Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Kitchen Rust Ep. 67

Transcript

Kitchen Rust Ep. 67 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host Andre Natara. On today's episode, we're going
• 0:05
  to talk about kitchen rust, AKA ring rust.
• 0:09
  Stay tuned. Before we get started, let me
• 0:23
  tell you how you get support the show.
• 0:24
  If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the Like and
• 0:27
  subscribe button. That helps out a lot if you're
• 0:29
  listening on Spotify, of course. Always leave five stars.
• 0:33
  There's a support the show button where you could donate.
• 0:35
  Donations are appreciated. And of course, you could always
• 0:37
  go to chefspsa.com. I recognize it's not something
• 0:40
  for nothing. So the best way to support is to
• 0:43
  allow me to give to you. Go get the books.
• 0:45
  Culinary leadership fundamentals.
• 0:47
  That's for new sous chefs, new executive chefs.
• 0:50
  It's going to go over the basics of what it's like to run a
• 0:52
  kitchen. Bad Sous Good Chef is the book
• 0:54
  that I wrote. It's a it's a fictional
• 0:56
  narrative conversation between a sous chef and an executive chef,
• 1:01
  going back and forth on all his fears and anxieties and a lot of
• 1:05
  the questions that we all have when we're new in leadership
• 1:07
  positions. Kitchen Art of War This is, it's
• 1:10
  a translation of Sun Zoo's Art of War and how it applies to the
• 1:14
  culinary world. It's a direct translation.
• 1:16
  So if you like that style of Eastern philosophy writing, then
• 1:20
  I think you'd like Kitchen Art of War.
• 1:22
  But if you don't like reading that style, it's probably not
• 1:24
  the book for you. It is I I like to say it's
• 1:26
  advanced reading and it's advanced thinking.
• 1:28
  Line Cook Survival Manual for line cooks.
• 1:30
  Every cook in your kitchen should have what it should be
• 1:32
  like hanging on the clipboard. It should be the culinary manual
• 1:35
  when the manual doesn't exist. And then companion to that is
• 1:39
  how not to be the biggest city in the kitchen.
• 1:40
  They're all short breeds. And then I have some free
• 1:43
  ebooks, Food Cost mastery, 100 basic recipes, critical path to
• 1:48
  opening up a restaurant, and a free culinary dictionary.
• 1:51
  Hey, sometimes you're new to the industry and you don't know
• 1:53
  these words and you're too afraid to ask.
• 1:55
  So all these books are designed to give you a shortcut to help
• 1:59
  you become more successful faster.
• 2:00
  That's what you could do to support today's episode Ring
• 2:03
  rust or a KA Kitchen Rust, depending on I guess I could
• 2:07
  have said that. Either way.
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  Anyway, it doesn't matter for those of you that may or may not
• 2:10
  know if you've been paying attention, I've recently come
• 2:13
  out of my retirement for a brief period.
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  I'm doing what's called a Chef in Residence through mid
• 2:19
  November. This is 2023 when you're
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  listening and I'm doing it at Tilly's Restaurant at Camp Lucy
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  in Dripping Springs, TX. For those of you that may not
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  know, I am retired as a chef. I was a chef for 27 years.
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  I decided to step away and focus full time on mentoring,
• 2:35
  coaching, and the chef's PS:. A creating the memes, writing
• 2:38
  the books, doing the podcast. This is my full time job, but as
• 2:42
  you know, if you listen to the show, I have a lot of opinions.
• 2:45
  I talk a lot of crap. Someone messaged me the other
• 2:47
  day and said can you still back it up?
• 2:50
  Got in my head a little bit, I'm not going to lie because I was
• 2:52
  thinking, can I still back it up?
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  I'm giving, I'm giving a lot of advice.
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  I have a lot of opinions on what the right thing to do is.
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  I'm looking at every situation and saying this is all you got
• 3:01
  to do to turn it around. Work hard, discipline, focus,
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  all the things that I talked about daily on chefs, PSA.
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  But can I still walk the talk? It was something that I talked
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  about in an earlier episode where if I had to go back in the
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  kitchen, how difficult would it be?
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  I had said it wouldn't be that difficult.
