Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Chef Secret Societies, Are You In? | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 115

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Chef Secret Societies, Are You In? | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 115 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs. This is Chef's PSA podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host Andre Natara. On today's episode, we're going
• 0:05
  to talk chef secret societies, chef organizations, chef
• 0:09
  Illuminati, all of that. Stay tuned.
• 0:23
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• 1:47
  want to make sure you go get yourself a hoodie and look cool.
• 1:50
  Anyway we digress. Where were we?
• 1:53
  I was about to take a sip of First of all, before you even
• 1:56
  take a sip, do you know what this is?
• 1:57
  Is it espresso or is it espresso?
• 2:00
  Don't say it. It's espresso.
• 2:02
  You're right, Espresso Espresso doesn't sponsor me, so I don't
• 2:06
  even know why I'm I'm mentioning them.
• 2:07
  Anyway, we digress. Where were we?
• 2:09
  So this past week I was in El Paso.
• 2:12
  I'm part of an organization called El Paso Family Meal.
• 2:15
  It's a group of chefs started and founded by Rico Torres.
• 2:18
  You could see him on one of the chef's PSA episodes a couple of
• 2:20
  episodes back. He founded this organization.
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  I'm one of the original members of the organization.
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  What it was, it's a group of friends who all happened to be
• 2:27
  from El Paso. And we'd always bump into each
• 2:30
  other on the chef circuit, you know, whether it was a food and
• 2:32
  wine festival or whatever. And then as we got to know each
• 2:35
  other, we'd find out, oh, you're from here, I'm from here.
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  And what Rico wanted to do is gather everyone together, go
• 2:42
  back home and cook together. Been almost five years now since
• 2:46
  he founded the organization. And there's other chef members
• 2:48
  in here including Gabe or Alice, Top Chef winner Jake Rojas, Omar
• 2:53
  Flores, Fermin Nunez, and a lot of other chefs.
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  We get together, we go home and we cook.
• 3:00
  Sometimes we do it in Austin, TX, they've done it in Rhode
• 3:02
  Island. But what was really interesting
• 3:04
  is this past event that we did, there was two parts to it.
• 3:07
  So Part 1 was I did a, a book signing and lecture at the
• 3:12
  Culinary Institute, SW Culinary Institute in El Paso, TX.
• 3:17
  I did a lecture and by the way, this book right here, Bad Cooks
• 3:21
  Everywhere. I was signing it.
• 3:22
  I was talking about it. You should get it.
• 3:23
  By the way, it's available on Chefs psa.com.
• 3:25
  All my books are available over there.
• 3:27
  This is a fun one. Bad cooks everywhere.
• 3:29
  Why? Because there's bad cooks
• 3:31
  everywhere. There's bad people everywhere.
• 3:33
  There's assholes everywhere, but there's also good people
• 3:35
  everywhere. So it's a good story.
• 3:36
  It's a good fictional narrative to teach you what it's like to
• 3:40
  work in professional kitchens if you're not used to it.
• 3:42
  But anyway, back to the event. Day one, I'm giving a lecture.
• 3:46
  There's an after party meet and greet.
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  We meet up at a bar, get to network with other chefs.
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  A bunch of culinary students show up.
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  It's nice. It's, it's good to interact with
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  them and get to know them and speak with them.
• 3:56
  Shout out to them if they're listening.
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  It was really nice to meet you. And there was also a dinner
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  component. So the dinner component had
• 4:02
  several chefs all doing different courses.
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  I think we ended up with like 9 courses.
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  I didn't do a course because there was a lot of chefs there
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  and my participation this time around was just to do the public
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  speaking. But I was there in the kitchen
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  hanging out. But what was really interesting
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  about this environment is that so many students and other cooks
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  from around the city volunteered.
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  The kitchen was packed. It was a, it was packed like
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  sardines. There was nowhere to work
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  because so many people wanted to come and help so they could be a
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  part of it, right? And it blew my mind how many
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  students, how many young culinarians just wanted to be
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  involved because they see that it's a good 'cause it goes to
• 4:39
  charity, but on top of the fact that it's a good 'cause it gives
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  them an opportunity to network with chefs that they may not
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  have an opportunity to network with otherwise.
