Managers on management

IT'S impossible to talk to any Michelin-starred chef about high-end restaurant management without asking how he feels about the infamous Gordon Ramsay style of "tough love" - and Derry Clarke, chef-patron of L'Ecrivain, is ready for it.

"I would say it's exactly the opposite of my style of running a restaurant," he says. "I wouldn't stand for it here. I wouldn't accept anyone being singled out in this kitchen. At its most extreme it's bullying - the very worst type of management, if it can be called that."

Clarke and his wife, Sallyanne, who runs front-of-house at L'Ecrivain, achieved their elite Michelin status in 2003. They have very definite ideas about what makes a restaurant special - and ruling by fear is not among them.

"I was an employee once too," he says. "I know very well that a whole lot of chefs are every bit as bad as Gordon Ramsay - and believe it or not, many are very much worse. It's really not that unusual.

"If I were a young trainee in a kitchen like that, I can easily imagine being too frightened to go in to work. I certainly wouldn't be happy. And I wouldn't like to see any of my own kids in there either . . ."

It comes as no surprise then that - having defined what he's not - Derry Clarke's core piece of management advice is about as far removed as it's possible to be from the macho posturing of the Gordon Ramsay school: be honest and lead by example.

"If you're honest with yourself, that comes across to everyone you work with," says Clarke, a member of Good Food Ireland.

"And when I use the word honesty, I mean it to encompass other qualities such as integrity, respect and dedication. If you have those qualities, people will follow you. I suppose in the end it's all about being true to yourself.

"And of course, as most senior managers will tell you, if you're working closely, day in, day out, with a very small team, they get to know you very well personally - and honesty comes in there too, in work and in play."

Clarke acknowledges that running a restaurant is very different to most other types of business. "It's a day and night operation. It's not as formal a setting as other businesses. You're serving alcohol, for one thing. You could say it's a form of entertainment, and your work is always on show.

"Another difference is that, in most businesses, benchmarking is done in-house, whereas in a restaurant you're being benchmarked by your customers every day, twice a day. Customer feedback tends to be straightforward and direct. And by the way, the idea that Irish people never complain is wrong, it's a fallacy."

What happens when the restaurant gets it wrong? Again, his belief in the cleansing power of honesty wins out . . .

"Managing in a restaurant setting is also different in that it's very hands-on, all the time. So if you get it wrong, either in the kitchen or front-of-house, you put your hands up. Complaints make the business better. And I take the view that a complaint well handled is a customer for life . . . almost."

To that extent, being honest and leading by example often amount to one and the same thing. "If I come in in bad form, the whole place is going to end up in bad form. They'll be like demons. Whereas if I come in all chirpy and happy, that seems to infect the place as well. It's weird.

"That's another difference about restaurants: if a restaurant isn't happy, you can feel the atmosphere. You can feel the tension coming from the kitchen. The food may be good or even very good, but it won't have any heart or soul. And that's a serious management problem."

Next: Dick Lehane, former senior vice-president for Worldwide Manufacturing at EMC, on managers' ability to execute.

petercluskey@yahoo.fr

Name: Derry Clarke

Business: Restaurant LEcrivain

www.lecrivain.com

Job:Michelin-starred chef

Management advice:Be honest - and lead by example.