When our son scheduled the first “meet-the-woman-I-plan-to-marry” dinner we ended up introducing Kirsten to the joys of a calamari appetizer. Over the last six years of extended family dinners the tradition continued– if calamari is on the menu, it is the appetizer of choice. With our squid consumption rising, we discovered that our squid memories were spotty at best. “Where did we have the graham cracker calamari?”
Enter the 2012 Squid Scorecard. Now the family can move past anecdotes and faulty memories and use a non-biased documentation process.
|
Category |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Sub-total |
|
Breading |
x |
xx |
x |
12 |
|
| Tenderness and texture |
xxx |
x |
11 |
||
| Taste |
xxxx |
8 |
|||
| Appearance |
xxxx |
8 |
|||
| Sauce |
xx |
xx |
6 |
||
| Total |
45 |
It took 15 minutes to create the categories and agree to the definitions. This is an important step since scoring has to be non-subjective so all respondents must have a clear view as to the definition of each category.
The category under the most contention was sauce.
- “Sauce is not part of the original squid should not be included”
- “Sauce is integral to the calamari experience, much like escargot and it’s variety of sauce options”
- “Calamari is, at its essence, a platform whose taste is dramatically influenced by the accompanying sauce”
- “Yes, a lemon squeeze is, and should be, considered a sauce”
Once we finally agreed on definitions for the categories, the assessment was completed. During our next family outing, we scored our dining option and tallied the results. Drum roll please. Our Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush calamari received an inaugural score of 45 out of a possible 80 points. Definitely room for improvement on the appetizer, but all of us agreed that the results of the scorecard aligned with our taste buds.
So…in the larger scheme of things, what did we learn?
- If you really want to discover a non-biased answer, you need to set up a non-biased scoring system. And if not, everything else is just an opinion.
- Creating the assessment takes much less time than you think.
- Creating the assessment allows you to think about the things that are important and agree on definitions.
- Obtaining results allows you to make a non-emotional decision on next steps.
- To ensure consistency and fairness, we will retrace our previous calamari options solely for the purpose of documentation (yeah!!!)
