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Hello Chefs, This is Chefs PSA 
Podcast. 

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I'm your host, Andre Natera. 
On today's episode, what we're 

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gonna talk about is when things 
are not going right, how do you 

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correct the ship? 
Stay tuned. 

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This episode of Chef's PSA is 
sponsored by J&R Grills and 

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Smokers. 
Many of you have heard of J&R 

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00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,080
smokers and grills that 
typically last for decades. 

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I've had the pleasure of using 
them for over 5 years at one of 

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the top restaurants in Austin. 
They're beautiful. 

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They gave me the control over 
technique and the smoke infused 

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flavors I wanted. 
I'm thrilled to have J&R as a 

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sponsor. 
Their commitment over the past 

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50 years speaks for itself. 
They understand your passion 

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because it fuels them too. 
BBQ or upscale cuisine they 

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always help you deliver. 
They build everything in Texas 

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and ship to all 50 states in 
over 50 countries. 

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J&R, they'll stand with you. 
They've always stood with me. 

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Go to jrmanufacturing.com to 
learn more. 

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Before we get into it, I'll give
you a quick update. 

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I'm still doing my chef in 
residence. 

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Things are going really well. 
The food is clicking, 

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everything's going smoothly. 
I've put up a couple of 

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Instagram reels showing some of 
the food is it's upscale dining.

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So if you all are in the 
Dripping Springs, Austin area, 

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come out and see me. 
I'd love to have you in the 

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restaurant. 
I'll be there for another couple

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of weeks. 
I did miss The kitchen, but I'm 

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slacking a little on Chef's PSA.
I have some books that I'm going

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to get written here pretty soon 
once I get back to Full Time 

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Chef's PSA, and most likely 
that's going to be a sequel to 

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the Bad Sue Good Chef book a lot
of people have been requesting. 

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It might be a prequel. 
I don't know. 

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I'm going to do like a whole 
whole trilogy thing, maybe with 

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it. 
But I I like that series. 

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I like the conversational style 
of that book. 

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So most likely I'll have that 
book done. 

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I mean, if I'm fast, end of 
December by Christmas, but 

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realistically probably in 
January or February. 

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If you want to support the show,
you know what to do. 

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If you're watching on YouTube, 
make sure you hit the like 

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button. 
Hit subscribe. 

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Think there's a little bell for 
notifications. 

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I'm not an expert. 
YouTube, sorry. 

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All those things that I'm 
supposed to say, do that. 

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If you're watching on Spotify or
listing on Spotify, make sure 

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you leave five stars, nothing 
less. 

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This five star podcast. 
If you didn't leave five stars, 

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that would make you a liar and 
and you wouldn't want to be a 

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liar now would you? 
I don't know. 

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People don't like liars. 
You're better than that. 

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Leave five stars. 
What? 

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What's wrong with you? 
I'm in a secret competition, so 

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there's a 5 star podcast out 
there that I'm secretly 

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competing with and I can't wait 
to have more five stars than 

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they do. 
Go to chefspsa.com. 

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You can get all the books, the 
merch. 

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There's free ebooks as well. 
Which you should get those. 

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They're free. 
How to open Up a Restaurant? 

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Critical Path? 
Food Cost Mastery. 

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Culinary Dictionary. 
For people that are new to the 

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industry and maybe you don't 
know your terms, this is a good 

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opportunity for you to learn 
them without being embarrassed. 

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Who to ask? 
Some basic recipes as well. 

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And of course, the print books. 
Culinary Leadership 

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Fundamentals, Bad Sue. 
Good Chef Kitchen, Art of War. 

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Line Cook. 
Survival Manual, How Not to Be 

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the Biggest Idiot in the 
Kitchen. 

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And I forget sometimes. 
I have a journal as well. 

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How are you going to remember? 
Shit, if you don't write it 

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down. 
You need a chef's PSA journal. 

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They come in multiple colors, 
right? 

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Red. 
Black. 

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Blue. 
Go get a journal. 

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Support your favorite podcast. 
Think I, you think I don't 

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appreciate the support. 
I love the support. 

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I appreciate it. 
Thank you very much. 

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But subject at hand, correcting 
course. 

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I've been thinking about this a 
lot. 

