Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Do you love cooking… or do you love kitchens? Ep. 158

Transcript

Do you love cooking… or do you love kitchens? Ep. 158 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chef, this is Chef's PSA. It's been a minute since we've
• 0:02
  done a solo podcast, but I'm back for one.
• 0:06
  I just came back from the James Beard Awards in Chicago.
• 0:08
  I want to share some thoughts. A really great experience that I
• 0:12
  had. Just because you love cooking
• 0:14
  doesn't mean you'll love working in kitchens.
• 0:17
  They're two totally different beasts.
• 0:19
  Let's get into it. This episode of Chef's PSA is
• 0:35
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  Visit foodsinseason.com and mention Chefs PSA and receive
• 1:09
  free shipping plus a complimentary sample box on your
• 1:13
  first order. It's been a while since I've
• 1:15
  done a solo episode. What have I been up to lately?
• 1:18
  A lot. So obviously, if you've been
• 1:20
  following along, I've had a lot of guest chef interviews lately.
• 1:24
  I enjoy those very much. I hope you all are enjoying them
• 1:26
  too. Before we get into it, if you
• 1:28
  want to support the show, you know what to do.
• 1:30
  If you're watching on YouTube, hit the like and subscribe
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• 1:35
  Also subscribe nothing less than five stars.
• 1:39
  You know the drill. You haven't heard that in a
• 1:42
  while. So I probably need to remind you
• 1:44
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• 1:55
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• 2:02
  and Red Bull, and you could get chef brains support the show.
• 2:05
  If you want some chef gear swag, go to shop.chefspsa.com.
• 2:12
  You get this hat, the one that says Buck French, because
• 2:14
  obviously Buck French Sucker, Free kitchens, the just cook
• 2:18
  line, it's all there, plus a lot of other stuff.
• 2:21
  So go check it out shop.chefspsa.com.
• 2:24
  And if you're looking for knowledge, there's several books
• 2:27
  that I've written, Culinary Leadership Fundamentals,
• 2:30
  Kitchen, Art of War. That's more for your leadership
• 2:33
  positions. Bad Soup, Good Chef, which is a
• 2:36
  fiction narrative ideal for a new sous chef or someone that's
• 2:40
  going into that position. The sequel to that is called Bad
• 2:43
  Cooks Everywhere, but that's a great book for anybody.
• 2:45
  If you're an executive chef or you're a line cook, I think
• 2:48
  you'll enjoy it. And then for new cooks, the Line
• 2:51
  Cook Survival Manual and How Not to Be the Biggest Idiot in the
• 2:54
  Kitchen, as well as several free ebooks available on my website,
• 2:58
  chefspsa.com. But we digress.
• 3:00
  Let's get back to it. I recently came back from the
• 3:03
  James Beard Awards in Chicago and I got to tell you, it's my
• 3:06
  first time there. Now, for people that don't know,
• 3:09
  Full disclosure, I'm a member of the awards committee for the
• 3:12
  James Beard Foundation. So I did an episode a while back
• 3:15
  with Don Padmore and Elizabeth Faulkner where we talk about
• 3:18
  everything regarding the process from nomination to winning.
• 3:22
  When it comes to James Beard, I got to tell you, I was very
• 3:26
  impressed with the show that was put on.
• 3:29
  I've never been to the Oscars, but I imagine that's what it's
• 3:31
  like. Red carpet.
• 3:33
  Every chef that you see, they were all there.
• 3:36
  The Danielle's, the Andrew Zimmerman's, Padma, they're all
• 3:40
  there. All the stars are there.
• 3:42
  And when you're walking around, it's surreal.
• 3:44
  I got to bump into a lot of chefs that I haven't seen in
• 3:46
  years, and I attended all the awards from the beginning to the
• 3:50
  end. So the first night is the media
• 3:52
  awards, the second day is the Impact awards, the third night
• 3:55
  is the restaurant and Chef awards.
