1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,320 Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast. 2 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:05,320 I'm your host Andre Natara. On today's episode, we're going 3 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:09,120 to talk about kitchen rust, AKA ring rust. 4 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:23,240 Stay tuned. Before we get started, let me 5 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:24,400 tell you how you get support the show. 6 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,360 If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the Like and 7 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:29,760 subscribe button. That helps out a lot if you're 8 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,400 listening on Spotify, of course. Always leave five stars. 9 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,320 There's a support the show button where you could donate. 10 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,680 Donations are appreciated. And of course, you could always 11 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,760 go to chefspsa.com. I recognize it's not something 12 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,720 for nothing. So the best way to support is to 13 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:45,520 allow me to give to you. Go get the books. 14 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:47,000 Culinary leadership fundamentals. 15 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,400 That's for new sous chefs, new executive chefs. 16 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,440 It's going to go over the basics of what it's like to run a 17 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:54,800 kitchen. Bad Sous Good Chef is the book 18 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:56,920 that I wrote. It's a it's a fictional 19 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:01,340 narrative conversation between a sous chef and an executive chef, 20 00:01:01,820 --> 00:01:05,540 going back and forth on all his fears and anxieties and a lot of 21 00:01:05,540 --> 00:01:07,580 the questions that we all have when we're new in leadership 22 00:01:07,580 --> 00:01:10,740 positions. Kitchen Art of War This is, it's 23 00:01:10,740 --> 00:01:14,100 a translation of Sun Zoo's Art of War and how it applies to the 24 00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:16,060 culinary world. It's a direct translation. 25 00:01:16,060 --> 00:01:20,060 So if you like that style of Eastern philosophy writing, then 26 00:01:20,060 --> 00:01:21,740 I think you'd like Kitchen Art of War. 27 00:01:22,190 --> 00:01:24,310 But if you don't like reading that style, it's probably not 28 00:01:24,310 --> 00:01:26,110 the book for you. It is I I like to say it's 29 00:01:26,110 --> 00:01:28,270 advanced reading and it's advanced thinking. 30 00:01:28,510 --> 00:01:30,870 Line Cook Survival Manual for line cooks. 31 00:01:30,910 --> 00:01:32,510 Every cook in your kitchen should have what it should be 32 00:01:32,510 --> 00:01:35,950 like hanging on the clipboard. It should be the culinary manual 33 00:01:35,950 --> 00:01:39,350 when the manual doesn't exist. And then companion to that is 34 00:01:39,350 --> 00:01:40,870 how not to be the biggest city in the kitchen. 35 00:01:40,870 --> 00:01:43,430 They're all short breeds. And then I have some free 36 00:01:43,430 --> 00:01:48,310 ebooks, Food Cost mastery, 100 basic recipes, critical path to 37 00:01:48,310 --> 00:01:51,270 opening up a restaurant, and a free culinary dictionary. 38 00:01:51,270 --> 00:01:53,540 Hey, sometimes you're new to the industry and you don't know 39 00:01:53,540 --> 00:01:55,100 these words and you're too afraid to ask. 40 00:01:55,420 --> 00:01:59,020 So all these books are designed to give you a shortcut to help 41 00:01:59,020 --> 00:02:00,700 you become more successful faster. 42 00:02:00,940 --> 00:02:03,900 That's what you could do to support today's episode Ring 43 00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:07,580 rust or a KA Kitchen Rust, depending on I guess I could 44 00:02:07,580 --> 00:02:08,340 have said that. Either way. 45 00:02:08,340 --> 00:02:10,979 Anyway, it doesn't matter for those of you that may or may not 46 00:02:10,979 --> 00:02:13,940 know if you've been paying attention, I've recently come 47 00:02:13,940 --> 00:02:16,420 out of my retirement for a brief period. 