In five star restaurants, fine dining is an art. Is your dinner companion wearing black slacks? The white napkin will be whisked away for a darker version. Need to know if there's truffle oil in your fois gras? The server doesn't need run back to the kitchen for advice.

Think you can't get that kind of service in a chain serving dishes like Buffalo Blasts and Famous Factory Meatloaf? Think again.

At The Cheesecake Factory, Inc., the training program for servers, staff and management rivals that of the finest restaurants, hotels and retail outlets in the country.

Just how has The Cheesecake Factory transformed from a small mom-and-pop-based bakery, owned and operated Oscar and Evelyn Overton, to the $94.4 million per year giant with a 17.9% growth rate and 35,000 employees? A lot of it is due to training.

Vice President of Performance Development Chuck Wensing heads a staff of 32, with10 based in the corporate office and 22 field managers who ensure continuity throughout the Cheesecake Factory's 114 restaurants and new chain, Grand Luxe Cafe. On average, the Cheesecake Factory spends $2,300 per employee for training and upwards of $20,000 per manager, which includes a brand new BMW for general managers on the day they start work.

Some might be tempted to say that these perks are overkill. Not so, says Wensing. "It's been our culture since the beginning," he says. "The current CEO [and son of the original owners] puts a huge emphasis on development, and we've always believed in it. [We want] the user experience to be seamless." Wensing offered EBN insight on how the company keeps things sweet and seamless.

EBN: How does the training process evolve from day one?

Wensing: On average, training takes between three and 10 days. On the first day, employees are greeted by the general manager, watch a video about the history and culture of the organization and learn about the 19 commitments we make to both the consumer and the employee. We promise to create a healthy work environment and a collaborative employment process. From the beginning, new hires are assigned a mentor or trainer to help with learning 200-plus menu items and to ensure that the user experience is as seamless as possible. At the end of the training session, employees must pass a written or computerized test and score at least 90% to pass and begin full-time work. A small part is devoted to paperwork and compliance.

EBN: How do you ensure quality control?

Wensing: For our cooks, locations have a training library with video, audio and paper aides to help assist in making and preparing recipes to exact specifications. We want someone to eat at a Cheesecake Factory in Las Vegas and another in Louisiana and be able to have the same experience. On a periodic basis, each restaurant is evaluated by "mystery guests" who are trained to evaluate service, food and experience based on a standardized scorecard.

EBN: How do you measure the data that comes back to your offices or to managers?

Wensing: Before rolling out any sort of new program, we pilot test it at one of our field locations, where we evaluate each program on a variety of metrics to make sure it's going to work in all of our locations. We also look at industry standards including turnover, ROI and internal promotion. About 25% of our management staff has risen through the ranks internally.

EBN: How do you keep workers motivated?

Wensing: Besides benchmarking awards and achievement recognition, we have a daily "alignment meeting" for the entire staff where we review our guiding principles, share stories about work experiences or work on team-building activities. On the management side, at least 30 minutes of their weekly meeting is devoted to training and is conducted by that particular restaurant's manager; one day it might be a tequila sampling, another it may be how to properly review a profit/loss statement. We want everyone to take their skills to the next level and also give each person a chance to shine.

EBN: What about your incentives and rewards?

Wensing: Staff really craves the opportunity to belong to a company that is going to teach and develop them at a quick clip. We take pride in the fact that training is not a one-day event. Our employees have a definite, written career continuum and are compensated and rewarded when they receive benchmarks or have achievements. We've got area directors that started as servers, and cooks that started as dishwashers.

EBN: What about recruitment?

Wensing: We're fortunate in that the majority of employees come to us from word of mouth. We encourage our employees to recruit others to join the team.

EBN: How do you plan to grow in 2008?

Wensing: We're always looking for room to grow and plan on adding 16 or more new locations in 2008. In the second quarter of 2008, we'll debut our newest concept, a pan-Asian kitchen called Rock Sugar. It's going to be a training greenfield for new ideas and concepts. We'll also continue to go to conferences to benchmark and study best practices.

We're intrigued with trying to bridge gaps in diversity and also by how to manage generational diversity. We're hoping to work differently with the staff as well as to integrate new developments on the technological side to incorporate more pictures, videos and interactive components to our training. We're not dealing with the MTV generation anymore - our average employee [in their 20s] is tech-savvy, and we want to leverage that.

EBN: What key tips can you offer other businesses and employers?

Wensing: For businesses with multiple locations, I can't stress field training enough. We want to protect the brand.

We want to strive to examine folks who are outside of our traditional model and see how we can use their systems to better our own. I can point to businesses, Hooters, for example, and say that they have a great online training system.

We'll look to training programs at high-end hotels like a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton. Those businesses are trying to create an experience, and so are we.