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Hello chefs. 
This is the chef's. 

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PS a podcast. 
I'm your host Andhra Doterra. 

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On today's episode, we're going 
to talk about building your 

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kitchen team. 
Stay tuned. 

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Before we get into today's 
episode, I want to give you a 

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quick update. 
I am doing a dinner on June 

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26th, in Dallas Texas, at Jose 
restaurant with Anastasia 

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Quinones, We're going to have 
chefs, Philip Speer, and Rick 

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Lopez both, Austin chefs. 
Both fantastic Cooks Phillips 

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from Commodore. 
One of the best restaurants in 

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Austin. 
And Rick is from La condesa, 

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James Beard, nominated 
restaurants. 

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A ton of accolades between the 
two of them, of course, Chef, AQ

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anastacio. 
She's James Beard nominated as 

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well. 
She's, you know, I'd say right 

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now, she's probably the queen of
Dallas, maybe the princess, 

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depending on who you ask. 
And then my Myself obviously the

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best retired Chef in the 
business. 

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Well I don't say that. 
That's what everyone says about 

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me. 
Anyway, I'll be doing that 

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dinner on June 26th. 
If you're in Dallas and you want

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to try some good food, it's 
going to be focused around, 

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Mexican Cuisine, you want to 
make sure that you're there. 

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I might do a little meet and 
greet meet the chefs talk to us.

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Shoot the shit. 
If you all want to do that, if 

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you're in Dallas. 
And you want to do a chef's PS. 

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A-- meet the chef meat and 
greet. 

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Let me know. 
I love having these 

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conversations with shop, so I 
get a lot of DMS all day. 

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And by the way, if you haven't 
been involved in the cigar 

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Sunday q&as that, I do, I want 
to make sure that you do that. 

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I look forward to those. 
I look forward to smoking my 

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cigar. 
I look forward to getting the 

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questions last week. 
They were really good, but for 

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those of you that aren't aware, 
maybe you don't follow me on 

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Instagram if you do, and you 
want to do a Q&A with me on 

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Sundays. 
Go to the chef's, PS a page on 

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Instagram on Sundays. 
I'll do a Q&A, you can ask your 

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questions. 
I try to get to all the 

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questions that I can. 
Some of them I'm not going to 

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respond to because they're not 
questions. 

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They're just statement. 
So I'm not going to respond to a

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statement, but if you have 
genuine questions about the 

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industry about me about chefs, 
PSA things that are troubling, 

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you feel free to ask. 
I'm there for that. 

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Other updates. 
The bad sooo good. 

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Chef book is out. 
Make sure you go get it. 

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I've received a lot of really 
good feedback from other chefs 

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that enjoyed it. 
Actually my chef, my mentor sent

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me a note this morning and said 
how much he enjoyed it. 

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It reminded him of the 
conversations that we had one. 

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When I was a dummy, I'm still a 
dummy sometimes. 

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Anyway, it was nice too. 
It was nice to get the comment 

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from him. 
The dedication. 

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At the beginning of the book is 
dedicated to 22 of my chefs, 

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Kirk Bachman Chef that runs the 
escoffier schools and Patrick 

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Mitchell. 
He's a culinary competing world 

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champion across the globe, part 
of the world. 

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MasterChef Society been on Team 
USA. 

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A couple of times been to the 
culinary Olympics. 

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Anyway, those are my chefs that 
I admire, and I wanted to make 

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sure that I dedicated the book 
to them. 

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Shout out to those guys. 
Also a few episodes back. 

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I did a two-part series on 
opening a restaurant, so part 

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one was the critical path and 
part 2, was what to expect after

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your open and strategies. 
I had mentioned to during that 

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episode that I might turn that 
whole episode into a critical 

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path that I could give away. 
So the critical path is done. 

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So I'm announcing it right now. 
I'll put it out, sometime next 

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week. 
It took me a minute to create 

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the Critical path to go back and
listen to the episodes and then 

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add more and transcribe put 
links. 

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Make it look pretty but I'll 
have that up. 

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I'm not going to sell it for 
free. 

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For those people that are 
interested in opening up a 

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restaurant. 
Don't hold me accountable to it 

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because obviously the 
information is only as good as 

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the person using it, so I'll 
have opening a restaurant 

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critical path available next 
week. 