48 00:02:16,740 --> 00:02:19,990 I'm doing what's called a Chef in Residence through mid 49 00:02:19,990 --> 00:02:21,670 November. This is 2023 when you're 50 00:02:21,670 --> 00:02:25,590 listening and I'm doing it at Tilly's Restaurant at Camp Lucy 51 00:02:26,270 --> 00:02:28,790 in Dripping Springs, TX. For those of you that may not 52 00:02:28,790 --> 00:02:32,070 know, I am retired as a chef. I was a chef for 27 years. 53 00:02:32,350 --> 00:02:35,950 I decided to step away and focus full time on mentoring, 54 00:02:35,950 --> 00:02:38,990 coaching, and the chef's PS:. A creating the memes, writing 55 00:02:38,990 --> 00:02:42,750 the books, doing the podcast. This is my full time job, but as 56 00:02:42,750 --> 00:02:45,150 you know, if you listen to the show, I have a lot of opinions. 57 00:02:45,510 --> 00:02:47,910 I talk a lot of crap. Someone messaged me the other 58 00:02:47,910 --> 00:02:49,910 day and said can you still back it up? 59 00:02:50,310 --> 00:02:52,430 Got in my head a little bit, I'm not going to lie because I was 60 00:02:52,430 --> 00:02:53,870 thinking, can I still back it up? 61 00:02:53,870 --> 00:02:56,590 I'm giving, I'm giving a lot of advice. 62 00:02:56,590 --> 00:02:59,070 I have a lot of opinions on what the right thing to do is. 63 00:02:59,270 --> 00:03:01,150 I'm looking at every situation and saying this is all you got 64 00:03:01,150 --> 00:03:04,790 to do to turn it around. Work hard, discipline, focus, 65 00:03:05,310 --> 00:03:07,550 all the things that I talked about daily on chefs, PSA. 66 00:03:07,710 --> 00:03:11,990 But can I still walk the talk? It was something that I talked 67 00:03:11,990 --> 00:03:15,070 about in an earlier episode where if I had to go back in the 68 00:03:15,070 --> 00:03:16,390 kitchen, how difficult would it be? 69 00:03:16,780 --> 00:03:18,580 I had said it wouldn't be that difficult. 70 00:03:18,580 --> 00:03:20,900 I would do some research. I would look at the latest 71 00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:23,100 trends, plating trends, ingredient trends. 72 00:03:23,340 --> 00:03:26,300 I would update my style a little bit and I would jump right back 73 00:03:26,300 --> 00:03:27,900 in and I didn't think it would be a problem. 74 00:03:27,900 --> 00:03:30,420 I still know how to cook pots, pans, etcetera, still know how 75 00:03:30,420 --> 00:03:32,460 to use a knife. I didn't think it would be that 76 00:03:32,460 --> 00:03:36,340 difficult and here we are. So a friend of mine reached out 77 00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:37,740 to me. She runs dish and Dame, so you 78 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:39,300 should go follow that Instagram account. 79 00:03:40,020 --> 00:03:43,990 And she was looking for an executive chef and asked me if I 80 00:03:43,990 --> 00:03:46,310 would be interested in potentially doing a chef and 81 00:03:46,310 --> 00:03:49,430 residence program there through Midnovember. 82 00:03:49,430 --> 00:03:52,830 So two months go in, write the menu, reconcept it, work with 83 00:03:52,830 --> 00:03:56,950 the team, get to cook with them. And around the same time, I'm 84 00:03:56,950 --> 00:03:58,750 also contemplating if I still got it. 85 00:03:58,750 --> 00:04:01,910 So it's like the timing was impeccable in time, on time all 86 00:04:01,910 --> 00:04:03,750 the time. And I thought this is a great 87 00:04:03,750 --> 00:04:06,510 opportunity for me to get back in and see if I could do it. 88 00:04:06,710 --> 00:04:10,830 So I had a few days to get in, work with the team, write the 89 00:04:10,830 --> 00:04:14,940 recipes, write the menu, train them, and then go live with the 90 00:04:14,940 --> 00:04:17,019 menu. And I could tell you that I feel 91 00:04:17,019 --> 00:04:19,660 pretty good about the menu. Now granted, I'm going to write 92 00:04:19,660 --> 00:04:24,260 a menu based on the team that I have, the location, the 93 00:04:24,260 --> 00:04:25,860 environment, the type of restaurant. 