Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / I Answer Your Questions Part Due Ep. 14

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I Answer Your Questions Part Due Ep. 14 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello chefs, you're listening to chefs.
• 0:02
  PS a podcast. I'm your host Andrew natera.
• 0:05
  Today's episode is part 2 of last week's answering your
• 0:08
  questions. So we're going to wrap it up
• 0:10
  today. I'm going to get through all the
• 0:11
  questions. Stay tuned.
• 0:22
  So before we get into the questions, let me update.
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  You on what was going on this past week.
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  So I launched the book chefs, PSA culinary leadership
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  fundamentals, so you haven't got that book.
• 0:32
  Go by, it's great, I love it, everyone loves it.
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  If you don't love it, something's wrong with you.
• 0:36
  So anyway, go get that book. The second thing I did was I
• 0:41
  launched our new line of merch. So, there's, there's a lot of
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  different things that you could look at.
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  There's some stickers Magic, Chef juice and lime, Look, water
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  stickers. There's also water bottles with
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  Magic, Chef juice and line, cook water.
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  So if you're a chef, your line, cook, what's in the bottle?
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  I don't know. I know line cook water.
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  Usually is not water, and I know Magic Chef juice may or may not
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  make magic happen. So what's in Magic Chef juice?
• 1:15
  I don't know, you know, so you go figure it out anyway.
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  Also, launched a couple of different t-shirts, one of them
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  inspired by Of the late, great Anthony Bourdain.
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  It's it's all farm-to-table. It's a riff on a quote that he
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  said, when he said everywhere, he's been the food has always
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  come from a farm and it's always been eating on a table.
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  So he didn't really get why that farm-to-table movement.
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  At least the term was so overused.
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  The other shirt is something that has always been said, in
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  kitchens that I've worked in. That is awakened.
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  Ready? Awake and ready, chef?
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  And it was just our Universal greeting that we would say to
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  each other. When we'd say Hi, how are you
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  would say away? Can ready or hey Chef how are
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  you? Awake and ready?
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  That was just the universal answer so that's where that
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  comes from, if you were curious. But anyway, if you want to
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  support the show through some new merch take a look.
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  And by the way if you're going to look at the merch sometimes
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  Instagrams kind of funny. Sometimes it shows things that
• 2:08
  aren't available so I wanted to do limited edition things so the
• 2:11
  lord of the line Cooks Tufts no longer available so don't try
• 2:14
  and buy it. Sometimes it pops up that it's
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  available for sale. It's not so don't buy that
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  anymore. I want to remind everyone.
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  I talked about this in the last show.
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  I'm doing a dinner. November 13th in El Paso, Texas
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  part of a group of El Paso chefs.
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  We're coming together for something we call Family Meal
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  that benefits Charities and El Paso.
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  So if you live in that City and you want to meet some of the
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  other chefs, buy your tickets and we hope to see you there.
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  By the way, all the questions that were asked for really good.
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  I added some that were sent to me this week in the DM so I'm
• 2:46
  changing it up just a little bit, but there's some really
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  good questions in here. So let's start with the first
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  one. And this is, do I need a degree
• 2:54
  to become a chef? And the answer is, no, I talked
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  about it. A little bit more in the chef's,
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  PSA podcast, culinary school episode.
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  It's not necessary to have a culinary school degree to become
• 3:06
  a chef working in a kitchen and demonstrating competency, is
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  required to become a chef hard work discipline.
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  Experience know how that's what gets you into the position of
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  Chef. The Culinary degree, gets your
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  foot in the door and a lot of places.
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  But never once have I ever had an executive chef position or a
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  sous chef position in my life, where people said, can I see
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  your diploma? Or it was a deal breaker if I
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  didn't have one. So for people that think that
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  you do need to culinary school degree, it you don't however,
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  why would you say no to education culinary school for me
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  like I said before in the other podcast?
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  I think Canary school is great. If you have the opportunity to
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  go to culinary school, I would just because I believe in
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  education. And if I could get any sort of
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  Competitive Edge with culinary knowledge, I'll take it but it's
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  not for everyone and it is not mandatory to become a chef.
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  So for those of you asking, do you need a culinary degree?
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  No, you do. Not.
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  Next question is what are some of the most important techniques
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  to master? That's a really good question.