• 3:57
  I also spoke on a panel with several other chefs and there's
• 4:00
  a lot of events going on. So some highlights for me.
• 4:03
  We're seeing some of my friends win.
• 4:05
  So the first night, Rogelio Vercia, who he's been on this
• 4:08
  podcast twice, shout out to him. His book One Con Vivid, It's a
• 4:14
  great book. I was so happy for him, give him
• 4:16
  a big hug afterwards and congratulated him.
• 4:19
  He's one of the nicest chefs around.
• 4:20
  So if you don't have that book, you should go get it.
• 4:23
  Another highlight for me was seeing a lot of my friends that
• 4:26
  were nominated our job. Ezekiel won and he gave a great
• 4:30
  speech. He's been on the podcast before
• 4:33
  as well. He's honestly, he's one of the
• 4:35
  best people in hospitality. Shout out to our job.
• 4:38
  Really happy for him. Really happy for Tracy as well.
• 4:41
  And the restaurant Birdies in Austin, TX.
• 4:43
  They were playing the wrap it up music and our job said you're
• 4:45
  not getting me off stage. I'm going to finish this speech.
• 4:47
  So it was hilarious. It was a good moment.
• 4:50
  I was really happy to see some of my very close friends
• 4:52
  nominated. Chef Rico Torres, who's been on
• 4:54
  the show multiple times, I think more than anyone else besides me
• 4:57
  and Diego Galicia from Michley and San Antonio, they were
• 5:00
  nominated. They didn't win, but shout out
• 5:02
  to those guys and congratulations to the winners
• 5:06
  from Adam X. Also, my former pastry chef,
• 5:09
  Susan Bay. Shout out, Susan Bay, second
• 5:11
  time being nominated for pastry chef.
• 5:13
  She didn't win, but Susan, third time's a charm.
• 5:16
  Let's go. And then my friend Chad Hauser,
• 5:19
  who I've known for years, who runs Cafe Momentum in Dallas,
• 5:22
  Winning Humanitarian. That was a special moment.
• 5:25
  All in all, it was a great event.
• 5:27
  But something special happened that I want to share with you.
• 5:31
  I was doing a panel moderated by Adrian Cheatham, who also
• 5:36
  recently started a podcast called The Chef's Cut.
• 5:38
  You should check it out. She's hilarious, really down to
• 5:41
  earth. I think she's going to do well.
• 5:44
  So if you're looking for another chef podcast, not leaving this
• 5:46
  one, but an other one. So I'm allowing you to go listen
• 5:50
  to another one, but you stay here, right?
• 5:51
  So remember who your day one is. So she was the moderator on the
• 5:55
  panel. It was me and a couple of other
• 5:56
  chefs. Beverly Kim was on there.
• 5:58
  I hadn't seen Beverly in years. And the panel was about
• 6:03
  basically other career avenues for chefs, right?
• 6:06
  So obviously I have a podcast, media, etcetera, so I was all
• 6:10
  there speaking to it. But afterwards, this is where
• 6:12
  the story gets really interesting.
• 6:14
  Chef Bill Kim, legendary Chicago chef, I see him in the crowd.
• 6:19
  He comes up to me and I had spoken to him the day before at
• 6:22
  the awards and he said, I'm coming to your panel, I'm
• 6:24
  looking forward to seeing you. So I was excited to see him
• 6:27
  again. When the panel's done and you're
• 6:29
  walking around and you're shaking hands and you're
• 6:31
  speaking to the students there or whoever's in the audience
• 6:33
  conversations, just going casually.
• 6:36
  I see Bill out of the corner of my eye.
• 6:38
  I walk up to him. We shake hands.
• 6:40
  I I greet him. Chef, what's going on?
• 6:43
  And he says to me, Chef, what do you got planned for this
• 6:46
  afternoon? I said nothing.
• 6:48
  Why? What do you need me to do?
• 6:50
  He says, I got a surprise for you.
• 6:51
  I'm going to take you to Charlie Trotter's.
