Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Attention to Detail Ep. 79

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Attention to Detail Ep. 79 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello Chefs, This is Chefs PSA Podcast.
0:02
I'm your host, Andre Natera. On today's episode, we're going
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to talk about attention to detail in the Kitchen.
0:07
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Now before we get started, just a little update.
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I'm still writing a book. Bad cooks everywhere, but I also
1:16
started writing a free ebook that I'm going to come out with,
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hopefully within a week or two, maybe even less.
1:21
By the next episode I'll have it up.
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It is titled The 50 Most Important Chef's PSAS.
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I did a Twitter thread on it on what I think are the most
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important Chef's PSAS. I've also done a podcast on it,
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but I wanted to write a free little ebook for you all.
1:38
Something to give back. Something that you could take
1:40
with you in the kitchen and use it for your pre shift or it
1:43
could be your secret weapon. Anyway, I'm working on that.
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I'll show you the cover here. If you're watching on YouTube or
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Spotify you can see it. My last podcast episode was on
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2024 food trends and Predictions.
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I'm curious what you all think 2024 is going to bring.
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So go back and listen to that episode and let me know what you
2:01
think. Also, if you want to support the
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show, make sure you leave five stars.
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If you're listening on Spotify, make sure you subscribe.
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If you're watching on YouTube, hit the like button, hit the
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subscribe button, share it with a friend.
2:14
Let's grow this podcast. The whole purpose of this
2:17
podcast really is to help you get better, to help cooks get
2:19
better. And for a lot of chefs, you
2:22
should be giving this podcast to your cooks so they could get
2:25
better, faster. The whole idea was to give
2:29
access to a lot of chefs, cooks, culinarians that don't have
2:34
access to chefs. So I figured, let me let me be
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the chef that will talk to you and give you the the real, the
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information that no one else is sharing with you.
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Today's episode is all about attention to detail, why it's
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important, what separates great chefs from the pack, and usually
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what it boils down to his attention to detail.
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Now here's a quick story. Early on in my career, when I
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was in culinary school, we were working on marinating chicken,
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my chef, Kirk Bachmann, who now runs Escoffier schools.
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At the time, he was my chef instructor, He was I was in his
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first class, culinary 101. I was his first student.
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He was my first chef instructor, and we've remained friends
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since. But the project that we were
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working on was marinating chicken, and he gave me this big
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bowl of chicken and I was reluctant to get my hands in.
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I don't know why, but early on in my career, like raw food kind
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of grossed me out. I didn't come from a cooking
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background. I didn't even necessarily want
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to become a chef early on in my career.
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So the idea of putting my hands on slimy chicken kind of grossed
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me out, and Chef was watching me and he said to me, got really
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close. He whispered in my ear.
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And he said, the sooner you get over it, the sooner you'll get
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better. And what was interesting about
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what he said was what he meant was as soon as I stopped being
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afraid, as soon as I started being brave enough to touch the
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food and not being afraid to take on the difficult work, the
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sooner things would get easier. And it's a lesson that stuck
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with me for a long time. During that time in my culinary
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school years, I also worked in a kitchen and I worked as a pastry
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assistant. But occasionally I would help
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out in the Garde Monge kitchen, and these were the old days of
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the Garde Monge kitchen. This was the time when you had
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Sunday brunch with mirrors, and on the mirrors we used to put
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pates and terrines. I could still smell the vinegar
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that we used to have to wipe the mirrors down with.
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And we'd have these extravagant buffets with croquembouche.
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All types of cakes I used to have to make, I don't know, like
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20 or 30 cakes for Sunday brunch.
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The salmon displays, the salmon Kubiak, the beef wellingtons.
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We had to do it all. But I remember specifically in
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the gourmandet kitchen, you know, we used to do a lot of
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chauffeured and aspic work and I remember having to make
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different colors of aspic and pour different colors and make
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flowers in the chauffeur, different garnishes.
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We used to make birds out of all sorts of fruit, like pineapple
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birds and melon birds and apple birds.
