Hello chefs. You're listening to chefs, PSA
podcast. I'm your host Andhra natera.
On today's episode, we're going to talk about the 50 most
important chefs PSAs. Stay tuned.
So let me start you all off with an update.
Things that I'm working on right now.
I think I said this last week, I can't tell you about them, but I
could tell you what I have coming up this week.
We have South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
And I will be speaking on a panel talking about food Trends.
So if you're at South by Southwest, you have to be in
Austin. Look for me, I'll be with San
Pellegrino on a panel on stage doing what I do best which is
talked a lot of shit. Anyway.
Also, April 6th. I will be at live fire in
Austin, Texas. So for those of you that like to
attend the circuit of food festivals, I will be at that
one. I might be doing a podcast
there. I'm not sure if I am doing a
podcast, come by and say hi. Maybe you could sit down with
me. Maybe we can talk some shit.
But anyway, I'll be doing that. April 6th live-fire, Austin,
Texas. Kate Mabry put on by Texas Food
& Wine Alliance. So if you're in the area you
should be at that event because all the cool kids are going to
be there. And if you're cool ideally
that's where you would be on today's episode though I wanted
to talk about the 50 most important chefs PSA is now I get
a lot of questions like what is the most important PSA?
What do I think about this? What I think about that and you
know, I post a PSA daily And they're all important.
But like if I had to, if I had to say, what are the 50 most
important chefs PSAs? I thought about it for a moment
and I put them in a Twitter thread.
So if you want to read this, go to Twitter, find the thread, the
50 most important chefs PSAs and you can see them.
Now, there's a lot of chefs pieces that I put up, but I was
like, what is the essence of chefs PSA and I wanted to write
them in somewhat of an order that kind of takes you from new
into the kitchen to kind of, you know, when you become the head,
chef for You know, the latter part of your career and talk
through those PSAs. So I'm going to go through them.
This is an important episode. This is, this is the most
important episode maybe so far. If you're a new cook because
let's assume you know, how to use a knife and this that and
the other, if you go and you do these 50 things that I'm telling
you about, you will probably be more efficient than like 80% of
the cooks out there. And the reason I say this is
because these are probably in my career as a chef, these are
probably the most important things that I would correct.
On or have to coach them out of. So you will be light years ahead
of everyone if you just follow these PSA.
So anyway let's start chefs. PSA number one no matter how
well you do something another Chef thinks you're wrong.
And I'm not going to expand on all of the PSAs because some of
them are self explanatory but this one I think does need
explanation. If you do something, let's say
you're making stock and you use mirepoix and let's say you don't
put celery and your stock and you say and someone's going to
come up to you and say that's wrong because marijuana is
carrot, celery and onion. And you say I don't like celery
in there. Can say, well, you're wrong or
let's say you make bull and yez with beef.
They're going to say, no, it's supposed to be pork or let's say
you make it with pork, and then you say, no, it's supposed to be
with beef where you're supposed to put.
Milk in it or whatever the case may be, no matter how well you
make something, it could be absolutely perfect by many
people standards. There's going to be another Chef
that walks up and say you're wrong, you're making it wrong.
So the reason I say this is a very important PSA.
I mean I'll post a PSA and I'll say something and then I'll get
in the comments so you're wrong. It should be this way and it's
like I sometimes I just want to say refer to chefs PSA number
one, no matter how well I do something another chefs going to
tell me I'm wrong. You have to get over that.
You have to understand. If you're going to forge your
own path, you're going to go forward.
You have to understand that if you make something absolutely
delicious and perfect, someone's going to tell you a better way
to do it. So that is number one, number
two, fold your towels. And we've talked about this on
other episodes, I won't get too much into it, but it shows that
you're neat, you're clean. You're organized, you have
attention to detail, you get an exponential amount of uses out
of your towel. If you fold them, fold your
towels cut. The tape straight, And green
tape is extra credit, cut the tape using it you know, scissors
and tape cutter knife something. But you want to have short clean
cuts of tape, it shows that everything's in order here's an
extra tip, you should always place the tape in the same
location on a deli container. For me, it's like right
underneath the line or on a Cambro container that's above
the handle, whatever the case may be, that way everything
looks covered in aligned everything is the same spot.
Green tape is extra. Credit, you know.
