How to create restaurants for Sims 2 Open for Business?
"A restaurant is a different type of business. You will need a Restaurant Podium and someone to man the station. You will need some servers, one to two to have good service. And of course, one chef, that is level 10 in areas of Cooking Skill. This makes it so that they can cook any meal that the customer will request. You will need a fair amount of tables, and since there will only be single customers, you don't need that many unless you want some of your other sims to visit the lot. It seems pricy to have all these staff wondering around waiting for a customer, and for one, I have to agree. It is extremely hard for a restaurant to be profitable. Well, there are several methods of survival. You can sell food that your chef can cook when not preparing meals. You can use your host to sell and cashier those sales. You can use a bar and counters to make more sales in drinks and money from the bar. There are also ways to save money by having staff do several jobs. You can't have your chef moving around so you can have 2 waiter staff, one can switch into the host. It is of those reasons why it is better to use families to own restaurants, and not individual Sims. Some Sims will only order cheap food, like gelatin so be careful. Don't stock it and some Sims will be unhappy. So be careful. The only reason why I like restaurants is because Restaurant Empire is much better for running restaurants. See my other Guide on that. There we go, shameless self-promotion. Also, you can make probably more a bit more money with tips since if you have some good service, you can use tips to your advantage. However, remember this, if your Sim is in the restaurant business, you are guaranteed to make a loss on the onset, so running a restaurant is not all it's cracked up to be. "
Is it possible to own a successful restaurant without knowing how to cook?
It doesn't hurt to have experience in a kitchen, but not having the basics under control or even if you don't really care about the kitchen side, doesn't mean you will be unsucessful.I will say, however, that if you really are super serious about being successful, and I don't mean like “"cool, we are paying bills, let's stay afloat” I mean really successful, all owners should at least have some basic knowledge of the moving parts of the organization.Not knowing how to cook on a professional level is okay, and can be picked up on a basic level by spending time in the kitchen observing and pitching in with your staff. Not knowing how to even boil water is a bit more difficult but nothing you can't fix in time.Cooking at the highest level is a small part of the greater picture. If you are business minded, have an eye for talent, and can make numbers sing better than everyone else in the company it's a great place to start. Having a passion for the food you cook makes it even more fulfilling, but ask yourself something really important.In deciding labor budgets and margin blends, when discussing your menu concept or seasonal changes or even when having quarterly progress reports with your partners, can you work the chain from seed to plate to paid check? If not, it might be because of your lack of kitchen knowledge.Your chef has left, and the spring menu needs to change. You get all stoked on getting to write it so you just put everything you could ever want in the world onto it and say go. What you don't know is that half the menu is a bitch to prep, causing your cooks to get pissed at their longer hours, which means OT you'll have to pay AND low morale. Most of the ingredients you want are out of season, so your buyer has to get non seasonal produce from a commercial purveyor, costing you more for a subpar product. Finally, a very large portion of the menu is handled by your pantry person, putting wayyyy too much on his shoulders so he gets angry during service and walks out.See? It's a good idea to know all the moving parts.Definitely lean on what you know. Hire people to fill the gaps. Learn though. Learn every. moving. part.Good luck!
How important is a culinary degree to a restaurant or chef when they are hiring kitchen staff?
When I see culinary school on a resume, it is a marginal boost, nothing more.If a candidate has no qualifying experience (either no restaurant work, or no restaurant work at a high level), cooking school will put them a leg up on similar candidates, although I would much prefer a candidate with no schooling but a strong background of experience.If a candidate has a moderate amount of experience (or an extensive amount of experience at a lower level than I’m looking for), then a culinary degree will put them above like candidates, but only by a tiny amount. A well-worded cover letter would do more.If a candidate has a good amount of experience at a high level, or even just a six-month stint at a top-flight place, that is worth more than any schooling at all. If a resume starts out with someone having done a year at, let’s say, a four-star place in Chicago, I won’t even look at the education section because it just doesn’t matter.A culinary degree helps you get your first couple of jobs out of the gate after graduation. If its still helping you after that, you didn’t aim high enough right off the rip.Oh, and when I see the words ‘Culinary Degree Required’ in a craigslist ad, that just tells me the chef is too lazy to develop his own talent.
How do you start a cafe with no money and no experience, but lots of passion and drive?
I am a great cook, I love cooking and I am always asked to cater a party. I would love to open up a cafe at the Marina in my home town, but I don't have money and I don't want to go into debt. I also do not know where to start doing research or how to write an effective business plan that's simple. Please help me know where to begin and how to be successful rather than a mistake. I do have a college degree, but not in culinary and I can't afford culinary school although it is a dream.