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It's funny. I think you could pretty much
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turn any vegetable into a bird. We used to make little Penguins
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out of hard boiled eggs and black olives, and the thing was
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we put so much care and attention to detail into these
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things that people wouldn't eat. It was just for garnish, It was
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just for the show. But back then, Sunday brunch was
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a big thing. Everyone would dress up,
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everyone would go to Sunday brunch, and you had to have so
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much attention to detail and all these things that were going
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into it, things that necessarily did not matter, but they did
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teach me a certain skill set. Fast forward a few years.
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I'm working in a kitchen, I'm the saute cook and we had to
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flute mushrooms. We used to make these mushrooms
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that would go with the steak. So every steak had to have two
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or three mushrooms on it and I got pretty proficient at fluting
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mushrooms. It was pretty interesting
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because I thought I was OK, but there were chefs in there that
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would blow me away. The chef would flute mushrooms
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with a cleaver or big old chef's knife and they were fast and
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efficient at it. We had to torn everything, the
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carrots, the potatoes, whether it was tornado potatoes or
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Chateau potatoes, everything was getting turned, everything was
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getting cleaned. We used to make little red
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potatoes look like mushrooms where we had to scoop them out
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with Parisian scoops, and all of this was just so it would look
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pretty on a plate. There was sure the purpose was
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so that it would cook evenly. There was a lot of waste
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involved back then. Stuff would get thrown into
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stock or vegetable puree, but you would put so much effort
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just to make something look pretty right.
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What they deemed pretty the fluted mushroom or the turned
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vegetable. Whatever the case may be.
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And so much of my early years of cooking was all about attention
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to detail and learning all these very intricate skills.
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Learning how to make the omelette as they say, the French
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style omelette that had no curd and no color on the bottom of
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the omelette and and practicing a certain way, or deboning a
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chicken a certain way. All of these techniques you
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gained skill and proficiency. Now Fast forward a few years.
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I started working under a chef who is very much involved in the
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American Culinary Federation and competitions and everything he
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taught me was all about attention to detail.
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So I had a certain amount of skills.
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But all of a sudden working under him those skills started
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to evolve. They started to change because
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he was more in tune with how clean you work.
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He came from a a competition background.
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It was very competition mindset focused on translating those
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competition skills into the skills that I use daily in the
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kitchen. What he used to drill into my
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head was that the competition makes you better.
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It elevates your game, you push yourself to a new level and it's
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hard to go backwards. So you're constantly plus in
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your skills and improving. And his big thing was attention
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to detail. Everything was attention to
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detail and he was an ACF certified judger is an ACF
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certified judge and he would Proctor a lot of the
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examinations for certified executive chef and so on.
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And so I was as a young chef and I was surrounded and immersed in
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this environment of culinary competitions and certified
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master chefs and certified executive chefs and always
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looking for a small little detail here and a small little
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detail there. Now what did that do for me
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later on in my career is pre social media because now I think
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with social media a lot of the attention to detail is coming
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back. You're able to notice certain
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things. But back then if you didn't work
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in that type of kitchen, a lot of the details were getting lost
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on you. So why should you care about
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attention to detail? One, because the more attention
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to detail you have, the better chef you will be.
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The way you work when no one is watching is almost more
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important than when someone is. When someone's watching and they
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want you to do a certain thing, the chef walks in the room,
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everyone buttons up. Everyone does it the way the
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chef wants it. Soon as the chef walks out, the
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standard changes that happens in a lot of kitchens.
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It shouldn't, but it does. That's the reality.
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But if you could be the person that maintains the integrity and
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the way that they cook when someone is watching and also
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when someone is not watching, that's what makes you better.
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I used to Bruno. Onions or potatoes or whatever
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the case may be, and I would try and do it perfect for myself and
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for the guest. Sometimes I would even make
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things more complicated than they needed to be as long as I
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had time to do it because I knew it would sharpen my skills.
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Little things like practicing canals or piping skills,
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whatever I happened to be interested in at the moment, I
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always wanted to get a little sharper at it.