• 6:54
  Now for those of you that don't know, and I'll share this,
• 6:58
  Charlie Trotter, when I was a young cook, was my idol.
• 7:01
  I never had the opportunity to work for him or eat his food.
• 7:03
  And honestly, it's my greatest culinary regret as a chef
• 7:07
  because growing up when I was a young line cook, I had all his
• 7:11
  books, lessons and excellence, lessons and service.
• 7:15
  The cookbook series, the video series on cassette, all of it.
• 7:20
  We were all stealing out of the Charlie Trotter cookbooks.
• 7:24
  His cookbook was the first serious cookbook that I ever
• 7:28
  got. It was beautiful.
• 7:31
  I could still remember to this day.
• 7:34
  I got it as a Christmas gift, so it holds a very special place in
• 7:37
  my heart. And on a couple of trips to
• 7:40
  Chicago, I never ate there when I had the opportunity to for a
• 7:45
  variety of different reasons, which I won't get into.
• 7:47
  Bill says I'm taking you to Trotters.
• 7:49
  So we show up and Dylan, Charlie Trotter son, opens the door for
• 7:57
  us, lets us in, the place is closed, but then proceeds to
• 8:01
  give us a tour. Now for people that don't know,
• 8:03
  for context, Chef Bill Ken used to be the chef at Trotter's.
• 8:06
  He was the chef to cuisine there and two different occasions.
• 8:10
  So he tours me through the dining room and as soon as you
• 8:12
  walk in, there's a big portrait of Charlie Trotter, which I
• 8:15
  thought was super cool. We take a photo there and
• 8:17
  they're showing me the dining room, the original tables, the
• 8:20
  original chairs. We go into the kitchen, very
• 8:23
  tiny dish station. That was the first thing I
• 8:25
  asked. I said, how many dishes did you
• 8:27
  have to wash? Their service Over 900, right?
• 8:31
  The dish station is not very large, and for people that have
• 8:34
  been through Charlie Driver's kitchen, you'll know what I'm
• 8:36
  talking about. I see the stove and it's still
• 8:39
  meticulous, it's still clean, it's beautiful.
• 8:43
  I'm talking to chef. How will the past used to work?
• 8:46
  Where were things getting picked up?
• 8:47
  He's showing me the layout of the stations.
• 8:50
  We go into the apartment next door where they filmed the
• 8:54
  kitchen sessions and I'm seeing all the memorabilia, all the
• 8:57
  James Beard Awards that he won, which was several.
• 9:00
  I'm hearing stories from his son.
• 9:03
  I'm looking at stills from the cookbook menus that were signed
• 9:08
  by all the chefs, and it was a really incredible experience.
• 9:12
  Now for me as a chef, especially with what I do now with chefs,
• 9:16
  PSA, sometimes it's really easy to lose that connection with the
• 9:20
  young cook that's inside of me or the young chef that was
• 9:23
  inside of me. And for that moment, I can't
• 9:26
  explain it. It was honestly one of the best
• 9:30
  culinary experiences I had without eating any food because
• 9:33
  I was in the kitchen of Charlie Trotter.
• 9:35
  Now for people that know him, I'm sure he's a polarizing
• 9:40
  figure to some, but not to me because I didn't work with them.
• 9:43
  So I only know the good side. Let's say I only know what he
• 9:47
  inspired me for many years in my cooking and how I led and how I
• 9:52
  thought about food and excellence in general.
• 9:55
  You could even say that Chef's PSA was inspired by Charlie
• 9:59
  Trotter because there was a quote in one of his books that
• 10:03
  read We Are What We Repeatedly Do.
• 10:05
  Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
• 10:07
  It was an Aristotle quote. I took that quote when I used to
• 10:10
  post it in my kitchens. And that was the beginning of
• 10:13
  the daily quotes later on that led to what is now Chef's PSA.
• 10:18
  So indirectly, Charlie Trotter influenced what I'm doing now.
• 10:21
  He's responsible in some way for the success that I have.
