Katy Malaniak was 13 when she discovered her passion for food while watching a fastidious Italian immigrant cook meals in a tiny restaurant in Sharpsville, Pa. Malaniak rolled pizza dough for the lady every Saturday and watched her prepare each order herself. The woman’s seriousness demonstrated her love of food and dedication to her craft, which inspired Malaniak.
Today, as senior director of food and beverage at Quaker Stake & Lube, Malaniak develops new dishes, sauces and flavors in a job that she says “never gets boring.” In her 24 years with the company, her bosses have shown their appreciation for her creativity by promoting her from a line cook “beer battering everything on Friday nights” in 1984, through restaurant management and eventually to her present post. Malaniak spoke recently about her climb up the ladder at what she affectionately calls “the Lube.”
You’ve worked in restaurants more than half your life. Is it still fresh?
Sure it is. It’s never boring. It’s different every day. When I was in the restaurants…between the guests and the employees, I didn’t need to watch soap operas: There was drama all around me.
BIOGRAPHY Title: senior director of food and beverage, Quaker Stake & Lube, Sharon, Pa.Birth date: July 2, 1960Hometown: Sharpsville, Pa.Education: “a little college with lots of on-the-job training.”Career highlights: watching Quaker Steak & Lube grow from one unit to 30 and being at every restaurant’s opening; “being interviewed for this story. I look at that and think, ‘Wow, people don’t get that request very often, so why are they talking to me?’”
The philosophy the owners [Gary Meszaros and George “Jig” Warren] have instilled in the company is that the Lube is supposed to be a fun place. Our appetizers and desserts are larger because they’re built to share.
How do you stay creative?
I’m always getting ideas, so I keep a file I throw them into. When I’m on the treadmill or reading, something will strike me, and I take the idea and put it in that file. I might not even use the idea immediately or ever, but it stays there.
A couple of days ago I was working on a steak butter recipe, and I thought of a potato cake recipe a chef showed to me about eight months ago. I thought that might go well with the steak, so I made it. What’s funny is the potato cakes turned out great, but all the attention was going to them, not the steaks the guy came to present. I felt kind of bad for him.
What do you do when your creations aren’t well-received?
[Laughs.] I have so much free advice that I don’t know if I can stand it sometimes. Between the owners, the ops people and the franchisees, I get lots of suggestions. I’ve learned, though, that I don’t have to react to every idea they give me.
I used to feel I let someone down if they gave me an idea and I didn’t follow through on it, but I don’t anymore. Now I put it in the folder and on a list, and if it comes around, fine.
Where’s the balancing point between your creative whims and what actually winds up on the menu?
Ultimately I have to ask, ‘How can this work in a $4.2 million operation like ours?’ I also try to listen to people’s reaction to what I make. And when you have access to a live restaurant like I do, there are always people who want to taste.… People see me come in the door and say, ‘What are you testing today?’
CHEF’S TIPS Take common, single-purpose ingredients, such as sauces made just for wings, and blend them with others to make them unusual. For example, Malaniak recently made a dressing from barbecue wing sauce and Caesar dressing. On making compound butters: “I do it by hand rather than by machine because I don’t want it to be completely smooth. When it’s not, you end up with individual pockets of sauces inside the butter, and when it melts, you get pockets of individual flavors.”
With food costs so high, how difficult is it to be in charge of purchasing?
That’s a struggle, a daily challenge. We’re constantly talking to our manufacturers and our distribution people more than ever to look for value-added items. Everyone—us and our suppliers—are working together on this. Now you’ve got to squeeze that manufacturer or distribution person a little more, and that’s tough because it’s tough on them, too.
What do you do internally to control food costs?
We’ve had to do some menu engineering lately, such as looking for things you can change without compromising any of our ingredients or that customers would notice. We recently cut out grape tomatoes in some dishes–things customers don’t notice, but save us in the long run.
What’s the most fun part of the job?
The people: the people you deal with every day in your immediate surroundings, franchisees, customers, everybody. Plus the creativity. My boss has always kind of given me a long rope, and I’ve had to make sure to keep that just short enough.
What’s the toughest part?
The fact that I have to put my personal preferences aside and think about what is good for Quaker Steak and Lube. I like really spicy food, and I can take a lot of heat, but not everyone else can. Also, when I cook at home, I cook very healthy. So I don’t eat a lot of beef. But our customers do, and they eat a lot of pork, which I don’t. But we have great ribs, so it’s my responsibility to make sure ours are the best.