Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Why Chef's PSA & Working In Great Kitchens Ep.7

Transcript

Why Chef's PSA & Working In Great Kitchens Ep.7 · 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, we're going to get into two different subjects.
• 0:07
  The first one we're going to get into is how did chefs PSA come
• 0:11
  to be? And then the second one we're
• 0:12
  going to get into is why you want to work in great kitchens
• 0:15
  and surround yourself with great chefs.
• 0:17
  So stay tuned, and listen up. So let's start with chef spsa
• 0:30
  and how this came to be when I was a chef in.
• 0:34
  This is right before I stepped away from cooking the place
• 0:36
  where I worked, I had a lot of young chefs and cooks that I had
• 0:40
  worked with and in the kitchen. They're getting all the skills
• 0:43
  that they need. You know, they're learning how
• 0:44
  to brew Bois, they're learning how to grill, they're learning
• 0:46
  how to saute. They're working in great
• 0:47
  restaurants, but they all came to work under me because they
• 0:51
  want to learn how to become chefs.
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  And so, what I would do is I would teach a class once a month
• 0:56
  for further Cooks in the kitchen.
• 0:57
  Chan of how to become a chef. What does that look like?
• 1:02
  What are the skills that you need outside of cooking?
• 1:04
  So, once a month, I put on this class and it would range from
• 1:06
  everything from leadership to, how to read a pnl, to how, to
• 1:10
  manage food costs, Etc. So, I had built a really close
• 1:14
  relationship with all these people that I have worked with
• 1:16
  them. Then obviously the world gets
• 1:18
  hit with covid and all our worlds are turned upside down.
• 1:22
  So I no longer have this relationship with all these
• 1:26
  cooks and chefs. That I'm working with because
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  obviously you know restaurants are closing and people are
• 1:30
  getting laid off, the situation is the same everywhere.
• 1:35
  And so one day I'm watching social media and I see that
• 1:41
  every single Chef worth their salt is and even some that
• 1:44
  aren't worth their salt are doing you know, the old I'm
• 1:48
  going to teach you how to see her salmon or I'm going to make
• 1:50
  a spinach salad. You know, whatever the case may
• 1:52
  be. And you scroll on social media,
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  and all you see, is all these chefs cook.
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  And I thought, like, I can't do that, everyone's doing that.
• 2:01
  And, you know, why would you learn from me?
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  When you could see great three Michelin star, Chef, or whoever
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  learning how to, how to do whatever it is that they're
• 2:09
  trying to teach you? Like why would you watch my
• 2:11
  video? Like there's nothing that I'm
• 2:14
  going to show you that that you can't learn from another Chef.
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  So I thought to myself I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I
• 2:21
  really missed the fact that I couldn't teach my chefs in my
• 2:26
  cooks that I was working with. So one day, I went to the store
• 2:28
  and I went to Target and I remember listening on the
• 2:31
  intercom and I want to say that this is correct but it might not
• 2:33
  have been correct. At least in my memory it is I
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  heard on the intercom an advertisement for Taylor Swift's
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  cooking class and I thought why the fuck does Taylor Swift have
• 2:45
  a cooking class? And I don't have a cooking
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  class. Everyone has a cooking class.
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  I should have a cooking class and then I thought, oh, I should
• 2:51
  have a class. I should have Class on how to
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  become an executive chef and what that looks like her.
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  You know how to how to lead a kitchen.
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  So the idea had kind of got planted in my mind that I wanted
• 3:02
  to take that and write a book or Teach an online course on the
• 3:09
  skills that someone needs to become the head chef in a
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  kitchen outside of cooking because obviously there's so
• 3:15
  many resources out there available to someone.
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  If they want to learn how to cook, you could go on chefsteps,
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  you could go on Ruby. You could just go down the
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  rabbit. Hold it, YouTube and see some of
• 3:26
  the greatest chefs in the world. Teach you what you need to know.
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  But I wanted to show people something different, I wanted to
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  teach them. Okay, this is what you need to
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  know and I'm going to show you how to get there.
