Common House Culinary Program

Meet the Leadership Team

  • Joe Scala

    Hospitality Director

  • Laura Fonner

    Chef, Charlottesville

  • Hunter Garvin

    Chef de Cuisine, Richmond

  • Taylor Beckett

    Chef de Cuisine, Chattanooga

a teaching kitchen philosophy;

The Common House kitchen is designed to be a teaching kitchen.  Cooks are not expected to know everything before they walk in the door. In fact, they are expected to suspend what they have learned in previous kitchens until they have learned how things are done at Common House. It is important that every task comes with a lesson. If a cook is being taught a new technique or being given an explanation, they should leave that interaction knowing why. Successes will be met with positive reinforcement. Failures will be addressed with constructive criticism and debrief about how and why those mistakes or failures will not be repeated. Cooks are expected to take notes, ask questions and listen. Be open to learning!

culinary identity and benchmarks;

Common House is committed to offering seasonal menus and sourcing local ingredients as much as possible. Sourcing seasonally and locally is the ethical and sustainable choice, and most importantly, renders the best possible product and flavor. It also supports the greater agricultural community at large. We have a responsibility to keep farm land as farm land and to keep as much of our purchasing power as possible within our community.

  • Sourcing products is as important as the techniques we use and should be local whenever possible; specifically animal proteins are local and sustainable, saltwater fish will be line caught and produce is seasonal/sourced from local farmers.

  • Produce sourced from outside the region will come from reputable and sustainable sources (ex. winter citrus)

The culinary identity of each individual Common House differs based on location

However, every dish must meet 4 criteria:  

Delicious - Our primary focus is to make sure everything we serve tastes great

Nutritious - People need food to nourish their bodies. Food without nutritional value is a disservice to anyone involved.

Beautiful - Regardless of the dish, all CH food should be intentional and look beautiful

Approachable - CH food should be easy to understand, easy to describe and easy to enjoy

 CULINARY ORG CHART

Glossary of Key Terms

  • 86: an item is out of stock or is no longer available to be served to guests

    Allergen: a substance that causes an allergic reaction

    All team: weekly meeting for all department leads at each Common House

    Banquets: private events held on-site with a food/beverage component

    Bartender: a person who mixes and serves drinks at a bar

    Banquet Event Order (BEO)/ Event Details: the document that holds all the information pertaining to an event. It is created and edited in TripleSeat by the Director of Events only. It is used to communicate with and confirm event details with the host and front of house/back of house teams at Common House.

    Cellar dinners: a custom (5, 7 or 10) course meal with wine pairings served in a small private room. These are booked through private events and executed with the Chef and Sommelier.

    Chef de Cuisine: a head chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant.

    COGS: cost of goods sold is the carrying value of goods sold during a particular period. Costs are associated with particular goods using one of several formulas, including specific identification, first-in first-out, or average cost.

    Concierge: front desk team that checks-in members, handles reservations, tours, general questions, etc.

    Craftable: platform used to connect purchasing, recipes, inventory, and sales with accounting

    Cross contamination: the process by which bacteria or other microorganisms are unintentionally transferred from one substance or object to another, with harmful effect

    Daily log: an email sent at the close of each business day by the manager on duty detailing dining covers, member check-ins, events and any pros/cons of the day. Logs will also include daily revenue totals.

    Dolce: system used to manage schedules and labor cost/overtime.

    Dish pit: a place in which you clean dishes, glasses, pots and pans

    Dry storage: where stocks of cereals, flour, rice, dried pasta, fruit and vegetables, tinned products and packaged foods are kept that do not require temperature control

    Expensify: internal system used to allocate expenses to the appropriate expense account (purchasing, personal reimbursements, etc.)

