Charles Carroll’s proven techniques on how to retain staff and build an all-star team.

Courtesy of Kraft Foodservice

Finding and maintaining good kitchen staff are two major pain points for operators today. Although there's no silver bullet, Charles Carroll, CEC, AAC, believes he has the right formula. He’s on a mission to share that formula, to share his remarkable success in his own professional kitchen. Indeed, he boasts a retention rate that stays close to 95%. “If we lose someone, it’s because they’re moving on. They’re taking the next big job. I can’t remember the last time someone just quit,” says Carroll. When not running the brigade at the esteemed River Oaks Country Club in Houston, he tours the country and the world, delivering motivational speeches to restaurant organizations, culinary schools and dining operations, calling on industry folks to wake up to a brand-new day in employee management. He preaches about team building—about how the secret to staffing success lies in caring for the employee’s individual success.

Since 1971, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc., has created high-quality, successful restaurants. The company operates more than 80 establishments throughout the country. Wildfire (voted most-popular Chicago restaurant 2008 through 2010 by Zagat) has seven locations. The McLean, Va., venue is also bustling and can serve 1,000 customers per day. Having spent most of his career with the Lettuce Entertain You family, this kind of intense “kitchen heat” doesn’t intimidate Executive Chef Eddie Ishaq. He says, “Let’s go!”

By Lynn Schwartz

Wildfire is handsome and pays tribute to the open flame. The long, elevated fireplace above the open kitchen is dramatic. Wood-fired ovens and spit roasters add not only ambiance, but also flavor to meats, seafood, poultry and hand-stretched pizza. The dark wood and large black-and-white photographs depicting dapper diners recall the spirit of a 1940s supper club. And the contemporary Tysons Galleria mall location requires the restaurant to appeal to a variety of palates—employees in surrounding office buildings, mall shoppers and those residing in the neighborhood. A reasonably priced menu is designed for repeat dining.

Cindy Hutson helped start the Caribbean wave that began its sweep of the nation nearly 20 years ago. But then as now, she was about so much more. Today, she’s proving it.

By Brent T. Frei

Cindy Hutson, who was born in New Jersey, thinks she might have been Jamaican in a past life.

She says that tongue in cheek. (Her ex-husband is Jamaican.) But for someone not from the islands, Hutson stumbled upon stardom virtually overnight as one of a small cadre of chefs in South Florida in the 1990s who showcased the region’s bounty on menus. In Hutson’s case, her approach had a decidedly Jamaican bent.

“All I did was really common, local food that you would find in Jamaica,” Hutson says. “But I did it a little differently. I didn’t Americanize it—I fine-tuned it on the plate so that it would work in a fine-dining restaurant.”

Bill Rodgers, executive chef, Keens Steakhouse, New York City

By Lynn Schwartz

Keens Steakhouse in New York City is renowned for superb hand-picked and dry-aged steaks and the legendary mutton chop, a 26-ounce saddle of lamb, that TheNew York Times promises will “provide as much pleasure as a carnivore could want.” But on Thanksgiving, it’s the turkey, a special guest on the Keens’ menu, that takes center stage. For Executive Chef Bill Rodgers, Thanksgiving means serving up a bountiful feast, which includes preparing 50 (20-pound) turkeys and more than 3,000 side dishes. And like any guest star, the turkey must be excellent, worthy of both the holiday and the restaurant’s stellar reputation.

Justin Moore, at 30, is already in the great position of drawing on his past while investing in a bright future thanks to the success of Vin 909 in Annapolis.

By Lynn Schwartz

Vin 909 Winecafé works hard to make guests feel at home. In fact, the café makes its home in a 1930s Sears Roebuck mail-order catalog house. It’s the perfect spot for a cozy gathering place in Annapolis, Md., a quaint town on the Chesapeake Bay. Guests linger by the fireplace or patio garden with a glass of wine or craft beer. The libations are selected to pair with a local and seasonal, small-dish menu, which guests are encouraged to share. But sometimes the customer needs a bit of nudging to experience the joys of a convivial, communal meal.

Open a mere six months, Vin 909 is just a baby. Partner and executive chef, Justin Moore, is young, too. The commitment and responsibilities of opening a restaurant are not for the inexperienced or faint of heart; however, Moore knew exactly what he was jumping into. A Connecticut native, Moore, now 30, ventured West after high school to attend the Academy of Art in San Francisco. And as we know, life can take unexpected turns for those who are open to it. Moore was, and while living in one of the great foodie meccas, his French girlfriend who had a passion for food “broadened his culinary horizons.” The result: He switched schools, enrolling in California Culinary Academy.