‘So, You Wanna be a Chef?'
" If you strive like crazy for perfection - an all out assault on total perfection - at the very least you will hit a high level of excellence, and then you might be able to sleep at night." Charlie Trotter
Recently, I donned my pressed cotton chef coat for the first time in what felt like years. One of my mentors, a sustainability savant and culinary powerhouse, invited me up to the Ecology Center at South Coast Farms in San Juan Capistrano for a Farm to Table dinner. The event was a celebration of our local ‘Fishermen and Divers of the Newport Dory Fleet,’ at a Community Table Dinner with Fishmonger Paddy Glennon of Superior Seafoods, and Chef Jason McLeod of Ironsides Fish and Oyster. With a rock-star volunteer crew of chefs and cooks, we organized and executed a multi-coursed extravaganza, while experts in industry spoke to the crowd about sustainability and their work in the field.
Putting that coat on for me has the effect of what a soldier putting on his body-armor before a battle must feel like, what Superman putting on his cape does for him. It exudes an air of confidence and competence and authority. Seven months ago I was in Florida for a few months for family obligations and was giving a family friend help with her catering business. My second day there, I walked in on the chef unannounced. He was drunk. In my bathing suit and flip-flops, I fired him on the spot, put on an apron and prepped, cooked and ‘banged-out’ two parties with a competent dish-washer who took direction well and some patient understanding guests. My point being, “although that pretty coat looks nice and I wear mine with pride, a coat does not a chef make.”
These days I see posts everywhere on Facebook from my industry friends in need of both line-cooks and dishwashers. First of all, anyone not in industry must understand that these two positions are the fuel for the giant engine that turns the props on any ship. There is a noticeable lack of competent, dependable raw talent in this town and in most major markets across our country right now. Culinary schools have gone defunct, have been sold or are wrapped up in enormous class-action-lawsuits because they did not deliver on their promise. Talented cooks cannot afford the price of a culinary degree so they can graduate only to find a $10 an hour job with no benefits. We live in a border-town (San Diego), but even the influx of talented Latino cooks at bargain rates has dried up. Our industry has priced itself out of any kind of life, let alone the notion of “quality of life.”
Owners gripe about an increase in the minimum hourly wage in the same breath that they bitch about not being able to find any help. Congress gripes about Obama-Care when human beings that have worked in a kitchen for 25 years now have legitimate health insurance for the first time in their lives.
It is in the absence of these ‘seasoned’ cooks that mentorship, the most fundamental element of being a good chef, comes into play. It is the premise of why I write this article and the point I want to convey.
When I did my apprenticeship, I had two chef mentors. My executive chef was a woman named Heather Allen and her Sous at the time was Nicci Tripp. In both cases I have maintained long-term relationships, worked for both of them again, and even proudly become the Godfather to Nicci’s son. Both of my mentors taught me the fundamentals including: butchery, stock and sauce-work, Sauté, grill, product handling, menu design and food costing. Not to mention the even more important skill of how to clean and maintain a kitchen, chop flour, and find a bucket of steam at the back of the walk-in on a slammed Saturday night in pure chaos.
In this big city that is a small town I see examples of these relationships at the very top of the food chain. On any given night you can walk in to eat at The Wrench and Rodent/Whet Noodle hoping to catch a glimpse or taste of Davin Waite’s food. Chef Davin is the absolute pinnacle of the food chain in San Diego and on so many personal occasions I have seen James Montejano or Keith Lord sitting at his Sushi Counter. Both of these men were mentors to Davin and continue to be peers. All three of these chefs are the top talent in San Diego County and still share that comaraderie. They continue to still give back to one another and they define the brand of chef I believe the drought of skilled line employees needs in order to overcome the shortage.
Train your staff. Nurture these kids and adults who work for you. Treat them like family. Give your team skills to raise their families and I promise you they will always be there for you. The cream will always rise but I promise you that when you mentor even the mediocre to the next level, they will rise to the occasion and go to battle with you. One day my obituary will read, “He turned dishwashers into chefs,” and that is just fine by me!
