Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / What Makes A Good Sous Chef? Ep. 61
Transcript
- 0:00Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast.
- 0:02I'm your host, Andre Natara. On today's episode, we're going
- 0:05to talk about what makes a good sous chef.
- 0:07Stay tuned. Before we get into it, let me
- 0:21give you a brief update. All the books are now translated
- 0:24into Spanish. And as of today, which is
- 0:28Sunday, August 27th, two of the books have been translated into
- 0:32Italian. So you go find them.
- 0:34You go to chefspsa.com/books and you can get all the books from
- 0:38Chefs, PSA, Culinary Leadership, Fundamentals, Kitchen, Art of
- 0:41War. The two that are now in Italian,
- 0:44Line Cook, Survival Manual, Bad Sue, Good Chef and How Not To Be
- 0:48the Biggest Idiot in the Kitchen are now also in English,
- 0:51Spanish. The English versions are also
- 0:54ebook and audio, and we'll see if I do audiobooks on the
- 0:57different languages. That is undecided.
- 1:00So let me start out this episode with a joke.
- 1:03There's a group of chefs in a room at a party and all of them
- 1:06are afraid to leave. They're all waiting each other
- 1:09out, and the reason that is because they know that the 2nd
- 1:11that the first one leaves, the other ones are going to say that
- 1:15chef is a Shoemaker, that chef is a hack, their food sucks.
- 1:18It's an old joke and it's probably been told a couple of
- 1:20different ways, and the reason I say that is because it's an old
- 1:25chef's PSA that I did. One of the original ones is no
- 1:27matter how well you do something, another chef was
- 1:29going to think you're wrong. Today's episode is about what
- 1:32makes a good sous chef. There's going to be a lot of
- 1:34opinions on this. I did a podcast earlier in the
- 1:38series about going from cook to sous chef, where I talk about
- 1:41all the things that you need as a cook as you start moving up in
- 1:44your career. And what are the things that I
- 1:46would look for as a chef if I was going to promote someone to
- 1:48sous chef or hire someone for that matter?
- 1:51On this episode, what we're going to talk about is, let's
- 1:52assume you're already in the position.
- 1:54How do you make sure that you're a good sous chef when you're in
- 1:56the position? Believe it or not, this is a
- 1:59very important skill. I often say that the price of
- 2:02entry, the gatekeeper, is culinary ability.
- 2:06If you can't cook, you have no business being a sous chef.
- 2:08And I've said before, don't focus so much on the admin work.
- 2:11When you get into the sous chef role, you'll figure it out.
- 2:13It's probably not that complicated to write a schedule
- 2:15and things like that, but when you're in the role, there's
- 2:18going to be a lot of things that come at you for the first time.
- 2:21A lot of traps to avoid that a lot of sous chefs fall into, and
- 2:24I want to get into all those things.
- 2:26So some things to look out for and some things that will not
- 2:29only help you be more successful but will save you a lot of
- 2:31headaches when you're in the position.
- 2:33Now I think it needs to be said, the technical abilities are the
- 2:36gatekeeper. You need to know how to cook.
- 2:37If anything. You should be ideally the best
- 2:40cook in the kitchen depending on what your brigade system is.
- 2:43So let's assume it's just you and the chef and you're in the
- 2:46second position. You're the number two you need
- 2:48to be the best cook in the kitchen because most likely
- 2:50you're the one that's going to be doing most of the interacting
- 2:53with the majority of the cooks that work there.
- 2:56Not all kitchens are the same and I should also say the the
- 2:59sous chef duties in different kitchens are going to vary.
- 3:02So in some places I've been, I've been the chef of some
- 3:05places where the sous chef is basically the most experienced
- 3:08line cook, but you're tied down to a station.
- 3:11I've worked in other places where the sous chef is free from
- 3:13the station. They're running the pass and
- 3:15they're doing what most people think the chef does.
- 3:17So there isn't A1 size fits all answers for what the sous chef's
- 3:21role and responsibility is. But let's just assume that you
- 3:25have some authority over your kitchen and a lot of kitchens.