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  In my opinion, I think the techniques that People need a
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  master usually involve in the basic cooking, methods and knife
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  skills. So when I say knife skills, I
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  mean, everything. I mean, cutting vegetables
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  brunoise, dicing, cutting onions, but also mean, like,
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  turning potatoes, cleaning artichokes.
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  Butchering knowing how to fillet a fish, knowing how to break
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  down a chicken. So, everything that you're going
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  to work with, I think you need to have a strong fundamental
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  understanding of how to work with those products.
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  I did a chef's PSA where I said the most difficult technique to
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  master master is the one that you're afraid to try.
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  The thing that you're afraid to try is going to be the hardest
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  thing for you to master the soon as you start doing it with
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  repetition. Everything becomes easy.
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  But you know I know that's just kind of like this a cookbook
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  answer. If I was to say something more
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  specific I would say the things that I think are most difficult
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  to master is anything with complicated, multiple movements.
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  So I'll give you an example of what I mean.
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  If you're butchering a pig, not only do you have to have knife
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  skills, You got to understand the different places where the
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  joints are located. You got to understand that your
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  knife is going to curve. Sometimes sometimes you need to
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  put more Force. Sometimes it's less Force,
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  understanding. That something Isn't So
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  straightforward. So if you're slicing an onion,
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  you know, it's just one repetitive motion.
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  But when you're working with something that has multiple
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  motions, I think those are the skills that are more
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  complicated. Another example I could give
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  would be let's just say pasta making and the reason I would
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  say that is because one skill is going to be mixing the dough and
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  other skills going to be kneading the dough.
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  And then it's going to be rolling the dough and then it's
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  going to be shaping the pasta dough.
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  So there's multiple movements required in order to master that
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  skill. It's just not one repetitive
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  Moses. It's just not needing or it's
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  just not making pasta shapes. And on top of that, there's
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  thousands of pasta shapes, you can make.
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  So I think the most important skills in the kitchen are going
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  to be the ones that you use day-to-day so knife skills,
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  cooking skills, braising sauteing, Etc.
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  But when you get into the more, X cooking skills.
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  It's the ones that have multiple movements that I think are
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  probably the most difficult to master.
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  So as soon as you start working on them, the sooner you'll get
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  better at them. Good question.
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  Another question that I was asked in this was not in the
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  original Q&A, but I was asked to this this week is, how do you
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  develop your palate? And I thought that was a really
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  good question, and it's probably something I could do a whole
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  episode on, and I would say taste, everything, as simple as
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  that sounds. That's really how you develop
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  your palate. So, when you're walking down the
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  line, you taste everything. Thing.
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  You look at something you taste it, you taste it with something.
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  You add salt to taste it. Again, you reduce a liquid, you
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  taste it before. It was reduced.
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  You tasted after? It was Roost reduced, you taste
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  it. When you season it, you add a
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  little bit of vinegar. You taste it again.
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  You add a little bit more vinegar.
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  You taste it again. You add a little bit of salt to
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  taste it again. You had a little bit of sugar to
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  taste. Again, you put some fish sauce,
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  you taste it again. Maybe you sprinkle some MSG, you
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  taste it again. And you continue to do that.
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  You finish it with butter, you taste it again.
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  You taste things when they're good, you taste things when
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  they're bad, you taste things? When they're bad and you've
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  corrected them and made them good and you taste things when
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  they're bad and you can no longer correct them.
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  I think every Chef will understand what I say next is
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  that you always know what scorched pot tastes like.
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  So, there's a certain flavor that if you burn something on
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  you taste it, you could you'd know that flavor instantly, you
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  could taste the soup or whatever the case may be, and you tasted
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  like, did you scorch this and a new cook, a lot of time say, no.
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  I think it tastes fine. It's like, no, it's scorched.
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  Trust me. When you know that flavor, you
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  know, it same thing with rancid nuts.
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  You could try some nuts and you'll be like, those are
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  rancid. And other people who, like, oh,
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  I didn't, Notice it. Well when you taste everything
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  you pick up subtle differences when you make something
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  thousands of times and you taste it.
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  You'll start to develop your palate and I'll tell you a quick
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  story. I went to to great restaurants
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  and one of them was a very young up-and-coming chef and the other
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  one was a very old, you know, been around forever chef.
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  And in the first restaurant the food was beautiful, trendy
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  plated elegantly, but everything just kind of lacked a little bit
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  needed. A little bit of salt and a
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  little bit of acid. It was just never fully rounded
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  out. The second restaurant, I went to
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  everything even though was familiar.