I know there's a big argument. I did a poll like green tape
versus blue tape. Blue tape one, I was a blue tape
person for a very long time. I've switched to the green tape
team, and the reason that is this true story, this is this is
why I changed my mind as I was working in a kitchen helping out
a friend and they didn't have light bulbs in their coolers and
I couldn't see. But I could read the writing on
the green tape with the black Sharpie much easier than I could
on the blue tape with a black Sharpie.
So Lighting is an issue in your kitchen.
Green tape goes a long way. Someone message me, I won't say
who said but you know Band-Aids that people use in the kitchen
are blue so it doesn't mix it with the food for obvious
reasons. So good point, either way,
again, do what you will for me? Green tape is extra credit.
Moving on number for a filthy side.
Towel is not a plate wipe, right?
The dirty towel that you've been wiping, your dirty hands on.
Don't go and wipe the rim of the plate with that use a plate
wipe. So you know, I use torque towels
or chick towels or some people cut up sponges.
Whatever the case may be soak it in vodka or vinegar or even
water's fine and use that make sure it's clean.
You should be cleaning something with something.
That's clean. Not to wiping dirty plates with
a dirty. Towel number five, a good Chef
never wipes their dirty hands on their clean apron.
Respect to the uniform. Keep your apron clean, I'll keep
it short. Number six, the most expensive
knives in aprons can't cook for you.
I get a lot of pushback on this one when I say the most
expensive aprons and knives can't cook for, you know, it's
like you all the knife. Snobs come out.
Now I'm a knife snob. I like nice knives.
I also like nice aprons. I need an apron sponsor.
So if you're listening you should hit me up because the
aprons that I like are Being made anymore.
Anyway, we digress, I say this because I've never gone into a
restaurant and said, wow, this food is so good.
I bet you they have, I bet you they have cool aprons or I bet
you, they have really expensive knives.
This food is so good. Like no one ever says that.
Also, no one ever says boy, this food really sucks, if they only
had better. Aprons, I bet you the food would
be better. Like, it doesn't matter.
It's a fashion statement, it's not that important.
The most important thing is to make sure that your skills are
good the most expensive knives in Aprons can't cook for you.
And this is really a shout-out to the Halloween ninjas out
there that put on, you know, they dress up in the costume for
Halloween but they aren't real ninjas.
So learn how to use the sword first.
Make sure that you've earned your ninja uniform and then look
the part looking like the cool chef with expensive knives into
and the expensive apron. If you still don't know how to
dice an onion, that's not as important.
It's a bad look number 7 don't sit on workplace counters your
ass is not sanitary. Nothing grosses me out more than
a cook that just jumps on a Kitchen counter and sits there
and starts, drinking the water, whatever, like don't your, as my
chef told me, get your ass off the counter, your ass isn't
sanitary. Counters are four glasses, not
for asses. Number 8, only food and knives.
Go on a cutting board, not dirty ass boxes and not your gross
cell phone that you use while you're on the toilet.
Number nine, do not work over a garbage bin and I've talked
about this before. If you're working over a garbage
bin, let's just say you're peeling a carrot in The Carrot
falls in. You're faced with a moral
dilemma. Do you leave?
Get in there and be wasteful or do you take it out and be gross?
That's it's a lose-lose. So work over a sheet.
Pan people over parchment paper or something.
Similar cafeteria tray. Have a trim kit Etc.
But do not work over a garbage bin, it's a bad habit.
It's the sign of someone that doesn't really care too much
about food cost or sanitation. So no.
Working over garbage bins. Number 10, a gopher hole in the
plastic wrap is lazy. Take the plastic wrap.
Whitley off. And if you don't know what a go
for all some people call them rat holes or whatever, right?
It's when you have plastic wrap over a container, you just pop
it so you can get in there and get the mise en place.
It's like the laziest most hack thing there is like takes a
second to remove the plastic. Don't do that hack move and you
all are not hacks. Number 11, don't hold a hot pan
with a wet towel. Now, if you're if you're like a
new cooking culinary school, or you're thinking about going to
culinary school or you're listening the reason, You just
cause you're going to burn the shit out of your hand really
bad, right? So don't do that.
Number 12, the water and your utensil beIN must be clean.
