Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Chef's PSA Q&A Winter 2023 Ep. 31

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Chef's PSA Q&A Winter 2023 Ep. 31 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs. You're listening to chefs.
0:01
PS a podcast. I'm your host on Trina.
0:03
Tara on today's episode we're going to do Q&A.
0:05
Stay tuned. So first, a quick update, what
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have I been up to? I'll tell you what, the first
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thing I'd like to talk about is I have a newsletter and I've
0:25
sent out so far two volumes of the newsletter.
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I plan on sending out a new one, every Wednesday approximately.
0:31
So if you're interested in receiving the newsletter, go to
0:34
chefs, PS a.com. Go to the contact page and
0:37
scroll to the bottom and you should see a spot where you can
0:40
sign up for the newsletter. I plan on doing this
0:42
consistently. It will most likely like all
0:45
things evolve as I figure it out.
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I appreciate feedback. If you've received Received the
0:49
news letter, let me know what you think, but I want to keep it
0:51
short Punchy to the point, you know, something four chefs
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involving leadership something for everyone that works in a
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kitchen and maybe something curious that I'm doing at the
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moment. Speaking of something curious,
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some interesting things that going on this week.
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I don't know if everyone saw the Bocuse to your, it was an
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incredible competition. I'm bummed the United States did
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not win. I was all Team USA but
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nonetheless, if you had a chance to check, It out.
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I'd love to know what you think. I'm a big fan of watching those
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culinary competitions. You get to see skill at the
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highest level and congratulations to Denmark on
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winning first place. They did an incredible job.
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Anyway, the other thing that I'm doing is I started reading
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unreasonable Hospitality by will get Dara and I gotta say it's a
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great book. If you haven't read it I think
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you should. It's really a lot of the things
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that I believe in you. He talks a lot about culture and
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building a culture and Leadership and empowering as
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people and and how to build a strong team.
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So, a lot of the same things that I'm preaching, I think.
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I haven't disagreed with anything so far in his book.
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I think we use different language sometimes, but I think
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the point is always the same, and I would say that Probably
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99% of the time. I'm going to agree with him on
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what he's saying. So if it's a great book, if you
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haven't had a chance to check it out unreasonable Hospitality the
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new book by will gadara, I think it's fantastic.
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And then the James Beard semifinalist list came out here
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in the United States. So for those of you that are
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unaware, James Beard is a organization here in the US,
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they put on an annual Chef Awards restaurant Awards,
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anyway, Cool to see a lot of the people on the list.
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I know congratulations to a lot of my friends that are on there.
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Shout out to Junior Borgess who good friend of mine, who is on
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the outstanding Chef list. My friends anastacio Quinones,
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Rick Lopez for mean Nunez to fell.
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A lot of my Texas friends that that were nominated,
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congratulations to all of you. Congratulations to all the
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nominees. It'll be exciting to see who
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wins. But anyway, enough about that.
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Let's get into today's episode which is Q&A, and I got to say,
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I got a lot of questions, a lot of the questions I've answered
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before on other podcast. So I'm not going to get too much
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into things that I've already discussed previously, but I will
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try to get as many questions answered as I can if I can't get
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to all of them, then maybe this warrants apart to.
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Let me know if you want to hear a second part to this and I can
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answer more the questions. But anyway, let's get into the
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first couple of questions. So the first question is, how do
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I as a young? Young aspiring Chef separate
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myself from the other Cooks. And as stupid as this answer may
3:44
sound, I would say care more a lot of the times.
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If you want to get noticed you have to care a little bit more
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and sometimes it's not cool to care like you know it's kind of
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have a flippant attitude in the kitchen or whatever and be cool
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sometimes that doesn't work and it doesn't necessarily work for
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the people that you're trying to impress the attitude of not
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caring or I'll do more. When you pay me more isn't
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usually the type of Of person that gets promoted in most
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kitchens. Of course, there are outliers,
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but I would say what I would do to get noticed is care
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tremendously about what you're doing care about the food that
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you're producing care about, showing up to work on time.
