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Necessity Is the Mother of Invention
The Leadership  and Problem Solving Skills Required in the 

Development of Sheerwater Restaurant, Hotel Del Coronado
By: Craig Jacobs, Director of Sales & Marketing
And Joe Giunta, Executive Chef
June 2000

If you believe that restaurants define the character of a resort, the opening of Sheerwater at the Hotel Del Coronado is a pinnacle moment in its 112-year storied history. To say that Sheerwater is replacing Ocean Terrace (the previous main restaurant) would be a misnomer. The quality of the food and service will be superior in every way to Ocean Terrace. The development of Sheerwater�s cuisine and menu reflects the journey that began in June of 1998, when the  $55M Restoration of the Hotel Del Coronado began. Its story illuminates the leadership demands and problem-solving skills required to achieve meaningful improvement in any business. 

Kitchen Design

The layout of the kitchen is fundamental to the direction that the food would take in Sheerwater.  When the Executive Chef of The Del, Joseph Giunta, came on board nearly two years ago, the plans were in their final stages. "I took one look and said no way." The Chef proceeded to battle through five revisions of the original design in which he won significant victories, but not without sacrifices.  Sheerwater is expected to serve 1,500 meals per day and the quality of the food and service cannot be compromised. In order to achieve the quantities that Sheerwater will demand, without compromising the quality that Chef Giunta envisioned, a new design was crucial. 

As a result of Chef Giunta's input, the size of the kitchen line changed from twenty feet in the original plan to thirty-five feet, enabling as many as eight line cooks to work per shift. Each station has the capacity to deliver up to six different menu items, giving the Chef the flexibility and resources necessary to deliver an innovative menu with broad appeal and the restaurant the capacity to serve 500 breakfast, 600 lunch and 400 dinner entrees per day. 

Another important challenge involved the relocation of the pantry area. Originally, 
the pantry was part of the exhibition kitchen that includes a wood-fire oven, located in the middle of the dining room. However, the restaurant's busiest meal period will be lunch, and nearly half of the orders will be sandwiches and salads, so the pantry needed to be relocated to the main line in order to accommodate the demand for these items. In order for this to occur, the ice machine was moved, a freezer was lost and prep space was drastically reduced. Chef Giunta�s solution was to use Prince of Wales kitchen (open for dinner only) as the main prep area for Sheerwater.

The ability to innovate and be flexible was critically important to the kitchen design process. Open communication among the Chef, hotel management, the designers and the investors was also critical. Their perspectives may have been different, but their ultimate goals were the same, resulting in an efficiently designed kitchen that is capable of producing large quantities of high quality food.

Menu Creation

Describing the cuisine for a restaurant like Sheerwater is a dubious task.  For restaurants that serve ethnic food, cuisine is easily defined. A restaurant that is Italian, Thai or Greek has a clear mission: create an authentic experience consistent with its theme. Sheerwater, however, needed to take a different track; guest expectations, the Chef's vision, and The Del's business objectives shape its cuisine.  Describing the food concisely, therefore, is problematic. "We came up with California Coastal Cuisine because we are committed to serving fresh, locally grown food, but I can't say that the expression really means anything to anybody else," says Giunta. The menu needed to conform to the following guidelines:

Guest Expectations

The menu has to be appealing to The Del�s broad-based multicultural clientele, requiring the food to be:

  • Accessible: easy to understand and not intimidating
  • Indigenous to Southern California
  • Authentic to a casual and informal setting
Personal Culinary Statement

From the Chef�s perspective, awesome, big flavors are the predominant goal for every item on the menu. Also, the selections on the menu must evolve, using dishes with seasonal ingredients as the basis of change along with the removal of items that prove to be unpopular. Up to 15% of the menu will change every three to four months, which will keep the culinary staff excited, interested and motivated. Finally, the food must reflect both the talent and the creativity of the culinary team. 

Business Objectives

The final set of criteria comes from the economic goals of the resort. Sheerwater will be the workhorse restaurant, open for business seven days a week from the early morning to the late evening.  In order to serve 1,500 meals per day, the menu selections must be straightforward allowing the culinary team to prepare each dish quickly, efficiently and with finesse in a busy environment.  Equally important, the introduction of Sheerwater represents the beginning of a new era for the Hotel Del Coronado in which quality is markedly improved. The food and service in Sheerwater will set the new standard for the entire resort staff. It has the potential to elevate every other area through the delivery of an excellent product that matches the ambience of one of the few seaside restaurants in San Diego.

Finally, the creation of the menu had to serve as the adhesive process to motivate and passionately involve the team. The twenty-eight line cooks and chefs that comprise the Sheerwater culinary team are a seasoned, experienced lot, many of whom have worked at the Hotel Del Coronado for ten years or more.  In order to ensure their commitment to making Sheerwater a superb restaurant in the face of extraordinary expectations and to tap into their expertise, the Chef engaged the entire team in the creation of the menu. 

Teamwork

The first meeting of the staff was held six months prior to the opening date of Sheerwater. The Chef posted on a bulletin board food groups including beef, chicken, pork, seafood, vegetables and starches. The team discussed their feelings about the opportunity and the statement that they would make through the food. He gave the team thirty days to suggest ideas for each meal period that incorporated a wide variety of the food groups. Each member of the team submitted seven or eight pages of ideas that came from their past experience, old family recipes and the latest in culinary trends gleaned from the hottest chefs from around the country. Thirty days later, each idea was reviewed and critiqued. The best elements of similar ideas were combined to create the best possible item.  Finally, the ideas were either accepted into the next round or cut.

