Relativity in Food Prep
Once you pass that last spot, believe it or not, you will thank the chef for the food, no matter that your dining partner died at the 67-minute-mark. It’s all relative.
Yep. There’s a lesson in here, too. I’m not all about ranting and raving.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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10 July 2009, 9:35 am
Hmmm….this can be modelled with differential equations. Then you can calculate the Sweet Spot for each restaurant, so you’ll know in advance.
(Though it woudln’t suprise me if some techno-geek hasn’t alread done something like this, somewhere)
10 July 2009, 9:39 am
I’ve had my share of crummy meals with long, long waits. i.e. weddings or banquets, or Frou-Frou restaurants where you get five whole potato balls and a suggestion of meat.
I’ve since learned to grab a “contingency” Big Mac ahead of time, just before I arrive. I won’t be hungry when I get there, but I’ll just be starting to be by the time the food gets there.
Believe me, you dont’ want to be around a grumpy hungry Friar, when he’s starving and his blood sugar has crashed. ;-
10 July 2009, 3:26 pm
Friar,
Believe it or not this was actually first doodled last week while waiting in line for Greek food at a tent on the 4th, but afterwards I thought of some very fancy places I’ve eaten where the same control-freakishness has totally wrecked the experience, and decided to toss the graph out here. There is definitely a sweet spot for every restaurant but I’d need more axes to cover the prestige of the place, whether there are other choices or not, what your fellow diners want… I’d love to see the equation that could really handle it!
For Greek food on some random Saturday at a farmers’ market I wouldn’t wait an eighth of the time we waited that day. But when my other choices were hot dogs and hamburgers which had good-sized lines of their own, and I’d been walking for six hours and a gyro sounded so good… well, in the end I did wish we’d gone for dogs, but that was a long ways into it.
Two guys on grill and assembly, for a line of close to a hundred. They had lots more staff, but wouldn’t let anyone else cook because they had some muddled idea of quality. The rest of the staff looked mainly bored. *aaaargh*
“a suggestion of meat”—ROFL. I would have gone for only a suggestion if it got me the food faster.
Regards,
Kelly
12 July 2009, 8:36 am
Your picture up there did my mathematician soul good! Just think, you could throw in some complex variables and extend that to the realm of the imaginary…..
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12 July 2009, 11:54 am
Barbara,
Thanks! My mathematician soul discovered just how long it’s been since I graphed anything when I did this. Rather funny sweating it out for a little sketch. Glad you liked it.
Until later,
Kelly
14 July 2009, 4:02 pm
I wonder if this idea stretches beyond restaurants to other services, like online stuff…
Hm… I suppose it’s the same as the scarcity thing – so the question then becomes how do we create that balance without pissing off our (potential) clients…
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14 July 2009, 7:11 pm
Alex,
Yes, sure this could be used for other businesses. That reminds me of a post I wrote last year about the limits of withholding from online clients, in particular. That balance is even more delicate online, I think. You can’t have the equivalent of my “95 minutes” online, that’s for sure!
Until later,
Kelly