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  I would do some research. I would look at the latest
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  trends, plating trends, ingredient trends.
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  I would update my style a little bit and I would jump right back
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  in and I didn't think it would be a problem.
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  I still know how to cook pots, pans, etcetera, still know how
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  to use a knife. I didn't think it would be that
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  difficult and here we are. So a friend of mine reached out
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  to me. She runs dish and Dame, so you
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  should go follow that Instagram account.
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  And she was looking for an executive chef and asked me if I
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  would be interested in potentially doing a chef and
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  residence program there through Midnovember.
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  So two months go in, write the menu, reconcept it, work with
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  the team, get to cook with them. And around the same time, I'm
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  also contemplating if I still got it.
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  So it's like the timing was impeccable in time, on time all
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  the time. And I thought this is a great
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  opportunity for me to get back in and see if I could do it.
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  So I had a few days to get in, work with the team, write the
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  recipes, write the menu, train them, and then go live with the
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  menu. And I could tell you that I feel
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  pretty good about the menu. Now granted, I'm going to write
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  a menu based on the team that I have, the location, the
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  environment, the type of restaurant.
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  So a lot of the food that I'm doing is going to be what I
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  think fits that area. It's not an Italian restaurant
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  or it's not an Asian restaurant. Otherwise I'd write menus
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  tailored to those specific types of cuisines.
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  It's not a tasting menu, only restaurant.
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  Otherwise, I would write a menu specific to that.
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  This is an upscale modern American restaurant in the
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  country, In the Hill Country. Therefore, I wrote a menu
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  similar to that. So when writing the menu I had
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  to sit down and I'll tell you what it was.
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  It was really fun because I haven't written a menu in quite
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  some time outside of consulting, but usually it's for those
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  things. But this is a menu of my
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  personality on a plate. So I often talked about the
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  creativity. And when it comes to writing
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  menus, what I did is I put on my headphones, started sipping my
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  green tea, started chewing my nicotine gum, listening to 40HZ
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  brain waves on the headphones, and just got into a creative
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  zone and started writing. A lot of the menu that I wrote
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  is the greatest hits of my career.
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  So go back 27 years when I was a chef and a lot of dishes that
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  meant something to me. So those are the dishes that I
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  put on. Every single dish on the menu
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  has a story behind it as to why it's on the menu or as to why
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  it's important to me that it went on the menu.
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  I've modified the plating a little bit.
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  I've updated it to 2023 standards.
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  There's a lot of different cooking techniques on there,
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  everything from using alginates, but no foams and bubbles.
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  But yes, there are some alginates.
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  I I lied. There's actually a cheese foam
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  on some gnocchi, so I did use some melting salts, sodium
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  citrate and hexametaphosphate. There's a lot of precision
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  cooking, so a lot of the vegetables that we're doing are
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  cooked under vacuum, and there's also classic techniques involved
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  as well, making stock sauces. A lot of the repertoire that I
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  had as a chef coming up was in those classic kitchen.
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  So you're going to see a lot of that classic technique.
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  But I get into the kitchen day one, menus written, recipes are
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  written, and then it's trained the staff.
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  Now keep in mind five days to launch and it's basically,
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  imagine relaunching a restaurant, right, opening a
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  restaurant in five days. New team, at least.
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  None of them have ever worked with me.
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  And they're great by the way. Fantastic cooks and chefs, and
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  if you're in the area and you want to come check it out and
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  eat, you should do so. But we get in, we discuss the
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  menu and we start rolling it out now.
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  I love the idea of rapid prototyping.
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  This is something that Steve Jobs kind of made famous.
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  That's why they constantly release Apple updates is there's
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  update 1, update 1.1, update 1.1, point 2, and so on and so
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  forth. And that's how I operate in a
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  kitchen. It's get better every single
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  day. Constantly push, evolve.
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  At the end of the night we meet, we discuss what went wrong, what
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  we could do better, and we constantly tweet.
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  We don't have a bad service. We have a service that we can
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  learn from. And it's a lot of this stuff
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  that I'm that I'm teaching the culinary team there while I'm
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  working with them. I like Sam, getting them Chefs
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  PSA certified, you know, cut the tape straight, fold the towels.