    Grab and go: premade/prepackaged meals and snacks offered as an alternative way of dining

    Hood vent: a device containing a mechanical fan that hangs above the stove or cooktop in the kitchen. It removes airborne grease, combustion products, fumes, smoke, heat, and steam from the air by evacuation of the air and filtration

    Host: member of FOH staff whose main responsibilities are seating guests and managing reservations

    House Manager: a staff member responsible for all FOH hourly employees and is knowledgeable of all CH procedures, members, coworking, events, etc.

    Labor cost: the total of all employee wages plus the cost of benefits and payroll taxes paid by an employer

    Line Cook: chef in charge of a particular area of production in a restaurant

    Line: the area behind the kitchen window where chefs do most of the cooking during service. A typical line includes a walkway where the chefs stand, a grouping of cooking equipment behind them, and a work space in front of them where they plate dishes

    Low boy: a fridge that's below the counter, usually used to store prepped ingredients.

    Mise en place: a French culinary phrase meaning "putting in place". It refers to the setup required before cooking and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (i.e. cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift.

    Month in review: monthly meeting with the full team at each house discussing the prior months revenue, positives + negatives.

    Mosaic

    OpCo: the operating company at Common House consists of the overarching department heads for all locations

    Overtime: time worked beyond one's scheduled working hours

    Pastry Chef: skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods

    Prep list: a list of food items and needed quantities that must be prepared for each cook's station for that particular day of the week

    POS: point of sale system

    Programming: various events created by the programming team for Common House members and guests ranging from wellness, music, and trivia to book club and house parties

    Server: a front-of-house restaurant employee who takes care of guests during the length of their visit, mainly by recording and fulfilling their food and drink orders

    Server Assistant: assist servers in delivering food to patrons and responding to their requests. They clear, clean, and reset tables, refill beverages, and polish silverware

    Splash: an online event management service used primarily by programming, concierge and the comms teams. The service allows users to plan, promote, execute, and measure the success of their events, with a focus on streamlining event marketing execution.

    Sommelier: a knowledgeable wine professional with formal training to be able to specialize in all aspects of wine service, wine and food pairings, and wine storage

    Sourcing: typically denotes the sourcing, purchasing or procurement of food, ingredients and other consumable products from within a specific radius from where they will be used

    Sous Chef: the second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef. The sous-chef holds much responsibility in the kitchen.

    Square: A POS system designed to help sell in-store and online seamlessly, with built-in tools for advanced inventory management, sales, and staffing.

    Supplier: vendors that sell products directly to restaurants, whether wholesale purveyors or local farms. The critical function of a restaurant supplier is to allow a restaurant to purchase products at lower prices to increase their profit margins.

    TripleSeat: event software used at Common House that tracks all leads, prospects, proposals, definite/booked events, etc. The software also houses all signed contracts and all event payments are collected through this system.

    Walk-in: enclosed freezer storage space refrigerated to temperatures, respectively, above, and at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit that can be walked into.

Metrics + Reporting

  • Agenda template below (CDC presents)

    • Highlight of last week

    • General Updates

    • Specials / Promotions / Programming Events

    • Weekly Specials

    • Upcoming Programming and Cellar Dinners

    • Team / Hiring Needs

    • Weekly labor

      • Schedule vs. worked:

      • Overtime:

    • Best / Worst from last week (by quantity):

      • Category: Breakfast

      • Category: Sandwiches

      • Category: Salads

      • Category: Small Plates + Sides

      • Category: Entrees

      • Category: Desserts

  • For our internal month in review meetings, please reference the slide templates below to plug in your house metrics + data.

    Month in Review Slides Template

  • COGS is calculated through Craftable. Please schedule a training call with your direct supervisor to learn how to use the system.

    • The labor cost for each kitchen comes from the finance team & Dolce.

    • Labor cost should cover [scheduled vs. hours worked] + [overtime scheduled vs. overtime worked]

    • CDC’s should pull labor cost from monthly P&L after each month in review to ensure staffing is staying on track and efficient.

  • Chefs are responsible for completing the daily kitchen log to leave valuable information for the next shift or other chefs.

    Daily Kitchen Log Template