If you're afraid to drink it change it and then the old days
you know as utensil been like maybe it's a ceramic crock or
something you have your tweezers in your plating spoons and your
palette knife or whatever is in there and their specs of like
herb and sauce and Alfredo and cream or I don't know, it's just
gross and the old days the chef would walk up to you and say,
you know you better fucking drink it and they're like nah.
Want to drink it within change the water, right?
So, and it could be sanitation, solution, whatever, it is that
you're putting in that, maybe it's running water.
Whatever the case may be, it has to be clean.
Those are the utensils that you're using to plate, food that
is ready to be eaten. The utensils need to be clean.
So the water has to be clean. If you're afraid to drink it
then you need to change it. I used to do an exercise where I
would make people. Just imagine that they were
drinking and they would get grossed out.
Say, close your eyes. Now imagine you're drinking this
and I really take them through the process and it's like just
imagining it. Makes you not want to ever do
it. Number 13, it's better to turn a
fish with a fish spatula versus tongs.
Right? Tongs crushed.
Fish fish is delicate. Fish spatula, peltex spatulas
another name for it. That is designed specifically to
turn fish. That is what you should be using
take care of your fish, right? It's a sign of a good cook that
uses the right tool for the job. Number 14, taste is more
important than plating and I could go on and on about this.
And I did a whole podcast about it.
So if you need expand on that, go back and listen.
Listen to the podcast. Taste is more important than
plating. Number 15, taste everything.
In the kitchen, a Chef's Palette is their superpower and over the
course of a career, you know, skills are going to come and go.
You're going to get fast on the line.
You're going to get slow on the line, you're going to learn how
to do things, but your your palate is what's going to be
able to troubleshoot for you to fix food, right?
When something's wrong, you know, you need to adjust the
asset, the salt, the heat, whatever.
Also you're going to be able to create dishes because you're
going to know that this with a little bit of this is going to
taste. Good.
So a Chef's Palette is their super-powered, the old
expression think Al on, ducasse said, this is the chef doesn't
need to be the best cook in the kitchen, but they need to be the
best taster in the kitchen. So keep that in mind.
Develop your palate, taste everything all the time to taste
the same thing over and over again.
So you notice any Nuance in it taste things when they're ripe,
tastings, you know, when they're not ripe, tastings when their
perfect season tastings when they're bad taste things, when
they're good. So you understand how to fix
them knowledge of techniques is superior Or to that of recipes
and I'll explain that just really briefly if let's say, you
know how to make a pumpkin risotto, let's say someone
teaches you how to make pumpkin risotto with pancetta and you're
like great. I have this recipe for pumpkin
risotto with pancetta but you don't know how to make proper
risotto. Like you have a recipe to make
an interesting risotto but you don't know how to make risotto.
If you know how to master risotto.
You can Master ten thousand variations of risotto.
This is a principle by Miyamoto Musashi's book of five rings.
Master 12 Master. That's ten thousand variations.
So knowing the technique could lead to Endless Possibilities
but just knowing the recipe gives you one.
So Master, the technique techniques are superior to that
of recipes. Number 17, the quickest way to
make your food better is to use better ingredients.
This is pretty self-explanatory. If we have the same ingredients
but but I'm sorry if we have the same recipe but I have better
ingredients than you my food. Most likely will taste better.
There is some technique involved, but if we're both
pretty high-level competent, cooks and chefs, the one with
the better ingredients is the better Chef, it's going to have
the better end product by things in season.
By the better olive oil used better salt, get better vinegar,
number 18. If you want to understand food,
better plant a garden and the reason I say that is you'll
understand micro Seasons. You'll understand that maybe
this was something for me like in Texas.
I was growing watermelon and I understood that watermelon is
only available in September, that's it.
Like everyone says, it's a summer fruit.
It's like, nope. It's one month.
I understood that figs had two seasons at least on my tree, it
would come into and in the spring and then I'd have more
figs in the fall. And in the summer, I'd have
nothing. You'll start to understand how
things taste at different periods of ripeness.
So, like I said, planting a garden.
You'll have a better appreciation for how things
grow, and you'll understand like when it's at this stage, it's
perfect and you'll see all the different things that the plant
produces like the flowers and the buds, Etc.
The leaves It'll make you a better Chef number 19, the
shortest path to get the most delicious result is the best
path. And what I mean by that is
sometimes we get caught up in doing things.
