Kings Dominion Seeking New Executive Chef (Plus Other Culinary Leadership)

[Zachary]

Considering that a certain other, equally-ambitious chef was removed because he made too many waves, I'm going to assume that something akin to that is far more likely here.

I don't know how much of the Chef Paul story I can tell, but here's a bit: certain individuals above him wanted to pursue higher profit margins at the expense of quality and, to do so without consistent pushback, the person who cared deeply about quality had to go.

 

[warfelg]

Considering that a certain other, equally-ambitious chef was removed because he made too many waves, I'm going to assume that something akin to that is far more likely here.

I don't know how much of the Chef Paul story I can tell, but here's part of the story: certain individuals above him wanted to pursue higher profit margins at the expense of quality and, to do so without consistent pushback, the person who cared deeply about quality had to go.

I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that’s the case here too. The comments of quality, size, and price at KD were really well spread. So wouldn’t shock me if the profit margins weren’t as great as they were hoping. And I’ll add I’ve seen a few times a restaurant bring in a high quality chef to basically make the menu and program, then they cut them loose for a cheaper chef that now has what he needs to recreate it.

On a related/unrelated note. It really amazes me how Knobles continually offers some of the best food with huge portions at cheap prices. Seem to be one of the few parks “immune” to things like that.

 

[horsesboy]

Could be a number of reasons for this that aren’t necessarily culinary or vision related. Things like sexual harassment, making derogatory statements, creating a hostile work environment, self dealing, etc do happen and tie a company’s hands even when it comes to senior personnel.

I’d note that I‘m not implying Chef Denis did any of these things, but a sudden, unexpected departure can often be for reasons that aren’t related to general performance.

I don't know any details but I definitely get the impression that there is more to the story.

 

[rswashdc]

I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that’s the case here too. The comments of quality, size, and price at KD were really well spread. So wouldn’t shock me if the profit margins weren’t as great as they were hoping. And I’ll add I’ve seen a few times a restaurant bring in a high quality chef to basically make the menu and program, then they cut them loose for a cheaper chef that now has what he needs to recreate it.

On a related/unrelated note. It really amazes me how Knobles continually offers some of the best food with huge portions at cheap prices. Seem to be one of the few parks “immune” to things like that.

Food isn’t usually a huge portion of the overall costs, so you can go higher quality and portion size so long as you make it up in volume. I’ve generally noticed that the remodeled restaurants such as Grain and Grill are regularly busy and people are buying a lot, so I’d be surprised if they are doing poorly financially there. It’s also possible some cannibalization has occurred and other eateries aren’t doing as well.

 

[warfelg]

Food isn’t usually a huge portion of the overall costs, so you can go higher quality and portion size so long as you make it up in volume. I’ve generally noticed that the remodeled restaurants such as Grain and Grill are regularly busy and people are buying a lot, so I’d be surprised if they are doing poorly financially there. It’s also possible some cannibalization has occurred and other eateries aren’t doing as well.

Food isn't, but maybe (and could be the case based on some late openings) that the prep is labor intensive and they aren't hitting the minimum 30% margins you would look for. I'm not sure the cannibalization would be a bad thing if the margins are there, because at the end of the day a 20% margin is a 20% margin no matter how much you do.

 

[Crunchewy]

Maybe now Six Flags America will hire him and bring them up from barely tolerable to decent.

 

[bill s]

I was wondering if he demanded a raise.

 

[Nicole]

Could be a number of reasons for this that aren’t necessarily culinary or vision related. Things like sexual harassment, making derogatory statements, creating a hostile work environment, self dealing, etc do happen and tie a company’s hands even when it comes to senior personnel.

I’d note that I‘m not implying Chef Denis did any of these things, but a sudden, unexpected departure can often be for reasons that aren’t related to general performance.

I was wondering if he demanded a raise.

I think it is a bad idea to propose professionally defamatory theories for why someone left a position, if there is no evidence. In this case we do not even know for certain if Chef Dennis quit, was promoted, or was fired. Essentially, listing things he might have done wrong adds nothing of real value to the discussion and could be harmful to his reputation.

 

[bill s]

I didn't consider wanting a raise to be defamatory, more the opposite, and while we're covering all the possibilities. Seeing KI's getting their own G&G, though, I doubt it's bad news for Dennis.

 

[Jonesta6]

Since I didn't know where else to put this, this thread seemed the most appropriate:


With Chef Denis having left the park, who is now calling the shots for culinary?

It seems odd to me they're carrying forward with a new BBQ restaurant and apparently now planning something for Dogwood's space without having already had a master plan of sorts in place. But with the person likely to have created that plan gone, does that mean whomever is there now going to keep standards up until the next chef is in place?

