I have a hard time with diversity. The word�s too short, the concept�s too broad.

And everyone seems to think it�s a good idea, before they bother to define it. I will grant you that nineteenth-century Ireland would have benefited from a good corn crop, and that the average Mafia informer should vary his route to work � but on the other hand, I am content with indoor plumbing, and have no wish to diversify.

So let�s talk about multiculturalism instead. Any consultant (ahem) will tell you that this is a much better word: not only is it more precise, but it has fifty percent more syllables. There are three kinds of multiculturalism which concern the foodservice industry: 

1. menu multiculturalism, 
2. customer multiculturalism, and 
3. staff multiculturalism. 

It may seem odd that the hospitality industry - which consistently drives on the right-hand side of the political highway - has been begging for the liberalization of immigration laws. But to those of us in the business, it�s a matter of simple survival. There�s a certain amount of work that requires willing hands to do it, and if the hands grew up half a world away, so what?  Are the graduates of Yale lining up to help you clean behind the steam table?

Foodservice has a long history as a point of entry into the workplace. The fundamental bargain that we�ve always offered is this: in return for hard work, we offer long hours and low pay� and unlimited opportunity.

I got to see this idea built into a system at a restaurant called Vanessi�s in San Francisco. The place was almost fifty years old when I worked there, and immigration from Italy had long since dried up, to be replaced by a steady flow from Mexico. The program worked like this: you got a call about a job, and came over the border. Since you had a brother already working at Vanessi�s (always a brother, somehow), you got a green card without any trouble. You took your job on the night cleaning crew, as one of the four men who came in at eleven every night, broke down and scrubbed every burner in every stove, scoured the prep and line stations, and polished every square inch of everything in the dining rooms upstairs and down. Turnover was light; you probably had a couple of years to wait before something opened up in the dishroom, which gave you a chance to work on your English. 

You had to speak English to get anywhere; Vanessi�s had five or six different languages floating about, with English as the only common one. Rudimentary language would qualify you for the dishroom, and when it got still better you could move to the prep kitchen. A couple more years to get fluent, and you could try out for the line, a job which in 1986 paid ten bucks an hour to start, with life insurance and full medical and dental (no deductible) for your entire family. And (I don�t know why I ever left) no cleanup for the line cooks, just ice down your fish. Gotta leave a job for somebody else, after all.

This kind of package produced some forty-five-year-old line cooks with unbelievable skills, since no economic necessity forced them into management if they didn�t want to go. And for the rare one or two who combined fluency, competence and extroversion, there was a tuxedo, referee�s shoes, and an amazing cash income from tips. 

This was an example of assimilation done right, where the employee was promoted as he became more valuable to the company � yet the pressure to learn the language came only from his own ambition. If he liked night cleanup, he was welcome to stay; there was enough communication up and down the lines of authority that a couple of Spanish-only workers didn�t matter.

I�ve also worked with some of the less thrilling (but perhaps more instructive) aspects of multiculturalism. A few years back, FoodSense was hired to put together a menu and a kitchen layout for a new restaurant. The job market was horrid at the time, and the chef basically hired anyone came to apply. Fortunately, most of them were really decent cooks; unfortunately, most of them spoke only Spanish � and the chef didn�t. This made anyone with English skills into a supervisor, whether qualified for it or not, and gave the bilingualists little fiefdoms of their own. Any communication up or down went through them: orders from the chef, requests for shift changes, explanations of problems � everything was subject to the whim, the approval and the integrity of these untried new hires. In the chaos of an opening, it worked about as well as you can imagine; I was brought back in (at a consultant�s hourly rate) to provide translation services and help sort things out.

The difference between the two examples came from structure: one had evolved a system to accommodate various levels of language skill, and the other never got the chance. 

There are two other aspects of multiculturalism that I�d like to talk about, and those have to do with the menu and the customers. 

Any restaurant group that takes its concept overseas will quickly notice that it is making accommodations to local tastes - ask McDonalds about its teriyaki burgers in Japan, or why it�s tough to sell beef in Bombay. But even a hometown Midwestern joint has to react to its customers� globalizing taste buds. Twenty years ago, who�d heard of a fajita? And what sports bar doesn�t serve them now?   And who would have thought that a chile relleno would mutate into a double-platinum bar snack called a Popper�?  Who hasn�t heard of pesto? And where, oh where can I find a place that does not serve fettuccine Alfredo?

The food world is getting smaller and changing faster all the time. Food media and internet recipe banks provide instant familiarity with any culture�s food, and the chain restaurants with the six-page menus are constantly scanning the horizons for the next El Dorado. 

Now, I wouldn�t try too hard to be the first on your block to offer haggis, vindaloo or blackened sushi (again we see the problems with diversity). I would suggest, though, since we�re all playing on the same field, that you make a concerted effort to find out where besides your place your customers eat � and eat there yourself, and find out why. Try to keep abreast of the trends in dining, even if they seem silly or don�t apply to you: they all represent ways in which people part with their money, and you can be sure that the big guys are paying attention.

And a final word: your business has its own culture, too, and when a customer sits down in your dining room, you have become part of their multicultural experience. Make it an experience of a culture of service and a culture of quality. That�s as good as multicultural gets. 

This article first appeared in FoodService News
 
 

Experts in the Food Industry�  Susan and Jonathan formed FoodSense in 1995 after each had over 20 years experience in different parts of the food industry. We found that our unique combination of skills fit the needs of today�s fast-paced food industry for experienced professionals on an outsource basis, whether by the hour, by the project or by the quarter year. Susan Rasmussen has experience on the corporate side of the industry doing recipe and product development, trend analysis, and sales and training. She has a BS degree in food and education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has supplemented her degree with training in kitchen design and HACCP principles. As a consultant, she has developed cookbooks for General Mills, Nordic Track and Land O� Lakes, and served as food trend advisor and recipe prototyper for Pillsbury. She exhibits the rare combination of energetic creativity and meticulous attention-to-detail that is needed for successful market driven menu building. Jonathan Locke, a chef by training, cooked his way through music school, and cooking eventually won. Since than he has orchestrated the rhythms of professional kitchens from San Francisco to Santa Fe to Minneapolis, bringing his energy and food knowledge to multinational food manufacturers, regional and national restaurants, and to more than 150 appearances on KARE-11 TV. He teaches and develops curricula for both public and private culinary schools, and pulls FoodSense through many a sticky training session with his ability to teach techniques and safe practices in both English and Spanish, in person or on video.