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Even though we didn't serve fluted mushrooms, I would still
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stand around and flute them when I had time or tornado potatoes
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because I didn't want to lose these skills.
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The interesting phenomenon with chefs is when you've worked at a
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very high level, you notice things that people don't notice.
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I I think about the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, or the guy
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who had to wash rice for like 80 years before he was ever allowed
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to make make fish and the other guy would massage the octopus.
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And it was things that maybe if you were trying it for the first
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time, you might not notice things that get lost on people,
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but I'm sure they notice 1000 small little details that the
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other sushi chef doesn't do correctly.
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When you do something at the highest level, you notice little
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things that get lost on the majority of people.
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And why do we do it? I don't know.
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I think it's a it's a great way to express yourself through your
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technique to the craft. There's something beautiful
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about the precision of cooking. When everything is just
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technical, beautiful and delicious, and all three of
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those things have to work together.
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Technically, sound knife cuts are perfect.
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The sear is perfect. When you're cutting the meat,
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you use perfect techniques, so there's no saw marks, it's just
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one smooth cut. The sear is beautiful.
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You've blotted the meat on a towel so it's not bleeding on
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the plate, you've let it rest properly.
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And when I'm working with cooks and I'm looking for attention to
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detail, what they do. So I put people through a
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cooking test normally when I hire them, and it's pretty
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basic, and I've talked about this previously, I normally give
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them a whole artichoke, a whole fish, a lobster, a chicken.
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And I watch and I watch how they set up their cutting board.
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I watch the placement of their knife.
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I watch. Do they wipe their blade in
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between cuts? Do they sanitize their board in
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between projects? When they're working with the
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fish, do they have it on ice or do they not?
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Do they work fast? Do they scrape the bones for
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tartar? Are their slices perfect when
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they butcher the chicken? Do they go for the oyster or do
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they skip it when they French the bone?
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Is there still meat on it or is it perfectly clean?
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When you clean the lobster, do you trim it up or not?
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Do you pull the feather out of the claw?
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Do you remove the gills before you turn it into sauce?
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All these little things matter and the higher up you go, the
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more of those things that you do.
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I went to dinner with a couple of different chefs, my cell one
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chef who was A1 Michelin star chef and another chef who had
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worked in a three Michelin star restaurant.
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And we went to this great restaurant.
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And it was interesting because the one Michelin star chef was
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able to pick things out and the three Michelin star chef was
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able to pick things out even more so than the one star guy.
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It was the difference of we'll use peas as the example.
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One person blanches their peas and they're beautiful.
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The other person blanches their peas and then shucks them.
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So you have double shucked peas and they're also beautiful.
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And the third person blanches them, shucks them, and then
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sorts them by size. So not only are they beautiful,
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but they're all the same size. And that's the attention to
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detail. The further down the line you go
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in cooking, does it make a difference?
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It depends on what you need it for, right?
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You don't want to triple Shuck peas for something that it's not
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going to matter. Maybe you work in a busy
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restaurant and that's something that you shouldn't do, but even
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if you work in a busy restaurant, attention to detail
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is still there. Let's say you're cooking a
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hamburger. Do you season it correctly?
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Do you turn it correctly? Don't press the burger, don't
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press out the juices. Maybe we're just talking about a
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stake. Like I said, Did you let it rest
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properly? And then how do you set up your
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station? Do you fold your towels?
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Do you change your bane water? You have to ask yourself, are
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you doing things the best that you could do them, or are you
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doing them the best that they can be done?
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And there's nuance in that statement, The best you can do
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it or the best it can be done. If you want to be excellent, if
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you want to be the best, you want to do it the best it can be
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done. You want to look at the
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benchmark of the way it's being done and how can you improve
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upon that, or at least attain that.
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The best you could do it might be a limiting belief because you
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think you can't do it better. But I promise you, you can.
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Because when you're building a team you want people that have
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attention to detail and can follow directions, and not just
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follow directions, but follow them on the smallest details.
