Hello Chefs, This is Chefs PSA Podcast.
I'm your host, Andre Natera. On today's episode we're going
to talk about red flags for chefs and for cooks.
Stay tuned. This episode of Chefs PSA is
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Anyway, today's subject is red flags and I put up on my
Instagram stories today to encourage people to share their
red flag stories, and there's some good ones in there.
But I'm going to talk to you about red flags today and some
things that I look for that I consider red flags when I'm
hiring cooks and chefs. Everything from the job
interview to their first impressions at work when they
start and things that I'm looking for when I'm out looking
for a job as a chef and things that I would encourage people to
look out for when you're interviewing.
Because remember, an interview is always a two way St. you're
interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you.
So keep that in mind. Here's a a little story.
When I was a young chef, I took a chef job and during the
interview process I could tell that the person interviewing me
who was going to be my boss, did not like me and cut the
interview short. Basically talked about
themselves the entire time, answering questions that I
didn't ask, didn't want to know anything about me, and then
called me up a week later and told me I didn't get the job but
I really wanted this job. This was like the dream job for
me. Well, this person's boss was
good friends with a good friend of mine, so they got a phone
call saying you need to hire Andre.
And so after they rejected me, they called me back a couple of
weeks later to find out if I was still interested in the job.
Now that should have been a red flag because I would have been
working for someone that was forced to hire me, but I was
young and stupid and really wanted the job, so I took the
job anyway. Now this person, my boss, also
wanted to dictate how I ran the kitchen, how I cooked, what I
put on the menu, and was very upfront about that early on in
the interview process. But in my opinion I was like,
well, once they see my food, they'll quickly change their
mind. Boy, was I wrong.
And I ended up being basically a puppet on some strings.
Running the kitchen the way someone else wanted me to run
it, cooking someone else's food and really having, you know, my
wings clipped, basically as an exact chef.
And there was all sorts of red flags, and I knew them early on,
before I even took the job, but I wanted the job so bad that I
did it anyway. That's a lesson for me.
Sometimes the red flags are staring you right in the face
and you refuse to notice them because you're blinded by, you
know, the shiny new object or whatever the case may be.
But we digress. It's important that you identify
red flags early on, before you're taking a job.
It's important that you identify red flags when you're
interviewing someone. And early on when someone starts
working for you, you will save yourself so many headaches as
the chef taking on a new job or a cook taking on a new job.
If you're going into a kitchen that you don't want to be in and
you notice it early on because trust me, the signs are there.
The signs are there. When you're interviewing
someone, if there can be a problem later on, they're not
always there, but the majority of the time when you really self
analyze it afterwards, you could usually say yeah, the red flags
were there and I just chose not to see them.
When someone starts, red flags are all over.
It's important that you address them early on because it starts
to build up and then it becomes a bigger problem later on.
So let's talk about the hiring process.
Having a consistent resume is important.
So you know, that's that's the first introduction.
Where are the red flags going to be in the resume?
Well, for me the red flag is how long have they been in positions
and what are their patterns? You know, something I talk about
often is that don't be blindsided by people.
Because when you think about it, if you expect them to be
themselves, you'll never be disappointed.
Meaning if they have a history of doing something, don't be
shocked when they do it again because you could see it coming
a mile away. If they have a history of
changing jobs every three months, why would you think that
you're going to be any different and then you're shocked when
they do? If they have a history of doing
something, a good predictor of future performance is past
behavior, Like that's one O 1. So if you want to know what
someone's going to do when they work for you, figure out what
they did in the past good ways. Just ask open-ended questions.
Get them to tell you stories, Probe a little bit, see how they
think, see how they work. Now, of course, there's always
exceptions to the rule. A lot of people had to go
through a lot of jobs during the COVID era, but that should that
should be obvious to you. It's an exception to the rule
because maybe you had to deal with that as well.
But if you look at previously, if everywhere that they work,
they're they're one month, two months, three months.
They have nothing but bad things to say about their former
employer. It's always someone else's
fault. It's never their fault.
They avoid personal responsibility.
Those are all red flags to me, especially speaking badly about
a former employer. If they're going to speak badly
about a former employer to you who they just met, they will
surely speak badly about you. It's not a good sign.