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  So after the event, I put up a chef's PSA on the Instagram page
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  and it said, if you want to grow, get involved.
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  Spectators stay on the sidelines.
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  And it's really interesting. You should, you should go see
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  that post, read the caption because it ties into this
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  podcast. Are there organizations of
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  chefs? Like I often joke around and say
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  there's a chef Illuminati. Is there really a chef
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  Illuminati? Maybe.
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  I don't know, but we like to joke around and say there is a
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  chef Illuminati, right? There's organizations in the
• 5:15
  culinary world that can really benefit you and your career.
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  I've been a part of many of these organizations throughout
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  my career. I've been a member of the
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  American Culinary Federation. I've been a member of the
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  Epicurean World Master Chef Society.
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  I've been a member. I am a member of Mentor BKB.
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  I've been a board member of the Texas Food and Wine Alliance,
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  been a board member of culinary schools.
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  I got my invite and my medal to be a member of the Disciples of
• 5:41
  Escoffier, a little pot and a medal, but I never went through
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  the induction ceremony because COVID.
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  But anyway, I've been involved with many of these organizations
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  and there's a lot of other ones out there.
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  They all bring benefit to the individual depending on what
• 5:56
  your goals are, and not every organization is going to be
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  right for you and me. I've been a member of, I hate to
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  say I've been a member of all of them at one point in time or
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  another, but I truly have. I've been involved in most of
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  these organizations and I could tell you when I was involved
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  with them initially, I didn't see the benefit right away.
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  I don't see the benefit. You're in a room, there's
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  meetings, maybe you're not following along or it's not
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  relevant to what you do day-to-day.
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  I didn't really understand why I needed to be there.
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  Hold on. I need to take another sip of my
• 6:24
  espresso. Espresso.
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  It's what real chefs drink. Some of you are going to get
• 6:28
  really mad because I keep saying that I'm not going to stop.
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  I refuse to say espresso. I will continue to say espresso
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  because I know you get mad because most of you can't take a
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  joke anyway. When I was a young chef, when I
• 6:42
  first got involved in these organizations, my chef would
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  take me to cooking competitions and he would bring master chefs
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  over to judge certified master chefs, part of the American
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  Culinary Federation, to judge how we were cooking.
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  And I was just a young cook at the time, but I wanted to, I
• 6:58
  wanted to be great. So I used to get so nervous
• 7:00
  going up and presenting my food to these master chefs, but they
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  knew who I was and they started to take interest in invest in
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  me. Later on, I worked for another
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  chef and he was heavily involved in several organizations, the
• 7:12
  World Master Chef Society and the American Culinary Federation
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  and the Texas Chefs Association actually.
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  So three different three different organizations and he
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  would take me along to all these fundraisers.
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  I would be washing dishes in the back or setting up for him while
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  he'd go network. And I used to hate it.
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  I really didn't like it at the time because I was the sous chef
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  or the cook. I was the setup guy and I was
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  the cleanup guy. And I used to think, wow, he
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  gets all the credit and I just have to be here doing all this
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  stuff. Now.
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  At that time, I didn't realize it and I would, I would
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  sometimes complain to him and he would say to me, Andre, it's
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  about networking. It's about getting to know those
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  people because it's not about who you know.
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  Sometimes it's about who knows you.
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  And that didn't make sense to me at the time, but later on in my
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  career it did. It's very important to make sure
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  that you're out there networking, meeting different
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  chefs at these fundraisers, at these food and wine festivals,
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  getting involved in the community, being involved in
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  some of these organizations because many opportunities start
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  to present themselves to you and start to open up for you years
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  later. I mean, this is almost 25 years
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  ago that I was just an apprentice moving cambros full
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  of food around food grazers, and these chefs still talk to me.
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  It was surreal because back then these were people that I
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  idolized. These were master chefs, these
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  were certified executive chefs. These were people that were top
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  of the food chain in the city and they all knew my name.
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  I didn't think they knew my name.
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  I mean, I barely even talked to them.
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  They just knew me. I was a good kid.
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  They knew me as someone that was going places.
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  I still talk to them to these days.
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  And sometimes it's nostalgic for me to bump into some of these
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  chefs that I used to idolize when I was a kid.