94 00:04:26,060 --> 00:04:29,940 So a lot of the food that I'm doing is going to be what I 95 00:04:29,940 --> 00:04:33,540 think fits that area. It's not an Italian restaurant 96 00:04:33,540 --> 00:04:35,980 or it's not an Asian restaurant. Otherwise I'd write menus 97 00:04:36,740 --> 00:04:38,580 tailored to those specific types of cuisines. 98 00:04:38,580 --> 00:04:40,300 It's not a tasting menu, only restaurant. 99 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:42,540 Otherwise, I would write a menu specific to that. 100 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,160 This is an upscale modern American restaurant in the 101 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,920 country, In the Hill Country. Therefore, I wrote a menu 102 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,800 similar to that. So when writing the menu I had 103 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:54,600 to sit down and I'll tell you what it was. 104 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,120 It was really fun because I haven't written a menu in quite 105 00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,320 some time outside of consulting, but usually it's for those 106 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,440 things. But this is a menu of my 107 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:03,960 personality on a plate. So I often talked about the 108 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:05,600 creativity. And when it comes to writing 109 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,120 menus, what I did is I put on my headphones, started sipping my 110 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:15,240 green tea, started chewing my nicotine gum, listening to 40HZ 111 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,720 brain waves on the headphones, and just got into a creative 112 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,800 zone and started writing. A lot of the menu that I wrote 113 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:23,720 is the greatest hits of my career. 114 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,520 So go back 27 years when I was a chef and a lot of dishes that 115 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:29,800 meant something to me. So those are the dishes that I 116 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:31,480 put on. Every single dish on the menu 117 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,880 has a story behind it as to why it's on the menu or as to why 118 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,250 it's important to me that it went on the menu. 119 00:05:37,410 --> 00:05:39,130 I've modified the plating a little bit. 120 00:05:39,130 --> 00:05:41,490 I've updated it to 2023 standards. 121 00:05:41,690 --> 00:05:43,410 There's a lot of different cooking techniques on there, 122 00:05:43,410 --> 00:05:47,490 everything from using alginates, but no foams and bubbles. 123 00:05:47,530 --> 00:05:49,090 But yes, there are some alginates. 124 00:05:49,730 --> 00:05:51,370 I I lied. There's actually a cheese foam 125 00:05:51,370 --> 00:05:55,130 on some gnocchi, so I did use some melting salts, sodium 126 00:05:55,130 --> 00:05:58,530 citrate and hexametaphosphate. There's a lot of precision 127 00:05:58,530 --> 00:06:01,490 cooking, so a lot of the vegetables that we're doing are 128 00:06:01,490 --> 00:06:04,700 cooked under vacuum, and there's also classic techniques involved 129 00:06:04,700 --> 00:06:08,420 as well, making stock sauces. A lot of the repertoire that I 130 00:06:08,420 --> 00:06:11,180 had as a chef coming up was in those classic kitchen. 131 00:06:11,180 --> 00:06:13,060 So you're going to see a lot of that classic technique. 132 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:17,860 But I get into the kitchen day one, menus written, recipes are 133 00:06:17,860 --> 00:06:19,580 written, and then it's trained the staff. 134 00:06:19,580 --> 00:06:23,380 Now keep in mind five days to launch and it's basically, 135 00:06:23,380 --> 00:06:25,580 imagine relaunching a restaurant, right, opening a 136 00:06:25,580 --> 00:06:27,820 restaurant in five days. New team, at least. 