Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Special Chef's Leadership Interview Ep. 91
Transcript
- 0:00Hello Chefs, This is Chefs PSA Podcast.
- 0:02I'm your host Andrea Terra. Today we have a special
- 0:04leadership interview episode. Stay tuned.
- 0:19So before we begin, if you want to support the show, you know
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- 0:33Go get the Culinary Leadership Fundamentals book.
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- 0:42some chefs. PSA merch at chefs.
- 0:45Psa.com. Go there now.
- 0:47So this episode in particular, I'm going to give you a little
- 0:49back story. For context, a few weeks ago I
- 0:52was at South by Southwest and I got to listen to a panel of
- 0:56chefs hosted by Emmanuel LaRoche, who hosts Flavors
- 1:00Unknown podcast. Now Emmanuel and I are good
- 1:02friends. I've known him for a very long
- 1:04time. I've been on his podcast I think
- 1:07five or six times as a guest. I have two solo episodes with
- 1:11him and I believe 4 episodes with a group of chefs.
- 1:16And today's episode is an interview he did with me
- 1:20regarding leadership. Now, the reason I wanted to play
- 1:23this today and I wanted you all to listen to it, is because it's
- 1:26a very interesting conversation. Now, for context, this interview
- 1:29was supposed to take place at South by Southwest, but then
- 1:33COVID hit, so South by Southwest was canceled.
- 1:35And this is before we started talking about anything COVID.
- 1:38I was still a very active chef at this time, sitting on top of
- 1:42the world and really pushing for culinary excellence.
- 1:45I hadn't retired yet. I hadn't even thought about
- 1:47Chef's PSA, what I find so interesting about this
- 1:51interview, which was designed to be a panel discussion for chief
- 1:55marketing officers at South by Southwest, and what they could
- 1:57learn about leadership from a chef's perspective.
- 2:01There's a lot of really good insight in here.
- 2:03Emmanuel is a great interviewer. He has really good questions he
- 2:07likes to probe. He pushed me a little bit at
- 2:09times. There's some foreshadowing in
- 2:11there because at one point he asks me what am I going to do
- 2:15next? And I jokingly say I'm going to
- 2:17start a podcast. It was very interesting for me
- 2:20to listen to this because I see how my speaking style has
- 2:23evolved from the podcast. Now that I have practice
- 2:25speaking in front of the camera, it was interesting to see how my
- 2:28thoughts have evolved. And it was also very interesting
- 2:30for me to see how direct I was. I was still very much in
- 2:34hardcore chef mode, living it every single day.
- 2:36And it has. It has just a very different
- 2:38feel from the Normal Chef's PSA podcast, and that's why I really
- 2:41wanted to share this interview with you.
- 2:43The interview starts about two minutes into the podcast after
- 2:47he's done the intro. I figure you all know me by now,
- 2:49no sense in going over that again.
- 2:51And it gets right into the questions.
- 2:53I'm going to give you about half of the episode and I would
- 2:55encourage you, if you enjoy the conversation, go listen to the
- 2:58full episode. I'm going to link it in the show
- 3:00notes, so that way you could listen to the episode on
- 3:02Spotify. Without further ado, here's my
- 3:05leadership interview on Flavors Unknown.
- 3:08I mean, do you mind say a few words about your car year and
- 3:13that leaded you to the current responsibility do you have at
- 3:16the Fairmont? I've been cooking for, I keep
- 3:19saying, 25 years, but now I think I would say it's over 25
- 3:22years. And I've been an executive chef
- 3:25in many different aspects of food and beverage organizations.
- 3:28So everything from from hotels to resorts, work in California.
- 3:33I've worked in Colorado. I've been a task force opening
- 3:36chef. I've worked in small
- 3:38restaurants. I've been a restaurant partner
- 3:40with the restaurant group and open restaurants, and I've been
- 3:43a regional chef and a corporate chef for other organizations.
