Kitchens

the menu. Another owner, Emmanuel, owned a food truck that was settled down like a small shack with plastic covering and wall protectors to prevent rain from coming in. His menu changed rarely and randomly, unlike Enrique, who changes his based on dish popularity.

Meanwhile, at Stonehouse Wood Fired Grill a chef named Alex H. said that because he wasn’t the owner, he couldn’t change the menu unilaterally, but he could suggest recipe changes to the owner that could then be put into actionAlthough Alex couldn’t do much about changing the menu, he did have a lot to say about how he could keep customers happy and come back for more. Instead of a “sixth sense”,he said that he had learned the basics about cooking from watching his dad cook barbeque as a child.Alex said “My dad had made a family spice recipe and I use that to cook with the barbeque.” He used this technique to give the barbeque more flavor. He also likes to take out the barbeque a little early to keep some of the juices in the meat, but he has to be careful to not make it raw or undercooked.

Since Alex is very particular with his food and process, he said “Only people that’ll get this recipe off me will be my children” This is a common idea, family recipes-whether it be a food recipe, a spice recipe, or a spice mix are to be passed down through the generations of said family. The recipes seem to lose their uniqueness and specialness when told to anybody who asks for it. Throughout the rest of the interview Alex didn’t know much about financing a business but he was close friends with the owner so when the owner had asked him to come work for him at a food truck business he had begun, he was more than happy to take up the job.

After the interview finished there was one question left, who was the owner? After calling

By Ash Aleman

the owner, setting up a meeting with him and meeting up in front of the food truck the interview started. I had asked firstly what his name was, he said his name was James. After that I asked him about his relationship with Alex. They have known each other for quite some time and when James started up his food truck business one of the first people who came to mind on who to hire was Alex. After I had asked him the questions about himself and Alex I began to ask about how to keep the business going and fresh. He said “We don’t change out our menu items, only the way we make them” which was a surprising answer, the only things that would change in the menu would be the sauces and flavors. But all of the food items never left the menu. He had also told me that taking note of what the customers wanted was vital for the benefit of the business, as well as spending money to buy the basic products you’re using to make your food but to watch how much you’re spending as you don’t want to go into debt or not make any profit. I had asked how much profit they make on a monthly basis and the response was around 650 to 700 in profit as they do buy a hefty portion of their supply but charge a little more than you would normally have to buy the product for. Which is a very simple thing to do but it is a smart thing to do. Buying the meat itself is already quite expensive nowadays but it would be cheaper to just buy the food cooked and ready to eat than wait hours, possibly days for it to be cooked if you bought it yourself. And after that I asked him for any tips about how to save money and spend it wisely in the right areas without spending too much money in total, James had told me in return that he wasn’t the best on those areas but he does know a few tips being that to document all of your spendings in a checkbook then add all of the spendings up together. The second tip he had talked about was about making sure that you pay for everything without using any type of credit card or loaned money as much as possible. Using those types of payments also end up giving you interest when you pay the bank back, for example if you spend 40 dollars on a credit card you might end up paying 60 dollars back.

By Ash Aleman