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  So out of the blue, I received a phone call from a company out of
• 3:39
  Dallas and they said, hey would you be interested in doing a
• 3:42
  master class style class to teach people how to become an
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  executive chef? And I was like wow, talk about
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  good timing. Yes, I was actually just
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  thinking about this, so we Look up a partnership and we
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  recorded, you know, and a master class style training and you can
• 4:00
  find it online. Now, it's free, it's called how
• 4:03
  to manage like an executive chef with Andre natera.
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  So this was like the first Start and creating chefs PSA.
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  What I wanted to do is I wanted to take this how to manage like
• 4:15
  an executive chef and then transform that into a book.
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  So I could teach people the knowledge that they need to
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  become an executive chef and cover everything from like, how
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  do you how to manage food cost and the other time goes on?
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  And now, I've recorded this class and I kind of put it out
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  there and so one day someone someone at work did something
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  stupid and this is like you know we're coming out of covid-19 to
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  hire people back and I put up my first chefs, PSA on my Instagram
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  account and it was chefs PSA. I think it was it was chefs PSA,
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  no matter how good you make something another Chef thinks
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  you're wrong and you know, the old joke behind that is you get
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  five steps in a room. None of them are going to agree
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  on the right way to make something everything.
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  Until you know, my show taught me this way or this is the right
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  way to do it. No Chef is ever going to agree
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  with another Chef. That there's one singular way to
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  do something, because depending on their background or training,
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  they're going to do it. Lightly different.
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  So anyway, I put this up on my Instagram, I got a lot of DMS
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  from people, hahaha very funny, they're sharing it and it's like
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  okay, right dopamine's reward system.
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  So if people are liking and engaging with my post to then I
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  did it again the next week can I thought?
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  Okay this is this is a funny way because I started out as a joke,
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  I said this is a funny way for me to engage with people and
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  kind of call out some of the bullshit in the industry like
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  when people call off on their birthday and it's like, you
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  didn't request The day off turns out it's your birthday.
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  You didn't get the day off, but on your Instagram, everyone saw
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  you partying the night before and then you're calling off the
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  next day with a tummy ache. It's like get the fuck out of
• 5:48
  here. We all know you're lying.
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  So that's that was kind of the purpose of chefs.
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  PSA is just to call out the stupidity in the kitchen because
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  a lot of new cooks coming into the kitchen.
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  They don't know what those Unwritten rules are that if
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  you've been in the kitchen for a long time, you know, you know,
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  how to act, you know, how to behave, you know, what to do,
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  and what not to do. And you know, what's going to
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  piss off the rest of the team. New cooks don't always know that
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  and Sometimes even seasoned Cooks, don't know that, and or
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  they do know it, but they also know like no one's going to
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  really call you out because it's a strange thing in the kitchen.
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  A lot of times people know you're lying, but they won't
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  call you out on it. So anyway, that's a, that's a
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  weird phenomena that goes on. So, I start doing these weekly
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  PSAs and one of my friends DM's mean for me Nunes from suerte
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  restaurant in Austin Texas and he says, these are hilarious.
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  You should write a book and I thought to myself, okay, yeah,
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  whatever. And then he died DM to me again
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  and said, hey, this is hilarious, seriously, write a
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  book, I'll buy it. So it's like okay, so he's like,
• 6:45
  all right whatever. So I posted on on Instagram, one
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  day I was like, I'm going to write a book chefs PSA and the
• 6:50
  thing that people might not know about me, is that if I say I'm
• 6:52
  going to do something, it's like all of a sudden I have to commit
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  you know my OCD kicks in and it's like oh you said you're
• 6:58
  going to do it now you have to do it.
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  So I tricked Myself by posting that I was going to write this
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  book so that way I would force myself to write the book.
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  So I've never written a book before.
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  I thought, how hard can it be? The intention of the book
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  though, was just to write something funny for me and, you
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  know, my inner circle of Chef friends, just something that we
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  could pass around the kitchen as a joke.
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  Put it on clipboards, call people out on their bullshit.
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  That was, that was the true purpose of it.
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  I did not write this book, intending it to be anything
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  serious. It was just like, hey, you're
• 7:31
  new cook in the kitchen, read this, you know, you don't mix
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  your salt and pepper and be an idiot or don't have a Hulu,
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  scoot, her hula skirt. Sorry of dirty towels hanging
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  around your apron you know all the all the stupid things that
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  people do, it was just intended to call out some of the bad
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  habits, in the kitchen in a comical way, you know, kind of
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  funny, whatever. Right.