- 3:47Most recently I was in Dallas, I think probably with the Fairmont
- 3:51in Dallas. I left that organization, opened
- 3:54up a couple of restaurants in Dallas, and I'm sure most people
- 3:57know when you open restaurants, sometimes you close restaurants.
- 4:00That closure led me to Austin, TX and then most.
- 4:04My most recent position for the last three years have been the
- 4:07executive chef running the culinary program for the
- 4:10Fairmont Austin, which is the largest luxury hotel in Texas
- 4:13where we have, you know, many kitchens, A diverse restaurant
- 4:16portfolio, everything from fine dining to casual dining and a
- 4:20couple of bars, restaurants, room service and everything.
- 4:23So as you said, I mean it's kind of quite a large structure that
- 4:27you have and that you oversee, you know at the Fairmont in
- 4:30Austin. So how many people is part of
- 4:32your entire team? People that I manage directly or
- 4:36indirectly, you know, just kind of under under my umbrella is
- 4:38about 100, about 150 people. 150 people.
- 4:42So if I see you in the hallways of the Fairmont and ask you how
- 4:46are you today, chef, what will be your answer?
- 4:50Not just my answer, but but everyone that works in the
- 4:53kitchens with me, we always say awake and ready and that is.
- 4:56So can you explain to us what was, What's behind it?
- 4:58Yeah, absolutely. So the idea behind Awake and
- 5:01Ready was when we're in the middle of action, when we're in
- 5:03the middle of service, what we want to convey to the person
- 5:06that's asking is that I'm present, focused, I'm awake, and
- 5:09I'm ready for whatever's coming at us today.
- 5:10So whether that's whether that's I'm preferred service, I'm
- 5:13prepared to wash dishes, I'm prepared to serve guests,
- 5:15whatever the case may be, we know that it's a confident
- 5:18answer that I'm fully present. Whatever's going on, whether it
- 5:22be outside distractions, those are the volumes turned down on
- 5:25those and I'm fully here in the moment.
- 5:27We say awake and ready. And that's not to say that it's
- 5:30not important what's going on outside of work because
- 5:33obviously that is important. You know, we really care about
- 5:35our teams and our employees and what's going on.
- 5:37But I think those conversations need to be held in a different
- 5:41location. So a good example I like to give
- 5:43is you're in the middle of service and you're a chef and
- 5:46you have a rail of tickets and everything's coming at you.
- 5:49And you ask someone how you doing and they stay awake and
- 5:51ready. You're fully confident that
- 5:53they're on their station ready for food.
- 5:55If you say how are you, They say, well, you know, I'm having
- 5:58a bad day today. I got a flat tire.
- 6:00You know, as a chef, you start to panic a little bit.
- 6:02Like, wait a minute, are you focused on what's going on right
- 6:05now? So the idea.
- 6:06Of awake and ready just it's just that that we're here, we're
- 6:09focused and we have a job. So in your industry, and the
- 6:13idea is that leave your personal stuff you know at the door, be
- 6:18confident and be present. All right, focused.
- 6:20Be awake and be ready for whatever's going to come at you
- 6:23today. If I can expand upon that a
- 6:24little bit, Not only does instill confidence in the person
- 6:27that hears it, it starts to instill confidence in yourself.
- 6:30So it starts to bring a certain sense of discipline and
- 6:32consistency to the rest of the team so that everyone knows when
- 6:36you know that we're all, we all have a common purpose and we're
- 6:39all in a united front. Everyone is awake and ready.
- 6:41So you have confidence in the rest of the team, right?
- 6:44We're all on the same page. So it it does give everyone a
- 6:47common purpose. So you are talking about
- 6:49discipline and consistency. So when it comes to leadership
- 6:53in the kitchen, it starts with those two elements.
- 6:57But first we have to be clear that when we say discipline, we
- 7:01are not talking about like the fear here.