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For those of you that are 
interested in, you want to learn

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how to open up a restaurant that
will be available for free. 

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I'll put on my website. 
Speaking of my website, I'm 

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trying to update my website. 
I'm in the process of redoing my

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website and it's taking a little
bit longer than I thought you 

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know I'm not I'm not a website 
designer but I'm not going to 

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pay someone to do it because if 
I do it I'll learn how to design

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websites. 
I designed it the first time I 

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figured I could do it again but 
better only problem is is my 

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skills haven't gotten better and
In designing websites. 

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So it's taking a little bit of 
time, but there will be a 

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revised chefs PSA website coming
soon. 

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It's going to look much cleaner.
That's what I've been up to. 

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One more thing before we get 
into today's episode, I get 

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asked a lot of questions so I've
been asked to get into AI a 

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little bit more and how I use it
and how it could benefit a lot 

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of chefs. 
And I've also been asked 

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specifically if I could explain 
my morning routine. 

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Now I probably could do a whole 
podcast on my morning routine 

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but I don't think that it's 
completely in line with chefs 

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PSA because it's more unique to 
me and not everything that I do 

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has anything to do with being a 
chef. 

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And so I'm going to do to spin 
off episodes specifically on my 

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morning routine and also 
expanding upon how I use AI, but

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I will have those as bonus 
episodes and I will put those on

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my YouTube channel exclusively. 
So, by the way, I'm on YouTube. 

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So you might be watching this on
Spotify or you may be watching 

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this on YouTube, but if you are 
watching on YouTube, make sure 

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you thumbs up, subscribe, 
whatever the fuck they tell you 

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to do on YouTube. 
So that Thing that make sure you

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do that and if you're not and 
you're listen on Spotify, go 

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subscribe to my YouTube page. 
I don't think you can leave five

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stars on YouTube. 
You should leave five stars on 

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the podcast but leave the thumbs
up on YouTube. 

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Anyway, we digress So, building 
a team in the kitchen. 

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Probably one of the most 
important things that you're 

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going to do, as a chef is going 
to be building your team. 

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And when you're building a team,
you know, depending on what type

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of kitchen, you're running, 
you're probably going to get all

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ranges of skill sets. 
So people that are well versed, 

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may be ready to take your job as
the chef and people that are 

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entry level may be right out of 
culinary school or it is their 

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first job in the kitchen. 
There's nothing wrong with that,

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but having a diverse kitchen is 
probably one of the best things 

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that you could do. 
As a chef, you want to make sure

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that you're getting people from 
different backgrounds and 

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different restaurants and 
different. 

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Different cooking Styles, 
especially if you're running a 

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larger kitchen, the last job 
that I had where I had to hire a

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ton of people I wanted to hire 
peoples. 

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That had a very high-end 
background. 

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So it's looking for people that 
have like a Michelin star 

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restaurant pedigree, or were 
coming from restaurants that 

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were on the world's 50 best and 
things like that. 

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And so, as I was finding people,
I noticed that they were all 

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coming from different 
backgrounds, that they were all 

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superstars, in the 
organizations, in which they 

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were working. now, sometimes 
this could be a problem because 

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when you bring a lot of A lot of
a player's, a lot of people want

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to be Superman, they want to be 
Batman, they want to be the 

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superhero star of the show. 
And so, Me trying to get all 

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these. 
Highly skilled chefs to come 

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together and work with each 
other as equals, and Piers was 

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something that you had to have a
little bit of finesse. 

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To manage all of them, you know,
I felt like I felt like I was 

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Riza from the Wu-Tang Clan 
having all these very highly, 

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talented individuals, all trying
to work together towards a 

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common goal and one of the 
things that I would say to them 

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is look, when we join this team,
it's one voice, One mission, we 

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all have different backgrounds, 
we're all going to create one 

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culture, and it doesn't matter 
that you did it this way at this

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restaurant, or that way at this 
other restaurant. 

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When we all come together, it 
has to be the way that we're 

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doing it here. 
So we all have to agree on it. 

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And we need to make the best 
decisions for the operation. 

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Because a lot of times when 
you're bringing in different 

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individuals from different 
backgrounds, they're very 

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strong, and very passionate. 
Say, this is how we did it. 

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This place this, how we did at 
the other place, this is the 

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best way to do things. 
And so what I would do is I 

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would hear them out and it's 
okay. 