- 3:29The sous chef was like the varsity quarterback.
- 3:32People either love the sous chef because they're great.
- 3:36They're maybe they're not mean like the head chef.
- 3:39Sometimes they came up from the ranks, from the line cooks, so
- 3:42they still hang out and they're very friendly with them.
- 3:45Other times, the sous chef is the biggest jerk.
- 3:47No one likes them. They're too strict.
- 3:50They think they're above everyone else.
- 3:52Those problems are usually the two that you come across, like
- 3:55the sous chef that's beloved or the sous chef that has a big
- 3:58ego. I shall also say the third is
- 4:00the sous chef that doesn't do anything.
- 4:01As soon as the chef leaves, they they they pull up a chair, sit
- 4:05down and bark orders. So those are usually the three
- 4:08different types of sous chefs that you're going to work with.
- 4:10The one that's going to be the most respectful and how they
- 4:13interact with others is usually the one that's going to be the
- 4:16most desired. So if you want to be a
- 4:17successful Sousha, first and foremost, you need to treat
- 4:20every single person in your kitchen with dignity and
- 4:23respect. That's going to go a very long
- 4:24way. If people respect you, they will
- 4:27do more for you. And I should also say they will
- 4:29respect you more if you have technical ability.
- 4:33So you need to be able to tell them to do it, but also
- 4:35demonstrate that you could do it.
- 4:37And if they're doing it incorrectly, you need to be able
- 4:39to correct them and show them how to do it.
- 4:41I've known certain shoe chefs that don't know how to do
- 4:43something, and I've talked about this before is that sometimes
- 4:47people will avoid certain jobs that maybe skipped over and now
- 4:51they're in a position of authority.
- 4:52So they're expected to know how to do this, and they don't want
- 4:55to lose face by showing that they don't know how to do it.
- 4:57So they just completely avoid it or they delegate it.
- 5:00People see through that. The rest of the team knows that
- 5:04if you avoid butchering the skate every single time, they're
- 5:09going to start to think They clearly don't know how to
- 5:11butcher skate. You always have to go to the
- 5:12restroom or take a call or place an order every time the skate
- 5:15comes out. Which, by the way, skate is an
- 5:17awesome fish skate wing needs to make a comeback.
- 5:20So if you're listening, you know, take the salmon off the
- 5:23menu and replace it with skate. Anyway, you don't have to do
- 5:26that. It's just my opinion.
- 5:27But a good shoe chef has technical ability and can
- 5:30demonstrate that they can do the job as proficient as almost
- 5:34everyone on their team. Now, of course, there's going to
- 5:36be certain people on the team that could do specific tasks
- 5:39better than you. Like Maybe someone is just
- 5:41really good at butchering fish. It's okay that they're better
- 5:45than you, but you still need to know how to do it.
- 5:47Maybe you can't do it as good as them, but you still need to be
- 5:49able to do it. Maybe someone has a better grill
- 5:52cook than you. They always nail the temps of
- 5:54the meat. Well, even if they are better
- 5:57than you, you still need to be able to do it.
- 5:58A good shoe chef should be able to cover every single station in
- 6:01the kitchen with a certain level of proficiency.
- 6:04So let's just say you need to operate at an 8 or a nine on all
- 6:07stations where some people might be operating at A10.
- 6:10The other thing when you're new in the sous chef role is now
- 6:13you're starting to develop your communication skills.
- 6:16It's having coffee with someone today, and we were talking about
- 6:20the difference between the different eras of kitchens, the
- 6:24old and the old era. A lot of the era that I came up
- 6:26and it was the shuffle would explode, yell at you multiple
- 6:30times over the same thing, but really a lot of times the
- 6:32consequences for the action that was not desired was just
- 6:36yelling. But there was no correction.
- 6:38It was just, I'm going to explode, I'm going to yell, but
- 6:41I'm not going to correct it, I'm not going to explain, and I'm
- 6:42also not going to fire you. When you manage that way.