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  And I cherish those friendships and those mentorships that I
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  received for them. I didn't really know how lucky I
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  was. Earlier, I had mentioned El Paso
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  Family Meal, one of the members there, Jake Rojas.
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  Jake is a great chef, funny guy, but also a great chef and he's
• 9:07
  worked in some of the best restaurants, including, you
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  know, being the chef at Joel Rubashon, amongst other places.
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  And he and I were talking one day and we didn't know that we
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  were kind of in the same the same group.
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  He was an apprentice also at the same time, I was an apprentice
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  under some of the same chefs. So we went down memory lane,
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  talk about how do you know this one?
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  Oh man, I worked under that one. And it's interesting how much he
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  revered these chefs just as much as I did here.
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  He is a very successful chef now.
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  Many restaurants, many executive chef positions, legendary.
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  And we both kind of came up in the same circles and people
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  opened up doors for us. He got his foot in the door in
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  Las Vegas because of his chef. When you're involved in these
• 9:45
  organizations, whether it be Mentor, BKBA, couple of episodes
• 9:48
  back, I interviewed Robert Sladecki, which it was a great
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  episode. I think everyone should listen
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  to it. But he talks about the
• 9:54
  organization Mentor, which was founded by Thomas Keller, Jerome
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  Bocuse and Daniel Belude. And this organization is AI
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  mean. It's it's a who's who of chefs
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  of the greatest chefs in the United States, helping a
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  competitor go to the bucustior this year, Stephanie De Palma.
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  They trained them, they coach them and they prepare them.
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  But on top of that, there's also the opportunity to go got one of
• 10:16
  these mentorship grants to go work in some of the best
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  restaurants in the world, whether that be The French
• 10:22
  Laundry or Per SE or Noma. Fully paid for.
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  And I know when I was a chef, many of my team members took
• 10:27
  advantage of that. And why?
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  Because doors open for you when people know who you are, right?
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  And that'll do. They open for you.
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  But if you're the executive chef, they also open up for the
• 10:38
  team and it creates opportunities for them to go
• 10:42
  experience new things. That's part of your legacy.
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  You want to see your team grow and succeed and go out there and
• 10:47
  stand on their own 2 feet. But sometimes they come back and
• 10:50
  when they come back, they come back with new skills that they
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  learn from other chefs and other kitchens that they could bring
• 10:56
  back to your kitchen and hopefully do it the right way.
• 10:59
  Not say, well, that's not how we did at my last job, but say,
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  hey, this is what I learned at these places and use it as an
• 11:04
  educational resource. I was talking to a chef once and
• 11:07
  he was constantly involved in these culinary competitions, and
• 11:11
  we were talking about the Certified Master Chef exam and
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  how one person passed and one person didn't.
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  And he had mentioned to me the importance of being involved in
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  a lot of these culinary competitions through the ACF is
• 11:22
  that way people know who you are.
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  Because if they've never seen you cook before and then you go
• 11:27
  through a certified master chef exam, they might cut you a
• 11:30
  little slack because they know you've demonstrated it before,
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  they've seen it done before, where if they don't know you at
• 11:36
  all, they have to assume everything.
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  At that point, everything that they see from you that day is
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  all they know. There is no slack.
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  So again, it's important who you know, right?
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  I could pick up the phone and I call up one of my friends and
• 11:48
  they can help me get a job or I can one of my friends calls me
• 11:51
  and says, hey, do you know this person?
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  Can you can you make a recommendation or can you make a
• 11:54
  couple of phone calls? What do you know?
• 11:56
  This happens all the time. People are opening doors for you
• 11:59
  or closing them without your knowledge.
• 12:01
  I know stories about chefs that I've never met.
• 12:03
  Sometimes in the position that I'm in, it's a little bit weird
• 12:06
  because I know a lot of things about the industry or about
• 12:11
  positions or moves that are happening or big announcements
• 12:14
  that are coming out, and I can't always talk about them.
• 12:16
  And so I have to act surprised when I hear the news for the
• 12:18
  first time. Sometimes it's just a funny
• 12:20
  position to be in. But anyway, what was I talking
• 12:22
  about? We digress.
• 12:23
  Being involved in organizations going to open up a lot of doors
• 12:25
  for you. Now, I'll share this with you
• 12:27
  years ago. This is a good story.