137 00:06:27,820 --> 00:06:29,220 None of them have ever worked with me. 138 00:06:29,460 --> 00:06:32,330 And they're great by the way. Fantastic cooks and chefs, and 139 00:06:32,330 --> 00:06:34,890 if you're in the area and you want to come check it out and 140 00:06:34,890 --> 00:06:38,650 eat, you should do so. But we get in, we discuss the 141 00:06:38,650 --> 00:06:41,050 menu and we start rolling it out now. 142 00:06:41,090 --> 00:06:43,290 I love the idea of rapid prototyping. 143 00:06:43,290 --> 00:06:46,290 This is something that Steve Jobs kind of made famous. 144 00:06:46,290 --> 00:06:49,930 That's why they constantly release Apple updates is there's 145 00:06:49,930 --> 00:06:54,730 update 1, update 1.1, update 1.1, point 2, and so on and so 146 00:06:54,730 --> 00:06:56,690 forth. And that's how I operate in a 147 00:06:56,690 --> 00:06:59,450 kitchen. It's get better every single 148 00:06:59,450 --> 00:07:01,700 day. Constantly push, evolve. 149 00:07:01,700 --> 00:07:05,180 At the end of the night we meet, we discuss what went wrong, what 150 00:07:05,180 --> 00:07:07,100 we could do better, and we constantly tweet. 151 00:07:07,420 --> 00:07:11,380 We don't have a bad service. We have a service that we can 152 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:13,420 learn from. And it's a lot of this stuff 153 00:07:13,420 --> 00:07:15,700 that I'm that I'm teaching the culinary team there while I'm 154 00:07:15,700 --> 00:07:17,700 working with them. I like Sam, getting them Chefs 155 00:07:17,700 --> 00:07:20,300 PSA certified, you know, cut the tape straight, fold the towels. 156 00:07:20,580 --> 00:07:21,820 A lot of that they were already doing. 157 00:07:21,820 --> 00:07:24,620 But all the things that I see that I talk about on Chefs PSA, 158 00:07:24,620 --> 00:07:25,940 I'm trying to teach them as well. 159 00:07:26,180 --> 00:07:28,420 They're very receptive to it and things are moving along really 160 00:07:28,420 --> 00:07:31,290 quick. So I I don't think that from a 161 00:07:31,290 --> 00:07:34,530 culinary standpoint, I'm very far off in the ring rust. 162 00:07:34,850 --> 00:07:38,250 Granted, in five days I feel like I'm right back in the game, 163 00:07:38,450 --> 00:07:39,890 but that's not where I was rusty. 164 00:07:40,090 --> 00:07:43,010 Where I was rusty was physically, and I felt that 165 00:07:43,010 --> 00:07:44,770 right away. I've made chefs PS:. 166 00:07:44,770 --> 00:07:47,890 A post that the last thing to go for a chef is their palate, but 167 00:07:47,890 --> 00:07:51,250 the first thing to go is their back or their knees or their 168 00:07:51,250 --> 00:07:53,130 feet. And all the years of being a 169 00:07:53,130 --> 00:07:55,890 chef, I could tell you that I don't have the best back knees 170 00:07:55,890 --> 00:07:57,770 and feet. People that know me in real life 171 00:07:57,770 --> 00:08:01,330 say I walk funny because I've. I have some back problems. 172 00:08:01,330 --> 00:08:04,050 My back constantly pops, my knees pop, my ankles pop 173 00:08:04,370 --> 00:08:05,930 everything. Everything's a little bit 174 00:08:05,930 --> 00:08:07,970 rickety there. And so doing what I do with 175 00:08:07,970 --> 00:08:11,290 chefs, PSA, a lot of it is working in front of a computer 176 00:08:11,530 --> 00:08:14,530 and even though I exercise every day, I'm not standing on my feet 177 00:08:14,530 --> 00:08:17,450 for 11:50 hours a day. And so that was really the first 178 00:08:17,450 --> 00:08:19,210 thing that I felt when it came to rust. 179 00:08:19,530 --> 00:08:23,370 Day one, I came home, took a shower, everything hurt. 180 00:08:23,370 --> 00:08:25,610 My back was hurting, my feet were throbbing, my knees were 181 00:08:25,610 --> 00:08:27,810 hurting. I put some sports cream on the 182 00:08:27,810 --> 00:08:30,890 bottom of my feet to alleviates the pain. 183 00:08:31,290 --> 00:08:34,370 Day two was more of the same, still a little bit sore, but by 184 00:08:34,370 --> 00:08:37,210 day three I could tell you I knocked off the rust. 185 00:08:37,250 --> 00:08:40,250 I was hustling in the kitchen, I was moving fast and it was like 186 00:08:40,250 --> 00:08:42,330 I was a young chef all over again, right? 