- 7:03Like hopefully you know this is something from the past, you
- 7:06know from the the the old kitchens and consistency because
- 7:10it relates to building trust with your customer, creating a
- 7:14reputation and a direct impacts, you know and has a direct impact
- 7:17on the bottom line. So can you explain what
- 7:20discipline and consistency means to you and why it is so
- 7:23important in your industry so? I would say when we talk about
- 7:26discipline that we're we're talking about the discipline to
- 7:29do something consistently and it's the right thing to do.
- 7:32So it's like a good example you have to work out in the morning.
- 7:36That's not punishment, but it does require discipline to wake
- 7:39up early in the morning and and go for your morning run or or
- 7:41whatever it is that you do to stay on a healthy diet.
- 7:44This is something good for you, but it requires discipline to
- 7:47stay on that healthy diet. So when we talk about discipline
- 7:50in the workplace, it's the discipline to do the right
- 7:52things that are good for you, that are good for the customer,
- 7:55that are good for the rest of your team.
- 7:57That's the discipline that we're looking for when it comes to
- 8:00consistency, the reason we implement a lot of standards and
- 8:03consistency is I think first of all people want structure and
- 8:06they want parameters, They want to understand the rules of the
- 8:08game. They could be better players and
- 8:11that's where the real creativity comes in.
- 8:14So when you think about if you understand the the rules, you
- 8:17could work within them and find creative solutions within the
- 8:19rules and you don't have to think about all the variables if
- 8:22there were no rules, right, if that sort of.
- 8:26So we talk about consistency of defining those rules.
- 8:28So you would say that for you that everyone's wants to be LED,
- 8:32everyone's needs leadership, correct?
- 8:33I would say everyone needs leadership, everyone needs
- 8:36parameters, but I wouldn't say necessarily that everyone wants
- 8:38to be LED. What I would say is that some
- 8:41people need to be leaders and some people need to be LED, and
- 8:43some but everyone needs a clear set of rules to play the game,
- 8:47if that makes sense. So people love challenges.
- 8:54How do you motivate your team and offer them opportunities?
- 8:58Set goals and give them a sense of purpose.
- 9:01So creating challenges for people is probably one of the
- 9:04most difficult things that you could do.
- 9:05So you have to think of it like this is how do you strive for
- 9:09perfection or excellence in something that you're doing.
- 9:12So those challenges come from the leadership team to provide,
- 9:15but it also comes from the individuals.
- 9:16What we need to do is educate them on what are appropriate
- 9:19challenges for their specific discipline and what they're
- 9:22working on. So for example, if I was looking
- 9:24at if I was looking at someone with knife skills, if I just
- 9:27walk up to someone and say hey, great job on on that, on dicing
- 9:30that onion and don't give them any feedback where they could
- 9:33get better. It might not mean as much,
- 9:35however, if they've gone weeks and weeks and you consistently
- 9:39work with them and say, OK, you could do this a little bit
- 9:41better. Let me give you a little tip
- 9:42here and there. And then?
- 9:44Let's say a month goes by and you come to them and you say, Oh
- 9:46my God, you have perfect Bruno or perfect dice on your onion or
- 9:51your carrot or whatever the case may be.
- 9:53They're going to remember that much more because they earned
- 9:55it. So there's a sense of pride in
- 9:56earning something rather just being given because they might
- 9:59walk around with their chest popped up a little bit and say
- 10:01wow, the chef for months and months he was telling me I
- 10:04couldn't do a perfectly diced onion and kept giving me
- 10:07feedback. But that one day he told me it
- 10:09was perfect. That was the day that I felt so
- 10:11proud. So we have to understand that
- 10:13part of, you know, the the human connection to the task at hand
- 10:17is that if something is very easy to attain or or if the
- 10:20feedback isn't isn't earned, well it loses its sense of
- 10:24value. However, when something is
- 10:26worked on, you know over the course of time and you've worked
- 10:29hard at it, you finally achieved that.
- 10:31That is much more meaningful to the individual.
- 10:33So it's not about constant feedback, but it's about
- 10:37feedback that is earned, correct?
- 10:39That's why do you you want to emphasize so.