- 6:45What ends up happening is sometimes not everyone responds
- 6:49well to that, especially nowadays.
- 6:50So it starts to create this downward spiral of mistake after
- 6:55mistake after mistake after mistake.
- 6:57You make someone nervous because they messed this up.
- 6:59The next thing you know they messed the next thing up and the
- 7:01next thing we were talking about.
- 7:05Sometimes it's better to just stop, lower your voice, go up to
- 7:09them, explain to them why something needs to be done a
- 7:12certain way, how they can correct it and show them, and
- 7:15then make sure that they understand.
- 7:17And then you show them again when the same thing happens, and
- 7:19you show them a third time, but maybe by the 4th time you tell
- 7:22them this just is not a good fit and they then they move on.
- 7:25Every single step along the way is done respectfully.
- 7:29Because if you have a group of people watching and they see
- 7:32every interaction that you do is respectful and professionally,
- 7:36and you educate them, they most likely will be more keen to
- 7:40learn the lesson. And if they understand that
- 7:42there's consequences, you know, the ultimate consequence of
- 7:46losing your job or some sort of demotion, then they will be more
- 7:50keen to correct it. However, if the only
- 7:53consequences that you're going to yell and belittle and
- 7:55embarrass me, but you're not going to do anything, you're not
- 7:58going to fire me, you're not going to teach me how to do it,
- 8:00you're not going to correct me. What's going to end up happening
- 8:02is people are just going to get used to you yelling at them and
- 8:04that's it. They're not necessarily going to
- 8:05improve and you're going to continue to get frustrated.
- 8:07So this is something that I talk to sous chefs often is like when
- 8:11you become a sous chef, one of the most important things that
- 8:14you need to work on is how do you communicate ideas to people
- 8:17that they're going to learn from it.
- 8:18You're going to educate them without making them feel like
- 8:22idiots. They can walk away from the
- 8:24interaction with you and say, now I understand.
- 8:27Now I know how to do that. Thank you for showing me, maybe
- 8:29even thanking you and not walking away thinking that they
- 8:31want to quit and or feeling like a failure, right?
- 8:35A good sous chef has the ability to communicate with people and
- 8:39if they don't yet, that's going to be One of the most important
- 8:42skills that you need to add to your toolbox as a sous chef is
- 8:46that ability to communicate with others, to be able to
- 8:49communicate ideas without getting angry will help everyone
- 8:53in your kitchen out in the long run.
- 8:54The other thing that people expect from a sous chef is they
- 8:57have to walk the talk. I did a post the other day and I
- 9:00said you have to walk the talk, but ultimately the walk is the
- 9:05only thing that matters. In other words, it doesn't
- 9:07matter if you say it, but if you do it, that's most important.
- 9:10You can't act as if Caesar is above the wall.
- 9:15If the rule in the kitchen is no one does this, then it can't be.
- 9:19No one does it except for the sous chef is allowed to get away
- 9:22with it because a rule for one is a rule for none, right?
- 9:29If one person could get away with it, then everyone's going
- 9:31to get away with it and we all know what happens, right?
- 9:33We say don't do this and no one does it when the chef is there,
- 9:37but as soon as the chef leaves, everyone does it.
- 9:39So then the question is, is it really a rule?
- 9:42If a rule doesn't apply to everyone, then it's not a real
- 9:44rule. And the sous chef, in my
- 9:47experience, I've seen many sous chefs fail with this is they say
- 9:52one thing when the chef is around and as soon as the chef
- 9:54leaves, they do something completely different.
- 9:57And a lot of times that comes because they used to be friends
- 10:00with the cooks that are there. They want to be perceived as the
- 10:02cool person. Chef's not here.
- 10:04So we're going to do it this way.
- 10:06And I can tell you it's the wrong thing to do because people
- 10:08really don't respect that. And not only that, but the chef
- 10:12always knows because there's always someone that will rat you
- 10:17out to the chef and say as soon as you leave.
