Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / How to Create Your Kitchen Culture Ep. 19
Transcript
- 0:00Hello chefs. You're listening to Chef space a
- 0:02podcast. I'm your host Andhra natera.
- 0:04On today's episode, we're going to talk about kitchen culture
- 0:07and really, all the things that go into building one, so stay
- 0:09tuned. So let's start out with an
- 0:23update. Actually, I just came back from
- 0:26the Austin Food and Wine Festival.
- 0:28Trying to hurry up and get home. So, I can record this episode
- 0:31want to make sure that I get it out on time tomorrow morning,
- 0:34but it's been Festival week for me.
- 0:35So, you know, last weekend, we had the wine and Swine Event in
- 0:40Austin and today was Austin Food and Wine Festival.
- 0:45So I've spent a lot of time this week eating food going to
- 0:48restaurants hanging out with the chef's, the Illuminati chefs.
- 0:52Anyway secret society chefs that are the movers and shakers in
- 0:56the industry. It's fun, you know, I do like
- 0:59festivals. And I was contemplating what I
- 1:03wanted to have this podcast on today, was that going to talk
- 1:05about kitchen culture? What was I going to talk about
- 1:07food festivals? And I thought, hey, let's talk
- 1:10about kitchen culture because I got a lot of questions in the
- 1:14DMS regarding kitchen culture because I've posted a couple of
- 1:17very specific reels and tick-tocks on kitchen culture
- 1:21from a class that I did. But food festivals is definitely
- 1:25a topic that, you know, it could be a whole episode and The best
- 1:31thing about food festivals and I'll save some of this for
- 1:33later. But the best thing about food
- 1:35festivals is a lot of the chef's, you sometimes only see
- 1:38them at festivals, right? So they're they're your friends,
- 1:40you guys get together. You go to the after-party
- 1:42whatever, but it's a big get-together.
- 1:44So yes, there's the food component and the service piece.
- 1:47But you know there's like you haven't seen a friend in a year
- 1:50or the only time you see them as three or four times a year
- 1:52because you know, you all go to the same Festival as well.
- 1:56That's the best part about food festivals.
- 1:58Anyway we'll we'll talk about that later.
- 2:01What else was I up to? So some progress updates on some
- 2:05of the projects line. Cook survival guide book.
- 2:09So I finish writing it. I'm about 80% of the way done,
- 2:16editing it on my end before I send it off for editing.
- 2:19So I think realistically I can have this book done in two weeks
- 2:23but I don't know. So I reserve the right to change
- 2:26my mind if it's not perfect, but I think within two weeks I would
- 2:29say by December late, late, November, the book should be
- 2:32out. It'll go out on paperback and
- 2:35ebook on Amazon line, cook survival manual.
- 2:38And then I've also been working on the culinary leadership
- 2:43fundamentals video course. And so, all the video editing is
- 2:47mostly done. We had to go back and just
- 2:49change up a couple of things because I'm not sure if anyone's
- 2:51paying attention, but I've changed up my branding a little
- 2:54bit, you know, the posts have a more consistent look, you know,
- 2:58there were initially all over the place.
- 2:59So I Clean that up a little bit. So the video that we're doing, I
- 3:02want to make sure that that looks correct and has the right
- 3:05logos and branding etcetera. But for the most part that's
- 3:08already done and that should hopefully also be out within the
- 3:12next few weeks. Maybe two to three weeks.
- 3:14And then, the third thing that I'm working on right now, is the
- 3:17audiobook for culinary leadership fundamentals.
- 3:20Like I said, last week, I really like the narrator Gabriel.
- 3:24I like his voice. I've listened to a couple of the
- 3:26chapters already. We need to go back and correct a
- 3:29couple. Of things because I'm realizing
- 3:32some of the book doesn't necessarily translate to audio
- 3:36very well. So I want to make sure that we
- 3:38correct just a couple of little things here and there, but for
- 3:40the most part I would say also that audiobook will probably be
- 3:43the last thing to be released of the three, but most likely it
- 3:46will be out before Christmas. So When it's time to go
- 3:50Christmas shopping, just go to chefs.
