restaurant consultant reading list

September 24, 2010 8:32 PM

I'm interested in becoming a restaurant consultant. What books should I read?
posted by Infernarl to Work & Money (2 answers total)

you should probably give us more information about yourself first, and why you want to do this. do you have experience working as an executive chef? have you ever opened restaurants as one or have you ever owned restaurants? are they restaurants anyone's ever heard of? if your answer to those questions is no, i don't think any amount of book reading will get you the work. honestly: if you're qualified, people will start asking you for advice—you become a consultant by making them pay you for it.
posted by lia at 9:47 PM on September 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

In my many years in the restaurant business, I encountered more than a few consultants. All the ones that were in demand and considered worth the money were people with significant experience in the industry - usually on the order of several decades. There is no book you can read that will give you this knowledge.

Also be aware that there are different kinds of consultants out there. I've worked with a front of the house service consultant (apprenticeship in France, then big name restaurants in the US) a menu consultant (Cornell grad, 10 years with a large multi-national designing menus), restaurant design people (usually architects) and kitchen design people (usually chefs who are in turn consulting for architects). There are a lot of ways you can go with restaurant consulting, but without the experience to back up what you are trying to sell, you're going to have a hard time getting in the door.
posted by ralan at 3:16 PM on September 25, 2010