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  And I had seen it before, everything was just excellent,
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  perfectly executed, perfect seasoning, the right amount of
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  salt, the right amount of bass at the right amount of heat,
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  whatever the case may be. It was just perfect.
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  And in both restaurants, they were open kitchens.
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  And I remember watching the one where everything was just a
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  little bit off, no one tasted their food, you can see all the
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  cooks on the line to just putting food out, the chef was
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  sending out to the dining room knowing tasting, their food, the
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  restaurant, where everything was just seasoned perfectly.
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  Every single person would taste it, they pass it to the chef and
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  then the chef Taste it and then they'd send it out.
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  So when you develop the type of kitchen culture, where everyone
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  is tasting, the food you will notice that your food does get
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  better. Anyway, great question, I could
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  talk about that at length for those people that say, what
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  about blind, tasting blindfold, and you know, tasting a bunch of
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  mystery ingredients, that's good, it's just not practical
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  everyday. If you do that occasionally I
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  think it could help develop your palate but the fact of the
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  matter is you're not going to before service do that every
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  day. Every day you're working with
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  food every day. You're tasting your food.
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  That's the best way to develop your palate.
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  Next question. I received this also.
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  In the DMS and that is. Should I work in a Michelin Star
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  Kitchen? The short answer is.
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  Yes. If you have the opportunity and
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  the opportunity to means, you know, I don't know if you have
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  the means to travel. I don't know what your financial
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  situation is but if you could have access to some of the best
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  chefs in the world, why wouldn't you?
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  If you could go work in those kitchens?
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  I think everyone should at least experienced it.
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  Maybe get there, you don't like it, you quit, whatever.
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  Maybe you get there and you love it.
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  Maybe find out it's hard. Maybe it's not what you
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  expected. But I can tell you, when you go
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  work in these Ultra high-end kitchens those and I say, Ultra
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  high-end kitchen. I mean like your two, three
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  Michelin star restaurants, your restaurants that are on the
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  world's 50 best. There's things that they are
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  able to do and those kitchens that I don't think people fully
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  realize that there's so many levels up that they don't even
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  notice that this is happening on the plate or that fewer mistakes
• 10:19
  are being made that the the mentality for excellence is just
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  great. And when you surround yourself
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  with really great people, you know, it raises your level.
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  So I've also said this before, you could, let's say you work at
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  NoMa and I'm just using this as an example.
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  Let's say you Go work at NoMa. Then you move to a smaller
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  Market, you're going to be able to ascend.
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  You know, the culinary culinary hierarchy much quicker than you
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  would if you stayed in you know, in the small town.
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  So, we joke about Illuminati of chefs but you go work in these
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  high-end Michelin star world's 50 best kitchens.
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  They pick up the phone and they say, hey do you have a job for?
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  So, and so, and it opens so many doors for you.
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  So many doors will be open. So many opportunities will be
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  created and you will learn a tremendous amount working in
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  these kitchens. But I will say, in most cases,
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  not everywhere. But in most cases, when you go
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  into these top-end kitchens, even if you were, you know an
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  executive chef chef de cuisine sous chef, usually you're going
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  to start at the bottom regardless of What you did
• 11:14
  elsewhere, because most places want you to learn their system
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  and it doesn't matter what, you know, how to do, you got to
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  reprove yourself when you get into these kitchen.
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  So, a lot of times, you know, that cheffy go like, oh, I've
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  been a sous chef, or I've been a chef de cuisine and I'm not
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  going to go and scrub walls and peel carrots.
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  That's, I'm a, I'm above that at this point in my career, but the
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  fact of the matter is, you need to understand how they do
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  everything in these kitchen. So we peel carrots this way.
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  We peel tomatoes that way or maybe we blanch the tomatoes, or
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  maybe we And maybe there's a reason why they teach you to
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  peel tomatoes on blanched. So it's important that you
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  understand that and they want you to start, usually at the
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  bottom and all kitchen. So if you have the opportunity,
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  absolutely, you should. A lot of people might not like
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  it. It's not for everybody, but I do
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  think there's, if I could say this, you know, take what you
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  can from these great kitchens and apply it to make yourself a
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  better Chef. So if you have the option, take
• 12:05
  it. Next question.
