Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Why Chefs Need A Mentor Ep. 46

Transcript

Why Chefs Need A Mentor Ep. 46 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. You're lifting Two Chefs.
• 0:01
  Piss a podcast. I'm your host on true that Tara.
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  On today's episode, we're going to discuss mentoring.
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  Stay tuned. So, what have I been up to
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  before we get into mentoring? Let me give you a brief update.
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  What you may notice, if you might be listening to this, but
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  you also may be watching it. I'm in the market skill, studio
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  downtown Dallas. You can see the skyline behind
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  me, possibly drove up to Dallas. Had a lot of fun.
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  I was recording and cooking Series yesterday and I was with
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  with cooking with Tim Maitland for Market skill and we were
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  doing. What would you make it home?
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  So if you're going to watch this, I know you chefs are doing
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  the sale. It's not perfect, it's not a
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  restaurant setting. We rented out of ghosts, Kitchen
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  went in there, did a little cooking demo on how you would
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  cook at home. So before everyone says you
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  didn't do this like you would in a kitchen.
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  I understand that it's cooking how you would cook at home for
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  people at home. So no judgment because I know
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  how chefs are anyway. We had to cancel live-fire.
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  Unfortunately, we made the call whether or not Emily's, but I
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  was really looking forward to is going to be my first ever
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  podcast where I have guessed. Normal is a solo podcast but I
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  thought for this one off, let's have some guests on had a great
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  lineup, unfortunately had to cancel and we talked about This
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  already on the last episode, but hopefully soon, we'll have
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  guest. Maybe we're moving in that
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  direction, chest pass a podcast, eventually, taking over the
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  world. Anyway, we digress.
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  Let's move on to Mentor. I started writing another book
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  but I got a little bit of writer's block, so I'm taking a
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  break, I'm calling it bad sous chef, it was going down One
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  path. Will most likely I'm going to
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  take it a different direction. So it might be a conversation is
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  kind of what I'm thinking, a conversation between a chef and
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  a sous, chef, and maybe like a little Fictional conversation.
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  So we'll see where that goes. I am working on that.
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  The next thing I'm working on and I'll put this out.
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  Hopefully, the next couple of days.
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  I'm making a culinary dictionary of like kitchen jargon words
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  that we use in the kitchen. I noticed that a lot of people
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  message me occasionally and ask me, what?
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  Certain words are that. I that I put in the caption on a
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  chef's PSA. Postal.
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  The said, what is 86 made? And I'm realizing this is a lot
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  of information with a called The Curse of knowledge.
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  A lot of information that I take for granted, a lot of chefs take
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  for granted is that we Know what these terms mean.
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  But when you're a new cook in the industry that you might not
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  know what they mean and you might be too afraid to ask so I
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  thought about creating a short little compendium glossary of
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  terms dictionary for cooks and chefs.
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  That might be new to the industry and might not know the
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  jargon. Maybe you're coming from a
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  different country and you don't know or maybe you're just new to
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  the business. So I'm going to put that up.
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  Give it away for free. I don't want anything for it.
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  I, this is something to benefit cooks and chefs are out there.
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  You can print it. You post in your kitchen, you
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  give it to new hires. Do what you will with it.
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  Let's talk about mentoring. I will say this.
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  I think every Chef needs a mentor and if you don't have a
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  mentor, I think you need to get one.
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  It's like having a cheat code in the business.
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  A mentor should be someone in a position that you aspire to have
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  getting a mentor early on in your career will be a game
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  changer. So I've been very fortunate in
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  the fact that I've had a lot of great mentors throughout my
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  career. My very first culinary school
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  instructor who also happens to be.
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  Culinary school director. Now we've remained in contact
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  since that day. So 27 years ago, I'm in his
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  class. He was my first chef and I was
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  his first student so we've remained in contact.
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  He was a great mentor for me and he's helped me along the way.
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  Still to this day, still to this day, he helps me as well.
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  I've had many chefs along the way, one of the my great chefs.
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  That mentored me. His name was Patrick Mitchell.
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  He's part of The Epicure will MasterChef Society, but he's
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  mentored me a lot and I owe a lot of who I am.
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  I am to him the teaching that he taught me, he inspired me to go
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  into culinary competitions. A lot of rough lessons working
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  with him a lot of good lessons but someone that I admire a lot
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  but I've also had other mentors in industry and and business
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  that have helped me along the way.
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  And I've been fortunate that. I've I feel like I kind of got
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  lucky right? I do have some incredible
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  mentors and I'm a product of their knowledge and I'm hoping
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  one of my biggest things is I'm hoping to pass on a lot of the
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  things that were taught. From my mentors from me to you.