• 12:29
  There's a legendary certified master chef by the name of
• 12:32
  Ferdinand Metz and he and I were judging Gordon Ramsay's master
• 12:37
  chef auditions in Dallas, TX and they're doing the auditions at
• 12:40
  La Cordon Blue at that time in Dallas, TX.
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  And he and I are, are doing the, the judges auditions.
• 12:46
  And for me at the time, I had never met him before and he,
• 12:49
  this is this guy's a legend, right?
• 12:50
  And we're talking and I'm, I'm like in awe because there was a
• 12:53
  point where we had like a 5 hour gap break.
• 12:57
  It's like I'm just going to hang out with Ferdinand Mets for five
• 12:59
  hours and pick his brain. It was a surreal experience for
• 13:01
  me at the time because he walked on water.
• 13:04
  That was the celebrity chef for me, right?
• 13:07
  I mean, back in the day, if you look at every culinary textbook
• 13:10
  from the CIA, it said Ferdinand Metz or Fritz Sona Schmidt.
• 13:14
  And so here I was, I got to spend all this time with him.
• 13:16
  And he says to me, Andre, I'm hardly ever in Dallas.
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  I want to cook. I was like, great.
• 13:22
  He's like, organize something. So I was like, holy shit, what
• 13:26
  do I do? So I got on the phone.
• 13:28
  I call up all my friends and I say, hey, we're going to cook in
• 13:30
  my kitchen after hours show up at like 10:00 PM.
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  So at 10:00 PM, some of the best chefs in Dallas show up and I'm.
• 13:40
  And at that time, you know, times were different.
• 13:42
  I'm trying to remember who was there with Scott Romano, who at
• 13:44
  the time was the chef of Charlie Palmer's, Matt McAllister,
• 13:48
  famous chef from FT 33 and other restaurants in Dallas, Brian
• 13:53
  Lucier, who at that time had the grape and a couple of other
• 13:56
  chefs, Pat Mitchell and so on and so forth.
• 13:57
  A couple of food writers who was a food writer there from the New
• 14:00
  York Magazine. I don't remember, but we're all
• 14:02
  cooking in the kitchen. And then afterwards, we go sit
• 14:05
  down and we have dinner with Ferdinand Metz and he's talking
• 14:09
  about the importance of creating community and an after hours get
• 14:14
  together of chefs. He says this has to be an idea
• 14:18
  exchange forum. He says you need to be able to
• 14:20
  change exchange ideas. You need to be able to exchange
• 14:23
  resources. You need to talk about which
• 14:25
  cooks are coming up, which ones need to grow, Who do you have?
• 14:28
  You need a position. Who do we know?
• 14:30
  He's like, if you want to elevate the city, the only way
• 14:32
  you're going to elevate the city in a secondary market because we
• 14:36
  were in Dallas, TX at the time. He's like the best chefs need to
• 14:39
  get together and you need to break bread and you need to help
• 14:42
  each other grow. Not make it a competition, but
• 14:45
  lift everyone up at the same time.
• 14:46
  It was a really important message that he gave us and he
• 14:50
  wanted to champion this tremendously.
• 14:52
  So he had come back a couple more times after that, reached
• 14:57
  out to me and said organize the team again.
• 14:58
  The second time we got together it was even bigger than the
• 15:01
  first time because the first time it was on a whim.
• 15:04
  Who could I get a hold of? The second time, bigger names
• 15:07
  involved Dean Fairing, Stephen Pyles again, Matt McAllister.
• 15:11
  I'm trying to think who else was there, but every big name chef
• 15:14
  basically in Dallas at that time all showed up.
• 15:17
  We all got together and cooked and there was 3 master chefs are
• 15:22
  coming down to cook with us as well.
• 15:23
  You had Fritz Sauna, Schmidt from the CIA, Ferdinand Metz, Ed
• 15:27
  Leonard and they were all cooking side by side.
• 15:29
  We sat down in this big banquet table and we had a feast.
• 15:32
  Everyone threw down, everyone cooked and it was a lot of fun
• 15:36
  and we talked about those things that Ferdinand Metz thought was
• 15:39
  so important about building a network, building a community.
• 15:43
  Now you talk about these secret door closed meetings and this is
• 15:47
  what it's about. This is that chef Illuminati.