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  A lot of that they were already doing.
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  But all the things that I see that I talk about on Chefs PSA,
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  I'm trying to teach them as well.
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  They're very receptive to it and things are moving along really
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  quick. So I I don't think that from a
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  culinary standpoint, I'm very far off in the ring rust.
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  Granted, in five days I feel like I'm right back in the game,
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  but that's not where I was rusty.
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  Where I was rusty was physically, and I felt that
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  right away. I've made chefs PS:.
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  A post that the last thing to go for a chef is their palate, but
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  the first thing to go is their back or their knees or their
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  feet. And all the years of being a
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  chef, I could tell you that I don't have the best back knees
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  and feet. People that know me in real life
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  say I walk funny because I've. I have some back problems.
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  My back constantly pops, my knees pop, my ankles pop
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  everything. Everything's a little bit
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  rickety there. And so doing what I do with
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  chefs, PSA, a lot of it is working in front of a computer
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  and even though I exercise every day, I'm not standing on my feet
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  for 11:50 hours a day. And so that was really the first
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  thing that I felt when it came to rust.
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  Day one, I came home, took a shower, everything hurt.
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  My back was hurting, my feet were throbbing, my knees were
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  hurting. I put some sports cream on the
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  bottom of my feet to alleviates the pain.
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  Day two was more of the same, still a little bit sore, but by
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  day three I could tell you I knocked off the rust.
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  I was hustling in the kitchen, I was moving fast and it was like
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  I was a young chef all over again, right?
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  12 hours a day in the kitchen in the grind and having fun.
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  I I I'm not going to lie, I had a lot of fun working with this
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  team and creating and cooking and being with them.
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  Some of the cooks would joke around with me and say you still
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  got it, chef. Ignore the haters, but I could
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  tell you I definitely felt it when it came to the first couple
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  of days off was, you know, I slept a lot later, was a little
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  bit achy, but not as much. I was definitely energized.
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  You know, in my day-to-day I the hustle was there, a lot more
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  doing with the Chef's PSA stuff because now I had to do
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  everything that I do for Chef's PSA in a much shorter period of
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  time. I have to do that in my off
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  hours when I'm not working in the kitchen.
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  So for those of you that have been trying to get a hold of me,
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  I'm a little slow to respond because I'm working in the
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  kitchen right now. But as far as rust goes, I think
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  week one was a success. I felt like I was right back in
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  it, and I had touched a little bit on this on the most recent
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  podcast right before this one. And I talked about how when
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  you're enjoying what you do, the long days don't seem long and
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  when you enjoy being around the people that you're with, you
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  don't really feel as burned out. For me, the commute to and from
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  the restaurants, about an hour. So during that hour, I'm making
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  phone calls, I'm talking to people.
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  I have my phone out. I'm not driving and texting, but
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  I am making notes. I'm talking to my phone, leaving
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  notes, things that I could discuss when I get there.
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  Like I said, everything that I do while I'm there is 1% better
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  every day. I know the the idea of that is
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  gradual improvements every single day.
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  And that's kind of what I'm preaching when I get there is
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  like, how do we constantly tweak the menu, make the food a little
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  bit better, make the kitchen a little bit more seamless?
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  And one of the things I talk about as a leader, when people
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  work under me as a leader, I try not to overwhelm them with so
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  much early on. And by the way, this first week
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  was overwhelming for everybody because it was a brand new
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  style. But I try not to overwhelm them
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  more than they need to be overwhelmed because when you
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  overwhelm A-Team, it doesn't stick.
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  And so a lot of people say we have, you know, standard of the
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  day and that's okay. But I I like the standard until
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  it's right. I don't want to hit them over
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  the head with 20 new standards in one day.
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  Let's just go with one. Let's focus on making sure
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  everyone does this correctly. And if everyone does that
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  correctly, great, then we're better.
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  And the next day, something new. Let's make sure everyone does
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  that correctly. And if we miss a day and we
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  slide a little bit, then let's go back to that thing.
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  Because if it doesn't stick, it's not a standard.