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Be a professional, be polite to be engaged.
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Listen, when people are talking take notes, I would say doing
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all those things gets you noticed the things that don't
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get you noticed is when you just kind of fall under the radar you
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don't speak up. You kind of fall in the
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background that person tends to not get noticed in and maybe
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they do care a lot, but they're just quiet.
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So, being involved being engaged demonstrating that you care
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taking an active role in leadership, even though you are
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not a leader. So I'll give you an example of
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what I mean. Maybe it's like there's some
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down time, you take it upon yourself, to go organize the
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cooler. Those are the type of things
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that get you noticed. Not just doing what you get paid
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to do, but going above and beyond what you get paid to do.
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That's what gets you noticed. I've talked about this on
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another episode. I think it was the sous chef
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episode. One of the things that I think
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people fail to realize, is the attitude of I will do more when
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you pay me more. And then there's someone else
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that says I'll do it regardless of what you pay me when the time
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for promotion comes up. Usually the person that did it
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regardless will be the person that gets promoted. because, I
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know as the person who's doing the promoting when the going
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gets tough, this person has demonstrated that they will do
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it. The other person is an unproven
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Unknown commodity, will they do it?
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When the time gets tough? Because they say, they'll do it
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if you pay them. But will they really the other
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person will do it, even if you don't pay them.
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So if you are in a position to promote someone who are you
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going to pick the person who will do it, even if you don't
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ask them to do it or the person who will only do it if you pay
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them more. I mean, if you run a business,
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it's a no-brainer who you're going to promote.
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A lot of people might not understand that concept.
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I know I To a lot of people, you know, when I was a chef that,
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you know, pay me more and I'll do more, those people, struggle
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getting promoted. I could tell you with 100%
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certainty. Trust me, I know what I'm
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telling you, you have to demonstrate that you are willing
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to do more than everyone else on your team.
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Because the person that's willing to do more than everyone
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else on the team and cares. More is the person that gets
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promoted? Good question, though.
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The next question I have here is, when is it time for a cook
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to take a management position? Well, there's two ways to know
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when you're ready. One, someone will tell.
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You, so maybe your sous chef for your head, chef whatever will
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come up to you and say, hey I think you need to start looking
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into growing into a bigger role. You've demonstrated a lot of
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leadership capabilities, maybe we want to move you up, so
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sometimes they'll come and tell you when you're ready, when
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everyone else knows you're ready, they will definitely let
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you know. But also sometimes you're not
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ready and you just got to take the leap of faith.
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You got to just say, I'm going to jump in and learn how to
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swim. And if you're not ready, you
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might fail and you'll have to take a step back and reassess
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and go back and figure out what you did wrong so you could get
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better. But the only way to know is to
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try and a lot of times in our careers, we get stuck and we're
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paralyzed with fear because we're unsure if we're ready and
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we hesitate and you can't do that.
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If you think you're ready, then try it, ask maybe you're not
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ready, but maybe you still go up to your Chef for your Mentor, or
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whoever and say, hey, I think I'm ready.
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Like to be considered from this position and they might say
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great, let's put you under they might say you're not reading.
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Here's what you need to do which is great also because now you
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have something tangible that you could say I could go back and
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work on this. I could go back and look at
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these things that they said I need Improvement on and I'll go
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and prove that. So that would be my advice.
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You might be ready. You might not but there's only
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one way to find out and that's just to jump in.
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So there's not like a magic answer that says, this is how,
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you know, because you could do all this.
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But the fact of the matter is You just got to try, you got to
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let it be known that you're interested.
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You got to ask for it and sometimes you just got to lose
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your fear and Jump Right In anyway, good question.
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The next question I have is what is more important in the
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restaurant food or Ambiance? And honestly, that's, that's a
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difficult question to answer as a chef.
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I'm always going to say food is more important, but if you don't
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have a great restaurant, that matches the food, sometimes it's
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a disconnected. It doesn't work out and I'll
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tell you what, there's very successful restaurants on.
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Both ends of the spectrum, right?