- 3:52PS a.com and you get everything you need books t-shirts.
- 3:59Audio books all that anyway. That is the plug on to Kitchen
- 4:05culture. So, I've posted a couple of
- 4:08videos this week specifically talking about kitchen culture
- 4:11and a lot of people have asked me, you know what?
- 4:14We're specifically are these clips from?
- 4:15And and I have talked about this before, but if, if there's the
- 4:19first time you're hearing me talk about it.
- 4:21I did a Class A couple of years ago during the pandemic and we
- 4:24titled it, how to manage like an executive chef and the reason I
- 4:27did that was because I used to put on what was called food and
- 4:31beverage University for my culinary team and it was to
- 4:34teach them all the things that they need to know how to become
- 4:37a chef aside from cooking. You know, when they're in the
- 4:39kitchen, they learn how to cook. But during this time there with
- 4:42me, I'm going to teach them. Em how to be a chef.
- 4:44So I would cover things like food cost leadership management.
- 4:47How to read a pnl, how to deal with different situations, how
- 4:51to play culinary chess. But when the pandemic happened,
- 4:56obviously we laid off a lot of people and people had to go back
- 4:58home and the opportunity to do this class presented itself.
- 5:02The class was because someone reached out to me and asked if I
- 5:07wanted to do a class and I said yes because I did want to do a
- 5:09class but I didn't want to do a cooking class and the reason I
- 5:12didn't want to do it. In class.
- 5:14And the reason I don't run chefs PSA as a food page for chefs.
- 5:19And I'll explain this because I often get asked questions.
- 5:22Why don't I do cooking demos or why don't I showcase more food
- 5:26on the page? Well, here's why?
- 5:29Because if you want to learn how to cook and if you want to learn
- 5:34all that food stuff, there's a lot of really great chefs that
- 5:38can show you that you could learn that in the kitchen where
- 5:41you're at, you could learn that in your culinary.
- 5:43School. There's Ruby online culinary
- 5:46program there chefsteps there's Master Class, master class has
- 5:50amazing chefs like Thomas Keller and Gordon Ramsay and Wolfgang
- 5:53Puck and Dominique crenn. So you don't need me to teach
- 5:57you all the things that they're already teaching you.
- 5:59Like I'm not going to show you how to sear a salmon, really any
- 6:03differently than Thomas Keller, or dominant crenn, or chefsteps
- 6:09for that matter, right? All the things I can, I'm going
- 6:13to show you. Those other people could show
- 6:14you but there's really no one bringing you the chef's.
- 6:17PSA type information, you know, how to work in a kitchen.
- 6:20You know, the unwritten rules the things that no one else is
- 6:22willing to tell you, that's where I come in, that's where
- 6:24chefs PSA comes in. So that's why I don't post food
- 6:27pictures. It's not that I that I can't.
- 6:30If you go on my real Instagram page, you know, Entre natera,
- 6:34there's a couple of highlights. I think that's what they're
- 6:37called, a little circles that you click on Instagram, where
- 6:39you can see stories that have then been compiled into
- 6:43photographs. So I did a couple of highlights
- 6:45of food pictures because people would complain that.
- 6:48Oh, all you ever post about is cigars and, you know, goofing
- 6:52off and jokes. And so I said, fine, I'll do
- 6:56long format food pictures. So I just did.
- 7:00I don't know, like, for the sake of conversation, like, 100 food
- 7:03pictures put in the highlights and said there, if you want to
- 7:05see what food looks like, because you've never seen food
- 7:07before. There you go.
- 7:08That's, that's food that I've made before.
- 7:09Look at that butt, back to the regularly scheduled program, and
- 7:13that It is cigars and talking shit which is what I do on my
- 7:17personal Instagram page and by the way.
- 7:19So I've noticed a lot of people that follow chefs PSA have
- 7:22started moving over to follow me.
