Marugame Udon teaches every manager to make noodles from scratch

Marugame Udon is putting noodle-making at the heart of how it trains its UK teams, Hospitality & Catering News reports.

How it works - The noodles are Sanuki-style udon, made fresh with just flour, water and salt. - Fresh batches go out roughly every 20 minutes, and the nine UK restaurants get through more than three tonnes of flour a week. - Every manager learns to make udon within their first two weeks. - Managers are then assessed and signed off by Marcin, the company's noodle guru, who trained in Japan under its head office udon master. - An Udon Expert programme has room to train up to 30 team members a month.

The idea behind it: the Japanese word kodawari, which roughly means sweating the details and always getting better at your craft.

Why it matters if you work the floor or the kitchen: in an open kitchen, guests watch you work, so the skill is part of the show. Training like this is worth asking about at interview. A proper craft skill, signed off by an expert, travels with you to your next job.

Try this on your next shift: pick the one thing your venue is known for and ask whoever makes it best to show you how, start to finish.