About Me
Friday, February 19, 2010
Will folks, with the wedding season fast approaching we are as busy as ever taking quote requests, adjusting quotes, and resending quotes. I am finding that so much of the business is actual time spent not only providing quotes but in educating potential customers as to what their guests may want.
Let me provide an example;
Joe emails me asking for a quote on a pig roast for his wife's 50 birthday. Now he is expecting 100 people - fantastic.
Here's the issue - from my experience if you have 100 people and you have a pig roast, approx. 20 people will not eat it once they see it, 10 people are vegetarians, and the kids either love it or run away scared.
So, I explain my experience to Joe, who sees my points but still wants to book a pig roast. I go ahead and quote the event with pig and sides and Joe comes back to me saying it looks good, but he does need to confirm with his wife, as it is her birthday party afetr all.
A week goes by and I have another party interested in the date that Joe wanted - still no word from Joe, I call him back and ask him for a status update as I have the other party on hold while I wait for his decision. Joe informs me that his wife is thinking a pig might not be the best idea and they are thinking of ordering Chinese - Chinese for 100 people!@#@! - Joe better bring out the Amex Platinum Card! I mention to Joe that we offer all sorts of other menu items, but by this point his wife is convinced she wants Chinese, as I am just a guy that cooks pigs.
I thank Joe for his time and go about booking the other event.
So, all in all I lost approx. an hour on that deal - not terrible but it was an hour I could have been stacking wood, cleaning the BBQ, playing with my son, etc.
Now, I think I have seen the error of my ways and need to post another blog entry on what I can tell a potential customer in advance to make things easier on them. It is in the works - but will anyone read it?
Now, you may be wondering what all the rant has to do with Vegetarians, not a whole lot really, but I came across a quote by a favorite writer of mine, Anthony Bourdain and figured I would share it. Anthony by the way is a genius!
"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.
To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.
Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.
Oh, I'll accommodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine."
That get you laughing?
Yours in BBQ!
Blazin' Barlow
Let me provide an example;
Joe emails me asking for a quote on a pig roast for his wife's 50 birthday. Now he is expecting 100 people - fantastic.
Here's the issue - from my experience if you have 100 people and you have a pig roast, approx. 20 people will not eat it once they see it, 10 people are vegetarians, and the kids either love it or run away scared.
So, I explain my experience to Joe, who sees my points but still wants to book a pig roast. I go ahead and quote the event with pig and sides and Joe comes back to me saying it looks good, but he does need to confirm with his wife, as it is her birthday party afetr all.
A week goes by and I have another party interested in the date that Joe wanted - still no word from Joe, I call him back and ask him for a status update as I have the other party on hold while I wait for his decision. Joe informs me that his wife is thinking a pig might not be the best idea and they are thinking of ordering Chinese - Chinese for 100 people!@#@! - Joe better bring out the Amex Platinum Card! I mention to Joe that we offer all sorts of other menu items, but by this point his wife is convinced she wants Chinese, as I am just a guy that cooks pigs.
I thank Joe for his time and go about booking the other event.
So, all in all I lost approx. an hour on that deal - not terrible but it was an hour I could have been stacking wood, cleaning the BBQ, playing with my son, etc.
Now, I think I have seen the error of my ways and need to post another blog entry on what I can tell a potential customer in advance to make things easier on them. It is in the works - but will anyone read it?
Now, you may be wondering what all the rant has to do with Vegetarians, not a whole lot really, but I came across a quote by a favorite writer of mine, Anthony Bourdain and figured I would share it. Anthony by the way is a genius!
"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.
To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.
Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.
Oh, I'll accommodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine."
That get you laughing?
Yours in BBQ!
Blazin' Barlow
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