- 7:24Also on my real Instagram page and I would do that with caution
- 7:29because they're you're if you're going there for more Chef stuff,
- 7:31you're not going to find it. I often talk about like in real
- 7:35life, I'm sarcastic and funny. And well, I think I'm funny.
- 7:39I don't know everyone laughs at my jokes, I might not be funny,
- 7:42but in real life. I find things funny and I have,
- 7:45you know, I have a good sense of humor.
- 7:47So, half the things I'm posting or just memes and jokes that I
- 7:50find funny and it's usually really bad food.
- 7:53Like, that's my thing. I like to post pictures of
- 7:56really bad food that I find on the internet.
- 7:58So people always send me really bad food and I just repost it.
- 8:02And the ongoing joke I have is like, oh, this is going in my
- 8:06new cook book that I'm writing, right?
- 8:07So it's like, you know, feet loaf which would be like
- 8:11meatloaf shaped like feet Feet Loaf.
- 8:14And I'll say this is I'm working on this recipe right now.
- 8:16It'll be in the new book. It's obviously a joke, I think
- 8:19it's funny. But if all you're following the
- 8:21chef's PSA and you see the serious stuff and then you go to
- 8:24my like personal page and you're like, oh wait is this the same
- 8:27guy? Yeah, it's the same guy, but
- 8:29that's not a chef's page. That's just a joke page.
- 8:31That's just me. Goofing off.
- 8:32That's me. Smoking cigars and going to
- 8:34concerts and anyway. Kitchen culture.
- 8:39One of my good friends Matthew Peters, he's the chef that won't
- 8:43the book was Dior in 2017 for the United States.
- 8:47When I was opening my last job that I was the head chef at, I
- 8:52asked him for advice and I said, you obviously went through very
- 8:56strict training. You've worked at some of the
- 8:58greatest restaurants. I want to implement a very
- 9:02disciplined successful culture, where I'm working.
- 9:06How do I go about it? Because it's a big operation
- 9:09with hundreds of cooks that I need to get to buy in and he
- 9:13gave me the best piece of advice.
- 9:15He said you don't need to convince everyone on the team
- 9:18you need to convince your direct reports and then they need to
- 9:21convince their direct reports and so on and so forth and it
- 9:23scales that way. So it makes the task much more
- 9:26manageable and easy. And so that's what we did.
- 9:29We opened up and we created what the rules of the game we're
- 9:34going to be and I think it's very important that you define
- 9:37What the rules of the game are so people understand how to play
- 9:39the game and how to win the game because imagine you have the
- 9:43game of chess, right? So are you, I play a lot of
- 9:45Chess and chess is a big analogy that I like to use when it comes
- 9:48to the kitchen. So, if you're playing the game
- 9:50of chess and if no one explained the rules and you have two
- 9:53different people playing, it would just be chaotic, right?
- 9:56You wouldn't know who won. You'd have to guess how to play
- 9:58and people would make up how the pieces are supposed to move,
- 10:01right? Because there's no clearly
- 10:03defined rules to the game. The kitchen's the same way if
- 10:07you Don't have rules and you don't have parameters, people
- 10:10will make them up and if you leave it to anybody, to make up
- 10:14the rules of the game, most likely not always, but most
- 10:18likely people are going to prefer the path of least
- 10:21resistance. And they're going to make up
- 10:23rules that benefit them to work less and make things easier.
- 10:27Which doesn't always necessarily make the food better.
- 10:29Of course, there's outliers. And people will say, how can we
- 10:32do things harder? Make it more difficult, so we
- 10:34could produce better food. And so we could Elevate our
- 10:36skills. Those people do exist.
- 10:37It. But in general we're talking
- 10:38about people and if you've lived life on Earth, you know how
- 10:43people are right. Most people are going to choose
- 10:45the easy way out. So if you want to create a
- 10:46successful work culture, the first thing that must be
- 10:49established is the rules of the game.
- 10:51You have to know how do we do this, how do we do that?