Or have I missed something and that next chef is already making things happen?

 

[Mushroom]

Back in 2019 or so, when KD was in a limbo between Chef Denis’s arrival and his predecessor’s departure, they were having chefs from other CF parks come in and help get the park along. I remember meeting the Knott’s chef (I think) at the Taste of Virginia food festival they had that year.

 

[bwick29]

So I did something I don't normally do and (very politely) tried to pry for a bit of info on this one from one of the sous chefs... It did not go well. Lesson learned.

While this is purely speculation, it seems like it's a very hush-hush/sensitive situation based on the response I received. The vibe I got was that it was not a voluntary separation, but again, this is 100% unfounded speculation based on the tone/delivery of the response to my inquiry. Not trying to be defamatory or speculate anything negative, just sharing the experience/response.

 

[Thriller]

Unfortunately because Cedar Fair sells these low cost season dining passes, I don’t think best food quality is priority across the chain. Their profit margins on the season dining can’t be high, so I could see where they would be pushing profit margins over quality.

The head chef definitely makes a difference. The food at Kings Island has been horrendous forever and continues to do so. It’s some of the worst theme park food out there. And the KI chef got promoted!

KI’s newest installation of Grain and Grill is equally horrendous. I had high hopes for it based on how good Kings Dominion’s G&G is.

The promotion of the KI chef and the loss of the KD chef tells me CF wants profit over quality.

KD’s food quality has matched Busch and the selection has been better than Busch. What a disaster if this slides back downhill.

 

[Nicole]

Given that we have no idea why Chef Denis left KD, it seems a like huge leap to assume that his departure was directly correlated with a Cedar Fair profit calculation.

 

[RollyCoaster]

Spoiler: It’s not a primary reason.

 

[rswashdc]

Unfortunately because Cedar Fair sells these low cost season dining passes, I don’t think best food quality is priority across the chain. Their profit margins on the season dining can’t be high, so I could see where they would be pushing profit margins over quality.

I’d imagine the profit margins on dining passes are quite high or they wouldn’t offer them. Yes some people get a lot out of them if they visit all the time, but a lot more people over-purchase add-ons when they get passes. It’s not easy to do the math on those dining passes when you’re buying them, and when I’ve done calculations on actual usage while hungry (and not just to use the pass cause you have it), I only find them a marginally good deal.

 

[horsesboy]

Unfortunately because Cedar Fair sells these low cost season dining passes, I don’t think best food quality is priority across the chain. Their profit margins on the season dining can’t be high, so I could see where they would be pushing profit margins over quality.

The head chef definitely makes a difference. The food at Kings Island has been horrendous forever and continues to do so. It’s some of the worst theme park food out there. And the KI chef got promoted!

KI’s newest installation of Grain and Grill is equally horrendous. I had high hopes for it based on how good Kings Dominion’s G&G is.

The promotion of the KI chef and the loss of the KD chef tells me CF wants profit over quality.

KD’s food quality has matched Busch and the selection has been better than Busch. What a disaster if this slides back downhill.

Since we don't know who else applied for the position it's really hard to speculate why they went with the King's Island chef and not someone else. It could be that he was the best choice for any number of reasons heck he might have even gotten it for being relatively close to the corporate offices and being better able to network.


As for Chef Dennis leaving based on what I have heard profit margins had nothing what so ever to do with his departure.

 

[Thriller]

I don’t believe the dining plans are the most profitable route for theme park operators. Nobody else offers them other than Six Flags.

The problem in Cedar Fair has with these dining plans as if they take it away. They are going to Chase off customers now. Six flags tried it and it made things even worse for them (couples with price increases.

So if they are locked into continuing to offer dining plans quality and quantity will suffer for profits.

 

[Jonesta6]

he might have even gotten it for being relatively close to the corporate offices and being better able to network

Considering they moved corporate to Charlotte, don't think that has anything to do with it...

 

[Mushroom]

I don’t believe the dining plans are the most profitable route for theme park operators. Nobody else offers them other than Six Flags.

The problem in Cedar Fair has with these dining plans as if they take it away. They are going to Chase off customers now. Six flags tried it and it made things even worse for them (couples with price increases.

So if they are locked into continuing to offer dining plans quality and quantity will suffer for profits.

Marketing seems to be pushing dining plan sales pretty heavily, and CF’s CEO has mentioned the company’s push for dining plans as part of their strategy in several investor earning calls. I have to assume that they know more about the profitability of these plans than you do.