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You could point to beautiful restaurants with terrible food,
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that are very successful. They have a great Ambiance, the
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music is great, the decor is beautiful.
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The vibe is just humming. You have all these people in
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there giving the room energy, but the food is man, it's
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nothing, nothing memorable. And those restaurants are some
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of the best restaurants and they're the most profitable
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restaurants around. However, there's also
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restaurants on the other end of the spectrum, you know?
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Just, you know, a very humble dining room, maybe it's a food
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truck. Whatever the case may be in the
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middle of nowhere but people line up out the door to get the
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food because the food is just that good.
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Something that comes to mind is just like a simple restaurant
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with light Decor, maybe just some wooden tables and, you
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know, plastic chairs but there's a line out the door because
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everyone wants to try the food because it's that amazing.
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So an argument can be made either way.
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I think you need to have strength on one end or the other
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if if not both I mean obviously. Lie in an ideal setting, you
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want strong Ambiance, strong food.
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If I could choose just one, I would choose, I would probably
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choose food. I would probably choose food
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because I'm a chef at heart, right?
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So food, first. But the businessman in me, says,
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you know, I could have the most beautiful restaurant and good
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service and the food could be, okay.
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And the restaurant will still be busy.
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So I don't know. An argument could be made either
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way. It's a great question and it's
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something that could be debated, and I'm sure you could list tons
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of examples. Samples on both ends.
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Beautiful restaurants that are profitable with mediocre food
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and vice versa. This is a good question, it's
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kind of long. So I'm going to, I'm going to
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shorten it. But the gist of the question is,
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how do you manage your culinary team?
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When you don't get the support from ownership with regards to
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the hours, in the pay to keep them and maybe they have to work
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off the clock and do some illegal and unethical things.
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I think if you're in a situation where you ever have to do
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something illegal or unethical, you should stop because it's a
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slippery. A slope and doing one thing then
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leads to two things. And before, you know, it your
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way on the other side of the line, and you're doing all sorts
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of things that are unethical. I think you got to stop and
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regroup, and I think you need to have a conversation with your
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owners and say if this is what you expect me to deliver.
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I cannot deliver with these parameters that you've given me,
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and there has to be some form of compromise on the so either.
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You as the chef need to look in the mirror and say maybe the
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food that I'm trying to produce So maybe I'm punching above my
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weight with the resources that I have.
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Maybe my Cooks aren't skilled enough.
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Maybe maybe I'm putting some ego in the dish that doesn't need to
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be there. Maybe I need to pull back the
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food into something, more simple based on the budget that I have
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because you shouldn't compromise.
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The Integrity of yourself as a chef and have to do unethical
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things for the quality of food. In my opinion, just do the right
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thing and if the food is if you have to pull back a little bit,
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then you then you pull back a little bit so you could do the
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right thing. So you need to let the ownership
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know, either, we adjust the food that we're making.
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Or you give more money for the resources that I need to do the
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job. And if neither are willing to
12:01
budge, then it's probably a situation where you need to walk
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away because you will end up doing something stupid, right?
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You're going to end up doing something, harmful to yourself
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to the restaurant to the owner, to the people that work for you.
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So at a certain point, if it's not feasible, if you are
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unwilling to adjust the quality of food and they're unwilling to
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give you more money to do it than I think at a certain point
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you got to walk away and say this is just this is just not
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right for me and most likely it's not going to end in a good
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situation. Anyway good question.
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Very tough to answer without knowing the ins and outs of the
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specific restaurant and specific owner but I think it's a very
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common thing that I've seen throughout my career as you want
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to push very high on the food, but you don't necessarily have
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the resources to do it and ownership sometimes will drive
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you and say, hey, we want more, we want more, you know, better
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quality. Lower food, cost, etc, etc.
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But there comes a certain point when it's unsustainable.
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Ball and you as the chef need to stand your ground and I'll tell
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you a story when I was, I think on my second executive chef
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position and I was still very quiet and humble and shy around
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some of the more senior Executives owners and things
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like that, and my boss pulled me off to the side.
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And this is actually wasn't even.