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  What's my favorite Chef show? Obviously, that's changed over
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  time. I was just like everyone else.
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  When I first started cooking, I Watched what was available on on
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  TV? What really got me excited to go
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  to culinary school. There used to be a program
• 12:19
  called great Chefs of France and you know, great Chefs of the
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  world are great Chefs of of America.
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  I think was just have a really cool song.
• 12:27
  Great chefs great cities. Anyway, I don't remember what
• 12:29
  the show is called. I think was just called great
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  Chefs of, of the world. That was the show.
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  That really inspired me early on.
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  You always had these master chefs and you know, French chefs
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  teaching basic techniques you could go back and watch some of
• 12:42
  the episodes and you'll see some of The greatest chefs today when
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  they're like 22 years old, making making food that you
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  would say, what that was best restaurant in the world at the
• 12:53
  time. Yeah, food involved obviously.
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  But that was my favorite show back in the day, I think, as
• 12:58
  time progressed I really got into, you know, I had my Emerald
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  phase. I enjoyed watching Emeril and
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  and all these other guys on the Food Network Iron Chef was a big
• 13:07
  thing for me, early in my career.
• 13:09
  But I think now I really enjoy the Netflix series Chef's Table.
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  I think that's probably the best well, well done, best produced
• 13:20
  TV show, that's out there. So you're asking me my opinion,
• 13:23
  that's the show that I watched the most, when it comes to Chef
• 13:26
  cooking, I really don't watch a lot of the, you know, the game
• 13:29
  shows, you know, the, the cooking challenge shows.
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  I really don't watch that that much.
• 13:34
  I occasionally watch Top Chef is probably the only one that I
• 13:38
  watch and, you know, sometimes, I'll watch shows just to support
• 13:40
  friends that I know that are, that are on them.
• 13:42
  So anyway, that's that Next question is, can I come work for
• 13:46
  you? The answer is no, I don't have a
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  professional kitchen that I work out of, I do this.
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  Now, I'm a content creator and I work with myself, mostly almost
• 13:59
  everything that's put on with chefs PSA.
• 14:01
  It's usually all me. So unfortunate to one man show.
• 14:05
  I don't plan on having guest on the podcast any time soon unless
• 14:08
  you want to come work for me for free.
• 14:10
  I'm not hiring anyway, if you want to bring me coffee and
• 14:13
  stuff, Could work for me. Tell me jokes or listened to by
• 14:17
  jokes one way or the other, but other than that, no, I'm not.
• 14:20
  I'm not seeking to work with people, so there right now,
• 14:22
  there isn't an opportunity to work with me.
• 14:24
  Maybe, when chefs, PSA becomes a giant company, I'll be hiring
• 14:28
  people, but most likely I won't be hiring people to cook for me
• 14:32
  at Chefs BSA, anyway, so content creation.
• 14:35
  Anyway, sorry, not an opportunity at this point.
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  However, a lot of chefs that have worked under me do run
• 14:42
  really amazing kitchens out there.
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  So It's probably the closest thing to working with me
• 14:46
  directly as go work for some of these chefs that I've worked
• 14:48
  with. This is a fun question.
• 14:50
  People know I love hip-hop who's the greatest rapper probably
• 14:53
  Nas? I think Nas is probably the
• 14:55
  greatest rapper. I just went to the nas Wu-Tang
• 14:57
  Busta Rhymes concert. It was amazing.
• 15:00
  Had a great time, you know, his ability to rhyme the fact that
• 15:03
  he wrote New York State of Mind. Which I honestly, I think is one
• 15:06
  of the greatest rap songs ever and he wrote it when he was
• 15:08
  like, I don't know 16 or something like that.
• 15:10
  Without Google, that's very impressive.
• 15:13
  I couldn't write that today with Google. so, Nas greatest rapper
• 15:17
  of all time for all, you hip-hop people that want my opinion.
• 15:20
  That's it. I listen to a lot of Nas on
• 15:22
  repeat, Wu-Tang 90s hip-hop. I'm stuck in that era but I do
• 15:26
  like a lot of the newer stuff. Just not as much as I like some
• 15:29
  of the older stuff. But great question, was the
• 15:31
  story about someone trying to shoot you for critiquing their
• 15:34
  food? True.
• 15:35
  Yes, that is a true story and for those of you that don't know
• 15:38
  it, when I was in culinary school, I went to a house party.