- 10:54And everything has to be established in my case with my
- 10:57team of chefs we sat around and everyone's coming from great
- 11:00restaurants. You know some of them were, you
- 11:02know, T KR G guys, some of them were, you know, Le Bernardin,
- 11:05whatever the case may be. And we all said, okay, what do
- 11:09we want it to look like when we're hearing some people say,
- 11:13this is how we did it this place and someone else said this.
- 11:15How we did at that place and all that was very valuable
- 11:18information because we said, okay, the best restaurants in
- 11:20the world. This is how they do it.
- 11:22But how are we going to do? And once we agreed that we said,
- 11:25okay, we're going to do it like this, they're going to do it
- 11:27like that. We said, okay, we agree on it,
- 11:30but we cannot change it. We all have to agree that once
- 11:33we say, this is the standard. It becomes the standard.
- 11:35Whether we Like it or not. We have to support each other.
- 11:39Using, the idea of one voice, and that means, if I say it, you
- 11:43say it. And we both say it together.
- 11:46That doesn't mean that you go behind my back after I say
- 11:49something, say Okay, chefs gone. Let's do it this way and I'm not
- 11:52saying that doesn't happen because maybe it does.
- 11:54But I know if I go back and say, hey, why are you doing it that
- 11:56way? They're going to correct it,
- 11:57right? They understand that on paper.
- 12:00There's one standard, and sometimes those standards DV8.
- 12:03But whenever we catch them because, you know, it's drifted
- 12:07a little We correct it. As the expression goes constant,
- 12:09gentle pressure, we bring it back.
- 12:11We bring it back to Center whenever things have gone and
- 12:14drifted a little bit. So we established everything
- 12:17that we thought we're going to. We're going to talk about where
- 12:19we put our knife, how we fold, our towels, how we cut the tape,
- 12:21where does the tape go, how do we interact with each other?
- 12:24How do we talk together? What's the language that we use?
- 12:28Everybody has a certain kitchen language that they use, right?
- 12:32There's a certain jargon a kitchen vernacular that you use.
- 12:35Right. So we determined what are the
- 12:36words that we use? Use in this kitchen.
- 12:39How do we talk to each other? Who's allowed to talk?
- 12:42When are we allowed to talk all these things?
- 12:44Had to be figured out, are we allowed to wear this color of
- 12:47socks? I mean, we were getting as
- 12:48granular as possible. We wrote it all out and when
- 12:51people started, we said this is, this is how we did it.
- 12:54We bring someone on board and we said, hey, I need you to know
- 12:59something. The one non-negotiable thing we
- 13:00have here is the culture and the kitchen.
- 13:02This is how we work. That we treat people with
- 13:05respect, we have a set of principles, we say Caesars not
- 13:09above the law. And what that means is that If
- 13:12the rule is the rule, it doesn't matter where you fall on the
- 13:14totem pole. The same rule applies to the
- 13:16lowest man on the totem. Pole to the head.
- 13:18Chef, if the rule is this, we all do it, right?
- 13:23And if one person breaks the rule, and if that person is
- 13:26someone who makes the rule, then it's no longer a rule.
- 13:29So if the rule is, you're not allowed to make yourself
- 13:33something to eat, for example, on the line and I go and make
- 13:36myself something to eat then, the rule no longer exists,
- 13:39right? Rules are Only things that can
- 13:41be enforced from the top to the bottom and everyone Buys in.
- 13:46Because the idea of rules for thee and not for me, don't exist
- 13:51in a well, functioning kitchen because the second that if
- 13:55you're the chef for the sous chef or whatever, and you say
- 13:57I'm going to do this but you can't as soon as you leave they
- 14:00do it right? Because the rules out the
- 14:02window, they no longer respect you and that's very important.
- 14:06When determining. How are you going to build a
- 14:07workplace culture? It has to be built around the
- 14:10idea of Spect and we used to have this pillar that we would
- 14:15say shake and shake out, right? So this is, this is very common
- 14:17in restaurants and other settings where when we would get
- 14:20there we'd acknowledge everyone would Shake in before we leave.