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My boss, was my boss's boss pulled me off to the side and
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said, hey you got to see it at the table, we pay you because we
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want you to have a voice. So if you're just going to agree
13:23
with everything that we say, That you're not really bringing
13:26
any value. So you need to learn to have
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your voice and you need to speak up on the things that you're
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passionate about. That's why we pay you.
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We pay you to lead in this position and if they just want a
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puppet then maybe maybe that's not the right position for you.
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So if you're put in a position of leadership and you're put in
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a position to to be the expert, then be the expert and make sure
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you voice your concerns professionally respectfully,
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draw a hard Line in the Sand on. What's on what you're not
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willing to compromise on. Anyway, good question though,
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very difficult to answer but good.
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And I hope that shed some insight maybe in how to handle
13:59
it. This next question is, what
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could I do to be more professional in the kitchen and
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culinary knowledge. Short answer, cook more work,
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more in kitchens work around more professionals, work around
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people that are better than you if you want to increase your
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knowledge. The quickest way is going to be
14:14
to surround yourself with people that are at a higher level than
14:17
yourself. If you are at the highest level
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and I put a PSA upon this, the other day, if you are the best
14:22
cook in the kitchen, you might be in the wrong kitchen.
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Now, some people argue with me and said, well what about
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leadership? If you're trying to develop your
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leadership skills. Well, you could also learn
14:30
leadership skills around better leaders, now it's a fine line.
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Maybe you don't want to leave the team that you're behind, but
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at the end of the day, what's going to better you and your
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career. So it's a tough decision.
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Only, you can answer that. But if you want to get better in
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the kitchen to quickest way is to routes, is to surround
14:46
yourself with people that are at a higher level than you more
14:49
skilled than you more knowledgeable than you.
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If you're the most knowledgeable person in the kitchen sometimes,
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that's good for your ego. Ego, but it's not good for your
14:57
growth. So that's the quickest way is
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just to fully immerse yourself as a student, until you have a
15:04
harder and harder time finding places where you are not to the
15:08
student anymore and you'll be aware all of a sudden, you've
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transitioned into, that teacher role into that leader role.
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So that would be hopefully, that answers your question in a
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simple way. This next question is when menu
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planning? Do you start with an idea or do
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you start with an ingredient? I start with both and it's not
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so it's not so straightforward. I might be doing a seasonal menu
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and I might be focused around specific ingredients.
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So let's just say I'm doing a spring menu and it's lamb and
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morels and asparagus and peas. And so I'm going to start with
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the ingredients and other times maybe I'm walking through an art
15:42
gallery and I see a beautiful painting and the colors inspire
15:45
me and so I get an idea for something.
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So I would say it really Ali happens both ways.
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There's not, there's not a set in stone formula for people to
15:54
get creative. I would say, the, a good little
15:57
tip when it comes to getting more creative is to immerse
16:02
yourself in the idea of creative exercises.
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You know, go to museums spend time in nature, talk to people
16:09
that are creative, go see artwork, all these things, start
16:13
to get the creative juices in your mind, simmering, and
16:18
flowing. And you start to See things
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differently. There's a really good book that
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I read long time ago. I'm see if I could remember the
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title. Oh yeah.
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It was titled. How to think like Leonardo
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DaVinci and that is just a book. That's an exercise in
16:33
creativity. When you you know, obviously one
16:35
of the most creative people to have ever lived is Leonardo but
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they said things like the way he would get creative like he would
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lay down on the floor and look at things upside down and you
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know, just he did everything to to stimulate his Creative
16:50
Energy. So that's a good book to use as
16:52
a reference, But to answer your question, there isn't a
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one-size-fits-all answer to that.
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So whatever is working best for you.
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That's giving you the best results continue to do that,
17:01
right? So hope that helps.
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The next question is, how can I improve my speed as a cook
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because all my peers keep telling me I'm slow work,
17:11
faster. No, I'm just kidding.
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Really just got to cook more you gain speed with experience.
17:18
But when you practice Practice really good technique and with
17:23
the idea that okay, how do I get faster?