• 15:43
  I was about to graduate and there was a lot of younger
• 15:45
  students there. And one of the younger students,
• 15:49
  and by the way, when you're in culinary school, like if you're
• 15:51
  eight months ahead of everyone else, that's no, you just think
• 15:53
  you're a genius compared to them because you know, they don't
• 15:54
  know how to hold a Knife yet and you know how to hold it, but you
• 15:57
  just Nick yourself occasionally. So, I remember I was at the tail
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  end of culinary school and this person was new in culinary
• 16:04
  school. And they were cooking some
• 16:06
  steaks, and they put them in the oven and they were, there were
• 16:08
  clearly overdone there were like New York strips, but there were
• 16:10
  like Well Done, New York strips. And I told the guy I said, hey,
• 16:14
  I think your steaks are well done.
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  And he got really upset and he said, you know, I don't want to
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  died of trichinosis and obviously he was referencing por
• 16:22
  qué? No, he didn't.
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  He didn't know that. We got into a little argument
• 16:26
  over that and I was like, whatever I want about my way,
• 16:28
  but I got a weird feeling about it and I went and told my friend
• 16:31
  I said, hey we should probably leave.
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  Now at the time I was, I was a young kid, but I was a bit of a
• 16:37
  knucklehead Thug at the time, but I my spider senses are going
• 16:40
  off like. Hey, this guy's this guy has
• 16:43
  nothing to lose and very insecure.
• 16:46
  That's a deadly combination. So I told my friend let's get
• 16:50
  out of here and as we were leaving and walking out of the
• 16:54
  party, the guy chased us out with a gun trying to shoot us.
• 16:58
  Shoot me more specifically for critiquing his food.
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  So that was an interesting day and I learned be careful when
• 17:04
  critiquing people's food because they take it serious.
• 17:07
  So anyway yeah that's a true story. 100% true.
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  Next question. If you could only eat in one
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  restaurant as a special occasion this year, Which one would it
• 17:17
  be? I live in Texas.
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  So realistically I probably will eat at this restaurant.
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  And the restaurant happens to be in Dallas and that is Chef
• 17:27
  Junior Borgias restaurant in Meridian.
• 17:29
  I think, honestly, I think it's one of the best restaurants in
• 17:32
  the state. Arguably, he's a friend.
• 17:35
  So, you know, shout out to Junior and the team there at The
• 17:38
  Village Meridian. But I do think that's probably
• 17:41
  one of the best dining experiences in Texas that I've
• 17:44
  had. I ate their last year, I'd
• 17:46
  probably know I ate there this year.
• 17:48
  Yeah. If I could only have one meal
• 17:49
  this year, I would say I would probably eat there again.
• 17:51
  It was that good Junior's a phenomenal, Chef good friend but
• 17:55
  the food that he's putting out his very, very high level not to
• 18:00
  offend anyone else, any of my other friends in Texas but I do
• 18:03
  think that the food that he's putting out of some of the best
• 18:05
  in the state. So that would be my one meal.
• 18:09
  Stickley that I probably will have this year.
• 18:12
  The next question is what career paths are there for chefs that
• 18:15
  are burnt out? That's a really good question.
• 18:19
  And unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to answer
• 18:23
  because I don't know the specific individual and what
• 18:25
  other skills you have, but as a chef I could tell you this.
• 18:29
  If you're an executive chef, you start to develop a lot of
• 18:31
  leadership skills. You understand politics, you
• 18:34
  understand HR, you understand financials.
• 18:38
  So, if you no longer want to be a chef and I'm using this as a
• 18:43
  general rule of thumb for everyone, that's a chef but you
• 18:46
  could transition into other areas of leadership and
• 18:49
  management, because I do think that if you're a chef You learn
• 18:53
  great leadership skills, you learn problem management,
• 18:56
  financials etc, etc, etc, great skills that are transferable to
• 19:01
  any other industry. So I would say, find another
• 19:03
  position in leadership again, without knowing your specific
• 19:06
  skills because maybe your great painter.
• 19:07
  And I can't sit here and say, oh, you should go be a painter.
• 19:10
  So very difficult question to answer.
• 19:11
  But I would say in general, the skills that you learn as a chef
• 19:14
  in terms of leadership are very transferable to many other
• 19:17
  Industries. Great question the next
• 19:19
  questioners. What are some resume red flag?