A very difficult way but it doesn't necessarily yield a
better product. And in today's kitchen, when you
have to be more efficient, you have fewer staff, there's a lot
of moving Parts. You may need to get to the end
result much quicker. If there's a faster way to get
there without compromising the quality, if there's two roads
that take you to the same path to the Same, end result.
And the end result mind, you should always be delicious.
Then take the shorter path, see where there's steps that you
could eliminate to get to the same result.
So that's more of a mindset thing to find the most direct
path. Is the quickest way to get there
number 20. The most difficult technique to
master is the one you are afraid to try.
I think that is self-explanatory.
When you're afraid to try something, you're never going to
learn it. Number 21 knowing how to use
NaCl is More important than knowing how to use alginates,
which, by the way, I should give credit.
I think I got this from Grant Achatz.
I might have read it in his book, but I honestly, I don't
remember, but I think I got it from him.
And for those of you that don't know, NaCl is salt.
And that means that everyone comes in.
They want to make spheres, and they want to make gels, and they
want to make gums or whatever the case may be.
And yet they haven't mastered the basics of seasoning using
salt or whatever the case may be pepper, Etc.
And if you understand the fundamentals of seasoning, this
is going to be greatly more important than you, making
something with an alginate, you shouldn't even be thinking about
alginates until you've mastered how to use salt.
This is very important, and it seems to be a step that everyone
wants to gloss over, so they could get to the next step.
But it's like, fundamentally the thing that's wrong with most
food, like when you go out to eat at a restaurant, like, yeah,
it's A missing something, usually what it's missing a
salt, I would say and I'm making this up, I would say about 50
percent of the problems with food, when you get it and you
don't like it, usually is a seasoning problem.
It's not enough salt or too much or too much spice, or whatever.
The case may be. You want to focus on
understanding how to season and that ties in to taste everything
number 22, if your salt and pepper is mixed on your station,
it shouldn't be. And that it's funny when I get
pushed back on this because people like well, you know, in
my kitchen, you know, we do this, then do that.
If in your kitchen you have a pre-measured recipe that makes
everything perfect then. Okay, you should Mark it that
because no one else seems to have figured it out.
Now I get it. Maybe you're just making one
thing and you have it measured. Okay, that's different.
Maybe you've created a spice mix.
But for the most part, if you're working on a line and you have
many different things that you're cooking, salt and pepper,
don't go on everything in the same ratio, not only that but
they also don't go on. In the same time sometimes salt
goes on first Sometimes pepper goes on at the end.
And a lot of people use pepper at the end of the dish, because
it changes the flavor when you cook it, a lot of people put
salt on at the beginning because sometimes it extracts moisture
or they are they layer the seasoning as they're cooking.
So it's important to understand when to season something was alt
it's important to understand when to seize it something with
pepper but having a mixed as I mean for me it's a hack move.
I don't like it. I don't allow it and it's not
something that I condone and kitchens unless it's a very
specific Type of kitchen. Like, like I said, barbecue is
one that comes to mind and I'm sure there's other outliers out
there but I would say 99% of you are not working in those
kitchens so it probably doesn't apply to you.
You're probably working on the line and you just think it's
faster. If I mix my salt and pepper
you're saving like a microsecond, don't mix them.
The food will taste better if you don't do that.
So don't make sure salt and pepper number 23, you shouldn't
have iodized salt and table, grind pepper on your station.
That usually goes like insults. Acres and pepper shakers on the
diner, like that. That's not what you need on your
station. Use kosher salt diamond, crystal
Morton's. Have not sure what team you're
on. It's like blue tape versus green
tape, but not iodized salt. You shouldn't be really using
iodized salt in a professional kitchen, and then grind your
pepper, right? A lot of people grind their
pepper in a pepper mill. I use a Peugeot Pepper Mill.
I've said that before. I'm a bit of a pepper snob, but
it tastes different and you could control the coarseness of
the grind, if you're using a pepper mill or some people just,
you know, use a spice grinder, whatever and grind pepper, For
the whole kitchen. I prefer a pepper mill, whatever
you use, don't use table. Grind, black pepper.