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I like the idea of this here and
I like the idea of this here but

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this is how we're going to do it
here and once we establish that 

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as the standard it would become 
non-negotiable. 

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But back to the analogy of 
trying to create a team of 

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superheroes. 
What I would say to them is I 

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don't need Batman on the team. 
I don't need Superman. 

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I need the Justice League. 
I need all of you to come 

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together. 
You know, Wu-Tang example form, 

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like Voltron And that's really 
what I needed is. 

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I needed everyone from different
perspectives to be looking at 

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the same problem and coming up 
with unique solutions to solve 

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it and they were able to because
they all had different 

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backgrounds and when you work 
with people that have different 

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backgrounds from different 
restaurants in different 

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cultures, And if you're open to 
the idea of hearing them out and

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say, that's a good idea, but 
maybe it doesn't work here, but 

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maybe a part of it does. 
Now, I have a chef's PSA. 

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That sometimes sometimes I get a
lot of shit for a lot of people 

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understand it, but when you 
don't understand it, there's 

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some nuance and what I'm trying 
to say and that is no one cares,

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how you did it at your last job,
that's mostly true, but it's not

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always true. 
And let me explain what I mean 

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by that. 
When it's your first day on the 

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job, there's a there's this 
insecure feeling that you have 

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that you gotta you gotta prove 
your worth. 

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And as I say often in the 
kitchen, the only currency that 

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really matters is your ability 
to cook. 

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That's the currency that you 
bring and so when you come from 

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another restaurant, you're 
bringing that currency with you 

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and you immediately want to show
your value. 

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And say this is how we did it at
the last job. 

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The reason I advise against it 
is because no one wants to hear 

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that shit on your first day. 
It's like why don't you learn 

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how we do it here before you 
talk about the old job? 

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It's like talking About your ex 
in front of the new boyfriend or

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girlfriend, like no one wants to
hear that shit. 

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Right? 
I don't want to hear that shit. 

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I don't think a lot of other 
chefs want to hear that shit. 

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I want you to learn the way that
we do it here now. 

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It doesn't mean that I might not
ask you, how did you do it there

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and I'll start picking people's 
brains. 

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No. 
That's more of the insecure 

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egocentric, Chef coming in and 
flexing about how they did it 

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the other place and everyone 
needs to learn from them. 

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And I'm not saying it's always 
wrong, but I'm saying in my 

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experience, the majority of the 
time, not all the time but in 

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the majority of the time, those 
people are not doing it for the 

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right reasons, they're not doing
it because they actually care 

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about improving the operation. 
They're doing it more as a flex.

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Now, what I'm talking about when
you're building your team, you 

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might need to pick people's 
brains. 

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You might need to say. 
How did you do it at that? 

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Other place, what did you do at 
that restaurant? 

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What was unique? 
What are some of those things 

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that you could impart here to 
help us level up and become 

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better? 
That's different because one way

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is seen, as a negative, is that 
you're being disruptive and 

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you're being insecure, And the 
other way is seen as you're 

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being collaborative and when 
you're building a team, you want

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people that you could 
collaborate with you all, don't 

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need a thing to same. 
There's an expression. 

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If two people on the same team 
think alike than one of them is 

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useless, I don't want a team of 
Yes Men. 

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I actually prefer people that 
disagree with me in a respectful

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way. 
Now there's, there's a way that 

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you could disagree with someone 
that it's still respectful, but 

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when I was the chef, I used to 
share an office with my 

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executive Sous chefs. 
And I did that because sometimes

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I just sit back in the chair 
and, you know, as the ideas were

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rolling around, it's not. 
What do you think of this? 

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What do you think of that? 
And I wanted to play off them 

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every possible scenario because 
I wanted to know what I might be

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missing. 
I want to know what I might not 

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be thinking about, in a certain 
case, maybe it had to do with 

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food, maybe had to do with the 
problem that we are facing. 

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And I would just throw out these
things. 