- 10:41Positive feedback that's earned, and it's all positive feedback.
- 10:43I think it's you could do this better, you could do that
- 10:45better. The idea is that the continual
- 10:47refinement of the task at hand or the technique or whatever it
- 10:50is that you're working on. But when someone does achieve
- 10:52it, creating the standard of what is excellence.
- 10:55So when it's achieved that, they know, wow, they could see a
- 10:57difference from where they started to where they are now.
- 11:00Whether if on day one you accept a substandard product and you
- 11:03just say that's good enough, well, that then becomes the
- 11:06benchmark of good enough is this.
- 11:08And so that's as far as I'm going to push.
- 11:10Right. So I think about, I think about,
- 11:12you know, my kids or something like that.
- 11:14And I say, you know, I look at my parenting style and maybe I
- 11:16made a mistake. But I said, what do you want to
- 11:18be when you grow up? And I used to say, oh, you know,
- 11:20whatever makes you happy, you know, whereas my dad said, no,
- 11:23you're going to do this when you grow up.
- 11:24And because you have a purpose. Right.
- 11:26So having this purpose. And now when I tell my kids you
- 11:29can do whatever you want, well, they say themselves like kind of
- 11:31like this doing nothing and. Playing video games.
- 11:34So, so if you're telling me I get to do whatever I want to, I
- 11:38like. I like this.
- 11:40And so instilling a sense of purpose in people I think is
- 11:43also important. Everyone needs a purpose at
- 11:45work, and they need a. They need parameters and goals
- 11:47in which to strive for. So what kind of, you know
- 11:53opportunities do you give you know to to your team when I
- 11:56think? About the opportunities that you
- 11:57know we have mentorship opportunities, we have continued
- 12:00education opportunities, whether it's an online culinary school
- 12:03program that we offer called Ruby.
- 12:04We do demos every Saturday at 3:00 PM.
- 12:07We do our our weekly culinary demo.
- 12:09We do internal technique videos to our staff so they could get
- 12:12on and see how we do certain things.
- 12:13We have one-on-one mentoring programs where they sign up with
- 12:16a different chef and they meet weekly or biweekly to discuss
- 12:19all sorts of things. So I'm a firm believer in doing
- 12:23everything we possibly can to promote the different avenues of
- 12:25education and mentorships so that someone could grow.
- 12:28I was very fortunate in my career that I've had great
- 12:30mentors around me and people that I learned from, So I want
- 12:34to make sure that I have the opportunity to give back to
- 12:36others because there's nothing to me that's more important when
- 12:40it comes to leadership than helping the generation that's
- 12:43coming up, because that's how I was given the opportunity.
- 12:46So that's something that I stand by.
- 12:47What did you learn from from your mentor?
- 12:50You know all sorts of things. You know, every mentor was a
- 12:52little bit different. Some of them taught me how to,
- 12:54you know, whether it was how to how to think creatively.
- 12:57Others taught me how to be the exception to the rule.
- 12:59Others taught me how to, you know, look at finances
- 13:02differently. So all of them played a
- 13:04different role. And I took a little bit from all
- 13:06of them. I I could think of 1 Mentor and
- 13:08particularly his thing was always, you know, just think
- 13:11differently and be the exception to the rule.
- 13:13And I think that's something that's done well for me in my
- 13:16career, is that I look at things differently.
- 13:18I don't want to look at the answer the same way everyone
- 13:20else does. I want to think a little bit
- 13:22abstractly and see if I can come up with different results.
- 13:25So I think thinking differently allows people to be successful.
- 13:28When you think about it, in my particular industry, some of the
- 13:31chefs that think differently, that are the trendsetters like a
- 13:34Ferran Audrey, like a renewed Zeppy like Thomas Keller, you
- 13:37know, they start these macro trends that everyone soon
- 13:40follows and everyone follows them.
- 13:42But those, the reason everyone follows them is because they are
- 13:45the exceptions to the rule. They're the ones that we're
- 13:46thinking differently. And then after a while, you know
- 13:49a new trend will come along. But I think there's a lot to be
- 13:51said for those people that are innovators.