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A lot of times, as a chef, you 
go down a certain path and 

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you're married to it. 
You've committed to it, and it's

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very difficult sometimes to 
admit that you were wrong. 

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Maybe you were punching above 
your weight. 

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Maybe you were too ambitious 
with your menu. 

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Maybe your team wasn't ready, or
maybe you weren't willing to put

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in the amount of hard work that 
it takes to make it a success. 

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It could be a variety of 
reasons, but in the restaurant 

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game, it's dangerous. 
And I want to point this out 

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because a lot of people don't 
really understand how dangerous 

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it could be. 
Now, if you're a chef owner, you

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understand the dangers of not 
correcting course. 

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But sometimes you're just the 
hired executive chef, an 

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employee of the owner or the 
corporation. 

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And when you don't have skin in 
the game, I can tell you as 

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someone who has failed before, I
I think I've I've failed just as

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many times as I've succeeded the
times when I failed. 

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I didn't act quick enough. 
The signs were there, the 

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writing was on the wall, but I 
couldn't read the writing. 

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And shortly thereafter, Failure 
is inevitable if you don't 

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correct course. 
Taking action is probably one of

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the most important things you 
could do, because even the best 

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cooks on a sinking ship still 
sink with it. 

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But it also takes the maturity 
of the chef to recognize when 

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ownership is making knee jerk 
reactions or upper management is

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making knee jerk reactions 
because they think the ship is 

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sinking. 
So I mean you're walking the 

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razor's edge because the fact of
the matter is, they might be 

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wrong, but sometimes you might 
be wrong. 

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You might be stubborn in your 
ways and not want to correct the

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food because you feel that 
you're losing a little bit of 

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yourself. 
We all want to cook great food. 

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We're all passionate about the 
food that we create. 

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We're attached to the identity 
and we associate ourselves 

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sometimes with the identity of 
being a chef. 

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I was talking to someone the 
other day and they were talking 

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about how they identify as a 
cook and they identify as a chef

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and that is their personality. 
Now, I had this problem too, and

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for many years all like like if 
you took me to a party, the only

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thing I was going to be able to 
talk about was food. 

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That's it. 
Like if you talk about anything 

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other than food or probably, you
know, fights, you know, the UFC 

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or the hip hop, I wasn't going 
to be able to hold a 

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conversation. 
So it got to the point where 

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people didn't want to bring me 
to parties because all I talked 

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about was the industry. 
That's fine when you're around a

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bunch of chefs and cooks, but it
creates for an awkward situation

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when you're around the plebs, 
the normal, the normal people 

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out there in the world, right? 
Especially if all you could talk

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about is, you know, what you're 
cooking, what you're doing in 

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your kitchen. 
You live it kind of in a bubble 

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when you're working in the 
industry. 

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Social currency in a kitchen 
doesn't necessarily equal 

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anything when you're outside of 
the kitchen. 

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The way we regard culinary skill
doesn't matter to someone that's

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a non chef. 
You could be the you could be 

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the most badass chef ever. 
But if they're not into food, it

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does not matter. 
No one gives a shit. 

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And sometimes we get wrapped up 
in this identity of being chef. 

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And I face this problem and so I
had to re. 

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I had to recreate my identity as
Andre. 

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And so during this time, during 
the kitchen, when I was a chef, 

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I removed any embroidery I had 
on my coat. 

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I just wore a Cook's chef coat. 
A lot of chefs go through this. 

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I would tell people, don't call 
me chef, call me Andre. 

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I just kind of wanted to 
renounce the title because I 

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wanted to be who I was, not 
necessarily the title. 

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A lot of people, it's weird now.
Like, sometimes I'll go places 

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and people will call me Chef's 
PSA. 

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They're like, you're Chef's PSA.
Oh, hey, Chef's PSA. 

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What are you doing? 
It's like, that's not my name, 

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That's the name of the podcast, 
but that's not my name. 

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It's funny to me. 
Anyway, I crack up a little bit.

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But but we digress. 
I had to reinvent myself and 

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disassociate myself from Andre 
the person and Andre the chef. 

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Well, the same thing happens in 
the restaurant. 