- 14:23We check out and the reason we did that is we always said you
- 14:25begin today as a professional, you close the day as a
- 14:28professional regardless of what happens in the middle because we
- 14:30know during the middle, a lot of shit happens in the kitchen.
- 14:33You guys get into a fight, they screwed you over.
- 14:35They took too long. Whatever, right?
- 14:36But regardless of what happened, you begin the day as a
- 14:39professional, you close the day as A professional in addition to
- 14:43when you shake it and shake out with everybody, you know, the
- 14:45chef comes in to go shake hands with the stewarding team.
- 14:47The reason you do that is because it does establish
- 14:49equality amongst everybody for that moment your equals, right?
- 14:55And you want to build a culture around respect, but that is how
- 14:59you're going to succeed, right? Then, let's talk about
- 15:02discipline when we talk about the word discipline, this means
- 15:05like waking up early going to the gym.
- 15:07This is discipline in that sense of doing the right thing even
- 15:10when The easier thing to do is the wrong thing, doing the right
- 15:14thing is the right thing to do. It's more important because the
- 15:17the path of least resistance. It's like that chocolate bar.
- 15:21That's just sitting there when you're on a diet.
- 15:22And you're like, I'm just gonna break my diet and eat the
- 15:24chocolate bar, right? Having the discipline to say no
- 15:27applies in the kitchen, right? Doing the right thing, putting
- 15:31things back where they belong, wiping down your station.
- 15:33How you're supposed to be breaking down leaving the next
- 15:35person? Set up that requires discipline,
- 15:37doing things the right way, requires a lot of discipline,
- 15:40but a lot of people It'll take the word discipline to be like
- 15:43you're in trouble, that's not what I mean.
- 15:44So when I say the word discipline, I'm talking about
- 15:46having the discipline to do the right thing, you have to create
- 15:48an environment where doing the right thing is the best
- 15:51available option. Then once everyone Buys in and
- 15:55everyone starts doing that as new people come in, they have
- 15:58two choices. They could stick around and
- 16:01embrace the culture or they could leave.
- 16:03And honestly both options are excellent because if they stick
- 16:06around in the embrace the culture that's great.
- 16:10You have another person. That's bought in and if they
- 16:12leave that's also great. They weren't going to buy in and
- 16:15they were going to be disruptive to what you've created, right?
- 16:17So you have to Define what your culture is.
- 16:19You have to document it, you have to communicate it.
- 16:22But really important, you have to communicate why it's
- 16:24important because if you just walk around and say do this and
- 16:27they say why and you say well because I said so and there's
- 16:30really no reason. It's just some arbitrary reason
- 16:32why you want people to do it. People don't respect that.
- 16:34But if they understand why like, for example, you say fold your
- 16:38towels in they say, why should I fold my towels?
- 16:39Well, okay, well, Is why you fold your towels, right?
- 16:42Because you only get three a day and we need to treat them like
- 16:46gold and if you don't fold it and you wipe something on the
- 16:49counter that towel is now soiled, and you only got maybe
- 16:52one or two uses out of it, but if you fold it, you know, 3 by
- 16:553, you get 18, different uses out of the towel before.
- 16:59You have to discard it and get a new towel.
- 17:01So if you're only getting three you need to treat them like
- 17:03gold. That's why you fold your towel
- 17:04and then people say oh the light bulb them goes off, right?
- 17:07So if they understand the, why They could do it when we used to
- 17:11talk about, cut the tape nice, short straight, and no greater
- 17:15than 2 inches. That was my standard.
- 17:17I didn't really want to see. Tape that was cut greater than 2
- 17:19inches. And the reason that was is like,
- 17:22well, because if you cut the tape four times longer that's
- 17:25four times the cost, right? And four times, the cost of this
- 17:30creates a wasteful mindset and that wasteful mindset, then
- 17:32permeates into everything else we do.