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And if they just agreed with 
everything that I said that, I 

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would just sometimes be living 
in an echo chamber, and I 

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wouldn't be getting anywhere. 
So when you're building your 

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team, you want to make sure that
you have people that you could 

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bounce ideas off. 
That you could disagree with 

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respectfully, that have a 
different perspective than you 

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do. 
Because being in an echo, 

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chamber can be dangerous. 
You want someone on your team 

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that will tell you, when you're 
going to make a mistake, as the 

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expression goes, don't ever let 
a good boss, make a bad 

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decision. 
I needed people around me that 

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were sometimes telling me, hey, 
I know you think this is a good 

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idea but let me tell you why, or
let me tell you what the team is

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saying behind your back because 
they don't want to tell you. 

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I needed those people around me.
Those people are worth their 

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weight in gold. 
I know, I was never upset about 

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that and I think if you're a 
chef, you need those people 

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around you because they have 
your best interest in mind. 

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Now, there's a certain level of 
discernment that you need as an 

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individual to say. 
You know what? 

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They might they might not see 
what I'm trying to do, because I

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understand that perspective 
because I used to think that 

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way, but I've evolved my thought
process. 

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But you should hear them out and
they shouldn't feel 

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uncomfortable coming to you. 
Now when you're building a team 

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of cooks and you're pulling from
a lot of restaurants, I caution 

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you to pull everything from the 
same area because you'll just 

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end up replicating that 
restaurant that you're pulling 

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from. 
So, for example, let's say 

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there's a restaurant that might 
be your competition and they 

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close and then all their cooks 
are defecting and they're coming

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to work for you. 
Well, if they all come work for 

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you, you might just end up 
replicating that other 

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restaurant that close because 
that is the style and not only 

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that be also bring the culture. 
You bring those habits with you,

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good and bad. 
So keep that in mind. 

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I'm not against bringing on two 
or three people from One 

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Restaurant, but when you bring 
multiples, that's not always the

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best thing. 
Because you're like, I said, 

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you're bringing on those bad 
habits, or bring it on that 

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culture, but sometimes you could
be bringing on some of that 

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dissension. 
So if there is a problem and you

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need to get rid of one person 
from that, from that click, you 

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might be losing all three or 
four if they all came together. 

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So that's always a little bit of
a slippery slope when people 

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bring When people come in 
groups, I know I've dealt with 

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that situation before where I 
lose one. 

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And as soon as you lose one, two
and three are also gone. 

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And I would prepare for that in 
my mind, like I would sit down 

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in the office and I would talk 
to my one of my Sous chefs. 

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Are my executive sous chef. 
I say, hey, we're going to lose 

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this person. 
And when we lose this person, 

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we're also going to lose this 
person and this person and this 

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person. 
So are we really prepared for 

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that? 
Have we really thought this 

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through? 
And so that's that's the danger 

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of bringing people in groups. 
So it's important that you 

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notice that and that you're 
aware of that potential Pitfall.

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So I would caution you to bring 
everyone that's coming in a 

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group and it's not always a bad 
thing. 

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Sometimes it's a good thing, but
if you could separate them, it's

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probably even better for you. 
You don't want, you don't want 

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to be forming Clicks in silos in
your kitchen because when you 

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form Clicks in silos, that that 
really never ends. 

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Well, that means that one group 
is excluded another group and 

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then there's dissension and then
there's favoritism. 

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Mm. 
And when you start, when you 

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start seeing that, it's 
important that you recognize it 

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as the chef and you find out how
to break up the group or you 

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pull one person out and you move
them to a different area of the 

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kitchen different shift. 
If you have multiple kitchens, 

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you put them in another kitchen.
Whatever the case may be, when 

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you recognize there's trouble 
brewing with clicks, that's when

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you got to break them up. 
Now, the last thing I'll say is 

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I think it's important that you 
mix it up with a variety of 

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people men, women different 
ethnicities, different 

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backgrounds, because you're 
going to start to pick up on 

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little skills that you might. 
Be completely unaware of a great

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place that you see that is like 
if you have a restaurant you 

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have family meal and then people
cook maybe food from their 

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Hometown and then all of a 
sudden he's like wow that's a 

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00:15:46,100 --> 00:15:48,900
good idea. 
Why do we never think of that in

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my last job we had a lot of 
international students that were

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on J-1 visas. 
And every now and again, they 

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would cook for family meal and I
would see techniques and dishes 

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that I've never seen before. 
I was like, hmm, I could take 

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that idea. 
And I could use it over here and

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I would get inspired. 
Sometimes they just show me 

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something. 
I'd like I'd never seen that 

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00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:09,100
before. 
How did you do that? 