• 15:49
  It's about how strong is your network?
• 15:51
  Can you pick up the phone and get favors, make moves, access
• 15:55
  to resources? I experienced that at that
• 15:58
  point. I experienced that this weekend
• 16:00
  with El Paso family meal. And the most important thing I
• 16:02
  think if you're listening is what are you doing in your city
• 16:05
  to create that if you're a young culinary and what organizations
• 16:08
  are you going to get involved in?
• 16:11
  Are you going to join the American Culinary Federation?
• 16:14
  Are you going to join the Slow Food Movement?
• 16:16
  Are you going to become a fellow at the CIA?
• 16:19
  Join the World Master Chef Society or a local organization
• 16:23
  of chefs where you're at? Get involved, go to the
• 16:26
  fundraisers, volunteer, participate.
• 16:28
  Like I said, it's not who you know, it's who knows you.
• 16:32
  What I want to do with Chef's PSA is bring you in, let you
• 16:35
  know what goes on behind the scenes and hopefully fast track
• 16:39
  your career so you could get involved in some of these
• 16:40
  things. A lot of doors will open for
• 16:43
  you, I promise you. In your city.
• 16:45
  Get a group of chefs together late night, cook together,
• 16:48
  exchange ideas. Talk about your sous chefs and
• 16:52
  your line cooks and who's ready to move up.
• 16:54
  Create opportunities for mentorship for them.
• 16:57
  Give them opportunities to work in each other's kitchens to
• 16:59
  learn and bring back ideas, foster communication, right?
• 17:03
  The bigger your network, the more opportunities you're going
• 17:06
  to have. And also, if you're not
• 17:08
  involved, understand from a career standpoint, there's a
• 17:12
  certain degree of proficiency that's needed.
• 17:14
  Culinary acumen, technical skills, that's the gatekeeper if
• 17:18
  you want to get a job and you want to move up, right?
• 17:20
  If you don't have that, you might as well be in any industry
• 17:24
  because without the culinary skills, that is what is unique
• 17:27
  to our industry is the ability to cook.
• 17:29
  So you have to have that down that has to be on autopilot.
• 17:32
  Your skills have to be there. Then of course, you have
• 17:34
  leadership, managerial skills that are needed specifically for
• 17:38
  a chef and to run kitchens. But then after that, it's your
• 17:41
  network. It's who you know and the person
• 17:43
  who has those other two things. Plus a network will create more
• 17:47
  opportunities. You can't be mad when
• 17:50
  opportunities are going to people and you say all they only
• 17:52
  take care of their friends, but yet you stay on the sidelines
• 17:55
  and don't want to participate. The next question you might say
• 17:57
  is, well, how do I get involved? You just show up, right?
• 18:01
  Don't be afraid. Reach out.
• 18:03
  When you see an event is happening, reach out to the
• 18:06
  event organizer and say, can I volunteer?
• 18:08
  Can I show up? Can I be involved?
• 18:10
  Can I hand out plates? When you're at these events with
• 18:13
  other chefs, introduce yourself. Shake hands.
• 18:17
  I was telling some of the younger culinary students, make
• 18:19
  sure you go around and introduce yourself to all the chefs.
• 18:21
  They were a little bit nervous, like, oh, I'm a little bit
• 18:23
  nervous chef. And like, I promise you, these
• 18:24
  chefs will not bite your head off and they will actually enjoy
• 18:28
  talking to you, giving you advice and spending a little bit
• 18:30
  of time with you. Being a chef is more than just
• 18:33
  cooking. It's also about your network.
• 18:35
  Get involved. Get out there, make a friend,
• 18:37
  help a friend, mentor somebody, get a mentor.
• 18:40
  That's it. If you want to support the show,
• 18:42
  you know what to do. Make sure you leave five stars,
• 18:44
  nothing less than five stars. If you're watching on YouTube,
• 18:47
  hit the like and subscribe button.
• 18:48
  Go to chefspsa.com. You get everything, all the
• 18:50
  books, all the merch. If you're trying to get on that
• 18:52
  mentorship waiting list, if there's an e-mail in there you
• 18:55
  can reach out to, we'll see you next week.
• 18:57
  Hit the porno music.