- 10:19Just so you know, this happened. Trust me, I was a chef for a
- 10:21long time. There's always spies in the
- 10:23kitchen that are always trying to gain a little advantage.
- 10:25The person that didn't get the job and you think they're your
- 10:29friend, they're going, they're going behind your back, they're
- 10:31telling the chef this happens as soon as they leave.
- 10:32The other thing that the sous chef does, that's a critical
- 10:36role in what they do is they act as the bridge between the
- 10:39culinary team, the line level staff and the executive chef or
- 10:43the chef, the cuisine, because they live in both worlds.
- 10:45Sometimes they're they're acting as a cook and other times
- 10:49they're acting as a leader. So they are shared information
- 10:53from both ends, meaning that the chef sometimes shares
- 10:57confidential information with them and sometimes the cooks
- 11:00share confidential information. Now, I could tell you, and I'm
- 11:03only telling you from a chef's perspective because some of the
- 11:05cooks that might be listening to this will say, well, I don't
- 11:07like that at all. But when you hear something, you
- 11:11are the eyes and ears of the chef, and you need to be
- 11:14communicating that information up to the chef so that they can
- 11:17make a good decision on how to handle situations.
- 11:21So if you know of things happening, you need to make sure
- 11:24that you left your you let your chef know.
- 11:26But the other way around, unless we're talking about something
- 11:29you like illegal or immoral or unethical, you're going to know
- 11:34things and it's your responsibility to not share that
- 11:37information down. So it's a tough situation
- 11:40because sometimes you got to tell people confidential
- 11:44information up that might get them in trouble, but sometimes
- 11:46you can't share that information that you know is going to affect
- 11:49the team down. That's the job that you signed
- 11:52up for. And trust me, it's one of the
- 11:53more difficult things that you're going to deal with
- 11:55because you're going to be sitting on your hands with some
- 11:57information. You know, someone's about to be
- 12:00let go in a couple of days, but you can't say anything about it.
- 12:04Maybe that someone is your friend and you can't say
- 12:06anything about it. Maybe you know someone's going
- 12:09to quit and you know it's going to screw over the entire
- 12:12restaurant, and this person is your friend, but you still have
- 12:15a duty because you took the job to be the sous chef.
- 12:19And ultimately your duty and your loyalty lies to the
- 12:22restaurant and to the chef that you're working for.
- 12:25It's a tough thing for people to navigate.
- 12:27There's going to be situations that come up where in a lot of
- 12:32kitchens, the sous chef or the number 2 is really the person
- 12:35that's driving the cuisine forward.
- 12:36And then in many cases, they might be technically stronger
- 12:41than the chef that they work for, meaning with food, pots,
- 12:44pans, knives, things like that. They might be more efficient on
- 12:46the line or maybe they put more dishes on the menu recently or
- 12:50whatever the case may be. These instances are going to
- 12:53happen and you're going to have this feeling that you may be
- 12:56slightly upset and think that you deserve more of the glory,
- 13:00more of the lion's share of the glory than the chef is getting.
- 13:02And you got to be careful with that.
- 13:03You should go back and listen to my series that I did on the 48.
- 13:08Laws of Power as it relates to chefs.
- 13:11And Rule #1 is never outshine the king.
- 13:15Even if you are technically better at certain things in the
- 13:18chef, make sure that they give the credit.
- 13:19It's your job as the sous chef. This is kind of weird, but this
- 13:22is the reality. It's your job as the sous chef
- 13:24to make sure that the chef looks good, and it's the chef's job to
- 13:27make sure they give you the credit when you deserve it.
- 13:30That's the way it works, and if you work for a good chef,
- 13:34hopefully they're giving you the credit when you deserve it.
- 13:36But it's really easy to be upset with the chef because you feel
- 13:39like you're not getting the credit that you deserve and you
- 13:41do something stupid behind their back and you try and sabotage
- 13:44them. Or you talk bad about them when
- 13:46they're not in the room and you plant the seed of dissension
- 13:49amongst the team. Trust me, you do not want to do
- 13:51that. That's a slippery slope to
- 13:53losing a job and to burning a bridge.