There's a tactful and professional way to just say it
just wasn't a good fit versus all sorts of bad things and
personal things that you could say about them.
And yeah, just just don't remain professional.
A lot of times if someone's jumped around a job four or five
times and everywhere else is toxic and they're great, you
start to wonder if maybe they're the toxic one.
Another red flag is when people say that they were looking to
cut cost and their position got eliminated.
Now that does happen. Restaurants do cut costs and
positions do get eliminated, but if their position has been
eliminated multiple times, read between the lines.
If they're always getting their position eliminated, it's
usually because they've been deemed the person who is not
necessary for the operation to function.
And trust me, these conversations happen behind the
scenes where you're saying whose job is going to get eliminated.
And if that person's job always gets eliminated, why were they
always first choice? You have to ask yourself those
questions, make sure you check the references.
I know, I know, it's common sense, like you got to be a real
dummy to put a reference on there.
That's not going to say something good about you, but
I've had situations where I've called people's references and
say, what do you think about this person?
And there was, there was one situation where someone said
what? They put me down as a reference.
Really. Me.
I can't believe that they would put me down as a reference
considering how they left. It's like, Oh yeah, all the all
the alarm bells were going off in the red flags.
But I was stupid. I ended up hiring that person
and yeah, I should have listened to the reference.
Sometimes I got blinded by really nice resumes and
experience and then I didn't trust my gut or the feedback or
the I didn't notice the red flags.
And then I'd hire people and they they just we're not a good
fit. When I hire chefs, executive
chefs, sous chefs or anything like that, sometimes even cooks,
I normally put them through some sort of cooking trial, you know,
with the cook it might be just something simple like dice and
onion or there's a stash of some sort paid stash, you know, for
clarity. Or I put a chef through a
cooking mystery basket or tell them to cook food like the style
of restaurant. Now, my go to cooking test, the
one that I've been using the most often, and I've talked
about this on another podcast, Mastering the Cooking interview,
is normally an artichoke, a live lobster, a whole fish, a whole
chicken, and then make something impressive.
And the reason I give some of those things is because a lot of
people may have advanced their culinary career without ever
breaking down an artichoke or a lobster.
You know, they buy lobster tails only.
So they haven't started from live, or they've bought chicken
parts and they've never butchered a whole chicken.
Or they've never even cleaned an artichoke because they've always
bought them cleaned. Or in cans or in oil or
something like that. And you'd be surprised how many
people don't show up once they find out that they got to do a
cooking interview. It's always the same excuse,
like, oh, you know, something came up, they took another job.
But just having a cooking interview sometimes eliminates a
lot of the riff raff that would be by advice.
Like if you're hiring people, have them go through some form
of cooking interview, Make it a little bit difficult.
You don't want to make it too easy.
But when they find out that they have a cooking interview and
they don't show up, well, you may have just dodged a bullet.
Then when it comes to the cooking interview, it's all the
other red flags. Like how clean do they work?
Do they work messy? Like that's usually the first
big red flag to me. Do they prep their own museum
Plas or do they have the audacity to steal the museum
Plas of the kitchen that they're working in?
And and then say they made it, Which I have seen that happen
before. I've seen people just grab
random things out of the cooler that they don't know what it is,
and then just put it on their dish.
And then I look at it and like, I'm pretty sure that we made
that only to find out, yeah, you know, afterwards you talk to the
chefs and like, Oh yeah, it was you rated our me's, stole all
our product. It's like, OK, yeah, red flag
showing up late for the interview.
Red flag. Poor hygiene, not looking the
part. When they show up for an
interview, like, dress for the part that you want.
If you're going to work in a very fine establishment, you
want to look professional. If it's a very casual place,
might not be as important. But look the part.
In other words, you don't want to show up in a baseball cap,
T-shirt, and jeans to the five star hotel or the three Michelin
star restaurant, because that might not be the look that
they're going for. They might want something more
professional. However, you wouldn't want to
show up in a business suit or a tuxedo.
You wouldn't wear a tuxedo to the park to play volleyball.
Same. Same thing applies.
Dress appropriate for the occasion.
Situational awareness. Have some common sense, right?
self-awareness goes a very long way.
The other thing is when you're interviewing people is just
their inability to answer basic cooking questions.