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Something I used to do is I would write down little goals
17:28
for myself. So let's just say, I was dicing
17:30
a case of tomatoes and I would say okay what was the time I'd
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set the clock? Okay we did it in 30 minutes,
17:35
great tomorrow, let's try and get it in 28 minutes and the
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next day, you know, 27 minutes. So always be pushing yourself to
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just be a little bit more efficient, in whatever it is
17:43
that you're doing obviously with repetition and practice you will
17:47
get faster. Something I've I talked about
17:50
before, but I'll say it again here.
17:51
If this is the first time that that you're hearing, it is I
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would go to the store and buy some inexpensive ingredients,
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like a whole chicken, some potatoes, some onions and eggs,
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I guess eggs aren't inexpensive these days with the price going
18:05
up. But anyway, I would get those
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four things and you can make a lot of different things.
18:10
So, with your onions, you can practice your knife skills.
18:12
Julienne, brunoise, etc, etc. Dicing and slicing etcetera with
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your chicken you could practice trussing Roasting butchering
18:21
deboning, making stock. Like, you could practice so many
18:24
things with that chicken brining, and so on, with your
18:27
potato, you could you could practice your torn.
18:29
Hey you could practice again, dicing brunoise julienne Etc.
18:34
You could also make mashed potatoes pommes, puree gnocchi
18:37
and on and on and with eggs obviously you could learn all
18:40
your different styles of egg cookery flipping eggs in a pan.
18:43
Making omelets different styles of omelettes, the American
18:45
style, the European style, the French omelet, and on and on.
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But with Those simple ingredients and they're
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relatively inexpensive, you could just continue to just
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like, okay, I'm going to buy a sack of potatoes and I'm going
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to brunoise all the potatoes and then you know, by the end of by
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the end of that, I should be faster because you will have
19:03
repetition some reps under your belt.
19:07
I'll tell you a funny story is, you know, you, if you wanted to
19:11
learn how to brunoise, I had like, 50 cooks that I was
19:13
training on brunoise and that's all they do for like five hours,
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there was just brunoise and then we'd get it, and then you'll
19:18
make soup out of There was like, so frustrated like wow, why do
19:21
you why do you do that with the brunoise?
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It was like, well, because we don't need it.
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And this is, this is practice, right?
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And I was so picky about the brunoise, like, no, it has to
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be, this has to be this, but this was just training.
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And then when we got into the real world application, their
19:37
knife skills were like, honestly, people would come up
19:40
to be like, damn, their knife skills are so good.
19:42
How do you, how are your Cooks knife skills?
19:43
So good. It's like, because they just
19:45
practiced it all day long for days on end and I guarantee He
19:49
you some of those Kooks right now that have worked with me
19:52
during that specific period, their knife skills are probably
19:55
better than most Chef instructors that are teaching
19:58
knife skills. That's how good they are.
20:00
So, anyway, the key to get better at anything is
20:02
repetition. If you want to get faster, like
20:04
I said, just practice make it a point to be aware of the time
20:08
and then also just repetition. The next question I have here
20:12
is, what does an aspiring Chef need to keep in mind during
20:15
their education? I would say this and I'll keep
20:18
this answer. It is that it doesn't matter how
20:22
much you read or how much YouTube videos you watch or how
20:25
much Instagram you look at or how much vocabulary you have or
20:29
how well, you could explain, you know, the process of
20:33
lacto-fermentation, none of that matters.
20:36
The only thing that matters is, can you do it?
20:38
So I would say for an aspiring young Chef during your
20:41
education, remember, all of that is Theory until you could do it.
20:44
It doesn't matter that you have a very comprehensive vocabulary.
20:48
You can talk about it all day. Great.
20:49
Can you do it? Oh, you can't.
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Then it doesn't matter. So I would say keep that in
20:54
mind. No one is impressed with what
20:56
you say, if you can't do it in the kitchen.
20:58
So if you're on the line, it doesn't matter that, you know,
21:00
all the terminology and that you went to the school and you have
21:02
this great degree. Okay.