• 19:22
  Eggs. That's a really good question.
• 19:24
  And I should probably do a whole episode on this.
• 19:28
  There's a lot of questions that I need to answer here today and
• 19:30
  I want to stay within the timeframe but red flags that I
• 19:33
  would look. For is someone that's hopped
• 19:35
  around too much in the industry. So and when I get that, that's
• 19:39
  that's common, but what's not? Common is two weeks, three
• 19:42
  weeks, one month, two months, and when you start asking them,
• 19:46
  they have a wild story as to why they went from here to here to
• 19:49
  here to here and sometimes it adds up.
• 19:51
  But a lot of times it's not in you look for patterns.
• 19:53
  So if the pattern is that they've never been able to hold
• 19:56
  a job for a month, then likely they're not going to work for
• 19:59
  you for greater than a month. So, looking at looking at
• 20:03
  patterns and expecting people to be who they are, I think is a
• 20:05
  good thing also. People that have been in
• 20:08
  position, maybe a little bit too long and I'll give you an
• 20:12
  example. If everyone is going through
• 20:13
  sous chef at a rate of let's just say 125 years 125 years.
• 20:17
  Let's say, that's that's the rate for someone to be in the
• 20:21
  position of sous-chef. But someone's been A sous chef
• 20:23
  for 10 years. And now all of a sudden they
• 20:24
  want to go into a very big next step.
• 20:28
  I would, I would question that I would want to understand why and
• 20:30
  sometimes there's a good reason, why.
• 20:32
  But a lot of times, if they weren't getting promoted
• 20:35
  anywhere else, there might be a reason why they weren't getting
• 20:37
  promoted anywhere else. So that's also something that I
• 20:39
  look for in terms of resume red flag.
• 20:42
  So the jumping around maybe too long and position without being
• 20:48
  really able to explain why Additionally, inconsistencies
• 20:54
  with title. So all chefs know each other.
• 20:56
  I've talked about this before that, everyone talks, they pick
• 20:59
  up the phone, they call another Chef.
• 21:00
  Say hey, did you work with this person and you find out?
• 21:03
  Oh, yeah, there were a cook, but on the resume that says, they
• 21:05
  were a sous chef or something like that, so people that lie on
• 21:07
  their resume is obviously a big red flag and then if I was going
• 21:10
  to get really picky like maybe for a higher position.
• 21:13
  So let's just say, it's like my number two, if their spelling
• 21:16
  and grammar and, you know, Silly mistakes like that on the
• 21:19
  resume, that's a red flag to me, you know.
• 21:21
  Well that people that don't pay attention to detail and maybe
• 21:23
  I'm hiring them for an attention to detail type job.
• 21:27
  If they can't pay attention to the resume and the grammar and
• 21:30
  the spelling and the dates and all the other things that go on
• 21:32
  the resume than what else would they can miss, when they're in
• 21:34
  the in their operation, when I need them to pay attention to
• 21:37
  the details so I could really get into it.
• 21:39
  By the way, I do talk about this a little bit in the culinary
• 21:42
  fundamentals book. So if you want me to expand upon
• 21:45
  it, read the book also. Can you expand on?
• 21:48
  Yes, chef versus heard. And yeah, so this is something
• 21:53
  that I wrote in the first chest, PSA book The Red Book and it was
• 21:58
  that we Chef. Yes, chef are greater than
• 22:03
  heard. And the reason I wrote that is
• 22:06
  because that's the type of kitchen that I came up.
• 22:08
  And so what like I've said before, I wrote the original
• 22:11
  book for myself and my circle of friends.
• 22:14
  So we all said yes, chef oui Chef, no, Chef Etc, no one in my
• 22:18
  circle said, heard, then, it was just kind of like It felt wrong
• 22:22
  when we'd hear it because we all said the same thing.
• 22:24
  So like I said, we were in an echo chamber.
• 22:27
  It's probably the one thing that I think I've probably pissed off
• 22:31
  the most amount of chefs when I said, you shouldn't say heard in
• 22:33
  the kitchen. Because you guys do whatever you
• 22:36
  want your kitchen, run it, however you want.
• 22:38
  I personally don't say it. I prefer.
• 22:39
  Yes. Chef oui chef and I know my
• 22:42
  circle of friends prefer yes, chef oui Chef or just Chef if
• 22:46
  you're into the whole brevity thing, I'll tell you a story and
• 22:49
  this is what I wrote In the book.