187 00:08:42,730 --> 00:08:46,450 12 hours a day in the kitchen in the grind and having fun. 188 00:08:46,610 --> 00:08:49,410 I I I'm not going to lie, I had a lot of fun working with this 189 00:08:49,410 --> 00:08:51,850 team and creating and cooking and being with them. 190 00:08:52,010 --> 00:08:54,290 Some of the cooks would joke around with me and say you still 191 00:08:54,290 --> 00:08:56,810 got it, chef. Ignore the haters, but I could 192 00:08:56,810 --> 00:09:01,110 tell you I definitely felt it when it came to the first couple 193 00:09:01,110 --> 00:09:05,510 of days off was, you know, I slept a lot later, was a little 194 00:09:05,510 --> 00:09:08,590 bit achy, but not as much. I was definitely energized. 195 00:09:08,710 --> 00:09:11,550 You know, in my day-to-day I the hustle was there, a lot more 196 00:09:12,350 --> 00:09:14,750 doing with the Chef's PSA stuff because now I had to do 197 00:09:14,750 --> 00:09:17,430 everything that I do for Chef's PSA in a much shorter period of 198 00:09:17,430 --> 00:09:18,550 time. I have to do that in my off 199 00:09:18,550 --> 00:09:20,950 hours when I'm not working in the kitchen. 200 00:09:21,190 --> 00:09:23,110 So for those of you that have been trying to get a hold of me, 201 00:09:23,110 --> 00:09:25,430 I'm a little slow to respond because I'm working in the 202 00:09:25,430 --> 00:09:27,760 kitchen right now. But as far as rust goes, I think 203 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:30,480 week one was a success. I felt like I was right back in 204 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,120 it, and I had touched a little bit on this on the most recent 205 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:38,040 podcast right before this one. And I talked about how when 206 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,880 you're enjoying what you do, the long days don't seem long and 207 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,400 when you enjoy being around the people that you're with, you 208 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:47,360 don't really feel as burned out. For me, the commute to and from 209 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:50,200 the restaurants, about an hour. So during that hour, I'm making 210 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:51,520 phone calls, I'm talking to people. 211 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,350 I have my phone out. I'm not driving and texting, but 212 00:09:54,350 --> 00:09:56,230 I am making notes. I'm talking to my phone, leaving 213 00:09:56,230 --> 00:09:59,190 notes, things that I could discuss when I get there. 214 00:09:59,430 --> 00:10:02,990 Like I said, everything that I do while I'm there is 1% better 215 00:10:02,990 --> 00:10:05,190 every day. I know the the idea of that is 216 00:10:05,190 --> 00:10:07,510 gradual improvements every single day. 217 00:10:07,790 --> 00:10:09,630 And that's kind of what I'm preaching when I get there is 218 00:10:09,630 --> 00:10:12,470 like, how do we constantly tweak the menu, make the food a little 219 00:10:12,470 --> 00:10:14,510 bit better, make the kitchen a little bit more seamless? 220 00:10:14,510 --> 00:10:16,750 And one of the things I talk about as a leader, when people 221 00:10:16,750 --> 00:10:19,470 work under me as a leader, I try not to overwhelm them with so 222 00:10:19,470 --> 00:10:23,240 much early on. And by the way, this first week 223 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:25,640 was overwhelming for everybody because it was a brand new 224 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:27,520 style. But I try not to overwhelm them 225 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:30,880 more than they need to be overwhelmed because when you 226 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:33,280 overwhelm A-Team, it doesn't stick. 227 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,960 And so a lot of people say we have, you know, standard of the 228 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,560 day and that's okay. But I I like the standard until 229 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:41,320 it's right. I don't want to hit them over 230 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,240 the head with 20 new standards in one day. 231 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:45,800 Let's just go with one. Let's focus on making sure 232 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:48,560 everyone does this correctly. And if everyone does that 233 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:50,880 correctly, great, then we're better. 