- 13:54So when it's coming to mentoring yourself, why it's let's say
- 13:59profile of individual, do you mentor in your organization or
- 14:03even like outside of your organization because I'm
- 14:05guessing that you are having those mentorship program you
- 14:10know with at a different level in term of responsibilities or
- 14:14functions, yes, so. Right now I I I think I have
- 14:17four or five mentees that I work with directly that I work with
- 14:20that right now at work and we meet weekly or biweekly and I
- 14:24assigned them homework and they have to come back and and give
- 14:26me feedback on the homework that I've assigned to them.
- 14:28Additionally, I always say you can't come back and and
- 14:31reschedule the mentor meeting with me until you've completed
- 14:34your homework and you need to always show up with five
- 14:36questions and so that we could discuss the questions that they
- 14:39want to get through. I could get feedback on their
- 14:40homework and then I always provide them with new homework
- 14:43and and the homework that I provide them with is a little
- 14:45bit challenging because what I'm really after is not necessarily
- 14:49increasing a very specific skill set but more of a a bigger
- 14:53picture. So like I will say you need to
- 14:55learn how to be more confident and ask for what you want.
- 14:59So the homework might be you need to go around and ask people
- 15:01for discounts, or you need to learn how to negotiate, or or
- 15:04some people might get stepped on a little bit too much.
- 15:06So I'll say you know, your homework is too figuratively
- 15:09speaking, go confront someone, Go confront a bully in your
- 15:13particular world. So that might be a boss, that
- 15:16might be a subordinate, that might be, you know, someone in
- 15:18your personal life, but it's have a have a confrontation with
- 15:21them so I can push them out of their comfort zone.
- 15:23So everything is designed to push them out of their comfort
- 15:26zone a little bit and to help them overcome some of the
- 15:28obstacles that they're facing in their career.
- 15:31You know, the reason I tell people to ask for something, you
- 15:33know, whether it be a discount or negotiate, negotiate down the
- 15:36price of the watch or whatever the case may be, is because if
- 15:39you can't ask for something, then when the time is tough,
- 15:42you're not going to be able to ask for something.
- 15:43So when that time comes for a raise or that time comes for a
- 15:45new job, are you going to think you're worth it?
- 15:47And I think that was a valuable lesson that I learned early on
- 15:50in my career, is that people aren't going to give you
- 15:51something if you don't ask for it because people will assume
- 15:54you're not interested if you don't speak up.
- 15:56And I know a lot of people that have, you know, been held back a
- 15:59little bit because they think that someone's going to tap them
- 16:01on the shoulder and tell them, OK, yeah, I, I you're ready for
- 16:05it. But that sometimes that happens,
- 16:07but it doesn't always happen. And I think the people that ask
- 16:09for the opportunities would be surprised about how many doors
- 16:13open for them simply by asking. So building up the confidence to
- 16:16ask for something. So you're you're saying that
- 16:18your mentees have to come back to you in the session with five
- 16:23different questions. You know to you any type of
- 16:26questions, or are you looking for something in in particular?
- 16:30No, I I because I don't know specifically what it is that
- 16:33they need at that moment. So based on the questions that
- 16:36they ask, I'll start to decide on on the homework that I have
- 16:40for them. So if a lot of their questions
- 16:41are like hey, how do I deal with this difficult person or how do
- 16:44I manage that person or whatever the case may be.
- 16:47If I start to notice that OK, their issue seems to be that
- 16:50with confrontation, then some of the homework that I assigned to
- 16:52them revolves around just so they can start to overcome
- 16:56something. And outside of the Fairmont, you
- 17:02are part as well and of another organization which is a
- 17:07mentoring, you know, organization for chefs.