• 22:50
  I don't know if this is true and that is that if you came up
• 22:54
  under the Brigade system with chefs most of the chef's back in
• 22:57
  the day where European so german-french Austria, Etc.
• 23:01
  And so you came up, you were saying yes, chef no Chef or Chef
• 23:05
  because they were the chef, but if you came up in a kitchen
• 23:09
  where there was a kitchen manager and they weren't a chef,
• 23:12
  there would be no reason to call them Chef.
• 23:14
  You would just say heard because you wouldn't call back and say,
• 23:16
  yes, chef, if they weren't a chef, the argument that was made
• 23:19
  to me. Was that if you said heard, it's
• 23:24
  because you came from the family tree of places where there
• 23:28
  weren't chefs and it was just kind of passed on or you came
• 23:32
  from a family tree of places where there was Chef, I don't
• 23:34
  know if that's true. True.
• 23:35
  I thought it was a pretty good story, it might not be true.
• 23:38
  But nonetheless, that's why, in kitchens that I came up.
• 23:42
  And we always said, yes, chef. And like I said, say whatever
• 23:44
  you want. I don't, I really don't care
• 23:45
  that much. However, I will say in by world
• 23:50
  where I worked. It was always, yes.
• 23:51
  Chef actually was just Chef. We didn't even say that.
• 23:53
  Yes, part and a lot of chefs that I know they just say, Chef,
• 23:57
  yes, chef oui Chef, whatever, some places I've seen, they just
• 24:01
  say heard Chef. So, again, it's whatever
• 24:03
  language that they use in the Jim where you're working.
• 24:06
  That's the language that you use.
• 24:07
  If I was running a kitchen it would just be Chef anyway.
• 24:10
  Teach their own. You do what you do but that's
• 24:12
  the story behind it. Great question.
• 24:14
  The next question is who have you enjoyed cooking with the
• 24:18
  most? Hmm, it's a good question,
• 24:23
  obviously my teammates and people that I've worked with in
• 24:25
  the kitchen you know, throughout my history as a chef, you know,
• 24:29
  I have moments in time where the team just clicks.
• 24:32
  You know, when I was the chef at the and the Fairmont Dallas, the
• 24:36
  team around me just clicked, everyone just got it.
• 24:39
  And we had such a great time of world Young and Hungry before we
• 24:42
  all started. But during those early days,
• 24:44
  that was a special moment. When I opened up my most recent
• 24:47
  total at the Fairmont, Austin, the team around me, the opening
• 24:51
  team was just amazing and I enjoyed working with all of them
• 24:54
  and I was actually talking to some of the chef's that worked
• 24:57
  for me back then. So we had an opening team of
• 25:00
  eight opening chefs and every single one of those opening
• 25:03
  chefs is now an executive chef Chef De Cuisine head chef
• 25:06
  basically, somewhere else in a very prestigious location and it
• 25:11
  was something that made me super proud thinking that.
• 25:13
  Wow, all the opening team is now leading their own teams.
• 25:17
  They all became chefs in a short period of time.
• 25:20
  That made me super happy but it also made me super sad to know
• 25:23
  that we will never all work together again.
• 25:25
  Under those circumstances where we were all just pushing each
• 25:29
  other and to be the best that we could.
• 25:31
  So those are probably the moments that I've enjoyed and
• 25:34
  the people that I've ever I enjoyed cooking with the most.
• 25:36
  Now, in terms of like guest Chef, it's always a pleasure to
• 25:39
  cook with, you know, Chef friends of mine.
• 25:41
  So whether you know, it's a guest Chef series or whatever
• 25:43
  and I have a lot of friends that are, you know, top level chefs
• 25:47
  and great chefs that working great restaurants with stars or
• 25:50
  whatever. But the one that I probably will
• 25:53
  never forget was, I did a dinner with the Celler de can Roca team
• 25:57
  in Austin, and it was probably one of the coolest things
• 26:01
  because I think at this time, they were just maybe a year or
• 26:04
  two removed from Number one restaurant in the world.
• 26:07
  And there I was seeing their culinary team.
• 26:10
  Working in tandem with the culinary team that I was leading
• 26:14
  and seen all their culinary techniques and sitting down with
• 26:17
  the chef afterwards and we had this amazing dinner afterwards
• 26:21
  and it was a moment that I'll never forget that.