234 00:10:51,300 --> 00:10:53,660 And the next day, something new. Let's make sure everyone does 235 00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:56,260 that correctly. And if we miss a day and we 236 00:10:56,260 --> 00:10:58,660 slide a little bit, then let's go back to that thing. 237 00:10:58,820 --> 00:11:00,860 Because if it doesn't stick, it's not a standard. 238 00:11:00,900 --> 00:11:03,900 So when you're implementing standards, you need to make sure 239 00:11:03,900 --> 00:11:06,620 that they stick, and that's why I recommend introducing them 240 00:11:06,620 --> 00:11:08,780 slowly. When it sticks, introduce the 241 00:11:08,780 --> 00:11:12,060 next one, because you do have constant drift on the standard 242 00:11:12,060 --> 00:11:14,740 and you constantly have to recalibrate things to make sure 243 00:11:14,740 --> 00:11:16,260 that the kitchen's getting back in order. 244 00:11:16,460 --> 00:11:18,540 I would say my chef brain turned on pretty quick. 245 00:11:19,020 --> 00:11:20,980 Like I said, some of some the first couple of days it was a 246 00:11:20,980 --> 00:11:24,340 little rusty, like 2 left feet, but within three days I felt 247 00:11:24,340 --> 00:11:26,340 like I had never left. It felt good. 248 00:11:26,660 --> 00:11:29,500 It helped me feel good in case I ever want to go back, but 249 00:11:29,700 --> 00:11:31,700 probably probably not at least right now. 250 00:11:31,700 --> 00:11:34,620 You know, I I do enjoy what I'm doing with Chef's PSA. 251 00:11:34,620 --> 00:11:38,460 A lot of the great restaurants have you kind of a rallying cry 252 00:11:38,460 --> 00:11:41,220 or war cry that they that they use for the team. 253 00:11:41,220 --> 00:11:43,860 You know, I could think of like 11 Madison Park, make it nice, 254 00:11:44,020 --> 00:11:46,180 the French laundries. It's all about finesse. 255 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:49,120 Where I used to work, we'd say awake and ready or always ahead. 256 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:51,480 So I wanted to make sure I had something for the new team. 257 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,640 Where I was at, we brainstormed a couple. 258 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:57,360 We ended up with something called quality overall, and that 259 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,160 became the measuring stick to which everything else is going 260 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:02,280 to be measured on quality overall. 261 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:03,960 And then what's the direction of the food? 262 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,320 Simple, Technical, beautiful, Delicious. 263 00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:09,520 So everything that we put on the menu needs to meet those 264 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:11,720 guidelines. And whenever we're unsure of 265 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,920 something, we'll always go back to that side and say quality. 266 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,660 Overall, is it quality? If it's not, then it doesn't get 267 00:12:17,660 --> 00:12:20,180 served, or it doesn't get put on the menu or doesn't get 268 00:12:20,180 --> 00:12:22,260 discussed. Quality is the measuring stick, 269 00:12:22,580 --> 00:12:25,020 which everything is going to be measured on. 270 00:12:25,180 --> 00:12:27,420 But I think it's important that a kitchen has a mantra. 271 00:12:27,420 --> 00:12:29,340 I made a beautiful sign and put it up on the walls. 272 00:12:29,340 --> 00:12:31,860 Really nice. But it's a constant reminder. 273 00:12:31,900 --> 00:12:36,260 And I I told them that if the sign gets dirty, that's a bad 274 00:12:36,260 --> 00:12:39,020 sign. The sign has to stay Immaculate. 275 00:12:39,220 --> 00:12:40,860 It can't come down. It has to stay up there. 276 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:42,620 Now we're going into week two and week 3. 