- 13:55Always make sure the chef looks good.
- 13:58Enhance their reputation whenever possible.
- 14:00Never outshine the chef. Let them have the limelight.
- 14:03Your time will come, trust me, and your time will come sooner
- 14:06if you make sure that your boss always looks good and they
- 14:08recognize that the chef knows. Hopefully the chef that you were
- 14:11for has some common sense. They know that you're doing all
- 14:14the work, and when your time comes, if you have a good
- 14:17relationship with your chef, they're going to make sure that
- 14:19you get your turn at bat. Another really good trait of the
- 14:23sous chef is that they solve problems quickly and they get
- 14:26the chef involved when they cannot solve the problem.
- 14:30I used to tell my chefs if I would go home and something
- 14:33would happen, I would want to know about it.
- 14:35It didn't matter. Send me a text, give me a phone
- 14:37call. Whatever the case may be, I want
- 14:39to know about it so I'm able to fix it and get ahead of it, or
- 14:44I'm able to think about how I'm going to correct it before I
- 14:46walked in the door. But there's nothing worse than
- 14:49walking through the door and finding out there's a disaster
- 14:51and all these things happened and you're finding out about it
- 14:54a little bit too late. And now you can't correct it.
- 14:56To each their own. Not all chefs think this way.
- 14:58Some some chefs are like, it's my day off, don't bother me.
- 15:01I was the opposite. If there was a big issue, I want
- 15:04to know about it before I walk in the door.
- 15:07If it's a big issue and I should put that in quote, because if
- 15:11it's a little issue, I don't want to know about it.
- 15:13You're put in a position of leadership.
- 15:14So you're expected to take charge.
- 15:16As the expression goes, if you're not sure what the right
- 15:18thing to do, is, do the right thing.
- 15:20And if you find yourself in a position where you don't know
- 15:23what to do, then you could ask a good A good rule of thumb is
- 15:27what would the chef do in this situation?
- 15:28What do you think is the best move in this situation?
- 15:31And if you're uncertain, ask the chef.
- 15:33And if you can't get a hold of the chef, make the decision that
- 15:36you think they would make, and if you're not sure what they
- 15:38would do, do the right thing. I don't know if I've ever said
- 15:40this before, but I'll say it here.
- 15:42Maybe I said it in a book or another podcast, but the person
- 15:46that brings the most value to the team is the person who could
- 15:50solve 1 issue versus the person who could point out 10 problems.
- 15:54So I'll say that another way. If you could solve one problem,
- 15:58you bring more value than the person that could find 10
- 16:01problems. And what I mean by that is
- 16:04there's a lot of chefs that I've worked with, sous chefs and
- 16:07whatnot, that all they do is complain, this is wrong, this is
- 16:09wrong. We can't do this because of
- 16:10that. We can't do this because of
- 16:12that. And they have nothing but
- 16:14excuses as to why things can't get done.
- 16:17Everywhere they look, they see an obstacle to not perform.
- 16:22And as the chef, I could tell you, that's frustrating because
- 16:25usually when you're in the chef position, you've usually skipped
- 16:28the step of sous chef by solving problems.
- 16:31And so the person that has more value is the person that could
- 16:34solve problems versus the person that could find problems.
- 16:37If you could solve me one problem, you have more value
- 16:40than the other person because that means you're wired
- 16:44differently, you're wired to fix things and find solutions.
- 16:48And when you're a sous chef, your job is to handle the
- 16:50issues. You should be handling the
- 16:53majority of the issues on your own without having to get the
- 16:55chef involved. But you should be getting the
- 16:57chef involved when you reach something that you cannot solve
- 17:01on your own. But if you take more off the
- 17:04chef's plate, it's a good thing. And if they give you more,
- 17:07that's also a good thing. So a lot of people look at it
- 17:10like they're giving me more work.
- 17:11I can't handle it. It's too much.
- 17:13If you truly can't handle it, ask for help.
- 17:15But if you can handle it, you should take it.