• 26:23
  I got to sit next to Chef Joe on Roca and pick his brain all
• 26:27
  night. And you know, we became friends
• 26:28
  and he invited me to come stay at his place in Spain, which I
• 26:31
  haven't taken them up on, but it was great to work.
• 26:35
  With him and see his food and see how real they are.
• 26:37
  And they're just, they're just good people and it was a little
• 26:41
  bit surreal but that was you know in terms of like guest Chef
• 26:44
  that would probably be a. But in terms of just day-to-day,
• 26:47
  you know the chefs that I've worked with in those moments of
• 26:50
  time where we've achieved greatness, it's a group of
• 26:52
  people. Great question.
• 26:54
  And now I'm on the last question and it's a really good question
• 26:56
  and I deliberately put it last and that is where do I see The
• 27:00
  Culinary industry going in the next 10 years?
• 27:03
  What I see is there? There's a massive shift in the
• 27:08
  way that we look at food. I think that being able to cook
• 27:11
  your authentic food is going to become more and more of a thing.
• 27:14
  So you know before where everyone just did, you know,
• 27:17
  French or Italian or whatever I think, now it's going to be more
• 27:20
  so about the individual but it's almost even more dialed down.
• 27:24
  So it's like, let's just say it's Mexican but it's not just
• 27:26
  Mexican and it's not just Mexican from this city.
• 27:29
  And it's not just Mexican from this town, but it's Mexican from
• 27:33
  this household and the food that You saw in there or the food
• 27:36
  that their grandmother cooked, I think you're going to start to
• 27:38
  see a lot of that where it's the Traditions that people had in
• 27:42
  their homes lifted up with their culinary technique.
• 27:45
  So I think that's the way that food is going where people are
• 27:48
  going to be able to express themselves, much more.
• 27:51
  I also see in the in the next couple of years, many more head
• 27:54
  chefs are going to be women and I'll tell you why.
• 27:57
  I saw that, you know, years ago I was on the board for a
• 27:59
  culinary school and I remember walking through the halls and
• 28:03
  seeing a you know about Yo, 30 percent were female, and 70
• 28:08
  percent were male students. And when I went to culinary
• 28:11
  school, it was like, there was like three girls in my class out
• 28:13
  of, like, 30 people. And so, now, I saw a big shift
• 28:17
  in the amount of female chefs that were going to culinary
• 28:19
  school as time went on. I remember the split even
• 28:23
  flipped more where 70% of the students were female and about
• 28:26
  30% were male. And, you know, it takes time to
• 28:29
  catch up. So those people that were going
• 28:32
  into industry as Cooks after 10 years.
• 28:35
  Or so, they're going to be the chefs.
• 28:37
  So, I think the majority of chefs in the next 10 years will
• 28:41
  probably most likely be female. Again, that's just the way I see
• 28:46
  it playing out. Based on what I saw in the
• 28:48
  culinary schools. I also see a lot of the casual
• 28:53
  places. Starting to disappear, you know,
• 28:55
  the chain Concepts. I see, you know, with ten years.
• 28:59
  I think we'll probably be going more towards Robotics and AI.
• 29:03
  I think that's a very real thing.
• 29:04
  You know, there's A lot of robots out there that could flip
• 29:06
  Burgers better than people. So I think if it's not a chef
• 29:09
  driven concept, I think a lot of that will be replaced by robots
• 29:13
  and AI but the chef-driven concepts, you know, you still
• 29:16
  want to hear the story and the passion of the individual.
• 29:18
  I think those will Thrive more but time will tell, I could be
• 29:21
  wrong. Anyway, that's that's my
• 29:22
  prediction. I see more authenticity.
• 29:24
  I see more females, running top kitchens and I see a lot of the
• 29:29
  fast casual stuff and chains being replaced by robots.
• 29:33
  Anyway, that was a great question.
• 29:35
  I want to wrap it up. Thank you all for the questions.
• 29:37
  I really enjoyed doing this podcast.
• 29:40
  If you want to support the show, follow chefs PSA on all social
• 29:44
  platforms. There's a link to donate in the
• 29:46
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• 29:50
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• 29:53
  and chefs, PSA culinary leadership fundamentals and go
• 29:56
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• 29:58
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• 30:01
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