277 00:12:42,620 --> 00:12:44,700 Service is getting better. We're getting more efficient. 278 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:47,360 The new menu doesn't seem as difficult anymore. 279 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:49,760 And so now we're looking at the items that we're doing and we 280 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:51,800 can ratchet it up a little bit, make it a little bit more 281 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,920 difficult, introduce a little bit more finesse, refine the 282 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,600 recipes a little bit and get better and better every single 283 00:12:57,600 --> 00:12:59,400 day. So what's the point of all this? 284 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:02,560 The point of all of this is a lot of you are going to take 285 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,040 over restaurants, you're going to be the new chef or maybe 286 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:06,840 you've been out of the game for a little bit and you want to get 287 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:08,800 back in. First and foremost, I could tell 288 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:11,160 you that it's like riding a bike. 289 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,890 You might be rusty for a few days, but when you jump back in, 290 00:13:14,890 --> 00:13:16,490 all the skills come back pretty quick. 291 00:13:16,770 --> 00:13:18,250 But you should have a strategic plan. 292 00:13:18,250 --> 00:13:21,530 When you go in, make sure you're making a menu that everyone on 293 00:13:21,530 --> 00:13:24,250 the team could execute and that you're constantly looking at the 294 00:13:24,250 --> 00:13:26,490 dishes and discussing with the team how it could be improved. 295 00:13:26,770 --> 00:13:28,410 It's important to get buy in from everybody. 296 00:13:28,570 --> 00:13:32,050 What I find interesting is that my time as a chef and my time 297 00:13:32,130 --> 00:13:34,930 here now, like I've I've changed my perspective a little bit. 298 00:13:35,170 --> 00:13:38,050 I would say I'm not as intense as I used to be. 299 00:13:38,170 --> 00:13:41,130 You know, when I was a younger chef, I was a little bit more 300 00:13:41,210 --> 00:13:44,150 intense. I think with time and wisdom I'm 301 00:13:44,150 --> 00:13:46,790 able to navigate the storm a little bit better, a little bit 302 00:13:46,790 --> 00:13:48,870 more calm. Bad situations are going to get 303 00:13:48,870 --> 00:13:52,390 thrown at you, and I'm able to ride the wave and flow like 304 00:13:52,390 --> 00:13:57,470 water, like Bruce Lee said. And having been on both sides, I 305 00:13:57,470 --> 00:14:00,870 recognize that being calm and focused and not losing your cool 306 00:14:00,870 --> 00:14:03,350 in the kitchen is so much better than the opposite. 307 00:14:03,710 --> 00:14:06,630 Anyway, we digress. I don't even know what I was 308 00:14:06,630 --> 00:14:08,150 talking about. Build your team up. 309 00:14:08,430 --> 00:14:12,270 Create the standard. Don't implement too much and get 310 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:15,440 a little bit better and better every day in every single way 311 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:17,840 possible. Stay calm, wipe your cutting 312 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,960 board, look up, see what's going on, and go forward anyway. 313 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:23,760 If you want to support the show, you know what to do. 314 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:25,520 As we talked about, make sure you leave five stars. 315 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:28,680 Nothing less than five stars. Go to chefspsa.com. 316 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:30,240 You can get all the books there. Merch. 317 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,760 It's going to be hoodie weather. Have a lot of hoodies for sale 318 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,680 at the Chef's PSA store. Thank you all very much. 319 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:38,480 See you next week. Hit the porno music.