Number 24, half-sheet pans on a speed rack is a dangerous game
to play. We've all played that game that
you don't see the half sheet pan and you pull something too fast
or you put a sheep pen and in your knock one over and it's a
mess like there's never a good outcome with putting a half
sheet pan. It was like well just be more
careful, don't be so fast, it's like come on, we've all done
this we're not all perfect, so no, half-sheet, pans bad habit.
You spill food all over the floor, you get ants.
No one likes ants in their kitchen.
Number 25, learn to saute with your non-dominant hand.
This is something a lot of people like, yeah, everyone
knows that. Yeah, not everyone knows that.
Sometimes you might work in a kitchen for several years and
never have worked to sauté station.
You might have been on the grill or you might have been in
garbage a or I don't know station that doesn't saute
things, then all of a sudden you're thrown on the line.
You don't know to saute with your non-dominant hand, right?
Tools going, one hand pan goes in the other hand, learn To
learn to use your non-dominant hand.
If you're really good and you become ambidextrous, hey, more
power to you, but a good habit. If you're new, in the kitchen,
learn to saute with your non-dominant hand.
It's it's a game changer especially early on in your
career. Number 26, spend your time,
working in kitchens you aspire to run.
A lot of people will work their entire career in a restaurant
that they have no desire to be in because they have aspirations
of running, a different type of kitchen, any amount of time that
you spend in kitchens that you Desire to run is taking you away
from learning and working in kitchens that you do desire to
run. So if your goal, for example is
to have a barbecue restaurant and you love barbecue, but yet
you work in something. Other than a barbecue
restaurant, you're not learning about barbecue and you're not
learning about the barbecue business.
So if your desire is to run a specific type of Restaurant,
start getting experience in those specific types of
restaurants number 27. No one cares.
How you did it at your last job and and that's kind of true.
It's kind of not like, sometimes your people are gonna ask.
Oh, cool. How'd you do it there?
Which show me what you did. But what I mean by that is,
there's a difference between people asking you and seeking
like, how'd you do it versus, you know, when you're that new
person in the kitchen, you're like, oh, at my last job.
Let me tell you this, that and the other.
It's like when you're dating someone, and all they do is talk
about their exes like fuck. No one wants to hear that.
No one cares. Just do it the way I want you to
do it. So it's just like a kitchen
courtesy thing. Don't talk about the last job.
Unless people are asking you about the last job, you know, be
a little bit humble with that. It rubs people, the wrong way in
general. However, not everyone,
everyone's different, but I would say, like, like nine out
of ten, chefs are going to get rubbed the wrong way.
So why risk it number 28? No one cares where you went to
school, if you still can't cook. And that's kind of in line with
the last one. Don't brag about going to this
school or that school and you know, all your degrees
especially early on, you know, what, you graduate culinary
school, a lot of people think that It carries a lot of clout
in the kitchen, but it really doesn't what carries clout and
wait in the kitchen is, how well can you cook that matters more
than your degree? So, don't forget that number 29,
the three rules of catering are count, everything, count,
everything and count everything, basically, that and that's not
just for catering, that's for everything.
But how many asparagus are on the sheet pan?
How many carats do you have? How many steaks do you have?
How many chicken breast you have?
How many plates are in the hot box?
Count? Everything?
How many tongs did you bring? All of that matters in catering
because you only Did not count it once.
And it's, it's a fucking disaster.
So, count, everything number 30. Some of the most important
tools, the kitchen are a pen and a notepad write everything down,
take notes, and save those notebooks.
You'll be thankful later on in your career because you'll, you
know, ten years and you're going to go back and be like, oh man,
I used to love that recipe. I forgot about it or I can't
believe I was making that it's good for memories and it tells
the story of your progression throughout your career.
So, write everything down but not We that also when the chef
has given you instructions, write it down because nothing's
worse than a chef giving you instructions, then you go back
to them after a couple of minutes, I'm sorry, Chef, I
forgot what was next on the list like it's an annoying question.
Don't do that, write it down. Know what step, one and step
two, step three and so on number 31, when your chefs are
correcting, you resist the urge to make excuses and listen
again. They probably just want you to
fix it and do it the right way. They don't care why it's wrong.
Usually and when you start making excuses, usually what it
does is its you're digging a hole and you're just making them
more and more upset, so don't make excuses.
They just, they're not mad at you.
They just want you to fix it, just listen and fix it.