- 17:34But if you understand that, we're are in a mindset of
- 17:37everything is important. Well, The tape is important and
- 17:41fold. In the towel is important.
- 17:42What else is important? Well, I like I just said
- 17:45everything is important in the kitchen.
- 17:47So when you start to create a culture, where everything is
- 17:49important, you start to see this permeate into the behaviors of
- 17:53the cooks that are around you, they all start getting better,
- 17:56right? They all start working cleaner.
- 17:58They all start working at a higher level.
- 18:00This particular place was a very large operation, like I said, we
- 18:04had staff was greater than 100 Sous chefs.
- 18:07I don't know how about 20 Sous chefs.
- 18:09To Executive Sous chefs, several Chef, De Cuisine.
- 18:12Anyway, large place. And one of the things that we
- 18:16would get a lot of pushback on his people would come and say
- 18:19that's never going to work. There's no way you could
- 18:20convince that many people to do it and I would say watch, I am
- 18:24going to do it. And I had this self belief that
- 18:27I can make this happen. I could run this very large
- 18:30property, right? This very large kitchen just
- 18:33like a high-end kitchen and I would say watch and people would
- 18:36come back later and they'd be like, damn it.
- 18:38How did you do it? How did you convince all these
- 18:40people to do it? I said, well by I told you I was
- 18:43going to do it. First of all, second of all, I
- 18:44spent the time making sure that they did it.
- 18:46I believed in it, and I got them to believe it and they loved it.
- 18:49And people that worked in that kitchen, loved it.
- 18:51And they've carried it on to other kitchens, where they're
- 18:53now the chef's, right? It's been the most successful
- 18:56thing that I've done and so now, you know, I engage a lot with
- 19:01people online and, you know, I get the question like well, how
- 19:04do I do that? Like how do you do that?
- 19:05When a place where it's already slightly dysfunctional and
- 19:08things aren't correct. My answer would be this step one
- 19:11is you have to believe it because if you do not believe
- 19:15that this is possible, that's it.
- 19:17Like if you don't believe it, there's no way they're going to
- 19:19believe it. You know, people could see
- 19:20through your bullshit. If you come and say, hey we're
- 19:22going to make the greatest kitchen culture and we're going
- 19:24to do this that and the other and they're like, oh yeah, sure.
- 19:26You don't believe it. Why should we believe it?
- 19:28So it has to start with you. You need to believe it first,
- 19:32but if you walk around and say no, I could never do that here
- 19:34because it's too hard or, you know, my kitchens too old or my
- 19:37employees have been here for too long.
- 19:39Or the last Chef ruined it, or whatever the case may be.
- 19:43Well, then, great, you're not going to do it.
- 19:44You're not even going to try. You're going to give up before
- 19:46you've started. And you have ready made excuses
- 19:50as to why you're allowing yourself to fail.
- 19:52So, the first person you need to convince yourself, you need to
- 19:55convince yourself and say this is how I'm going to do it, and
- 20:00I'm going to do it regardless of the obstacles in my way.
- 20:03And I'm going to prove everyone wrong, right?
- 20:05Those are the people that can do it.
- 20:07Those are the people that become the exceptions.
- 20:09The rule in. You need to say that to
- 20:10yourself. I'm the exception to the rule.
- 20:12I'm going to prove everyone wrong that I could do this,
- 20:14right? So you have to create that
- 20:16mindset. First of the first step is that
- 20:18you need to believe. At the second step is, you need
- 20:19to create what it's going to look like and then you start
- 20:22spreading it to your direct reports and so on and then it
- 20:24just becomes contagious. The other difficult thing is you
- 20:27have to have a point where you don't tolerate anything other
- 20:33than what the standard is, right?
- 20:34So once you've established the standard, you can't tolerate
- 20:36less than that because the second you, excuse it.
- 20:39And you tolerate something that's not the standard.
- 20:42The second that that's no longer a standard.
- 20:44Like I said, if you accept it, it doesn't matter anymore.
