The Entrepreneurial Chef - A Radical Dining Car Concept

[cocojacoby]

(Originally posted elsewhere and revised here)

Okay it's just an idea but what if Amtrak tries this?

Start here:
Take one popular train like the Silver Meteor. Run it through to Boston in a Regional slot to generate some good major city press about this unique new opportunity to ride in a real railroad dining car.

Let four chefs bid on four slots (assuming 4 sets of equipment). Each chef gets to run one dining car turn. They have control of what to order and cook. They can get as creative as they want. They make the menus and they set their own prices. They can hire the servers they know are good or make it a family affair like many mom and pop restaurants. They must open for at least the traditional dining car hours but can also operate up to 24 hours if they want. They got a pretty good captive audience to sell to.

The entrepreneurial chef does not get paid by Amtrak but they get to keep any profits that they make. They get to run their own restaurant without the risk and expense. I am sure there are Amtrak chefs out there who have great ideas on how to run a dining car but never got the chance to do it. I can see a spirited competition between the four chefs generating some good press and having people riding certain trains just for each different culinary experience. Each chef could have his or her own specialty.

The cost to run the dining car for Amtrak would be relatively little. Amtrak can proudly tell the story of the unique opportunity it has given to these hard working men and woman who toil very hard at their craft behind the scenes. I think this could be a pretty exciting opportunity for some hard working folks who would never get such a chance in their lifetime.

Eventually as the program advances I can see one Master Chef in charge of one entire name train (all consists) and he/she would have chefs under them to operate each consist as the Master Chef directs.

 

[jruff001]

Interesting idea but there won't be any profits, so no motivation there to do the extra work. Who funds the losses (which will be huge)? Who decides the budget - that is, how big can the losses be? Who sets menu prices and decides on the costs of what food can be ordered from suppliers?

I'm pretty sure they would have to pay union wages and benefits to the assistant chefs and servers, the same as current dining car crew (and would probably have to use people currently on the Amtrak seniority list, so wouldn't be able to hire people of their choice off the street). No one can make money with that constraint.

Also there would be problems with consistency (which is of course also a huge problem now), and logistics with ordering and receiving supplies (sounds like different food would need to be delivered to the train each day depending on who the chef is, etc.).

 

[RebelRider]

Interesting idea but there won't be any profits, so no motivation there to do the extra work. Who funds the losses (which will be huge)? Who decides the budget - that is, how big can the losses be? Who sets menu prices and decides on the costs of what food can be ordered from suppliers?

I'm pretty sure they would have to pay union wages and benefits to the assistant chefs and servers, the same as current dining car crew (and would probably have to use people currently on the Amtrak seniority list, so wouldn't be able to hire people of their choice off the street). No one can make money with that constraint.

Also there would be problems with consistency (which is of course also a huge problem now), and logistics with ordering and receiving supplies (sounds like different food would need to be delivered to the train each day depending on who the chef is, etc.).

The logistics off the train is what many people seem to forget. This isn't at all like a normal restaurant. Generally, everything is delivered to the train just before departure and upon arrival everything is taken off. EVERYTHING. If it isn't bolted to the car it comes and goes. Can't really trust SYSCO to just have you on a normal restaurant route. If they're late, the train leaves with no food. If the train runs late, they won't wait to offload the stock. That means you need refrigerated trucks. You'll need people to drive said trucks and run the warehouse on both ends. Someone has to plan the orders based on passenger bookings. Passenger loads can be vastly different not just from season to season but also from one day in the week to the next.

Now, regarding passengers, they generally want to know the menu in advance. People with allergies in particular need to know the menu options to plan accordingly. Having four different chefs on a single route serving different menus every day does sound awesome. But it would be a communications and planning nightmare. Maybe a set menu with a daily special or two, but then we come back to the logistics above.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

A variation of this would be to have certain routes each have an executive chef. So you’d have a chef who managed the menus and commissaries for all of the nyc trains for example. So Silvers, Cardinal, Lake Shore and Crescent.