• 10:25
  And being in his kitchen, it gave me butterflies.
• 10:28
  It made me feel like a young cook again.
• 10:30
  I had feelings about the industry that I hadn't felt in
• 10:34
  20 years. So it was pretty fucking cool.
• 10:37
  So thank you, Dylan, thank you, Bill Kim.
• 10:40
  And I'm excited to see what they do with the space.
• 10:43
  But we digress. Today's episode is about people
• 10:46
  who love cooking but might not love working in kitchens.
• 10:50
  And they're two very distinctly different things.
• 10:52
  And I think it's important that people recognize that because
• 10:55
  just because you love to cook, your passion is in the kitchen.
• 10:59
  You love cooking at home, You love the creative aspect.
• 11:02
  You love making a big mess in your home kitchen and creating a
• 11:06
  big beautiful spread and inviting your friends over and
• 11:09
  then giving you immediate feedback about how great it was.
• 11:12
  And you sit down and you enjoy the company and everyone is
• 11:15
  happy, right? Maybe you cook and you nourish
• 11:18
  people. They come over to your place.
• 11:21
  They love your food. You're cooking for them with
• 11:24
  love, right? And so you think to yourself, I
• 11:27
  love to cook. I should become a chef.
• 11:30
  Maybe that's not the right move because loving to work in
• 11:33
  kitchens is two different things.
• 11:35
  You could love to cook, but you might not love working in
• 11:38
  kitchens. It's a split path.
• 11:40
  What is loving working in kitchens really mean?
• 11:43
  To be a chef in a kitchen or line cook, it takes a different
• 11:47
  type of person. You have to love pace and
• 11:49
  intensity. There's a lot of chaos.
• 11:52
  Like sometimes we sugarcoat the chaos because we want a less
• 11:56
  toxic environment and kitchens need to be more inclusive,
• 12:00
  etcetera, etcetera. So we sugarcoat what it really
• 12:02
  is. It is chaos.
• 12:04
  The most inclusive kitchens can be chaotic.
• 12:07
  The least toxic kitchens can be chaotic.
• 12:11
  Tickets are coming in. Pressure is mounting.
• 12:14
  You have to love a certain pace and intensity.
• 12:16
  People need things now, quickly, move faster.
• 12:20
  How long the guest is waiting. The restaurant was empty and now
• 12:24
  it's filled up. Every ticket comes in at once.
• 12:27
  There's modifiers on there. People are talking over you when
• 12:30
  you're trying to listen to the expediter.
• 12:32
  You're turning, you're twisting, you're bending, you're
• 12:34
  squatting, you're lifting, you're burning yourself, you're
• 12:36
  nicking your finger. The person next to you didn't
• 12:39
  show up. They did show up, but they
• 12:41
  showed up in a bad mood and they're picking on you, right?
• 12:46
  There's a lot of characters that work in kitchens.
• 12:49
  The kitchen is a microcosm of the real world out there.
• 12:53
  You experience it all, the UPS, the downs.
• 12:56
  You experience it sometimes just in a service, right?
• 12:58
  You start out very happy, you end crushed and then you recover
• 13:01
  and you end on a high note. In that one service, you could
• 13:05
  have 50 happy guests and 10 angry guests, and they all are
• 13:10
  going to drain you emotionally and some of them are going to
• 13:12
  feed you emotionally. The hours can be long, right?
• 13:17
  No one gets into the culinary world and says, I want to jump
• 13:19
  in because I want an easy job or I want to work fewer hours.
• 13:23
  I should be a chef. Let's not misconstrued and let's
• 13:26
  not sugarcoat what it really is. It is a hard industry and you
• 13:30
  have to love that. You have to love the fact that
• 13:32
  you are on a station and you are having to cook what you're being
• 13:36
  told to cook. You're not able to create.
• 13:39
  You're not able to have a dinner party.
• 13:40
  You're not going to receive the immediate feedback.
• 13:42
  You're not going to go touch the tables, right?