- 17:18Thankfully, because if they're giving you more work, it usually
- 17:21means that they have more confidence in you.
- 17:24Now, a lot of people don't agree with my what I'm going to say
- 17:26next, but occasionally people will ask me like, hey, I feel
- 17:29like I'm doing the executive chef's job, but I'm not getting
- 17:32paid for it. What should I do?
- 17:34I always say do it, get the experience, learn how to do it.
- 17:38Because when the time comes, people are not stupid.
- 17:40If people are noticing that you're doing the work of the
- 17:42person above you, one of two things.
- 17:44It's either happening because they're grooming you and getting
- 17:48you ready to go into that position and they want to, they
- 17:50want you to demonstrate it first before they give it to you.
- 17:54Or they are aware that it's happening and maybe they're
- 17:58about to let someone go and move you into the position.
- 18:01So when you're given things that are, you know, sometimes above
- 18:04your pay grade, look at it as an opportunity to learn.
- 18:07Because I'm going to give you this example.
- 18:11You have two sous chefs, you give both of them a little bit
- 18:14more work than what they're used to.
- 18:17One person says I'm not doing it unless you pay me because that's
- 18:20not my job and the other person says I'll do it regardless.
- 18:24The person who says they'll do it regardless when the time
- 18:27comes will get promoted. It's really a nobrainer.
- 18:30It's obvious because they've already demonstrated that they
- 18:33are willing to go above and they've already demonstrated a
- 18:36competency in the task where the other person like it's a gamble.
- 18:41One, they might not be able to do it.
- 18:43It's just theory that they say they could do it, but the other
- 18:45person has demonstrated it. Take the opportunity.
- 18:49When the time arises, I'm going to tell you a story.
- 18:52I had a sous chef that worked for me and then she had gone and
- 18:56worked in this three Michelin star restaurant.
- 18:57And then she came back and worked for me later on.
- 19:00And I had made something and then I had stepped away.
- 19:03And when I stepped away she went and changed it because she
- 19:08thought it would be better the way that she wanted to make it.
- 19:11And she told someone, I corrected Andre's dish I know
- 19:16better now. I just came back from this
- 19:17restaurant and it got back to me.
- 19:20And even though this person didn't think that they were
- 19:22doing anything wrong, it was I I took it very personally, like
- 19:28the dish that I was doing was sentimental to me.
- 19:30I was replicating a dish a very specific way because that's the
- 19:34way I wanted it. And this person thought, well,
- 19:36they knew better because they had just come from this
- 19:37restaurant and then made a joke about it to the staff that they
- 19:41were correcting me. I could tell you, like, that is
- 19:43absolutely the wrong thing to do.
- 19:45You lose complete trust with your chef when that happens.
- 19:48Don't be the sous chef that does it differently.
- 19:51As soon as the chef walks out the door, you need to be
- 19:53speaking with one voice. You need to be aligned.
- 19:57You and your executive chef need to be aligned in your actions
- 20:00even when you don't agree. If you don't agree, speak up.
- 20:05And if they say I've heard you, but we're still doing it this
- 20:08way, then that's what it is. But don't.
- 20:12Do it a different way. As soon as they walk out of the
- 20:14room and if it's a recipe that they told you to do and the
- 20:17recipe doesn't work, don't be the person that says, OK, chef's
- 20:21gone. Do it this way.
- 20:22Go back to the chef and say, hey, I followed your recipe and
- 20:25this is the result. Is this what you want?
- 20:28And if that's not what you want, can you show me?
- 20:31Because maybe I'm doing something wrong?
- 20:34Because a lot of times, like I've been in situations where
- 20:36people say, oh, chef's recipe doesn't work, do it this way.
- 20:38It's like my recipe does work and then I go look at the recipe
- 20:41and there was a typo and all they had to do was tell me and I
- 20:44would have corrected it. It's not that my recipe didn't
- 20:46work. Well, technically it didn't.
- 20:47But if I could have caught the typo and made sure that the
- 20:50recipe worked versus them going around telling everyone chefs
- 20:54recipe didn't work and making me look bad.