21:04
Great. But can you do it?
21:05
No, then you don't know it, you don't truly know something until
21:08
you can do it. You might know how to talk about
21:11
it but you don't know. It fully this.
21:14
Next question is as a starter Chef who could not afford,
21:17
culinary education. What is your advice?
21:19
I would say just start working, find out what the best
21:22
restaurants are in your area and just go apply, even if it's as a
21:25
dishwasher, just get in those kitchens and let them know.
21:27
Even if you go in as a dishwasher, let them know.
21:29
I aspire to be a cook. I'll start in the dish station
21:32
and then when you see that, I'm ready and you see that.
21:35
I'm a hard worker. Will you move me up?
21:37
And if they don't move you up after a certain amount of time,
21:38
then you do you need to leave. But just getting into kitchens
21:41
getting into good kitchens as the key and surrounding
21:44
yourself. As I said before, with great
21:46
chefs, as probably the best education you could get
21:49
culinary. School is great and I'm not
21:50
knocking it. I've gone to culinary school and
21:52
it gives you a formal education, but it's just Theory getting in
21:56
and being able to do it is like I just said, more important than
22:00
the theory. So, actual knowledge is more
22:02
important. The next question is, which chef
22:06
would you rather hire a culinary school Chef or an entrepreneur
22:10
experienced Chef? I think it really depends on the
22:13
position. Sometimes for an entry-level
22:14
position, I don't want a super experienced Chef because they
22:18
might get discouraged in the end.
22:19
Level and sometimes four sometimes even for an
22:22
experienced position. I'd rather have someone
22:24
inexperienced because I want to teach them how I want it to be
22:28
done. Sometimes your education can be
22:30
a detriment and I'll tell you what I mean.
22:32
So let's say you've worked ten years in a certain type of
22:35
restaurant and I'm running a different type of restaurant and
22:38
then you come to my restaurant and you say, hey I want to be
22:41
the sous chef here because I have 10 years experience, and I
22:43
might say yes, but it's not in the style of food that I'm doing
22:46
or in the type of kitchen that I'm running.
22:48
So it doesn't match. H up and then maybe I make the
22:51
mistake and I hire this person anyway, and right away.
22:53
I see that was a mistake because they want to run it the way that
22:57
they ran it at the other place and it's completely different
22:59
from how I want it. So sometimes starting from zero
23:02
is better, it really depends on what you're looking for and
23:06
what's going to be best for your operation and there's a case to
23:09
be made for both ends. So it's not again, it's not a
23:11
one-size-fits-all answer, there is a lot of gray and a lot of
23:15
these answers. So I apologize for that.
23:16
But hey, life is Gray sometimes and I guess the best way to
23:22
answer it as make the right decision, make the right
23:26
decision based on the opportunities that have
23:28
presented themselves to you, for what you need, would probably be
23:32
the best thing I could say. Next question is, how do you
23:34
impress an interview having little experience in a
23:36
professional kitchen. So in my culinary leadership
23:39
fundamentals, book, I talk about this a little bit and I go
23:42
in-depth on, you know, make sure that your polished, make sure
23:44
you look like you're ready for the job that you're applying for
23:48
some, Apple tricks that I like to talk about is when you
23:51
introduce your purse yourself to the person shake their hand.
23:54
If you know of handshakes are thing, say your name, say I'm
23:58
Andre natera. Nice to meet you.
23:59
There can say hi, I'm Bill and you say hi Bill.
24:02
Nice to meet you. Bill may do you mind if I have a
24:04
seat try to use their name twice, it's just a little
24:06
psychological trick that I use is the sweetest sound to
24:10
everyone's ears is their own name.
24:12
So, say their name twice within the first 30 seconds smile.
24:15
Don't seat yourself, ask. If you can be seated, be
24:18
professional, have your They in hand, make sure your resume has
24:22
been proof, read. There's no typos.
24:24
Make sure your, your experience is correct.
24:27
Don't embellish people call each other and check on that.
24:31
Also, make sure that the dates are on there in position.