• 13:45
  That's the chef's job or that's someone else's job.
• 13:48
  You're going to make that salad 200 times tonight and make it
• 13:53
  perfect, or you're going to just cook steaks all night.
• 13:58
  You're going to get really good at some of these things.
• 14:00
  But guess what? You're going to get really good
• 14:02
  at cooking three types of steaks for the next 6 months.
• 14:05
  That's all you're going to get good at.
• 14:07
  But I want to create and I want to do all this other stuff.
• 14:09
  I want to learn about molecular gastronomy and I want to learn
• 14:11
  about fusion. Guess what?
• 14:14
  Today you're learning about vinaigrette and how it coats
• 14:18
  lettuce. That's it.
• 14:20
  That's what you're going to work on.
• 14:21
  And oh, but I'm an excellent cook at home.
• 14:23
  Where do I start? Oh, you're an excellent cook at
• 14:26
  home. Guess what?
• 14:26
  You still start at the bottom. I don't care.
• 14:29
  And the chef that's hiring you most likely doesn't care because
• 14:32
  just because you know how to cook doesn't mean you know how
• 14:33
  to work. They're two different things.
• 14:36
  So people throw dinner parties and they cook for their friends
• 14:38
  and they cook for their family. And they think that's what it's
• 14:40
  going to be like when they get in the industry.
• 14:42
  They've watched a little bit of Gordon Ramsay on some reality
• 14:44
  show. They think, I want to do that.
• 14:46
  I want to yell on people's faces.
• 14:48
  Hopefully that's not what they're thinking, but they think
• 14:50
  I want to cook good food, I want to be the chef, I want to own
• 14:53
  the restaurant. OK, how much money do you have?
• 14:55
  How many investors do you have lined up?
• 14:56
  Are you willing to gamble on your idea?
• 14:59
  Millions of dollars that potentially might not work
• 15:02
  right? Why don't you do a pop up, sell
• 15:04
  out your pop up first? Can you sell out 10 tickets to
• 15:08
  your pop up everyday? Oh, you can't?
• 15:10
  Then what makes you think that you should put $1,000,000 into a
• 15:13
  restaurant for your food? Right?
• 15:16
  People are not prepared for it. I've seen so many good cooks
• 15:20
  come into the kitchen and I when I say good cooks, like they know
• 15:22
  how to cook, but they don't know how to work.
• 15:25
  And I usually spot them out like they're sometimes they're fresh
• 15:28
  out of culinary school or they're a career changer, but
• 15:32
  they're really into it. They show up, they got the knife
• 15:35
  kit, they got the $1000 Japanese knives.
• 15:37
  They look Swanee. They got the Super fancy, I
• 15:40
  won't say a name apron. I won't say a name.
• 15:43
  They don't sponsor the show, but I won't say their name.
• 15:47
  Super fancy, expensive apron. The really fitted, tight chef
• 15:52
  coat. If they're a guy, they have
• 15:54
  their hair nice and fresh. They're a girl.
• 15:56
  They have it pulled back in a ballerina bun.
• 16:00
  They look the part. They show up ready.
• 16:03
  They tell you about the latest Netflix Chef's Table and did you
• 16:07
  see what they were making? They know all the obscure chef's
• 16:11
  names. They could tell you all the cool
• 16:13
  techniques. They want to talk about
• 16:15
  scarification. And have you heard of molecular
• 16:18
  gastronomy, chef? Why?
• 16:20
  No, I haven't. What is it?
• 16:21
  Please tell me more. I'm very fascinated by it.
• 16:24
  And I see them. I've seen them come into the
• 16:25
  kitchens and then they say, I really want to work for you
• 16:30
  because you make beautiful food and I want to learn.
• 16:32
  And then I say great. And then I give them a task and
• 16:37
  they struggle after an hour of peeling carrots because it's
• 16:40
  hard and is there something else I could work on?
• 16:43
  And I say, are you done peeling the carrots?