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  Now, if you're a cook just starting out I think you need to
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  think about this is that the mentor that you're looking for,
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  might not necessarily be the person that you're working with
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  next to on the line. And sometimes that's the easy
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  answer because you'll look at them and say, well, they know
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  more than me, they have maybe one or two years more experience
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  than me. They should be my mentor and I
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  would steer away from that. A lot of times when you're
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  selecting a mentor, the person that you should be looking at is
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  the person that's in the position that you aspire to
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  have. So if you're looking at the line
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  cook next to you, that has to Much more experience than you
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  say. I want them to Mentor me.
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  They might only have they can only take you to the point where
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  they are at. So a mentor should be someone
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  that has the experience to get you to where they are.
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  And they can give you a step-by-step plan and guide you
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  when difficulty arises to get to the position that they're in.
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  So, for example, your Mentor is an executive chef, they can tell
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  you how to become an executive chef, the line.
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  Cook next, you can only tell you how to get there above that,
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  it's just Theory. They could, they think they
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  might know how to get there, but they haven't proven it the
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  person that's The net is the person that you want to become
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  your Mentor, ideally, right. So I think you need to have a
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  mentor and so a lot of people ask me, well, how do I get a
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  mentor as difficult as it sounds?
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  It's not that difficult at all. You just ask and a lot of chefs
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  are more than willing to give their time because a lot of
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  chefs, they've achieved a certain amount of status and
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  Prestige and they've had a great career and a lot of times they
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  just want to give back. That's that's something that I
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  do right now. I want to give back to people
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  that want to learn more About the business side of the whole,
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  the whole idea of this podcast in the chef's.
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  PSA socials is so I can give back.
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  So I could educate people on how to become chefs, the shortcut,
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  the cheat code, that they might need back to mentoring.
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  So ask someone to be your Mentor, someone that's in a
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  position that you aspire to have and set up weekly meetings or
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  bi-weekly meetings, our monthly meetings and have have questions
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  for them. So when I schedule Mentor
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  meetings, with people that I mentor and I Mentor a lot of
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  people still to this day, part of my job is To Mentor people.
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  I have a mentoring business as well, but when I Mentor people
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  the first day, I said, so if we have an hour block, as they come
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  prepared with three questions, right?
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  So, part of being a good mentee is to have good questions to
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  ask, and I don't mean, like, what's your favorite color?
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  Like, you don't necessarily need to know what their personal
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  interests are. I think there's a there should
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  be an introduction period there, but when you're having your
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  Mentor mentee meetings, it should be things that you're
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  struggling with that. You might need answers to now.
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  Now they should also help you map out long-term goals and
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  short-term goals. The other thing that I ask
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  people to do what I have mentor-mentee meetings with me
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  is first of all, you need to schedule the appointment.
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  I'm not going to chase you this benefits.
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  You part of being responsible is you need to be the person that
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  schedules it. So you need to be the
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  responsible person that schedules the meeting because it
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  benefits. You, it's in your best interest
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  to show the initiative that you want to take this, right?
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  So that's also something that's very important.
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  And then, when I have mentor-mentee meetings, I always
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  assigned them with some sort of uncomfortable homework that I
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  want them to do and that could be all sorts of random shit that
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  I tell my mentee sometimes, sometimes they think I'm crazy.
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  It's like go punch. Someone in the face.
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  Figuratively not literally just so they could address any issues
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  that they may have. With confidence a good Mentor
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  will find your weaknesses and learn how to extract the
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  confidence that you need to overcome those weaknesses.
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  And that's really what you need in a mentor because someone
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  needs to believe in you and be able to see the things that you
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  are see what's possibly holding you back and help you get over
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  those humps. But not do it for you.
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  It's kind of like they have to teach you how to think they have
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  to teach you how to think strategically and how to
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  overcome difficulty, but they don't necessarily have to drag
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  you to the finish line. That's your job.
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  So that's the way a mentor-mentee relationship
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  should go. Now, I'll tell you a story with,
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  with one of my mentors. And this is something that
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  something that stuck with me, throughout my career, that I
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  didn't understand. And this is where the mentors
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  come in Luke. I'm sure two stories with you.
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  The first one when I was a young naive, hungry, cook, and didn't
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  know much in my mentor said to me if I gave you a strawberry
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  and you To do in a cucumber grew.
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  He says your mind would not comprehend and things would
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  start to unravel. He says but then if you took
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  that cucumber and you planted it and a watermelon, grew your
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  whole idea of how the world Works would collapse, and it
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  would be chaos and you would go crazy.