You know, they have this culinary school diploma or
degree and then you ask them, you know, what's the five mother
sauces? And it's like, you know, they
fumble around. They don't know them.
How do you make a Roux? What's a basic vinaigrette
recipe? You know, the basics.
I'm not even talking about things that are very complex or
like fringe skill sets. I'm talking about the basics.
When they can't answer basic cooking questions, red flag, a
personal red flag for me and it it's not a huge red flag.
But when they start telling me that they want to get their food
on their menu and they're applying for a cook position and
they have no experience or they're right out of culinary
school. Now I get why they want to do
that. They want to express their
creativity, they want to do good, they want to learn.
But that's not something for me that I look for on an interview.
I want to know that you could do the food that we're doing in the
particular restaurant. And a lot of times it's again,
it comes down to that self-awareness.
You're just out of culinary school and you're going into,
you know, a restaurant on the world's fifty best and you can't
wait to tell the chef how to make their food.
Like come on, make sure your brain isn't so smooth.
Now, when people start a new job, first day on the job, are
they on time? Do they show up awake and ready?
As I'd like to say, proper uniform, knives in hand, maybe a
little bit early, but showing up late on your first day.
Red flag calling to change the schedule.
First day Red Flag Requesting massive amounts of time off
immediately after taking the job.
Red Flag asking for a raise on your first date.
Red Flag talking to other cooks in the kitchen about how much
they make? Red Flag Those are just things
you don't do on the first day. Get to know people.
I did another podcast on fitting into new kitchens and there's a
certain cadence that you're looking for.
If everyone's hustling, you hustle.
If everyone's working clean, you work clean.
Doing the exact opposite is a red flag.
Now I'm not saying that these are red flag deal Breakers and
you can't hire them, but what I am saying is it's a red flag.
Pay attention, correct them, put it in check because if not, it
will be a problem later. Another thing is immediate lack
of respect coming in and not being respectful to the dish
team, to other cooks on the line, to the chef, to the
service team talking back. Especially like on your first
day and your first week. Big red flags.
Don't like seeing that people that come in and want to change
everything to the place how they did it at the last job.
Also a big red flag no one ever wants to hear.
Oh, this how we did it at my last job.
Unless you're asked which you may have a better and more
efficient way to do things. And there's nothing wrong with
that. But there's a time and place.
It's important that you learn the new system.
I've gone into kitchens many times where I think I know
better but I keep my mouth shut. And then later on time will show
me that I didn't know better because I didn't understand.
I wanted to speak before I understood.
Always seek to understand first before you start making judgment
calls and assessments. Another red flag for me is
someone that immediately starts changing recipes, plating things
differently, wanting to do things their own way.
Red flag, not asking questions, talking during service when it's
obviously busy and it's focus time.
Red flag calling off too much within the first couple of weeks
of starting a new job. Red flag.
Now again, things happen. I understand that.
But if someone calls off week 1, and then they call off week two,
and then they call off week 3, if you're a betting man, are you
going to bet that they're going to call off on week 4?
Absolutely you are. And if and if not, like, what's
wrong with you? As I said earlier, expect people
to be themselves, notice their patterns and expect them to
repeat them. You know how hard it is for
someone to break a pattern? Like, think about that.
Like, how hard is it for you personally to break your
patterns? Like, let's just say your
pattern is, you know, you should work out and you don't.
Like how hard is it for you to break that pattern or something
that you always eat or something that you always say, Like, you
know how hard it is for you to break that pattern?
Well, people have patterns, and if they're always doing
something, expect them to repeat that.
It's obvious it's right in front of you.
Red flag. Another red flag to me early on
is them complaining too much about how hard the work is or
saying that they're not going to do something because they don't
get paid to do it early on. Like, I'm not going to clean.
That's not my job. Those are all red flags.
Early on in a kitchen I always run it as we should be willing
to do every job in the kitchen. We have a win together, fail
together mentality. So that means sometimes you
might be washing dishes or putting away boxes in the
cooler. Actually, sorry, rephrase that
taking boxes out of the cooler, because no boxes should go in
the cooler. Chef's PSA, right?
That's where gross things are stored in boxes on floors and
warehouses. Anyway, we digress.