24:34
You don't want the person. Looking at your resume to have
24:36
to ask the questions to like oh here it says you're still
24:40
working there. You still working there.
24:41
Oh no I left two years ago whatever.
24:43
The case might be double, check your resume, make sure it's
24:45
accurate. And then the last thing I would
24:47
say that would impress during an View is I always say come
24:51
prepared with at least three questions.
24:53
Nothing is worse than an interview when you close it up
24:55
and you say do you have any questions?
24:57
They're like nope. I think you answered all my
24:58
questions that to me is one of the worst things you could do,
25:01
have three questions prepared and simple like you could ask
25:04
them, like, can you tell me a little bit about yourself,
25:06
what's your leadership style? Like whatever the case, maybe
25:08
just have some questions and the reason I say that is because one
25:12
you look like you're prepared and number two, everyone's
25:15
favorite subject is themselves. So if you ask them questions
25:18
about them, Selves, they will love to talk about themselves.
25:22
So one of the best things you could do in an interview is get
25:25
them to talk about themselves. They'll leave the interview
25:27
thinking boy, I really like talking to that person.
25:29
They were, they were a great conversationalist study body
25:33
language if you really want to get polished on interviewing
25:36
skills and something called NLP neuro-linguistic, programming,
25:40
that's something else you could study.
25:42
And that's just like subtle persuasion techniques that you
25:46
could use to get a slight Edge. Edge in the interview process.
25:50
So anyway, that's my advice there.
25:52
The next question is, how do you personally deal with impostor
25:55
syndrome? If you've ever had it?
25:57
I don't personally deal with it because I don't think I've had
26:00
it now. I know with imposter syndrome.
26:03
It's the idea of people being in a position or having a certain
26:07
amount of success that they feel that maybe they don't deserve,
26:09
or there's other people that are better than them.
26:12
I tone that noise down, I don't think about it.
26:15
I'm not into, I'm not in competition with anyone else.
26:19
I am in a Perpetual competition with my own mind and with myself
26:24
and I would encourage you to do that.
26:25
You're not competing with anyone else.
26:27
It doesn't matter if they're a better Chef than you, you're not
26:29
competing with them. You're competing with who you
26:31
were yesterday. That's it.
26:33
All you're trying to do is beat the person that you were
26:35
yesterday and be better than them.
26:37
So I would say, stop thinking about that stop comparing
26:40
yourself to others. It's a it's a dog, chasing, its
26:43
tail. It's never going to stop.
26:46
And there really is no reward because there will always trust
26:49
me. There's always someone better at
26:51
everything than you there's someone that knows more about
26:55
food. There's someone that's more
26:56
successful and you could use that as motivation for you to
26:59
get better. But it's not realistic for you
27:02
to compare yourself to someone because you have no idea what's
27:05
going on in their mind. The only thing that you could
27:08
control is yourself be better than yourself yesterday period.
27:12
So I don't struggle with imposter syndrome but as ice
27:15
Speak to people who do that would be, my advice for them is
27:20
quit giving your energy to other people and reverse that energy
27:25
and channel it into yourself and improving yourself and it's a
27:28
better use of the energy that you have.
27:30
This is the last question and it was asked about three or four
27:34
times in the in the DMS and it's a tough question for me to
27:39
answer. So I saved it for the end.
27:41
And that is, you know, what is my personal Rock Bottom if I'm
27:45
willing to share it. Or the worst thing that's ever
27:47
happened to me in my career and I'll tell you that I had a
27:52
period of maybe the worst year ever.
27:55
And that was, you know, I had I had lost everything for lack of
27:59
a better term. I lost everything that I had
28:01
accumulated over the course of my career.
28:04
I had reached a certain point of success where I was top of the
28:08
food chain in the city that I was at, you know, it was best
28:11
chef two years consecutive, I was in the running for the best
28:14
chef in the city. I had all the stars from the
28:17
newspaper. I was getting all the
28:18
recognition. I was probably on TV once a week
28:21
doing something, I had gotten inducted into the MasterChef
28:25
society and I was turning opportunities down because there
28:29
was so many and I was at the top of the world.
