Author bio (part 1)
John T. Self spent 16 years in restaurant management at several restaurant chains, was vice president of a regional restaurant chain, and owned three independent restaurants and a comedy club.
When I started out, I made every mistake that a new manager could make. As my career progressed, I noticed that new managers were still making the same mistakes.
I went back to school, got a masters and Ph.D., and taught hospitality management at the University of Alabama, Golden Gate University, and at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) where I am currently Professor Emeritus. My graduates who went into restaurant management told me about the mistakes and problems they were having, and they were the exact same mistakes and problems that I and other new managers have had. That’s when I decided to write this book and I have been adding to it ever since.
I have taught hospitality management internationally at universities in Xian and Dalian, China and was a Fulbright Scholar in Helsinki, Finland at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.
John was a guest on KPCC Southern California Public Radio on restaurants and the economic recovery and was one of the featured consultants in the Los Angeles Times series Small Business Makeover.
John has many academic presentations and has published his research on turnover and restaurant failure in such journals as the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education, and the Journal of Foodservice Business Research.
I give workshops and talks about helping new managers accelerate their careers.
TMI author bio (part 2)
In his spare time, John loves international travel, reading post-apocalyptic and science fiction, is a private pilot with instrument rating, flying radio control airplanes, and finally, ham radio.
Likes: Cold pork and beans, cold apple pie, comedy, trivia, humor, bad jokes, pets, and Morgan automobiles.
Dislikes: the color yellow, restaurants that pick up dirty plates but not the dirty silverware, and really dislikes that Pluto is not a planet anymore.
