Skift Take
As restaurants are scrambling to banish abusive cultures, Zingerman’s training arm is marking its 25th year of teaching ideas like open-book management, leadership philosophy, and continuous improvement.
Chefs and restaurant owners have always been collegial – but competitive. They put their own interests first, watching hawk-like to see how others are doing business.
But the approach at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich., is different. It has built a multi-million-dollar business, ZingTrain, based on spreading its staff-friendly operating philosophies, in hopes of feeding companies’ bottom-line success.
Lately, it has been conducting that work in an atmosphere of #MeToo and the harsh spotlight it has shone on abusive chefs and proprietors. At the same time, economic pressures have never been heavier on restaurants, which are desperate to find and retain good staff members, from managers and servers to cooks and bussers.
Ari Weinzweig, a co-founder of Zingerman’s, says training has never been more important for the industry. “There are a lot of jobs where people are required to get a formal education,” he said. But restaurants “are an industry where you can get in without any formal training. People are trained on the fly by people who don’t know what they’re doing."
ZingTrain, which turns 25 this year, was launched a dozen years after the original Zingerman’s Deli opened. Created by Zingerman’s staffer Maggie Bayless, it is now part of a multi-branch operation, including the original Deli, two restaurants, a bakery, plus cheese, c