28:32
And when that happened, I got some advice for my mentor and
28:36
they told me they said, do not get too puffed up, when all this
28:39
success happens because you could lose it just as quick as
28:42
it came and I remember thinking that's not me.
28:45
I'm well that won't happen but sure should I did my ego got the
28:50
best of me and it was one thing after the other and my life just
28:53
started crumbling bad. And basically I went into a
28:58
downward spiral and probably was willing to bring down anyone
29:03
around me, you know, to my rock bottom that you wanted to go
29:07
with me. Every chef.
29:13
Wants to get to a certain spot in their career and sometimes
29:15
that's owning your own restaurant and being the best
29:18
version of yourself. And when you reach that and it's
29:21
all taken away from you and you have to start over again.
29:24
It's a very humbling situation and it took me a number of years
29:29
to mentally recover from that and understand what I did wrong
29:34
and understand what I needed to do to get better.
29:38
There's no one to blame. You can only blame yourself and
29:41
you go through these mental exercises, will whose fault was
29:44
it? At the end of the day?
29:45
You can't blame anyone. You can only blame yourself.
29:47
You have to accept full responsibility for the good and
29:49
the bad that happens in your life.
29:52
And I often use the Expression, everyone loves being the hammer,
29:55
but no one likes to be the nail, and in this particular case, I
29:59
was the nail, and as bad thing after bad, thing after bad thing
30:03
started happening, it's like shit.
30:06
I don't like this and I have to Figure out how to correct it.
30:11
I think when you're a very successful chef, and you quickly
30:17
turn around and you're no longer a successful Chef.
30:20
I think your ego gets bruised, and you have to remove yourself
30:23
from that. So you could correct it and
30:25
understand that. And that's honestly a big reason
30:27
why I started chefs PSA. Because a lot of the, the
30:30
mistakes that I made in my career, I'm hoping that I could
30:33
teach people to not make those same mistakes and not that
30:36
they're avoidable. Because some of you have to go
30:37
through these mistakes because that's what's going to make you
30:39
who you are. Mistakes aren't bad.
30:42
But some other rougher lessons, if you could be knowledgeable,
30:45
when you approach these situations and it's like
30:48
understanding the moves on the chessboard Sena.
30:51
I know that last time I was watching the chess game, this
30:54
person made that move and they failed and they captured the
30:58
king. So I'm not going to make that
30:59
same mistake. Now, your king may get captured
31:02
in a later move, but you'll at least have not made that
31:07
mistake. You'll have another mistake to
31:08
learn from. So Anyway, that's basically the,
31:13
the worst thing that's ever happened to me, is accumulating
31:15
a massive amount of success, only to have it, basically
31:19
washed away overnight and then having to completely rebuild
31:22
that. And it honestly took me about
31:25
mmm, probably about four years to get back to the same level
31:31
that I was previously in terms of reputation, and you're
31:36
getting on getting on top of the city, basically.
31:39
Lee wherever I was and having a restaurant that was in that same
31:42
level. Anyway, that's probably the most
31:44
difficult thing is adversity, will make you stronger so don't
31:50
shy away from the adversity adversity makes you better.
31:53
It definitely did in my case. It helped me recognize some
31:56
blind spots that I had. It helped me correct.
31:59
You know the culture that I was creating and kitchens it made me
32:02
realize that you know like all like all the all stories your
32:07
hero has a character Arc in my case like I was good at The
32:09
beginning that I turned bad and then at the end it was good.
32:12
Like Darth Vader. We're Anakin Skywalker, right?
32:16
I had my Darth Vader, period. And then, I went back to Anakin
32:18
Skywalker anyway, that's going to wrap up this week's chefs,
32:23
PSA podcast. If you want to support the show,
32:26
you could go to Chef PS a.com and you could look at our
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merchandise, we have some great t-shirts, etcetera.
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32:35
fundamentals line. Cook survival manual.
32:38
How not to be the biggest idiot in the kitchen.
32:40
There's the video course that you could buy or rent on
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