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  But it was funny and I got a lot of, I got a lot of people
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  reaching out to me telling me how much they enjoyed the book
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  and how a lot of people started buying the book and giving it to
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  every single cook in their kitchen.
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  Because really, that's who it's intended for, it's not intended
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  for the executive chef that, you know, they know this stuff.
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  It's really intended for Or you to buy it, put it on a
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  clipboard, or put it in your knife, rolling.
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  Give it to everyone else. So, anyway, long story short.
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  That's how the PS a-- came to be so fast forward a little bit and
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  I'm working as a chef. And, you know, I really missed
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  the fact that I couldn't really Mentor as many people as I could
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  post covid. As I could preach covid.
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  And if for people that don't know me, I'll tell you one of my
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  biggest life's passions is I love mentoring.
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  And chefs, you know, I probably have you know, 30 or 40 people
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  that I have worked under me that are now executive chefs and some
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  are extremely, talented executive chefs and you know
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  high end luxury hotels. Great restaurants, James Beard,
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  nominated restaurants food. And wine nominated chefs.
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  So a lot of these people that have worked under me.
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  At one point, I get a lot of pride in knowing that I paid a
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  played, a small part in their success and seeing them grow.
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  So, I thought to myself, I want to be able to give back to chefs
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  and I feel like there is not a voice out there that teaches you
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  how to be a chef, how to run a kitchen, how to behave in a
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  kitchen? What are the unwritten rules?
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  And that's kind of where I come in.
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  It's like okay if you don't have a chef Mentor, which a lot of
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  people don't, they work in a kitchen and the chef doesn't
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  even talk to you, right? Let me fill that Gap.
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  Let me be your Chef Mentor because you might not have
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  access to someone that's going to shoot you straight and tell
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  you the real deal. And, you know, Cut the bullshit,
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  that's out there because a lot of times you'll go through your
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  time working in kitchens with a lot of bad habits and people
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  won't tell you anything and you'll continue to do it, but
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  everyone around you is annoyed and they know the right thing.
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  And then you wonder. Why am I not getting promoted?
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  Why am I getting passed over the?
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  Why do I keep getting fired? Whatever the case may be, you
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  just might be oblivious to it. But there's there's just a way
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  that the kitchen works, there's a culture and and it runs
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  throughout many kitchens from Ultra high-end kitchens too low.
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  Oh, and kitchens good habits and good behaviors in the kitchen.
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  Go a very long way in ensuring that you're successful, and I
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  hate to say it, but the smarter you are as a cook.
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  It's a big shortcut to becoming the executive chef, like the
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  sooner you get it. The sooner you start moving up.
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  A lot of people don't move up because it takes them a long
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  time for it to finally click and say, ah, ah, I got to stop
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  fighting the system. This is just the way it is.
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  So anyway, that's what chefs, PSA is really all about.
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  I decided to dedicate Full time into really throwing myself into
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  being a mentor for a lot of cooks and chefs that need that
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  guidance. That need a need, a voice that
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  need to hear someone talking to them.
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  So we have the chef's, PSA, Instagram account, and the book.
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  And I'm working on another book right now, about leadership
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  fundamentals. And this will be a little bit
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  more serious. It's not going to be me goofing
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  off as much, and for people that haven't figured out, I love to
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  fuck off, but I do have my serious side obviously.
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  I've been a chef for a very long time.
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  I've I have a lot of experience being an executive, chef and
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  running restaurants and large operations.
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  So I want to be able to pass that information on so that's
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  really the purpose of chefs PSA were.
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  I would say right now we're in Phase 2 first, we've wrote, book
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  1, and the process of writing Book 2 and then we have the
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  podcast and there's more to come eventually, eventually it's
• 11:30
  going to be world domination and you guys will say, oh, is there
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  at the beginning? Don't worry, I'm taking you all
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  with me but anyway. Let's get into the next subject.
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  The next subject is why you need to work in great kitchens under
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  great chefs. Now, this subject should be a
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  no-brainer for most people. Obviously you want to work in
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  great kitchens with great chefs because you're going to learn
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  more by proxy by being close to them being in these environments
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  where people are cooking at a high level, you become higher,
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  level yourself. But for some reason that just
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  isn't so obvious Obvious to people a lot of people when
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  they're graduating culinary school or they just get started
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  in the industry, they pick an easier job, just to get some
• 12:15
  experience. And I understand that when I was
• 12:17
  in culinary school I worked as well.