• 16:45
  And they say no, but is there something else I can work on?
• 16:47
  Because I feel like I'm not learning.
• 16:49
  It's day one. It's day one.
• 16:53
  A lot of times they don't come back for day 2 because guess
• 16:56
  what your job is? It's peeling carrots and then
• 16:59
  scrubbing them with a little scrubby.
• 17:00
  It's making sure we have potatoes ready for tomorrow's
• 17:03
  service and maybe you have to peel them or sliced them.
• 17:06
  Guess what? We serve handcuffed French fries
• 17:07
  here and we go through buckets of them.
• 17:10
  Guess what your job is? You're cutting buckets of French
• 17:12
  fries all day long. But chef, I want to learn about
• 17:15
  bubbles. Sorry, we're not making bubbles,
• 17:17
  we're making French fries. You're going to learn about
• 17:21
  buckets of French fries and the French fry cutter that's
• 17:23
  attached to the wall so you could slam it down and fill up
• 17:27
  those buckets of fries. And guess what?
• 17:29
  We need 10 of them because that's how many fries we go
• 17:31
  through. But chef, I'm not learning.
• 17:34
  And chef, when can I get my break?
• 17:36
  And chef, I've been here for 8 hours and they don't come back.
• 17:40
  So do you love working in kitchens or do you love cooking?
• 17:43
  Do you love it when someone calls off on the PM shift and
• 17:46
  you think you're getting ready to go home and they say, hey,
• 17:49
  can you stay? And then you say I was going to
• 17:52
  do something. Oh really?
• 17:53
  What were you going to do? Nothing.
• 17:55
  OK, like can you stay? You don't have anything going on
• 17:57
  Like they got you. It's the old trick.
• 18:00
  You don't have. Do you have anything going on
• 18:01
  tonight? No, I'm just going to go home.
• 18:03
  Oh cool. Can you work tonight?
• 18:04
  Because so and so-called off like they'll ask you what you
• 18:07
  have going on 1st before they ask you to work because now
• 18:12
  you've already done this. That's the old chef trick is
• 18:14
  like, you got anything going on tonight?
• 18:16
  No. Oh, can you work?
• 18:18
  That's the trick. For those of you that don't
• 18:20
  know, always say yes if you don't want to work.
• 18:23
  That's the setup. Anyway, we digress.
• 18:25
  So it's a clear distinct difference between loving to
• 18:29
  cook, being in your kitchen, playing your music, cooking at
• 18:32
  your pace, drinking a glass of wine, cooking for your friends
• 18:36
  versus a pace and intensity type kitchen where it's go, I need
• 18:39
  that now, or the repetitive task of doing one thing over and over
• 18:43
  again. 2 completely different things.
• 18:45
  You have to be able to thrive in the chaos, right?
• 18:48
  And I've seen many good chefs that love working in kitchens
• 18:52
  but don't necessarily love food. And I've seen many chefs also
• 18:56
  that love food but don't necessarily love working in
• 18:58
  kitchens. They do everything they can to
• 19:00
  avoid kitchen work because they love the creative process and
• 19:02
  talking to guests and being the chef, be in the face of it.
• 19:06
  Now there's a sweet spot. There's the Unicorn, so to
• 19:09
  speak, The chef that loves to cook and also loves to work.
• 19:14
  Now, if you're that chef and you love to cook and you love to
• 19:19
  create and you love everything about food and you geek out at
• 19:23
  the farmers market and you see something new and your friends
• 19:26
  are sending you new videos of have you seen this technique
• 19:29
  before? And you geek out on all of that,
• 19:31
  but you also love the kitchen. You love being behind the stove
• 19:36
  and skimming the stock and being on the cutting board and slicing
• 19:39
  mushrooms and onions and creating the dish and tasting it
• 19:43
  and seasoning and adjusting and tasting it again, right?
