need the mentality that it’s just as important as the customer’s food. If you get a chef every now and then who doesn’t put in the effort, who does staff food without any love, it’s the same as when you get someone who doesn’t say please and thank you to the kitchen porter. You say to them – be respectful. It’s not actually a selfless move to make staff food, as a chef. If you make everyone happy with great staff food, and you need something later on in your shift, then people will pay you back. Of course you do it out of the kindness of your heart, but there are other benefits to giving it some love. It doesn’t need a lot of time put in, but it does need love. 

How do you make it work financially? What budget do you set aside for it, and how do you ensure that the team are fed well within that cost?

FORZA: We don’t put a set budget aside. Whoever does the ordering the day before will just ask people what they fancy, and order it in. If someone was taking the piss ordering caviar and truffles, then obviously we’d say something, but it just doesn’t happen. The crucial thing though is to make sure the staff food cost is deducted from the GP, so that it’s just a cost to the business rather than affecting the margins.

It’s worth noting that expensive ingredients tend to be harder to prep, which means you’re making your life difficult when you’re trying to cook for customers at the same time. Whereas beans, grains, root veg, cheesy things – stuff that can be shoved into the oven – those are so delicious, and they just get on with it while you’re cooking the menu. It needs to be good and it needs to be generous, it does not need to be elaborate.

HAPPY ENDINGS: I reckon that we probably spend about £25 a week on staff food. That’s for 10 people, two meals a day – and we sometimes have leftovers too, which people take home for dinner. We get one large Odd Box per week, and then a small one every other week to supplement the big one. Then we get cheap staples like pulses, pasta and grains – but our rule is that we only have pasta once a week!

We do lots of curries of course, loads of roasted veg, and we get creative. We always make sure there are avocados and salad leaves, and once you’ve got all that at your fingertips a good cook can make some incredible stuff – and we’re all good cooks!

How do you make sure that there is good variety, who is in charge of the menu?

FORZA: Everyone in the kitchen all takes it in turns, from head chef to KP, and sometimes front of house too. There’s no set rota but it seems to work. It’s brilliant when people cook the food from their countries – the best staff food happens when people really want to make it a THING. Our floor supervisor Mel once brought in loads of Jamaican stuff and she made Festival – that was incredible.

There’s always a fully stocked snack section in the fridge and the dry stores – loads of natural yoghurt, a shit ton of granola, bananas… also Frosties, because everyone loves Frosties.

We make a lot of curries, a lot of pasta – basically, the kind of food that you would cook if you were a busy parent. But just done really really well, because we’ve got all this kit, and professional cooks. It keeps the kids happy!!

HAPPY ENDINGS: So initially it was just me and one other person who did it all the time, just because it seemed easier. Then I went into hospital, and when I came out I found out that just that one person – Roger – had been making the staff food on his own. And when he didn’t do it one time because he was too busy, no one stepped in. I was so disappointed. I felt that we’d put in such a lot of effort which wasn’t being repaid… but then I realised that we just needed a system. In my experience the more clear boundaries and structure you have in place, the better and happier everything is. This is no different. It’s a case of mutual care – workplace culture comes from everyone contributing, so now we have a rota which the production manager is responsible for. Absolutely everyone in the business is on the rota, with the exception of the packaging people and the drivers who contribute in other ways – making teas, or setting up the table. That kind of thing.

I discovered that part of peoples’ reluctance to cook stemmed from a nervousness about cooking for chefs! But once people get into the swing of it then it stops being an issue. It’s an amazing moment where people can share their own cultures, backgrounds and influences through their food, too. We get to discover more about each other, and appreciate each other.

What are your most successful staff meals? The regular favourites, and the special treats

HAPPY ENDINGS: Because we all contribute, what we eat is a true reflection of the team – we all love a West African peanut stew, or the curries, and the great minestrone. We always take birthday requests, and when a particular person is asked to make their food it makes them feel so good! On special occasions we’ll get takeaway, but it’s expensive so that’s pretty rare – more often we do food swaps, which is such a great way to get some treats for basically cost. There’s a guy who brings us awesome bagels, we all love those for breakfast, and there’s the company who makes pies – MyPie. We get pies, they get dessert, so everyone gets a full meal. Ha ha! It’s so great to barter. Set up reciprocal deals with mates or neighbours! Get creative!

FORZA: At 11 we serve breakfast things like 7-minute eggs, sliced apple tossed in mint and lemon juice, and generally heated up leftovers from the previous day’s staff meal – done nicely of course. We do a lot of egg fried rice – probably the least authentic egg fried rice ever, but it’s delicious. It’s always delicious. It’s never not delicious. It doesn’t have to be super complicated, it just needs to be plentiful and delicious.

The definition of leftovers is loose – the menu changes so regularly that if we’ve got like six portions of something, rather than put it on the menu and change it half way through the day, we just staff it. Because we make a lot of flatbreads we’ve also often got a lot of excess dough, so we make morning buns – bacon rolls with good thick HG Walter bacon. On Saturdays in Peckham, in the Summer, it’s so busy that we just get Yard Sale delivered. That’s easier in terms of time, and it feels like a real reward when everyone is flat out.

The thing that gets people most excited is always oven chips. Oven chips in a rationale oven is a total game-changer – they caramelise perfectly. They’re incredible. You can‘t get that in a home oven. Also we’re an Italian restaurant, so of course we serve pasta. There’s a lot of Penne al Ragù, which is always incredibly popular, and Aglio e Olio is such a good one – it’s simple, it’s cheap, but if it’s done well it’s gorgeous. Staff loved it so much that we put it on the menu.

What impact do you feel it has on your team, and on the wider business?

FORZA: As a cost to the business, the positivity you get out of staff food makes it a fucking bargain. It’s maybe £100 a week for each site – so, £300 a week, across 60 people. That makes it just about the most cost effective way you can increase morale. It would be insane not to do it. The idea that you can pass someone a dish of food and say – ‘take this to table blah… but you can’t eat’… that is MAD.

HAPPY ENDINGS: When we started out, we actually didn’t have set staff meals. We just grabbed whatever and ate when we could – maybe some microwaved soup or whatever. The head chef that I had didn’t want to cook, he thought we were too busy – it would be a waste of time. He had that mentality where he thought, I’d rather leave early than take a break, and my team would too. But you know what? You never end up leaving early, do you. And then he left, so I thought fuck it, let’s try! I was worried about all the same things that he was, but I also believed wholeheartedly that it would be great for the team and the business. And you know what? It had an IMMEDIATE effect. The quality of work was better, the productivity increased, our workplace relationships improved immeasurably. We were all taking care of each other, and of ourselves. When that becomes the norm, your business flourishes.