Don't make excuses number. 32 successfully avoiding difficult
work in. The kitchen is not something to
be proud of you're holding yourself back and you're not
doing yourself any service, but not taking on the difficult
work. The difficult work is really
where the learning happens. Don't be afraid of the difficult
work number 33, 8016. Something after the fact is
Amateur hour and it is no other way to say it.
Count what you have. Let people know when you're
running low. And you know, A good rule of
thumb is I a lot of places will 86 would like with two portions
left because inevitably someone's going to order one or
two, more, portions number 34. Kitchen etiquette, only chefs
and Cooks should go behind the line, occasionally.
The porters shouldn't be the service staff.
It shouldn't be, you know, people just wandering around the
line of sacred. A lot of action is happening.
There's knives, there's pots, there's pans, there's movement.
And a lot of times, people don't know kitchen language like, hot
behind night. Etc.
So rule is, if you're not cooking, you shouldn't go behind
the line period number 35, if you don't have time to make it
correctly, now you certainly won't later, right?
Don't take a shortcut, don't cheat.
Because inevitably you're going to get caught or the recipe is
going to be screwed up and you're gonna have to go back and
make it later. So if you're in a rush and
you're trying to make a shortcut because you think you're not
going to get caught, trust me, it never works out in your
benefit, you always get caught and you're gonna have to make it
again. Anyway.
And now you really don't have time because now you're Double
behind make it right the first time number 36, when presenting
your Chef, the amazing dish, you just created.
Make sure they don't have the same cookbook.
This is what I used to do. This shit to write.
I would read Charlie Trotter's cookbook and then take my chef,
the new dish. And he'd like, you got that out
of Charlie Trotter's book. I'm like, oh yeah.
You have that book too. Don't you throughout the course
of my career? I can't tell you how many times
my Sous chefs. I don't always call them out,
because sometimes I like I have the book and I would just play
along with them, but I can't tell you how many Many times, my
my Sous chefs have brought me dishes that they created, you
know, I'm using, you know, quotes that they created a
number. Like I have that book like I
know exactly where you got that recipe from and who you got it
from? I didn't always call them out.
I started to later just because I thought it was funny.
If you're if you're taking a dish out of a book or from
another Chef, you should say I'm inspired by this, you shouldn't
just take it, people know, especially, you know, when your
Chef has that same cookbook on their wall and they're like, are
you sure that's not? So, So, it's dish.
I got the same book and they make it anyway.
Number 37, treat your dish team and stewards like the kings and
queens. They are, it was dishwasher day
the other day and I think this is important though.
The hardest-working people in the kitchen treat them well, and
they will be good to you. So, says, a lot about you.
How you treat your dish team and we should call it a dish
station, not a dish pit. I'm a big fan of using the word
station over pit and And you know pits are like, you know,
gross no one wants to work in a pit but a station is you know
there's the pastry station, there is the pasta station,
there's the sauté station the grill station, it's not the
grill pit, where the pastry pit. So why is it a dish pit?
It's just a pejorative and I a lot of people don't like it so I
don't I personally don't like it.
I think you got to respect the dish team so to station number.
38 the floor is not a trash bin, don't wipe food directly on the
floor you know. Wipe it in your hand, put in the
trash, or in a tray or something like that.
But it's, it's lazy. When people just get a towel and
just wipe all the shit directly on the floor.
It's just, it's just a bad habit.
Don't do that. It's gross number 39, take the
tape off the container before sending it to the dish station,
again, dish station. And that's just like it takes a
second, remove, the tapes of the dishwashers, don't have to treat
them like the kings and queens. They are going back to that
number 40 during an interview. Don't tell the chef you don't
like to follow recipes because you like to Freestyle because
they're going to tell you freestyle your ass out the door.
Then they don't want you here right there.
No Chef is out there. Trying to hire an entry-level
cook because you have good recipes and you're going to
change their recipes. Like that is like nails on a
chalkboard to most Chef so I want to hire you so you could
execute these dishes during say yeah I got my own way.
I got my own recipes. I want to make like it's the
dumbest thing ever don't ever say that an interview to
guaranteed way to not get the job.
I actually don't know why I made that a PSA.
Probably probably someone told me that during an interview and
I got annoyed and I wrote it, but honestly, I don't remember.