- 20:56But really making them look bad because they're making me look
- 20:59bad to the staff but they look bad to me.
- 21:01And also the staff now knows that the two chefs are not
- 21:04aligned. And I can tell you one of the
- 21:06most important things for me as a chef is I need that. #2 I need
- 21:10the Sous Chef to be my right hand.
- 21:12We need to be both going the same direction because I don't
- 21:15want someone on my team that's rowing against me.
- 21:17There's going to be times when you make mistakes.
- 21:19As the Sous show, I can tell you it's best to be honest and up
- 21:22front. One of the things that I used to
- 21:23do, whenever I'd make a mistake, I would show up and confess.
- 21:28Like Chef, I did this, but this is what I did to fix it versus
- 21:33them finding out later. You want to own up to You don't
- 21:35want to hide your mistakes because it always comes up and
- 21:38you also don't want to hide the mistakes of others like unless
- 21:40you could correct it. You need to be upfront to
- 21:42communicate what those mistakes are.
- 21:44But like I said, the best answer is always this is wrong, this is
- 21:48what I did to fix it. That's the kind of person you
- 21:50want on your team. Some of that solutions based, a
- 21:52quick update can save you hours worth of work.
- 21:56So a simple hey, this is what happened and maybe the chef has
- 21:59a solution. Boom, do this.
- 22:02And one of the last things when it comes to working together as
- 22:05a chef is you start to pick up a certain cadence, especially when
- 22:08you work in tight spaces. It's like the doctor and the
- 22:11assistant are like scalpel, scalpel, and they're passing
- 22:13them, you know, the tools on the tray.
- 22:15When I would work with a lot of shoe chefs, especially ones that
- 22:17I had worked with for a long time, we had a certain flow.
- 22:19Like they knew exactly when I needed a spoon and they were
- 22:22handing it to me before I need it, where they're passing me a
- 22:25small container, whatever, so I could put a canal of whatever.
- 22:29That's the kind of person that you want to work with where you
- 22:31guys are in flow, you both are in flow.
- 22:35You're handing them things, they're handing you things, and
- 22:37the food just comes out perfect. They're wiping the rim of the
- 22:40plate while you're putting the finishing touch, or vice versa.
- 22:45There's a certain rhythm, and I could tell you that if you could
- 22:48work in that flow with your chef, it's a very beautiful
- 22:51thing. And I want to work with those
- 22:52people because sometimes it's the exact opposite.
- 22:54You're bumping into each other. One person thinks they're one
- 22:58person's trying to take control, and the other person doesn't
- 23:00want to follow and it and it's just awkward.
- 23:02You need to have a there's a certain kitchen karate going
- 23:06between the sous chef and the chef to make sure that
- 23:08everything goes out smooth. That's what you're looking for.
- 23:10So to recap, it's about being able to solve problems and
- 23:14asking for help when you can't. It's about making sure your chef
- 23:18looks good and then making sure that you look good as well.
- 23:21It's about being able to flow together.
- 23:23It's about making sure that you're the voice of reason and
- 23:27that you're upholding the rules of the kitchen even when the
- 23:29chef leaves. And sometimes it's about taking
- 23:31on more work so you can learn and grow.
- 23:34Anyway, hope you enjoyed that episode.
- 23:38I hope you learned a couple of things.
- 23:39If you want to support the show, you know what to do.
- 23:41Or if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you like
- 23:43subscribe. If you listen on Spotify or some
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- 23:47Five stars. Nothing less than five stars. 5
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- 23:53them, please leave a review on Amazon or Audible.
- 23:56The reviews go a long way and only five star reviews.
- 23:59If if you didn't like the book, then you know.
- 24:01Just, I'd rather you tell me you didn't like it than tell the
- 24:04world. Just kidding.
- 24:05Only five star reviews on the book, though.
- 24:07Go to chefspsa.com for everything that we're doing.
- 24:10Thank you very much. See you next week.
- 24:12Cue the porno music.