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I taste it. 
They explained to me. 

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This is the story behind at this
tradition. 

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00:16:13,300 --> 00:16:17,600
You'll learn a lot about food by
trying other people's cuisines 

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in their backgrounds and their 
ethnicities. 

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So basically in a nutshell, 
you're designing a kitchen team.

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You want to make sure that you 
have a variety of skill sets. 

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The more experienced cooks are 
helping the in experienced 

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Cooks, get to that level, right?
Because the more experienced 

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00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,800
Cooks, most likely are on the 
trajectory of their career path.

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Going on to become Sous, chefs 
are executive chefs or whatever 

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00:16:37,900 --> 00:16:39,400
the case may be. 
And then you have entry-level 

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cooks that you're basically 
developing and mentoring to 

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become the next future star. 
So the, the highly competent 

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00:16:47,900 --> 00:16:53,200
cooks are bringing up the newly.
The newly hatched Cooks, so that

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everyone is on the same page. 
So you create a succession plan 

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00:16:57,700 --> 00:17:00,200
So remember this, you want the 
Justice League? 

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00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,300
You don't want individual 
superheroes, you want multiple 

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backgrounds. 
Careful pulling from all the 

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same restaurant have different 
levels of skills. 

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Have different backgrounds, mix 
it up, share meals, you'll learn

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00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:17,800
a lot about people when you 
share meals And make sure you 

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have people on your team that 
are confident with you to tell 

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00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:24,700
you what you need to know when 
you're doing wrong. 

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And that don't always agree with
everything that you say because 

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that's where you're going to get
fresh and different 

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00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:34,100
perspectives. 
Anyway, That's how I build my 

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00:17:34,100 --> 00:17:36,600
kitchen team. 
Maybe that's not how you build 

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00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,200
your kitchen team. 
I should also mention one more 

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thing, you know, I touched on 
this but I kind of left it 

356
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,600
hanging out there. 
As I said that I went to, after 

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00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:46,900
a certain level of cooks, I do 
think that's important, but I'm 

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00:17:46,908 --> 00:17:48,500
not saying that you exclude 
people. 

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00:17:48,500 --> 00:17:50,800
If they don't necessarily have 
that skill, but I'll give you an

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example. 
If you're opening up an Italian 

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00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,900
restaurant, you're going to go 
after cooks that have that sort 

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00:17:55,900 --> 00:17:58,900
of background, it doesn't mean 
that you're only going to hire 

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Cooks. 
That have those requisite 

364
00:18:01,300 --> 00:18:05,200
skills, you might hire people 
that have similar skills that 

365
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:10,400
would fit but you want some 
frame of reference of that type 

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of Cuisine. 
So it doesn't mean that they're 

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all coming from the same 
restaurant, you might be pulling

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00:18:15,100 --> 00:18:17,000
from multiple Italian 
restaurants and then you might 

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00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,300
mix it in with someone. 
That's coming from a French 

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00:18:20,300 --> 00:18:23,000
restaurant background because 
they will be able to introduce 

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00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,000
things also that are different 
and unique to the team. 

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00:18:26,500 --> 00:18:28,500
They just might have a different
perspective on how things are 

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00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:31,800
done a different Paradigm Shift,
can sometimes be a good thing in

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00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:34,100
a kitchen. 
Anyway. 

375
00:18:35,300 --> 00:18:38,600
That's it for now. 
If you want to support the show,

376
00:18:38,900 --> 00:18:42,200
make sure you leave five stars 
nothing less than five stars. 

377
00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:46,000
Anything less than 5 Stars, put 
that shit on someone else's 

378
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,200
podcast, not on this one. 
If you're watching thumbs up, if

379
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:53,100
you want to support. 
Also there's a support, the show

380
00:18:53,100 --> 00:18:56,000
link on Spotify where you could 
donate to the show. 

381
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,800
I appreciate that. 
Go get the book bad, sooo good, 

382
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,600
chef kitchen, Art of War. 
Culinary leadership fundamentals

383
00:19:02,500 --> 00:19:07,000
and we will see you next week. 
Look out for those two short. 

384
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,000
YouTube episodes also coming 
soon. 

385
00:19:09,900 --> 00:19:11,800
Tell your friends, hit the porno
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