- 20:47So that's that's honestly probably the hardest part is
- 20:50ensuring that you are constantly addressing the issue, but I
- 20:54could tell you after time, you know, you won't have to after a
- 20:58while because let's just say everyone is doing the exact same
- 21:01thing because you've done such a great job at instilling this
- 21:04culture when a new person comes in, and does it the wrong way.
- 21:06Other people will correct them, you won't have to say anything.
- 21:10I've witnessed it firsthand and it's a beautiful thing when
- 21:13everyone is just on board and we're all going in the same
- 21:15direction and the mission is Success, right?
- 21:18And we're not going to fail. So I wanted to make sure that
- 21:23that I addressed that now I will say this, which I probably
- 21:27should have started with this, but I'll kind of close with this
- 21:30idea of when, you're developing a kitchen culture and that is
- 21:34throughout my career. So I had a long career, 27 years
- 21:37in the kitchen, over And you get better with time, right?
- 21:41You start out not knowing anything.
- 21:42And as as time progresses, you get better with every job you
- 21:46learn more skills. You add more to yield to your
- 21:48toolbox. You should get better as a chef.
- 21:50If this was the case, I didn't understand why after every year
- 21:55sometimes I was successful and sometimes I wasn't and then I
- 21:58was successful again and other times I wasn't, and I can never
- 22:00really wrap my head around as a chef.
- 22:03Why is it that I was successful here?
- 22:05But I wasn't successful there, but then I was successful here
- 22:07and I wasn't successful there in a After doing some deep
- 22:10reflection, I realized the places where I was most
- 22:13successful, were the places that had the best workplace culture.
- 22:17The places where I was least successful.
- 22:19Were the places that I created a bad workplace culture and I'll
- 22:23take ownership of it, right? So I can't sit here and say that
- 22:27someone else created the bad workplace culture.
- 22:29If I'm the chef, I'm in charge of creating the culture.
- 22:34I either change it or I don't. But either way, the
- 22:37responsibility falls on me. There's no one else to blame,
- 22:40right? And that's why I like chest so
- 22:43much when you lose in chess you made a mistake, there's no one
- 22:46else to blame, right? Same thing, applies in the
- 22:48kitchen and I think I should probably do a whole podcast on
- 22:51kitchen chest. But anyway, that's that's for
- 22:53another day. Towards the end of my tenure, as
- 22:57a chef. I had a really bad failure where
- 22:59my restaurants closed. I didn't understand why, right?
- 23:01So, I had to, I had to reflect and I Our, the workplace culture
- 23:06is very important. So I probably spent a couple of
- 23:10years, like, working on refining and creating a workplace culture
- 23:15where people can succeed, right? Because ultimately, that's all I
- 23:18want to do as a chef, as I want to help people succeed.
- 23:20I want to create more chefs. I want to help Cooks, become
- 23:23Sous chefs. I want to help sous-chefs become
- 23:25executive chefs, and so on. That's what I want.
- 23:28So, I needed to create an environment where people could
- 23:29learn and succeed and people are able to To grow as chefs.
- 23:35And when the light bulb went off and I got better with time,
- 23:39right? I was a lot of trial and error
- 23:40and keep it mind, you know, like I said, 27 years in the kitchen,
- 23:43I saw a lot of bad things. I did a lot of bad things.
- 23:45I did a lot of good things, you know, I had my, my ups and downs
- 23:49along the way, and I had to figure it out, just like a lot
- 23:51of you are, you're figuring it out as you go along.
- 23:54But the cool thing about this weekend, like I told you his
- 23:58food and wine weekend and I was talking with a lot of chefs and,
- 24:01you know, the idea of kitchen culture came up very Often.
- 24:04And a lot of people say, you know, I love what you're doing
- 24:07and we got into these conversations conversations that
- 24:09kind of make me think, maybe I should do a guest podcast, but
- 24:12I'm not sure if people would ever want to have these
- 24:14conversations on air, but regardless, the idea of hard
- 24:22work came up and maybe we could explore this on another podcast
- 24:26because we're running a little bit long hair, but the idea of
- 24:30hard work came up and it said, sometimes I get a lot of
- 24:33pushback in the DM saying, you know, I'm toxic or whatever
- 24:36because I say, people need to work hard and earn it and I
- 24:40don't think that's toxic. I think that's just life, right?
