Welcome to Work for Relish
As the result of an avalanche of cable tv cooking competition shows today, celebrity chefs and their fine-dining restaurants often receive much of the media buzz.
You’d think from watching one of these shows that restaurant staff enjoy endless variety and acclaim.
The truth is that often the work day of a typical restaurant staff member is one of narrowly defined and highly repetitive food preparation tasks, such as cleaning and prepping vegetables. Menus are often altered just a few times per year, so the kitchen staff is making the same entrees over and over.
At Relish Catering Kitchen this is not the case.
From your first day working for Relish you are learning not only the skills and procedures of your immediate work, but also the skills of the team member to your right…and left. Your technical knowledge can grow much more quickly than it would on a typical restaurant staff.
Menu items, and their ingredients, change every day…customized to the client’s request. Our kitchen work is more like preparing fresh meals at home….for ten, twenty or one hundred friends!
Your suggestions for new menu items and process improvements are respected...and quickly acted upon. After all, who knows better what a true improvement is than someone working hands-on.
There is no rigid management hierarchy where you are discouraged from speaking directly to the chef until you’ve been on the job for months…or even years. Chef John Eggert works alongside you and is very astute at picking up that you want to speak with him one-on-one.
There are no overblown egos at Relish. We clearly understand the value of each staff member. It’s not just the boss’s ideas that are acted upon…we encourage each member of our staff to share suggestions…and we reward their initiative.
Download “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Catering as a Career”
The History of Relish Catering Kitchen
John Eggert, Founder and CEO of Relish Catering Kitchen launched the company on May 31, 2013 built on a mission to deliver made-from-scratch meals in a mass serving environment.
John graduated from the Kendall School of Culinary Arts In 2007 and immediately went to work for the Signature Room at the 95th, eventually landing at a local catering company as Executive Chef. After many unsuccessful attempts to sway the ownership into cooking more dishes from scratch, John knew it was time to turn his dream into a reality by launching Relish Catering Kitchen in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Today, Relish Catering Kitchen is up and coming in the Chicago area catered food business.
Our Staff is the Key to Our Success
Most every smart employer says that their staff is the key to success.
But, at Relish Catering Kitchen this is especially true.
Let us share some important reasons why:
Many of our new menu items come from suggestions from staff.
Our staff regularly shares prospective clients with the company, gained from their friends, neighbors and relatives.
Our staff members are carefully trained to do multiple jobs and so can jump in whenever necessary to fill in for a team member who has the flu or needs to meet with their child’s teacher.
Our staff is the public face of Relish and they take pride in delivering absolute client happiness…each and every time.
The Work We Do At Relish
Our mission is to craft and deliver in the most appetizing manner imaginative menu items made with the freshest ingredients.
There are four primary categories of work that our staff perform to support this mission.
Read the descriptions of each.
Food Preparation
Our food preparation staff is directed by our Sous Chef, David Stearns
The key work activities include:
Menu development and ingredient specification.
Made from scratch meal preparation, including Italian sausage and beef, Panko coated Chicken, all gravies, sauces and salad dressings.
Space and equipment cleaning and overall kitchen sanitizing.
Food Delivery and Event Presentation
Our delivery and event presentation staff are cross trained in kitchen preparation work as well as delivery and event set up work.
Our delivery and event presentation staff is directed by Chef John Eggert
The key work activities include:
Enclosure of food items in insulated carrying containers.
Arrangement of carrying containers in the delivery vehicle so as to assure safe delivery.
Table top set up at the event location.
Presentation of food items in the most compelling manner.
Food replenishment.
Handling client service requests during the event.
Post-event clean up.
Event Promotion, Selling and Coordination
In addition to serving residential and corporate events, Relish also enjoys a growing wedding event business.
Corporate and Residential Event Selling and Delivery is directed by Crystal Zaragoza.
The key work activities include:
Attending corporate and wedding promotional events.
Identifying and reaching out to prospective clients.
Providing customized event proposals.
Following up proposals to book the event.
Entering all event details into our event management software system.
Informing food preparation staff of selected menu items by event.
Requesting, receiving and entering into our accounting system all event deposits.
Contacting client to assure that we provided them with the most satisfying social event possible.
Issuing and collecting all end of event invoices.
Administrative and Office Support
As they say, there are a “lot of moving parts” in the catering business.
Failure to professionally deliver on just one detail of an event can result in a less than satisfied client.
At Relish “All the moving parts” are coordinated by our Director of Operations, Crystal Zaragoza.
The key work activities include:
Committing each event to a single written document, detailing all aspects of the event, including: number of attendees, precise specification of all menu items ordered, event date and location, food presentation instructions and coordinating with the kitchen about dietary restrictions.
Tracking each event from entry into the Relish system to satisfactory delivery of the event.
Requesting all event payments, receiving them by check or credit card, and depositing all funds into the company bank account.
Entering all financial data in the the QuickBooks accounting program and generating financial performance reports for each month.
Assisting CEO in annual tax preparation work with the company’s CPA to assure timely filing of all income tax returns.
Creating an employment record for all new employees, including agreed-upon compensation. Plus, assuring that employment records of all existing employees are up to date.
Conceptualizing and implementing new advertising and promotional events and campaigns.