Anyway, don't ever say that number 41, it's better to take
your time and become a good sous-chef later versus
impatiently becoming a bad one today.
And I've seen this throughout my career over and over again,
someone thinks that they're ready for sous chef and I or
another Mentor, they may have is telling them, they still have
some room to grow. They end up leaving and taking
on a sous, chef job and then they come back and they Say I
wasn't ready. It's a difficult thing because
you never really know when you're ready and someone asked
me the other day and they said well how do you know when you're
ready? I said well you should ask
someone that you trust a chef that you trust and say what am I
lacking and have them. Be honest with you because you
might have blind spots, sometimes they'll tell you
you're ready, you need to go now.
And other times, there can be like you need to work on this
this and this and if you trust the person, you should listen to
them and work on the things that they tell you, because nothing
is worse than thinking that you are ready, jumping into it.
And then failing in the position and then sometimes that hurts
people's ego to the point where then they get stuck and now
they're afraid to go into the position after they all are
ready. So ask people that you trust get
good advice on that number 42. Be the type of Chef that you
would like to work for. That's self-explanatory.
I don't need to get into that one number 43, find a good, Chef
mentor, and listen to them this ties into what were just saying
about, you know, asking a mentor when you're ready.
For the next thing, but a good Chef mentors, like having a
cheat code and they will help you get to where they are.
And ultimately, when you're selecting a mentor, you want to
find a mentor that it's in a position that you want.
Because a lot of times people just look at the person that's
like one year more experienced than them or two years and
they're like, oh there are two years ahead of me.
I should have them be my mentor and it's like maybe you can have
them teach you things, but that might not be a good Mentor
because the position that you're aspiring to be in, you should
ask someone that's in that position.
His only, they could tell you how to get there because they've
done it to everyone else. It's just Theory until they've
done it. It's like I think I know how to
do it but until you proved that you could do it, you don't know.
It's like armchair quarterbacking.
So when you're selecting a mentor, I think it's important
to find someone in the position or have you accomplished, what
you want to accomplish number 44, the secret to getting
promoted in the kitchen is being so good.
They can't ignore you and a lot of people push back on me when I
posted this one. Like, you know, I am gonna Good.
But I keep getting passed up for this that and the other, and I
don't want to argue with people online and I don't know,
everyone's situation and, of course, it does happen that
sometimes people get passed over for favoritism or because they
like someone else better etc, etc.
But the fact of the matter is, if you're so good that they
cannot ignore, you, you're probably going to get the job.
I don't know any chef in my circle of friends or chefs that
I've promoted that usually don't promote the best candidate for
the job. The best candidate for the job,
normally gets the job and it not always is not 100%.
Normally the best person for the job gets the job especially if
they're outperforming everyone else because you want to
successful team. So if you're not getting
promoted again go back to your mentor and find out.
Why? Because maybe you have a blind
spot, a mentor is invaluable and it's going to, it's going to
keep coming up. Number 45, don't compare
yourself to bad cooks, in the kitchen, be better than
yesterday. Again, all that matters is that
gradual Improvement. A lot of times, there's bad
cooks that work side-by-side with you and you say, Well, I'm
Clearly better than them. So, why did why can they do it?
And I can't, it's like, well, don't compare yourself to them,
be better than them, right? Be the exception to the rule,
cook it at such a high level that you inspire everyone else
versus cooking to the level of the, the lowest the lowest
performer that doesn't make any sense, right?
If you want to be great, you got to cook above and improve
yourself. Don't compare yourself to bad
cooks. Be the best, and compare
yourself to the best number 46, it's Be the worst cook in the
best kitchen than the best cook in the worst kitchen and there's
some argument back and forth here like, well don't you want
to lift up your team? We're talking about being a cook
early on in your career. When you're early on in your
career, you want to be around people that are going to push
you to become better later in your career.
That might be a different story, but early in your career, you're
shaping your future. And the more time that you spend
around people that are better than you.
And I'm not just talking about cooking, these could be better
chefs. Better managers, people that are
better at making barbecue. Three Michelin star chefs, like
find the best people that you could work around.
Because when you work around great people, you have no other
choice other than to become great around them because
usually greatness doesn't tolerate mediocrity.
