Tip the Cook
The why
Yesterday was my birthday. As I sat in this relatively new slightly French-y restaurant enjoying the hell out of some duck breast with cranberry, prosecco and barrique vinegar sauce, with gnocchi sauteed in walnuts, I thought to myself: “Holy shit.This is the best meal I've ever tasted. I wish there was a way to tip the cook.”
Now, of course I could leave the terrace and go in, ask to see the cook, shove a bill into his hand and compliment his cooking. Of course. But considering I live in a non-tipping culture, this would come across as very strange, at least to other patrons. Also, as a socially awkward person, this was way too much discomfort to endure, especially in front of other guests who, without a doubt, would have seen it as snobby showing off. I’d love to Draper the hell out of the guy (or maybe it was a gal, we’ll never know!) smoothly but my social charm is at the drooling three year old level and I’d probably trip over the stairs to boot.
So what’s there to do? Leave a decent tip and hope the waiter is generous enough to share? Hope they have a tip sharing policy? It’s a damn shame. I’m not saying the waiter doesn't deserve a tip — of course he does. He was kind, accessible and knowledgeable. He was both very servile and highly professional. But hey, if my meal comes in the form of a decorated stack of perfectly identical walnut covered gnocchi, artistic sauce spots and a miniature forest of some fancy weed behind which is a duck breast roast that tastes like gold plated unicorn babies (and yet doesn't cost like gold plated unicorn babies), you bet I’m gonna want to tip the cook.
The App
Then it occurred to me. Imagine the scenario. Our cook, let’s call him “Long John Silver”, wakes up and goes to the restaurant. LJS loves his job and even though making the meals is almost as much of a reward as getting paid for doing so is, he feels his enthusiasm waning. One day, he hears about this new app from a buddy cook in another restaurant. Let’s call him “Jim Hawkins”.
Jim says he’s been getting 30% more money every month just through this app, and it’s been motivating him more and more to put more love and effort into the meals. What’s more, when Jim changed his workplace to a newer restaurant, he found that over half of his “fans” followed him there — he actually built a following, a customer base, and provided the location is close enough, he can now expect to earn 10% — 30% more on every new job he goes to because the clients seem to follow him around. They recognize him on the streets, greet him,compliment his latest meal in person and express frustration with the new cook in the place where he used to work. It makes him feel super awesome.
So LJS decides to sign up. He installs the app (or visits the website, whatever), and goes through a process:
- Sign in with a social network or make a new account. He uses Google+ because he likes quality over quantity.
- The app then harvests his workplace from his social network, or if not found, LJS finds it on Foursquare, TripAdvisor or Google Local.
- LJS finds it on Foursquare and the app figures “Hey, this place is similarly named and in vicinity of this other place on Google Local and TripAdvisor. Is this the same location?” LJS confirms, the app remembers, and LJS just did the community a favor.
- LJS lists himself as the cook on site and the app uses email contact information available on either of those networks to contact the owner of the Google Local / TripAdvisor / Foursquare entry with a request for confirmation that LJS does indeed work there. LJS is also given instructions on how the responsible party can approve this claim should they be unable to receive the original email or unwilling to go through a complex procedure.
- LJS is now listed and approved, and next time his shift starts all he has to do is punch the “I’m here” button on his profile screen. This makes all patrons that have the app installed automatically aware that their meals are being prepared by LJS at this very moment, allowing them access to intimate knowledge on who is preparing their food, how good of a track record they have and what to expect.
- Having made a meal, LJS sends it out and the patrons seem super happy. They want to tip. They’re from the US and leave some 5-10% extra cash in the sleeve, but they’re so thrilled with the meal they decide to give an additional 10% to LJS. They open the app and make a one-click deposit — the app is bound to their Google Wallet and Paypal account, so it’s literally just a couple seconds of work, with none of the social hassle.
- The money is deposited in LJS’ holding account, and is paid out monthly at a fixed date or manually at any time. Naturally, the app takes an X% cut of the withdrawn amount to cover its expenses.
Are there legal obstacles? Sure, probably. Would this create a sort of rift between waiters and cooks seeing as it’s customary to tip 15% in the USA and this would actually make waiter tips smaller? Definitely. Would it be tricky to verify who works where? Oh yeah. But these things have a way of working themselves out if the idea is good enough, and I think it just might be. Someone just needs to get on it, even if it sounds a bit out of whack. If someone told you 5 years ago people were soon going to use GPS on their phones to willingly tell the world which bar they’re currently in multiple times per day, you’d laugh in their face.
It doesn't have to stop at cooks, either. When I was buying a suit a couple months back, the girl in the store was so incredibly patient and helping with everything I was looking at, I had to restrain myself from tipping her. She’s not getting any extra cash if she sells more. It’s not her store. She has literally no incentive to be as good at her job as she was, other than just plain wanting to be good at her job. I feel like that attitude should be rewarded, even though some people think it should come as default. I’m always up for positive reinforcement — rather reward the good than punish the bad. So... Tip the Clerk? Tip the Driver? Tip the Mechanic? Hell, buy http://tip.jobs and make it a multi-profession app. Cut out the middle man, and cut out the boss — reward good attitudes and excellent work ethics all around and directly.
Now someone better go build this because, for now, the best I can do to tip the chef is recommend you give Bistro La Rose a go if you ever find yourself in Rijeka, Croatia.
This is a part of the Stealable Ideas series in which I prevent people from stealing the ideas I have no time to build by allowing everyone to steal them.