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  So when you're implementing standards, you need to make sure
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  that they stick, and that's why I recommend introducing them
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  slowly. When it sticks, introduce the
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  next one, because you do have constant drift on the standard
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  and you constantly have to recalibrate things to make sure
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  that the kitchen's getting back in order.
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  I would say my chef brain turned on pretty quick.
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  Like I said, some of some the first couple of days it was a
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  little rusty, like 2 left feet, but within three days I felt
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  like I had never left. It felt good.
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  It helped me feel good in case I ever want to go back, but
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  probably probably not at least right now.
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  You know, I I do enjoy what I'm doing with Chef's PSA.
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  A lot of the great restaurants have you kind of a rallying cry
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  or war cry that they that they use for the team.
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  You know, I could think of like 11 Madison Park, make it nice,
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  the French laundries. It's all about finesse.
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  Where I used to work, we'd say awake and ready or always ahead.
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  So I wanted to make sure I had something for the new team.
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  Where I was at, we brainstormed a couple.
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  We ended up with something called quality overall, and that
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  became the measuring stick to which everything else is going
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  to be measured on quality overall.
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  And then what's the direction of the food?
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  Simple, Technical, beautiful, Delicious.
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  So everything that we put on the menu needs to meet those
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  guidelines. And whenever we're unsure of
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  something, we'll always go back to that side and say quality.
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  Overall, is it quality? If it's not, then it doesn't get
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  served, or it doesn't get put on the menu or doesn't get
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  discussed. Quality is the measuring stick,
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  which everything is going to be measured on.
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  But I think it's important that a kitchen has a mantra.
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  I made a beautiful sign and put it up on the walls.
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  Really nice. But it's a constant reminder.
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  And I I told them that if the sign gets dirty, that's a bad
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  sign. The sign has to stay Immaculate.
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  It can't come down. It has to stay up there.
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  Now we're going into week two and week 3.
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  Service is getting better. We're getting more efficient.
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  The new menu doesn't seem as difficult anymore.
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  And so now we're looking at the items that we're doing and we
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  can ratchet it up a little bit, make it a little bit more
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  difficult, introduce a little bit more finesse, refine the
• 12:54
  recipes a little bit and get better and better every single
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  day. So what's the point of all this?
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  The point of all of this is a lot of you are going to take
• 13:02
  over restaurants, you're going to be the new chef or maybe
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  you've been out of the game for a little bit and you want to get
• 13:06
  back in. First and foremost, I could tell
• 13:08
  you that it's like riding a bike.
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  You might be rusty for a few days, but when you jump back in,
• 13:14
  all the skills come back pretty quick.
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  But you should have a strategic plan.
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  When you go in, make sure you're making a menu that everyone on
• 13:21
  the team could execute and that you're constantly looking at the
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  dishes and discussing with the team how it could be improved.
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  It's important to get buy in from everybody.
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  What I find interesting is that my time as a chef and my time
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  here now, like I've I've changed my perspective a little bit.
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  I would say I'm not as intense as I used to be.
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  You know, when I was a younger chef, I was a little bit more
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  intense. I think with time and wisdom I'm
• 13:44
  able to navigate the storm a little bit better, a little bit
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  more calm. Bad situations are going to get
• 13:48
  thrown at you, and I'm able to ride the wave and flow like
• 13:52
  water, like Bruce Lee said. And having been on both sides, I
• 13:57
  recognize that being calm and focused and not losing your cool
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  in the kitchen is so much better than the opposite.
• 14:03
  Anyway, we digress. I don't even know what I was
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  talking about. Build your team up.
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  Create the standard. Don't implement too much and get
• 14:12
  a little bit better and better every day in every single way
• 14:15
  possible. Stay calm, wipe your cutting
• 14:17
  board, look up, see what's going on, and go forward anyway.
• 14:22
  If you want to support the show, you know what to do.
• 14:23
  As we talked about, make sure you leave five stars.
• 14:25
  Nothing less than five stars. Go to chefspsa.com.
• 14:28
  You can get all the books there. Merch.
• 14:30
  It's going to be hoodie weather. Have a lot of hoodies for sale
• 14:33
  at the Chef's PSA store. Thank you all very much.
• 14:36
  See you next week. Hit the porno music.