In his first year with the club, Andrew Maggitti, CEC, Executive Chef of Rehoboth Beach CC, rebuilt sourcing programs, restructured a la carte menus and reengaged the staff.
It’s been over a year since I made the switch from Chartwell Golf and Country Club to Rehoboth Beach Country Club—and what a year it has been.
Getting RBCC’s Culinary operation up to speed and the team aligned with new leadership and new expectations was not an easy task. When you walk into a club as a new executive chef after it had been mismanaged and lacked leadership and purpose you’re basically walking amidst anarchy.
Early on, I pulled the culinary team together and explained how I planned to make some big changes based on what the membership wanted. After all, the membership had spent over $17 million dollars on the renovation. They were ready to start seeing some return on that investment.
We started with the products that come through the back door. We eliminated prepared foods in à la carte dining. We made sure the products coming in were consistent and not being substituted for something different every week. We also started getting fresh seafood and produce daily. We began sourcing fresh meats and seafood, too. We worked closely with our purveyors on this mission—all 14 of them including three broadliners, two produce companies, two meat companies, a spice guy, a cheesemonger, and two specialty companies.
Why so many purveyors? Simple. I want the best quality products and the best service and I will search high and low until I find it. Yes, it’s difficult. But a chef’s life isn’t easy and every good dish placed in front of a member begins with quality ingredients.
Next, we worked to get specs in line. We compared pricing, which required a great deal of time and meticulous notetaking, but we got the bid sheets set up. We don’t order meat, fish or produce from broadliners. We rely on specific companies for each of these categories as they specialize in these products. They also offer the personal service you get from a smaller purveyor with more flexibility with times and weekend deliveries. They even have products brought to us on their days off as they want to maintain that relationship and help us deliver the best to our members and guests.
Once products were sorted, I started gaining the confidence and support of the culinary team by cooking and executing in a timely manner. To start, we reduced the size of the menu. Then we began to run more specials which added more thoughtful variety. It also allowed me to see the team’s strengths and weaknesses while learning more about the culinary preferences of the membership.
Today, we do a lunch and dinner menu, with specials running for each shift. Lunch consists of two soups of the day—one hot and one cold—plus seasonal soups and 2-3 daily lunch specials.
At dinner, we created theme nights. Wednesday is trivia. Thursday is “Comfortable Thursday” with three courses for $19.25 (the year the club was formed). On Friday and Saturday nights, we feature two soups, two appetizers and up to four dinner specials. The change in menu direction has not been an easy task, but we are getting better every day. And the membership is pleased with the evolution of the program.
On the banquet side, we addressed the lack of attention to detail on the buffets. We all know that it’s not just about the food, but also the presentation of each dish. We now do artichoke folds under bowls. We added buffet signs and warm plates with proper utensils and so forth. Details matter—and they are now a priority across both sides of the operation.
We are far from perfect, but we never stop moving forward. In fact, our kitchen’s new mantra is just that, “Keep Moving Forward.” And to remind the team that we are all rowing in the same direction, we’ve hung a sign in the kitchen that says just that and it serves as a visual reminder of where we plan to go in the coming days, months and years.