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  I didn't understand what he meant.
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  I was like. This is this is some weird
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  Confucius, Canaan, Kung Fu nonsense.
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  I don't know what you mean. Just tell me what you need to
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  tell me, but I understood it later on.
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  It took me many. Any years probably took me 20
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  years to figure out what he meant.
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  And what he meant was is that sometimes life doesn't go your
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  way and you plant a strawberry, but you get a cucumber.
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  So meaning you've done everything the right way, but
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  something bad happens. You following all the recipes
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  your career is on a high. But yet your restaurant closes,
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  right? And you don't understand.
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  Well, if I did everything, right, why did I get this
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  different result? Why did I plant a strawberry?
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  But get a cucumber and then you say, okay, well, that doesn't
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  make sense. Then you plan to the cucumber
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  and you get a watermelon and out what that meant was.
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  Okay, so then my restaurant closes so it must have been a
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  one off. So I do it again and then I fail
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  again and then your whole world falls apart and he was advising
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  me for the difficulty that may come.
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  And it was an interesting way of him articulating it, but it was
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  one of those things that sometimes, the advice that your
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  Mentor will give you might not make sense in the moment, but it
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  will make sense, 10, 15, 20 years later and then you're
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  like, aha. Now I understand, but I'm also
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  prepared to Overcome the difficulty that was presented.
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  So that's one story. Another story I'll share with
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  you that a mentor gave to me was I was very humble and I was on a
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  career trajectory that was on a steep incline and everything was
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  going good in my career and they told me be humble, don't get too
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  puffed up because your ego will get the best of you.
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  I was like, what are you talking about?
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  I'm super humbled, I'm a kind person.
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  I don't have an ego. Life has a way of humbling you
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  because my ego did kick in and eventually everything that I had
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  built just collapsed no there was no one else to blame my
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  fault. I wish I could blame someone
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  else. It would have been easier if I
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  could blame someone else. But ultimately, the
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  responsibility falls on you see old example of the fish stinks
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  from the head which is not true fish.
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  Don't secret had, but the saying is true, the fish stinks from
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  the head. Is it from a self accountability
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  standpoint? There was no one else.
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  That was to blame for my failures other than me and my
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  mentor warned me and they saw the direction that I was going
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  in. Something that I didn't see
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  myself and I didn't listen. And so, I guess the point of all
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  of this is I go back now and I still talk to my mentors.
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  And I asked him for guidance. Now, in better student, I'll
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  tell you that but the mentor should hopefully guide you to
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  get there but they don't want to baby you and prevent you from
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  making mistakes some mistakes, you need experience in some, you
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  need to experience by watching some some mistakes unique
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  experience by watching someone else fail, but some failures you
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  need to do on your own and that would overall be.
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  My lesson today is you need a mentor that is going to guide
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  you and help you overcome failure.
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  But don't don't avoid failure, because failure is what's going
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  to strengthen you and carry you on to success.
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  Every failure is a step in the right direction and I wouldn't
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  even call it a failure. Might want to call it learning,
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  but whatever, we're talking semantics anyway.
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  If you're interested in learning more about mentoring, feel free
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  to reach out to me. You can DM me on Instagram, you
• 12:15
  go to Chef PS, a.com, and learn more.
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  I do think that I'm not saying that you need me as your Mentor,
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  but you do need a mentor. So you need to find one whether
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  it's in culinary. Whether it's another Chef that
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  you admire, whether it is someone that is in a separate
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  business, but really understands business, or just life in
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  general, right? You need a coach, you need a
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  mentor. Like I said, it's like having a
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  cheat code, so make sure you get one.
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  That's it for today. If you want to support chefs
• 12:42
  PSA, you know what to do, only 5 Stars, anything less than 5
• 12:46
  Stars would make you a liar because this is a five-star
• 12:49
  podcast and if you give less than 5 Stars, not only are you a
• 12:53
  horrible person, but you're also a liar.
• 12:54
  And I know you're not a liar or a hobo horrible person, so make
• 12:58
  sure to leave five stars, go get the books, go to Chef cbsla.com,
• 13:00
  we have everything there. Culinary leadership fundamentals
• 13:03
  book. Video course, how not to be the
• 13:05
  biggest idiot in the kitchen line.
• 13:07
  Cook survival manual and kitchen art.
• 13:09
  Of War. Go get the e-book book at the
• 13:11
  audiobook and go. Get yourself a mentor.
• 13:14
  See you next week, hit the porno music.