Chef Andrew Carmellini described the ravioli problem on Brian Koppelman’s podcast, The Moment.
Andrew Carmellini: “One of our best customers, an art dealer here in New York, walked to the kitchen one day and he said, ‘I love what you do, it’s why we’re here 2-3 nights a week, I love your food. I love that I can come here on Wednesday and get lamb seven ways, but really, the thing that brings me back is the ravioli.’ That made me think about things a little bit differently, from a diner’s point of view.”
Brian Koppelman: “That’s great! You were thinking of it all as a chef. Like a dazzler, wanting to dazzle people.”
AC: “Yeah, right, I wanted it to be razzle dazzle.”
BK: “Perfect technique and blow your mind.”
AC: “Every single time. And so, this was a little bit of a pivot point, how I thought about restaurants. Not just a superstar chef going for all the stars.”
Ravioli.
This doesn’t mean that Carmellini needs to take that lamb off the menu, stop experimenting, and stop stretching his skills. But it’s important to understand what keeps the business running, what keeps people coming back.
The simple, or at least simplified, and the obvious. That part of the business is often hiding in plain sight.
Geoffrey Moore would call the ravioli problem finding your beachhead. Where is the business able to make landfall, where is it resonating with customers?
Not just any customers. The good customers. The ones that come back often, like the ravioli-loving art dealer.
Not the Instagram foodie that prizes novelty. Because once she filters that photo and uploads it, she may never come back through the door.
Every restaurant, every business, and every blog (hey, I’m working on it!), needs to solve the ravioli problem. They need to identify the obvious instead of working on the obscure.
What is the thing that brings people back?
As it turns out, the market for ravioli is pretty big. Bigger than lamb seven ways. Nothing hard about that problem. But until the art dealer walked into the kitchen and told him to his face, that wasn’t clear to Carmellini.
Haystacks, not needles:
It’s the basics that make a business successful.
Warren Buffett says, “We’re not looking for needles in haystacks or anything of the sort. You know, we like haystacks, not needles. We want it to shout at us.”
What Warren means is you don’t need to get cute. You need to see an obvious problem and start the work rather than continuing your analysis.
I’ve never heard the kids shouting at me for lamb seven ways, but they’ve been pretty vocal about pasta night. A large opportunity, a simple business, that shouts at you. No need to keep searching for needles at that point.
The work and the execution will be hard enough. Let’s not make our lives unnecessarily difficult.
Ravioli, not lamb seven ways.
We’re looking for haystacks, not needles.
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