So, surround yourself with people that are great and
they'll pull that out of you because everyone has greatness
within them either. It's already being demonstrated
or it's laying dormant waiting to be awakened.
So, surround yourself with people that are better than use,
they could pull that out and When you are the great one,
right? You're the great chef, you're
the great cook. Then, that's your time that you
pull. Everyone else up because you are
able to pay back what was given to you.
Number 47, happy Cooks make better food, and this was
something that I learned early on, in my career used to be the
slogan. In one of the kitchens that I
worked in, when I was like 20, the chef used to say, happy
Cooks make better food. The reason he would say that you
would get everyone drunk, so, we'd be happy.
But anyway, don't do that. Just, you know, it's true though
when you have a good team and everyone's happy and everyone's
yelling the culture is good. The food tastes better, right?
When everyone's - and you work at these, these kitchens where
it's their dysfunctional, like the and everyone's fighting,
like the food doesn't taste good in those kitchens.
So happy Cooks make better food number 48, to the best chefs.
Don't know everything. The worst ones do and it's true.
Like that know what? All that, you can't teach them
anything and it's like they're never learned, you're doing
yourself. You're doing yourself a
disservice by thinking, you know, everything it's better to
be humble and go in and Learn from everybody.
That mean you can learn from a home cook.
You learn from a dishwasher. You learn from freaking
Tick-Tock, it doesn't matter. But when you know everything,
it's like that old analogy, like your cups fold to can't put new
water in there because it just keeps overflowing, right?
You have to empty your cup number 49.
A good relationship between the chef and the sous chef is
critical to run a successful kitchen.
Nothing is worse when the chef and the sous chef don't get
along and they're not aligned, and if the sous chef is more
talented. And I've seen this happen before
when the sous chef is more talented than the chef Than
People aligned with the sous chef.
And if the sous chef doesn't like the chef, then you have
like a mutiny on your your hands before you know it that
relationship is critical. So if you're a chef listening to
this, that relationship with your sous chef is one of the
most important relationships you should cultivate.
And if you're the sous-chef, the same thing, your relationship
with your Chef is one of the most important relationships,
you should have. If you want your kitchen to be
successful, both of you need to be aligned.
It's also very difficult for the people that work under you, when
Chef comes, we do it this way. And when the sous chef comes, we
do it that way. So line them up chef.
Number 50. Last one Chef's if you know your
worth, don't be afraid to ask for it.
If you do what you deserve to be paid, don't accept less.
Because the second that you accept less is the second that
you're saying, that's what I'm worth.
So if you're worth more get more easier said than done.
But I promise you, if you're a big-name chef, you should be
getting big bucks, but also, with that being said, if you're
don't go out and also overestimate your abilities,
again, that's where your Mentor comes in.
Have someone guide you, so, you know, exactly what you should be
making. I want everyone to make more
money. I think I did a podcast a couple
of days Or a couple of episodes back, that was about that, how
to get more money. So I think it's important that
everyone starts make it more money.
I want to help you all make more money, but you got to arm
yourself with knowledge. And so that's the 50 most
important chefs PSAs. You can listen to this episode
over and over and over again and get smarter.
Or you could go on Twitter and follow the thread.
I wrote them all out there, we need more shops on Twitter
Twitter's kind of boring without all the chef's on there, but it
is a lot of fun because there's a lot of other things going on
there, but Chef Twitter's not that great.
I'm going to say this just to close the show.
There is In chefs PSA. That is the most important
chefs, PSA, and that is do what the way your Chef wants it?
Even if it's not the way I tell you to do it, your Chef is
right. Not me.
I know. I talk a lot of shit.
Do it this way, do it that way? This is the right way to do
things, but it doesn't matter because I'm not the one that
you're working for. You have a chef at the end of
the day, do it the way they tell you to do it period.
If you want to support the show, make sure you leave five stars
on Spotify or Apple or Google or whatever it is that you're
listening to this nothing less than five stars.
I appreciate that. Also.
You want to get some of the books that I have culinary
leadership fundamentals? How not to be the biggest idiot
in the kitchen line. Cook survival manual and the
kitchen Art of War. You can get all of those on
Amazon. And also just go to Chef space.
A.com, you have everything we have merch on their free recipe
ebooks video courses, and so on. Thank you all very much.
We'll see you next week and hit the porno music.