The "I Am the Restaurant" Concept: The Restaurant for the Guest

The "I Am the Restaurant" concept is a novel approach to hospitality management systems. It entails involving all staff members in the decision-making process and creating conditions that foster a personal stake for each employee in achieving the business's common goals and objectives. In other words, it represents a new paradigm in interpersonal relationships among participants in a hospitality enterprise's management process. It is the psychological process through which a team appropriates not only the establishment they work in but also their profession—be it server, chef, bartender, maître d', or manager. It is the value system of a team united by shared goals, tasks, philosophy, professional self-awareness, and an ideology of success.

The platform of the "I Am the Restaurant" concept is based on the scholarly work of Dmitry Zitser, founder of the Institute of Non-Formal Education (INO), a renowned psychologist, educator, and Doctor of Psychological Sciences. In his book *The ABCs of NFE*, he describes a new and, in our view, revolutionary approach to team building and people development. The essence of Non-Formal Education is cultivating an individual's personal investment in the learning process. This personal investment is the central component and primary motivational foundation of the "I Am the Restaurant" concept. Only personal investment engages an individual in a conscious and voluntary process of learning. And learning, in turn, is achieved through creativity.

The "I Am the Restaurant" concept facilitates employee training, professional, and personal development through collaborative or individual creativity, typically in the form of group sessions in teams of 5-10 people. In other words, it is the interaction of each team member with others during group work, combined with simultaneous introspection, formulation of personal motivation, and interest in one's professional life. The group facilitator, by outlining problems and observing the team's group dynamics, helps participants pose important personal and professional questions: "Why did I choose to be a chef (server, bartender)?", "Why did I enter this business?", "What do my job, my team, my restaurant mean to me?".

It is no secret that the professional community within the hospitality industry can, in some contexts, be fragmented. In certain regions, unlike in parts of the West, the chef's profession may not yet be widely considered a prestigious career path, and service roles are sometimes perceived by youth as temporary rather than aspirational vocations. In many developed markets, the task of promoting hospitality professions is actively supported at a national or industry-wide level. In other contexts, individual restaurateurs and business owners often face the significant challenge of creating compelling career paths and retaining young talent largely on their own.

How can modern youth be attracted to the professions of chef, pastry chef, server, or bartender?

How can we foster professional pride, intrinsic motivation, passion for one's work, and enhance the image and prestige of the hospitality industry in the eyes of young people?

The "I Am the Restaurant" concept provides answers to these questions.

Hospitality is a creative profession. Admittedly, this thesis might seem highly debatable at first glance. What connection is there between service work, perceived by some as menial, and creativity? We assert that such a connection exists. Let's examine this.

As is known, any results-oriented work is based on clear formalization of business processes and adherence to established rules. The foundation of a well-coordinated team is employee discipline and hierarchy. Discipline is extremely important in the hospitality service process. It is impossible to imagine, for instance, during off-site catering, that due to staff error, guests at different tables are served a hot course with a 30-minute interval. It is equally unacceptable for a garde manger chef to fail to prepare mise en place as instructed by the head chef on time, causing a banquet to be disrupted. All kitchen processes are based on strict discipline and rule compliance. So how can one reconcile creativity with discipline, when the former seemingly completely excludes the latter?

Let us ask: what distinguishes a good head chef from a brilliant one? Talent, you would answer. And that is undeniable. But there is another crucial difference: the ability to creatively apply one's knowledge and experience. The former masters technique, utilizes innovative equipment and tools, knows recipes well, and cooks to a high standard. A brilliant head chef possesses all these skills but also approaches the creation of absolutely every dish with a creative mindset. Such chefs are called "maestros." We would include Anatoly Komm in this category, who, as a head chef and restaurant owner, invents all his dishes himself.

A brilliant head chef is a creative individual, which does not prevent them from being a disciplined and responsible professional. Such a chef knows that if they forget to order basil required for a particular dish, the dish will lose a crucial nuance of flavor or fail altogether. Why does a talented head chef not forget to order that basil? The answer is simple: because they have a deep, personal investment in the cooking process. For a brilliant chef, a poorly executed dish is incompatible with their personal value system—a professional defeat, a creative fiasco. Only personal investment serves as the most powerful stimulus and primary intrinsic motivation to perform one's work exceptionally well. And the seamless, professional operation of the entire restaurant team is the main factor influencing guest attraction and retention.

Fostering this kind of creative and personal investment among hospitality enterprise employees is the mission of the "I Am the Restaurant" concept. Only when all employees embrace the "I Am the Restaurant" concept will it organically transform into the ultimate "restaurant for the guest."

by Fedor Sokirianskii, Easy2Cook founder