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Not following directions on simple things means you're also
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probably not going to follow directions on big important
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things. And when I would go to Cox and
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say, why didn't you do this and they got a million excuses, Oh
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well, this happened or this happened.
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It's like the excuse doesn't affect the outcome.
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If the outcome that you want is perfect food, executed correctly
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every single time, then the details have to be in place for
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your food to get from A-Z. No decisions are arbitrary.
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Everything should affect the final product.
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So I'm going to encourage you to go back and look at your station
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and think how you could get 1% better.
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Is it the way that you cut with your knife?
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Is it the way that you organize your workstation?
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And is it the difference between peeling your tomatoes when
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they're blanched versus learning how to peel them when they're
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not blanched, when you're making your omelette, how to get no
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color on them, and how to do all these things very efficient and
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fast, right? Because the more you work
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perfect, with good technique and good habits, you will also carry
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those good habits with you. When you're fast, that doesn't
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change. I like to say I always work the
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same whether I'm in the shits or I'm not.
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My towel remains folded, My station remains clean.
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It was funny. I did a video a long time ago on
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social media. I showed a station set up.
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Someone asked me if I could do a video on how I set up my
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workstation. So I did it from home.
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I said OK, my board goes here, my knives go here, my utensil
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ban goes there, my towels are folded there.
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I rolled my apron like this when I leave my workstation and
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someone commented, let's see how your station looks when it's
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busy. And I said I've worked at the
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busiest places. I promise you in the biggest
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markets and my station still look like that because it
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doesn't change. It doesn't matter how many
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covers I'm doing, I work the same way all the time.
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And if you work that way you understand it is possible.
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But it's people that have never pushed themselves that don't
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understand that it is possible. It's like they say, the only
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thing that you truly believe is that what you act on, if you
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truly believe it can be done, you will do it.
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Now I will say that this is sometimes a double edged sword.
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I've had people that work for me and if you've ever worked for
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me, you'll know like the whole recent, the whole chef's PSA
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thing. Like I have 1000 standards for
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almost everything and it the list keeps growing, I'll see
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something I'll be like, that's good.
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I'm going to add that to my my work habit or I'm going to make
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that a new standard. And so people that have worked
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with me, it's like tape, short fold the towels, station clean
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knife goes here, cake tester should be used like this.
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And there's so many small details that I teach people that
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work with me and then they go somewhere else and then they're
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like, why you doing all that? That doesn't matter.
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It's busy. We're in the shits, you know?
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Then they put their cell phone on their cutting board and
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they're like, no, don't ever put your cell phone on your cutting
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board. That's where you scroll on
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Instagram and Chef's PSA on the toilet.
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Don't do that. And like Chef's PSA is not here
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and it ain't where you from, that's where you at.
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But I think as much as a place can have an effect on you, you
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can also have an effect on a place.
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But but don't ever do that at the expense of hurting service,
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hurting your team members, hurting the guest or anything
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like that, right? You don't want to have a full
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rail of tickets and say, hold on, let me fold my towels.
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You know you want to make sure you're putting the food out,
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right? So some common sense is
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required. I'm thinking about this no true
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Scotsman fallacy. So the no true Scotsman fallacy
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for chefs would be like all chefs, all good chefs, fold
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their towels and then someone's going to say, well, I know a
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chef that doesn't. And then it goes back to, well,
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like I said, all good chefs fold their towels.
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It's like moving the goal posts every single time.
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And is that true? No.
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It's a it's a way to poke fun at things.
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But you do think that if you want to achieve the highest
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levels, and if you want to get the best out of yourself as a
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chef and out of your team, if you want to achieve greatness,
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which is not easy. And greatness isn't for
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everybody. It's all about the details.
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Success is the sum of 1000 little details done correctly,
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right? So that's what you need to do.
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Start paying attention to the details.
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And I promise you, you will become a better cooking chef for
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it. You could always remove them,
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but I promise you, you will be better for it.
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We're going to keep it short. If you want to support the show,
17:15
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For those of you that read in different languages, make sure
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you leave five stars. See you next week.
17:35
Hit the porno music.