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  I worked in a pretty good place in the city where I was at and
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  Portland Oregon I was one of the nicer hotels at the time and I
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  worked in the bakery department and that was a good fit for me
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  because I didn't have a lot of experience.
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  But, you know, being around these older chefs that had
• 12:33
  experienced. It got me better.
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  I had a lot of pace and intensity and they'd put a lot.
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  Pressure on me because everyone had years of experience in here.
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  I was just, you know, McDonald's and culinary school was the only
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  experience that I had. So getting some experience
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  initially learning how to use a knife that's great.
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  I wouldn't want to go from zero experience to like three
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  Michelin stars right out of high school because that might be a
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  huge culture shock for you. But when you do get some
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  experience and you, you know, how to use a knife and you know,
• 13:01
  how to navigate through a kitchen, you know, the jargon
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  behind hotknife etcetera. Then I would say you need Need
• 13:07
  to work in a great kitchen with great chefs.
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  And that is the fastest way that you will get good at cooking.
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  You want to be good, surround yourself with great people.
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  It's as simple as that. But a lot of people seem to want
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  to, you know, say oh I'm not good enough.
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  Maybe when I'm good enough, I'll go work at these places and then
• 13:27
  time, passes them by and what ends up happening is you'll
• 13:32
  continue to make excuses as to why you're not good enough.
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  And let me be, let me be honest with you.
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  You could have 10 years of experience but you're still I'm
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  going to be good enough to go into the best restaurants in the
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  world so it doesn't matter what level you are.
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  You're never going to be good enough to just walk into Noma
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  and say, hey wow, I have 10 years of experience, outside of
• 13:52
  noma in restaurants that are not at this level and I'm ready to
• 13:55
  be the head chef here. It's just not going to happen,
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  so it doesn't matter how much experience you get.
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  You're not going to be ready for these places, no matter what.
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  So get that idea out of your head.
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  So go in there, humble and ready to start at the bottom and work
• 14:10
  your way. Way up and it might not be for
• 14:12
  you because some of these high-end kitchens are not for
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  everybody. They're intense.
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  There's a lot of pressure, the hours are longer usually in some
• 14:20
  of these places. And that's saying something,
• 14:22
  because the industry Norm, you know, you're going to work,
• 14:25
  you're not going to work. I should say, 8 hours, you're
• 14:27
  going to work more than 8 hours but in some of these places, you
• 14:29
  know, you're only going to get two or three hours of sleep and
• 14:31
  you're going to take some of your prep home.
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  Those kitchens are fucking hard and they're not for everyone,
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  but the reason I would say you want to go work, there is
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  because If you start out at the top, it's easy to go down the
• 14:44
  ladder. Let's just say you're at the
• 14:45
  best restaurant in the world. And you say, you know what, I
• 14:48
  learned, it's just not my cup of tea, whatever the case may be,
• 14:51
  maybe I don't like the work ethic or the culture, whatever.
• 14:54
  You could take a step down the ladder and then you get there
• 14:56
  and you're like, you know what, I don't like it.
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  And you go down another rung on the ladder and so on and so
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  forth until you find the spot that you say, okay, this is
• 15:04
  where I'm at and this is where I'm happy and having those great
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  restaurants on your resume, allow you to go.
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  All the way down the ladder but I should say, the opposite is
• 15:13
  not true. And let me tell you why, you
• 15:15
  can't start at the bottom and then say, okay I've been 10
• 15:18
  years here and then I'm going to go up a wrong.
• 15:20
  It's much more difficult. You could have no Ma I'm again
• 15:24
  I'm picking on Noma probably because they're serving reindeer
• 15:27
  deck salad right now, which Rene redzepi, if you're listening to
• 15:30
  my podcast don't serve that salad.
• 15:33
  You're going to ruin it for the rest of us because every sous
• 15:36
  chef in the world is going to want to put reindeer penis salad
• 15:39
  on the menu. And tell us why?
• 15:42
  Well, Rene redzepi does it? I should do it, too.