• 19:47
  Butchering the meat, cleaning the fish, making sure it's
• 19:51
  stored properly on ice or dried, whatever people are doing these
• 19:54
  days. I guess BI always stored my fish
• 19:56
  on ice, but nowadays I guess it's very popular to dry age
• 20:00
  your fish. So I say stored on ice.
• 20:02
  A lot of you can be like what the fuck you talking about with
• 20:04
  dry age now? Sorry, we digress.
• 20:07
  My point was, if you're that chef that loves the kitchen,
• 20:11
  loves the chaos, can thrive in that chaos, can get pumped up,
• 20:14
  can thrive in that energy, loves to work, understands that it's a
• 20:18
  grind and it's a slow moving grind and you're dealing with
• 20:21
  people and personalities and sometimes you're diffusing tense
• 20:24
  situations and you also love to cook, you will be successful.
• 20:29
  If you love to cook and you love working in the kitchen, nothing
• 20:33
  can stop you. Add to those skills at the
• 20:35
  leadership, at the marketing, at the business acumen.
• 20:38
  You already have the other two, which should come very easy for
• 20:42
  you. It's natural for you to cook and
• 20:44
  it's natural for you to work. Now add those other skills and
• 20:46
  you'll be unstoppable. You will be a great chef.
• 20:49
  So if I was going to give advice to someone that's thinking about
• 20:51
  becoming a chef, my advice remains the same.
• 20:54
  Go work in a kitchen first. If you've never worked in a
• 20:56
  kitchen before, it might not be what you think and I would hate
• 21:00
  for someone to go and dedicate time and money and resources to
• 21:06
  a career that they might not enjoy.
• 21:08
  Not all kitchens are the same. There's good kitchens that
• 21:10
  there's bad kitchens, but there's one thing that they all
• 21:13
  have in common. They're hot and they're hard
• 21:15
  work and you're on your feet usually all day.
• 21:18
  I doubt you're prepping sitting down, or I doubt you're cooking
• 21:21
  on the line sitting down. Go work in a kitchen first to
• 21:25
  make sure that you understand that the reality is most
• 21:28
  kitchens have a lot in common, and if you don't like it just
• 21:32
  because you love to cook, there are other avenues for you to go.
• 21:36
  You could still explore your love of cooking without having
• 21:39
  to work in a professional kitchen.
• 21:41
  And I've refrained from sharing this on the podcast because I
• 21:45
  haven't fully thought about how I want to say it because I don't
• 21:49
  want people to get the wrong. I don't want people to
• 21:52
  misconstrue what I'm saying, but nowadays there's multiple career
• 21:56
  paths. We know the traditional ones of
• 21:58
  hotels, restaurants, country clubs, cruise ships, right?
• 22:01
  Cafeterias, institutional cooking.
• 22:04
  That's what we know. That's been the traditional
• 22:06
  career route. But now you have other things.
• 22:10
  You have social media, content creation, podcasting, whatever,
• 22:14
  right? So you can go into a different
• 22:15
  Ave. The best thing I would say is be
• 22:18
  good at that before you go into it.
• 22:20
  Anyway, that's it for today. It's fun doing a solo episode.
• 22:24
  I don't know when I'll do the next one.
• 22:25
  I have a lot of chefs lined up, but I wanted to share my James
• 22:29
  Beard experience and I wanted to talk about this important topic
• 22:33
  of loving to cook versus loving working in kitchens because I
• 22:36
  think it's important and I think people that are listening as my
• 22:38
  audience has grown and it's not just chef's listing.
• 22:41
  Before you jump in, think it through.
• 22:43
  Send this podcast to someone who's thinking of being a chef.
• 22:46
  Anyway, you know what to do. You want to support the show,
• 22:48
  Make sure you leave five stars. Nothing less than five stars.
• 22:51
  Go to chefspsa.com you get everything, books, merch and
• 22:55
  we'll see you next week. Hit the porno music.
• 22:59
  In the kitchen, mixing, drop the chef knowledge, no fiction.
• 23:02
  Stirring up the BT enough the session.
• 23:05
  Listen. Close classes in session.