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Sometimes you think when someone
doesn't like a dish or someone's

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asking you to change something 
in the kitchen, you take it 

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personal because you think 
they're talking about you 

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personally, not necessarily 
about the food. 

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And sometimes this could be to 
your detriment because it will 

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cause you reluctancy to act and 
take action. 

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And when you're in a situation 
where you need to act going down

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the wrong Rd. because you have 
your ego attached to not wanting

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to change the dish, maybe your 
team needs to to change it 

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because they can't execute it, 
or ownership needs you to change

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it because they need to fill the
restaurant. 

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Whatever the case may be, you as
the leader, it's your 

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responsibility to know when you 
need to step aside, regroup. 

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As I like to say, breathe, wipe 
your cutting board and reset. 

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Because if you don't, disaster 
is inevitable. 

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It's right around the corner. 
Restaurants are going to close. 

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And if you don't have skin in 
the game, sometimes you might 

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not feel that. 
But you have to think about this

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impact. 
If you have a typical restaurant

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that has 50 employees, there may
be two or three people off the 

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salaries of those employees. 
So now when a restaurant closes,

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not only are you affecting 50 
people, but you're affecting the

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people that they support. 
So you may be in all actuality 

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affecting 150 people that are 
living off that restaurant, not 

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including vendors and other 
businesses and small farms. 

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So there is a certain level of 
responsibility that goes with 

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the chef to correct course when 
things are not going correctly. 

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Let's let's go back and touch on
not taking it personal. 

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When people give you feedback on
your food or asking you to 

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change something that may be 
your identity you feel is 

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attached to it. 
If we had 10 cameras set up and 

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they were all taking pictures of
you and every single person that

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took a photo of you, they'd have
a different perspective of what 

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you look like. 
They'd have a different opinion 

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of you. 
It goes to this old saying, all 

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statements are equally correct. 
And what that means is if I say 

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the food is good and you say the
food is bad, both statements are

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true. 
This is a hard thing for people 

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to wrap their head around. 
You may love the food and you 

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may think it's great. 
Someone else may hate the food 

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and think it's terrible. 
Both of you are right because we

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live in a subjective state when 
it comes to food. 

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So you have to understand that 
when someone is giving you 

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feedback, it's not a personal 
attack. 

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It's in their reality and their 
perception. 

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It's not good and that makes it 
true, but in your perception 

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it's not. 
So how do you find the balancing

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act between them? 
Some things is just to look at 

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the numbers where your sales at 
are sales increasing or 

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decreasing, right? 
You want to go in the right 

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direction. 
You could look at online 

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reviews, are they going up? 
Are they going down? 

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Right. 
As long as they're trending in 

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the right way then keep doing 
what you're doing. 

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But if they're trending in the 
wrong way then you have to re 

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evaluate and reassess. 
One of the things that I talk 

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about often with teams is the 
idea of rapid prototyping. 

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I'm sure I've discussed this on 
the podcast before, but it's 

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something that Apple Products 
does. 

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You know, they release Update 1,
Update 1.2, iPhone 15, iPhone 

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14. 
Anyway, they're always 

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innovating with their product 
and they're sending out updates 

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and they're rapidly prototyping 
now for the chef that could 

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filter and distil that 
information as it's coming in. 

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The quicker they could react to 
it, the better off they'll be, 

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right? 
It's like seeing the iceberg and

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you're driving the Titanic. 
How quickly can you pivot the 

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ship? 
If you don't, it's inevitable 

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that you're going to hit it. 
So the idea of rapid prototyping

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is something that I think people
need to incorporate into their 

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kitchens every single day. 
The idea of 1% better 

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consistency is important, 
consistently good is great, 

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consistently bad isn't. 
So if you're getting negative 

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consistent feedback, it's 
important that you adjust and 

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make the necessary corrections. 
One of the most important things

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that I think people do is that 
that, you know, there's usually 

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a pre shift meeting and there's 
a post shift meeting. 

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The pre shift meeting is to kind
of talk about what's coming, 

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make any adjustments. 
You know, we could do this. 

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Let's adjust the time on that. 
Let's adjust the cook on this. 

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Let's adjust your setup here. 
This is how many covers are 

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coming in. 
These are the VI, PS:, or PX, 

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whatever you use and you prepare
for service. 