• 15:45
  Anyway, that's a stupid thing. So Renee, please don't don't do
• 15:48
  that because You're opening up a can of worms that I'm going to
• 15:53
  have to deal with. Well, actually, I'm retired.
• 15:54
  So I'm not going to have to deal with it but my friends are going
• 15:56
  to deal with and they're going to be complaining.
• 15:59
  But anyway, point being is that you're not going to go from like
• 16:02
  a bottom end kitchen and walk right into Noma.
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  You can't, it doesn't work that way.
• 16:06
  You could go down, but it's much more difficult to go up.
• 16:10
  So many doors will open for you. If you have those great
• 16:14
  restaurants on your resume, I could tell you.
• 16:16
  And, you know, for a long time I was a resume snob where someone
• 16:19
  had You know, great three-michelin-star restaurant
• 16:22
  under resume was like they were instantly hired your resume,
• 16:25
  goes to the top of the pile of most places.
• 16:28
  And a lot of times, you know, you might be put in at a more
• 16:32
  senior position and I'll give you an example.
• 16:33
  Like let's say you were an entry-level cook, at one of the
• 16:36
  best restaurants in the world. You might have just been, you
• 16:39
  know, peeling carrots. But you go tell to another place
• 16:43
  and, you know, a small smaller City and you say, hey I was a
• 16:46
  cook, just peeling carrots at whatever restaurant on the
• 16:50
  worlds He busts they might say, okay, you're going to be my sous
• 16:52
  chef that fast, right? So you skip so many positions
• 16:55
  just by being in those great kitchens.
• 16:57
  But let's take resume aside and just talk about what you're
• 17:00
  going to learn in these great kitchens, you're going to learn
• 17:03
  the most perfect technique in these great kitchens you're
• 17:07
  going to learn a sense of urgency.
• 17:08
  A sense of professionalism, a sense of discipline.
• 17:11
  You're going to know What You're Made Of, you're going to push
• 17:13
  yourself to new levels when you work in the highest level of
• 17:17
  kitchens. And like I said, it's not for
• 17:18
  everybody. But you need to know that you
• 17:21
  need to experience that and decide for yourself, if it's not
• 17:24
  for you versus taking, everyone's word for it.
• 17:26
  Say no don't work in those places for whatever reason, etc,
• 17:29
  etc, etc, blah blah blah. Don't listen to those people.
• 17:33
  Do it for yourself, go there, find out.
• 17:35
  If that's the kind of kitchen, you want to be in.
• 17:36
  If it's not, hey, it's not for everyone.
• 17:38
  Then go somewhere else. But at least say you did it and
• 17:41
  you're coming from a place of understanding, not from just
• 17:44
  rumors and listening to your, your friend on the line that
• 17:48
  never made it. And he's bitter because he got
• 17:50
  And down at one of those restaurants because usually
• 17:52
  those are the people that, you know, that give you all that
• 17:55
  advice. As to why you can't be great,
• 17:57
  it's because I was never great. So you can't be great.
• 17:59
  Don't listen to those people. You got to go out and you got to
• 18:02
  do your thing and make your own path.
• 18:06
  Well anyway, that was a short rant.
• 18:09
  I could probably talk about that subject for quite some time and
• 18:14
  maybe we'll touch on it in another episode.
• 18:16
  But if you want to support the show, we talked about the book
• 18:19
  earlier you could buy chefs PS a book on audio ebook and
• 18:24
  paperback on Amazon. There's a link in the show on
• 18:29
  Spotify where you could you could donate And subscribe to
• 18:32
  the show. I think something like that.
• 18:34
  I'm still unfamiliar with how this works, but you could do
• 18:38
  that. And then, of course, follow us
• 18:40
  on all our social accounts. So that's Instagram, that's
• 18:44
  where it all started. We have chefs, PSA on Twitter
• 18:47
  and newly on tick-tock. Spsa on Tick Tock and it's boy,
• 18:52
  tick-tocks, a wild place. I'm trying to figure that place
• 18:55
  out, but you know eventually, I'll, I'll figure it out and
• 18:58
  I'll be the master of tick tock as well.
• 19:01
  Anyway. Thank you all and see you all
• 19:04
  next week. And let's cue up the porno
• 19:06
  music.