Now, if you're a chef or a cook, when you're applying somewhere,
what are some red flags that you look out for?
One, if a restaurant owner has a reputation of closing
restaurants and not paying their staff, huge red flag.
Especially not paying their staff.
Some people just have that reputation.
They open a restaurant, they close a restaurant, they don't
pay people and they they burn their bridge around town.
They say they've changed someone that's trying to lowball you and
pay you more later. To me, as a red flag, that
doesn't mean I'm not going to take the job but it's usually a
sign that they're not going to pay you more later.
Like the whole you know, we'll we'll re evaluate it based on
performance. If it's not in writing, don't
expect it to get done. Everything needs to be in
writing. Everything needs to be upfront.
Your time to negotiate is before you take the job, not after you
take it. So promises of this and that and
the other later to me, a red flag if they could pay you more
later, they could pay you more. Now looking at the turnover of
the kitchen that you're working and they have a high turnover
rate. Why?
Why have they gone through 5 chefs in the last five months?
Ask yourself that. We're all 5 chefs.
Really bad. Remember we were talking about
patterns. If they've gone through 5 chefs
in five months and it's month 6:00 and you're and you're the
6th chef, Guess what? Figure it out.
It's a it's an IQ test. Dirty kitchens are a red flag
for me. Unsanitary conditions, broken
equipment. If you go in the kitchen and
everywhere you looked, the kitchen equipment is broken.
And this doesn't work. And that doesn't work.
That means they have no intention of fixing it.
Light bulbs off here and there, Red flags for me.
I've been in many kitchens where people have wanted me to go and
be the chef, but the kitchens are dirty.
I just. I just don't go.
I I refuse to work in dirty kitchens.
As a chef. I just can't do it.
It's gross to me. I don't like it.
And if there's no ability to turn it around and make it a
clean kitchen, because sometimes the kitchen's dirty, but you
could fix it. But if it's one of those
situations where it's dirty and there is no fixing it, I'm out.
I will not take a job like that. An owner or a former chef who's
going to be your boss and is going to dictate their menu.
I shared that story early on where I worked.
For someone like that, Not a good situation.
You need to be upfront. What are your job expectations
before you go in? Do you have carte blanche on the
menu? Are they dictating the menu
items? All of this is important before
you take the job. And by the way, I should go back
and say that the person that I worked for that originally
didn't want to hire me. The story at the beginning of
this podcast actually, we became really good friends and
eventually I turned that situation around.
But the first few months were hell.
Another thing that you're going to look for is looking at the
staff. Do they seem unhappy?
Do the other cooks on the line seem disengaged?
Is it chaotic? All of these are the red flags
that you need to look for before you take a chef job or a cook
job in a kitchen. And lastly, I'll say red flags
aren't always a deal breaker, but a combination of red flags
could be the deal breaker that you're looking for when hiring,
when taking a job, or when someone starts early on in your
kitchen. The key points for me is look at
the history, look at past behavior.
It's a good indicator of what to expect in the future.
And if there's a red flag and you need to turn down a job, do
so with grace. Just say you know what, it's
just not going to be the right fit for me.
Or explain to the person they're just not going to be a right fit
for the kitchen that you're in now.
Stop that bad behavior early on before it gets out of control.
Trust your instincts. Do your due diligence.
Talk to people. Use your network of chefs and
cooks out there. Talked to friends that have been
in those positions before you that you trust or that may know
some of those people. I'm going to share some of the
Instagram comments that were pretty good.
There was a lot of them, but I'm going to share some of my
favorite ones. Thank you all who commented on
the Instagram poll with your red flags.
I appreciate it very much. There's some good ones in there,
like don't be smelly. Get your ego in check, show up
on time, quit trying to change recipes.
Don't say how you did it at the last job.
Making sure the tape is cut straight.
Pet peeve of mine. The tape says everything about
you as it was phrased. Make sure you drop some comments
on what some red flags are for you.
Let me know what you think of the show.
Make sure you hit the like and subscribe button.
If your list on Spotify, make sure you leave five stars.
Go get yourself some merch. Go get yourself a Christmas
present. Get one book for every single
person in your kitchen. Thank you all very much.
We'll see you next week. Hit the porno music.