- 17:10Yes. So the organization is Mentor
- 17:12BKB and it was founded by Jerome Bokoos, Thomas Keller and Daniel
- 17:16Balloon. And what this organization does
- 17:18is it it finds, it recruits and it funds a competitor for the
- 17:22Bokus Dior. But it's grown much larger than
- 17:24that. There's a young chef competition
- 17:26which really identifies young and up and coming talent and it
- 17:29gives them the platform to compete.
- 17:31There's a call me competition which does a similar thing.
- 17:34There's granted scholarship opportunities that are put out
- 17:37by mentor where if you apply for this mentor grant, you have the
- 17:40opportunity to go and work in a kitchen of your choice, a world
- 17:44class kitchen around the world. So for example, you if you want
- 17:47to go work at Noma, you know you get a paid sabbatical to go over
- 17:50there and spend some time in that kitchen assuming that
- 17:53they're willing to accept you. So it's a great organization
- 17:56that really helps promote young and up and coming chefs as well
- 17:59as support someone to compete and represent the country of the
- 18:02United States and in the Picoustie or competition.
- 18:04And what is your role in the organization?
- 18:06So my role is, I'm at the Culinary Council, so sometimes
- 18:10my role is. Wherever they tell me.
- 18:11They need me so whether that's judging for an event.
- 18:15Or. Sometimes being involved in a
- 18:17fundraiser or you know, helping select sponsors or whatever the
- 18:21case may be, providing hotel rooms where possible, so all
- 18:26sorts of things. You know, I've done four or five
- 18:27mentor dinners. I've been a judge at the USA
- 18:30because your finals in Las Vegas, I got to carry the
- 18:33platter one year where I was very nervous because I'm
- 18:36thinking, jeez, I have to carry the platter in front of all
- 18:38these chefs and the chefs put all his blood, sweat and tears
- 18:41into something and what if I trip over a cord and I fill the
- 18:44platter? That was maybe one of the more
- 18:46nerve wracking moments that I had.
- 18:48But so all sorts of things that I do with the mentor BKB.
- 18:50But in addition to that I also encourage my own team to apply
- 18:54for the scholarship grants because I know if they get
- 18:56selected it's a life changing opportunity for them to go work
- 18:59in a, you know, 3 Michelin star kitchen or a restaurant that's
- 19:01on the world's fifty best list. Not only did do they get to go
- 19:04over there and work, but they get to bring something of value
- 19:07back, whether it's something part of the culture in these
- 19:10great restaurants or technique or something innovative that
- 19:13they're doing. So the idea of sending the cooks
- 19:16over there, one of our chefs, something that I always highly
- 19:18encourage them to do. So if you are looking back in in
- 19:24your career, what would you have liked you know one of your maybe
- 19:29mentor or maybe one of the chef that you work for, you know told
- 19:34you in term of guidance and something that you know it would
- 19:37have been like very positive for you for the for your future?
- 19:41You know, something that I wish I had learned a little bit
- 19:43earlier in my career was to plan a little bit further.
- 19:47I've been a chef for a long time and I think, I think I always
- 19:50looked at it as like, I'm going to be a chef forever.
- 19:52But eventually what's next? You get to a certain point where
- 19:55you think what is next? And you know, I love being a
- 19:57chef and it is my passion. So right now it's not a problem,
- 19:59But you know, maybe one day it will become a problem where?
- 20:02It is. What's next?
- 20:03And I don't know if I've strategically, in my own mind,
- 20:06planned out, you know, the next couple of years.
- 20:08Maybe it'll be your sidekick on a podcast or something.
- 20:15OK, I'll give you some advice there.
- 20:20So in general, how do you, how do you inspire others?
- 20:23You know, that's a difficult question.
- 20:24I I think what I could do is I could give them the framework in
- 20:27an environment where they can be inspired.
- 20:30We talked earlier about creating a a disciplined environment with
- 20:33a very specific workplace culture.
- 20:36That's the most important thing for me.
- 20:38And when you think about all the different distractions that we
- 20:40have going on, it's like I want to turn down the noise.
- 20:43I want to turn down the noise and have so much consistency
- 20:45that they could really focus on what's important.