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The post shift is sometimes 
where the greater learning 

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happens because you're able to 
reflect and look back and say 

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what went well and what didn't. 
Now as that information comes to

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you, the quicker that you adjust
what went wrong and what didn't,

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The sooner you'll get better, 
but sticking your head in the 

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sand is not going to make things
better. 

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And I know a lot of chefs just 
think, you know, we did fine. 

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It was the service team's fault 
or it was someone else's fault. 

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It was never their fault, right?
It's always someone else's fault

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when shit goes wrong. 
But it's always, you know, you 

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always get the credit when 
things go right. 

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But it doesn't really work like 
that. 

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The idea is you have to correct 
it and make sure that you as the

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leader have the open mind. 
When your team sees that you 

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have an open mind and you're 
constantly correcting it, they 

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also start to incorporate the 
open mind idea as well. 

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Now maybe you're not in a 
position where you are the 

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leader. 
Maybe you're just a cook and 

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your leader doesn't do that. 
It's important as a young cook 

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to self analyze what went right 
and what went wrong at the end 

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of every shift. 
I've talked about this before. 

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You should journal. 
Write down all the things that 

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you did well, all the things 
that you could do better. 

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Have little competitions against
yourself. 

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Maybe yesterday it took you 30 
minutes to do something, today 

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do 29 the next day to 28. 
Always be looking to get that 

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little bit of a improvement 1% 
better every day, because 

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sometimes you don't have a boss 
or a chef that's pushing you to 

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get better. 
And let me tell you something, 

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No one is responsible for you to
get better. 

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You're responsible. 
You're in the driver's seat. 

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No one's coming to save you when
times get tough and we're all 

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going to go through difficulty, 
right? 

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Maybe you lose your job, maybe 
you don't get promoted, maybe 

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you're stuck in your position 
and all your friends are going 

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00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:09,960
to give you advice. 
They're all going to tell you 

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what to do. 
They all have the right answers,

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but none of them can do it for 
you, and none of them are going 

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to really be there to help you 
when the times get tough. 

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Best thing that you could do is 
learn to help yourself, learn to

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correct things on your station. 
When you're in a situation that 

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isn't getting better, it's your 
job to make the decision to get 

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you out of there. 
No one's going to pull you out 

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and save you. 
I do these Sunday Q&A S often, 

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and one of the repeat questions 
I get is, you know, I don't like

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my job. 
The chef sucks. 

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How do you handle the chef that 
you're better than or that 

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00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,360
doesn't care? 
And I'm like, why are you still 

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00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:41,160
there? 
What? 

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00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:43,680
Why are you working in a place 
where you don't respect the chef

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00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:46,600
and the chef doesn't care? 
No one is chaining you to the 

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00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:48,160
stove. 
There's no reason why you have 

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00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:50,240
to be there. 
There are a ton of great 

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restaurants in pretty much every
city, and there's nothing 

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00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,200
holding you back for going from 
going and working for these 

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00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:58,720
great chefs that are in these 
great cities. 

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What's holding you back, right? 
Do you do you like complaining 

295
00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,080
about how your chef sucks and 
how your team sucks and no one 

296
00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:05,960
cares? 
Sometimes you just got to change

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00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:07,840
the environment and no one's 
going to change it for you. 

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00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:10,400
Like, if you wait it out, we're 
going to wait for that chef to 

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00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:11,640
quit. 
Maybe it's going to be a year. 

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And then what if you get another
bad chef? 

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00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:18,160
Why not take action now when you
need to correct course, the only

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00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:21,760
thing that you can do is act 
sitting around and waiting for 

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00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,080
magic to happen. 
It it doesn't work that that 

304
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:26,320
way. 
We all we all fall into that 

305
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,160
pattern of like oh maybe some 
magical elves are going to come 

306
00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,000
clean the walk in for me. 
Like no, the walk in. 

307
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,840
You got to clean that shit. 
You spilled it. 

308
00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:35,400
You got to clean it up. 
You made the mess you got to 

309
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,840
clean it up. 
Chef's PSA is all about helping 

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00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:39,880
you stand on your own 2 feet. 
I'm not going to do it for you. 