The end result was then reviewed and further critiqued by Chef Giunta and his sous chefs. At this stage, the issue of continuity emerged. The menu items needed to be creatively entwined to make a distinct statement about the style of the culinary team.  While the menu reflected a variety of international influences, the descriptions of the food and the style in which the items were prepared had to flow together.  This shaped the language of the menu and led to subtle nuances in the preparation of each dish. 

Once the culinary team was satisfied with the first draft, the menu was submitted to the General Manager of the resort, Giuseppe Lama and the Food and Beverage Director, Steve Schackne for further review.  Their role was to judge and critique the content of the menu from a different perspective, keeping in mind guest expectations, signature items accessibility, and price range.  This led to further changes and to the next crucial stage in the process; the actual preparation of each item.

For the next forty-five days, the Chef�s core team cooked each dish on the menu over and over, experimenting with ingredients, styles, colors and construction of the plates. In some cases, conceptually exciting ideas failed miserably in the execution. For example, the Thai pizza recipe initially included a peanut sauce, but the flavor proved to be overwhelming making the appetizer taste like a peanut butter pizza. A red curry sauce ultimately replaced the peanut sauce, enhancing the flavors of the other ingredients in the pizza.

Each member of the team�s opinion carried equal weight as they continually tasted and re-engineered each dish. Chef Giunta reluctantly gave up personal control of the decision making process in order to demonstrate to his team that they were empowered and responsible for the successful development of a menu that would be both appealing and functional. By sacrificing control he gained meaningful commitment from his team. 

While a collaborative style worked best to accomplish the design of the Sheerwater menu, Chef Giunta is unyielding in his commitment to his three most important professional principles:

  • Guest Satisfaction: the perception of the guest regarding food quality is the ultimate measurement of success. Management provides an abundance of statistical feedback; comment card recaps where guests are asked to rank food quality, Unifocus Reports which compare the Del�s food quality to a competitive set of hotels and resorts and menu abstracts that reflect the popularity of each item on the menu.  But the intuitive grassroots methods are equally effective: is the plate clean when it comes back from the dining room? What are the servers comments regarding guest response to the food?
  • Fiscal Responsibility: guest satisfaction is the ultimate goal for the kitchen, but it must be accomplished in conjunction with successful financial results.  While the Chef is prepared to sacrifice short-term financial success for guest satisfaction, he will not sacrifice guest satisfaction for financial success. His performance is ultimately measured by his ability to achieve both. 
  • Work Environment: does the culinary team enjoy their work? Are they set up to succeed? Do they feel empowered, motivated and responsible? Ego is checked at the door of the kitchen at the Hotel Del Coronado. Guest satisfaction is the ultimate goal.
Opening Day

Most new restaurants go through a period of ten to fourteen days in which the culinary team practices preparing the food.  The line of Sheerwater will be a hectic, high pressure space in which each member of the team must know his or her role and must work together with synchronicity.  In the case of Sheerwater, there will be two days to get ready.  The leadership of the culinary staff is prepared and will be shoulder to shoulder with the line cooks ensuring that every plate that goes into the dining room meets its standard.  Each item on the menu has been digitally photographed, outlined on Power Point and broken down to no more than five steps of preparation for training purposes. The sauces, stocks and mise en place (a French term referring to having all the ingredients necessary for a dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking) will be prepared in advance by the sous chefs.  Will they be ready? �The team has a brand new kitchen, a great new work environment and their ideas are reflected in the menu. They are determined to be regarded as the best department in the resort and I think they will succeed,� says Giunta.
 


Sheerwater�s signature menu items include:
Breakfast
Tropical Toast: a brioche style French toast filled with white chocolate, mango and macadamia nuts with coconut syrup
Skillet Cake Trilogy: three skillet prepared pancakes are topped with their own compote and served in a unique trilogy skillet. (The skillet has 3 small pans welded together to prepare and serve.)
Chicken Hash and Eggs: our chicken hash recipe is signature and the presentation will be unique and definitely our own
Lunch
Grilled Sirloin and Beefsteak Tomato Salad: this salad is one of our signature lunch items, great flavors and presentation
Crabcake Poorboy: we serve it with tabacco onions and red pepper remoulade on a brioche bun
Merguez, Eggplant and Romano Pizza: the spicy lamb sausage goes well with the romano cheese, the roasted eggplant �pizza� sauce is our own creation
Olive Poached Seabass with Fricassee of Manila Clams: poaching the fish in low temperature olive oil is a very tasty way to prepare this delicate fish. It absorbs the olive oil flavor but not the grease that you would expect.
Dinner
Charbroiled Angus Filet: a humble filet dressed up with a shortrib gratin puts an unusual and hugely flavorful twist on an otherwise not so flavorful piece of meat 
Grilled Portabella Napoleon: a vegetarian inspired dish, which has delicious components, a wow presentation while showing our commitment to alternative diets
###
Contact:
Craig Jacobs 
at (619) 522-8097 
[email protected]
Chef Joseph Giunta 
at (619) 522-8148.

 
Also See: The Weapons to Compete / What can an established hotel do when new competition enters the market? / Craig Jacobs / Jan 1998 

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