- 20:47In my case, that's the food. So if we have standards for all
- 20:51these other things, they could really put a laser like focus on
- 20:53what's in front of them and that may allow them simply by turning
- 20:57down all the peripheral noise, allow them to focus on
- 21:00creativity, on what's on the plate, as that's my world.
- 21:02So I think you got to provide the setting for someone to be
- 21:06creative and be inspired. That's really something that's
- 21:08important is I need to make sure that all the tools are there,
- 21:11all the resources that are there, for someone to be
- 21:14inspired. So you're talking about, you
- 21:19know, creativity and obviously there's a lot of leaders that
- 21:23are going to listen to this podcast in various industries.
- 21:27They are managing in house creative teams.
- 21:30So we know in that situation the importance of obviously giving
- 21:33constant feedback. But you direct reports are
- 21:37obviously very creative people. So what advice would you give
- 21:41when it comes to leading creative teams?
- 21:43I think you have to allow them to be creative and sometimes you
- 21:46got to allow them to fail. You know, sometimes a dish will
- 21:49come up that I know is not necessarily for me and it gets
- 21:52presented be put on the menu and I might not be 100% sold on it,
- 21:56but the chef putting in front of me is very passionate about this
- 21:58dish. So I may give him some feedback
- 22:00if it's an absolute no. Sometimes it is an absolute no,
- 22:03but a lot of times it's just a personal preference on my part
- 22:05or I don't think it's going to work.
- 22:06But I need to allow them the opportunities to still try it
- 22:10and either prove me wrong where I, you know, gives me an
- 22:12opportunity to learn from them or allow them to understand why
- 22:16it wasn't a good decision. So it's about allowing certain
- 22:19amount of failure in a young up and coming chefs or industry
- 22:23people just so that they have the opportunity to learn from
- 22:26their mistakes, because learning from mistakes sometimes is the
- 22:29best education. And sometimes you say it's an
- 22:31absolutely no. So when I like those situations
- 22:34that it is an absolute no, is it linked to, it doesn't fit maybe
- 22:38like the brand of you know, one of your food program within the
- 22:42Fairmont or because it's lacking of a technique or what's the
- 22:46those situations? So I think that's I think you
- 22:49hit the nail on the head is that what we're trying to do in all
- 22:51these restaurants is stay on brand.
- 22:53So for example, you know one of our restaurants is an Asian
- 22:56concept. So if someone comes up to me and
- 22:58you know has something that's very far off and it's not on on
- 23:02concept, then you know if we're going for a very traditional
- 23:05Asian style food and they come to me with something that's
- 23:08French, Asian influenced. I might say that's kind of not
- 23:11on brand of what we're doing. It's good idea, but maybe you
- 23:13put that in your pocket for the future for a different concept.
- 23:16This concept, it's very traditional Asian or if it's
- 23:19Italian and they say, you know they want to put the making this
- 23:22up, they want to do a hummus pizza and say, well that's kind
- 23:24of not what we're going for, right.
- 23:26We want a more traditional Neapolitan style pizza.
- 23:28That's the direction that we need to go.
- 23:30So sometimes it's just about redirecting them and helping
- 23:32them understand that it's not on brand or doesn't.
- 23:35Those are the absolute. Notes.
- 23:36I hope you like to show something different.
- 23:38If you want to listen to the full discussion, I'm going to
- 23:40link it in the show notes so you can go listen on Spotify or
- 23:44wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you like and
- 23:47subscribe. Go follow Emmanuel LaRoche
- 23:50Flavors Unknown podcast as well. He does a lot of really great
- 23:53interviews with a lot of fantastic chefs.
- 23:55He's a great interviewer. And if you're listening on
- 23:56Spotify, make sure you leave five stars.
- 23:59Nothing less than five stars. If you're watching on YouTube,
- 24:01like subscribe all those things go to chefspsa.com where you get
- 24:05all the books, all the merch. We'll see you next week.
- 24:07Hit the porno music.