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00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,480
I'm just going to tell you what 
I think and what works for me. 

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00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:43,920
But ultimately, you got to do it
yourself. 

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00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,280
Now, when you're looking at 
what's going right and what's 

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00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,160
going wrong, when you're looking
at the food, sometimes you got 

315
00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:50,600
to look at it objectively. 
Is the food too complicated? 

316
00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:52,920
Do you need to scale back the 
technique a little bit? 

317
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:55,440
Are there more efficient ways to
do it? 

318
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:59,880
One of the things that I like to
say is the shortest path to get 

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00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:02,520
to the most delicious result is 
the right way. 

320
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:04,800
So is there a quicker way to do 
it? 

321
00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:07,320
And the reason I bring that up 
is because sometimes we fall in 

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00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:09,400
love with the idea of 
difficulty. 

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00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,000
We think, oh we got to broom 
wall this by hand or we got to 

324
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,640
do this but maybe you don't have
the labor to do that so you got 

325
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,240
to find deficiencies in what 
you're doing. 

326
00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,680
Maybe you have to buy the pre 
peeled garlic. 

327
00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:22,800
Not not the garlic, the pre 
peeled garlic. 

328
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000
You got to get that. 
Who who the fuck uses garlic 

329
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:28,400
anyway? 
Home cooks use it bad. 

330
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,480
Not just home cooks, but bad 
home cooks use it. 

331
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:32,920
Don't. 
Don't buy the pre peeled garlic.

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00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,040
And also one other thing, don't 
use that lazy lemon that comes 

333
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,000
in a bottle. 
That stuff's nasty. 

334
00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,880
Lazy lemon is disgusting. 
It tastes weird. 

335
00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:43,200
Doesn't taste like fresh lemon 
or fresh lime. 

336
00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:45,920
I I don't know why people buy 
that and have that in their 

337
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,080
kitchens. 
I mean, how hard is it to 

338
00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:50,200
freaking squeeze a line or a 
lemon? 

339
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:52,800
Strain out the seed? 
Anyway? 

340
00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,480
We digress. 
I I think it bears repeating 

341
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:57,080
because I feel like I'm beating 
a dead horse here. 

342
00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,800
The person that takes action has
every single advantage over the 

343
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,000
person who takes none. 
And when it's time to act, it's 

344
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,680
time to act. 
The the expression that if a 

345
00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:06,560
Tiger's chasing you, you could 
either run calmly or you could 

346
00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:10,000
run frantically, but to not run 
would make you unwise. 

347
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,080
So just because you're facing a 
difficult situation doesn't mean

348
00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,360
you don't got to hit the panic 
button and you got to act 

349
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,000
frantic and you got to run 
around like a chicken with your 

350
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,560
head cut off and the sky is 
falling sometimes. 

351
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,320
Sometimes you could act and 
create action without hitting 

352
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,600
the panic button because the 
team sees that, especially if 

353
00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,760
you're the chef. 
If you're panicking and running 

354
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,320
around and correcting course 
versus if you're calmly running 

355
00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:34,920
around and correcting course, 
your energy affects the people 

356
00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:37,400
that are around you. 
But anyway, take this to heart 

357
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:39,040
what I said. 
Because maybe you're in a 

358
00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,040
position right now where your 
restaurant needs you to take 

359
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,240
action, or you're on a station 
where you need to take action. 

360
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,680
Don't wait. 
The longer you wait, the more 

361
00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:50,560
difficult it'll be. 
The sooner you act, the sooner 

362
00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,480
you'll correct it. 
That thing that you're avoiding 

363
00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:54,800
is probably the thing that you 
need to do the most anyway. 

364
00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,720
You all know what to do. 
Go to chefspsa.com. 

365
00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,640
You can get the the merch. 
You can get the books. 

366
00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,120
It's hoodie weather. 
Add some beautiful hoodies, one 

367
00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:03,160
says. 
Sucker free kitchens. 

368
00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,320
So if you run a sucker free 
kitchen, you need that hoodie. 

369
00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:08,080
Go get the journal. 
Write. 

370
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:09,440
Shut down. 
Make a plan. 

371
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:12,360
Act on it. 
We'll see you next week. 

372
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:13,680
Hit the porno music.