- 24:44Nothing is given. Nothing is given.
- 24:46That's that's really valuable. Everything.
- 24:48That's earned is more valuable, right?
- 24:50So you earn things through hard work, if I was just given the
- 24:55position of Chef versus having earned, the position of Chef has
- 24:58just given it probably wouldn't appreciate it right if you work
- 25:02all summer. You save up your money and you
- 25:05buy yourself a car, right? You're going to treat and it
- 25:08might be a junk car, but it's your car, right?
- 25:10You're going to treat that car pretty well versus if someone
- 25:12gave you a more expensive car and if you crash it, they're
- 25:15just going to give you another more expensive cart, would it
- 25:16matter so much. Right.
- 25:17You would, you wouldn't care so much about how you treated that
- 25:20thing because you didn't earn. It was just given to you.
- 25:22So the same thing, applies in the kitchen, you have to work
- 25:25hard. And when I say that the kitchen
- 25:29culture needs to get better, I am not talking about the hard
- 25:34work part. The hard work is not going to
- 25:35escape this culinary industry. There's still guess that we have
- 25:38to serve the line of still the line.
- 25:40It's still hot. You're still going to be on your
- 25:41feet. You're still going to want
- 25:42water. The tickets are still going to
- 25:43come in that stuff's not going to change.
- 25:45Should we treat people better with respect?
- 25:47Absolutely right. Should we focus on health and
- 25:51well-being? Absolutely.
- 25:54And I've never going to say otherwise, but I will say that
- 25:57the hard work part, I won't speak against that either
- 26:00because I do believe that working in a kitchen, is hard
- 26:03work and it's not for everybody. There are easier kitchens right?
- 26:06Where things are, things are easy street, right?
- 26:10But a lot of kitchens aren't that way.
- 26:11And I would say the majority of the kitchens are hard.
- 26:13It's hard work. You're on your feet.
- 26:15You're lifting your bending or twisting your cooking.
- 26:17It's hot and the titles the chef the skills.
- 26:22They're earned. And through the hard work in the
- 26:25kitchen, right? You can't get good at brunoise
- 26:28without learning how to brunoise and doing it many, many times.
- 26:31So, I don't think that when someone says working hard is
- 26:38toxic II disagree. I disagree.
- 26:40I think that kitchens are hard work but you don't have to treat
- 26:44people like shit just because the work is hard.
- 26:46So to me, these are two different conversations in two
- 26:49different subjects. But anyway, if you want to
- 26:53create a kitchen culture, the first thing you have to do is
- 26:56believe in it yourself, then Define it, and then expand it,
- 27:00and make sure everyone believes in it with you and tell them the
- 27:02why that's the that's the rant for the day.
- 27:05Anyway, if you want to support ships, pass a podcast, please
- 27:10follow And subscribe, and drop five stars, whether you're
- 27:13listening on Spotify or whatever, this is a five-star
- 27:16podcast, anything less than 5 Stars.
- 27:18Makes you a liar. Someone gave me less than Five
- 27:21stars and how dare you, how dare you give me less than 5 stars.
- 27:26But anyway, that was just one person, the average bumped it
- 27:28back up to 5. So someone's a liar out there
- 27:31and if you find them, make sure you publicly shamed them for
- 27:34being a liar. Anyway, go to chefs, PS a.com.
- 27:39If you want to learn more, get the books culinary leadership
- 27:42fundamentals. How not to be the biggest idiot
- 27:44in the kitchen by some merch. Kitchen karate.
- 27:48Ask me about my Alfredo t-shirt line.
- 27:50Cook water man. Each Chef juice.
- 27:52Anyway, thank you all see you next week and hit the porno
- 27:57music.