115 - A Battle Call To Chefs

Welcome, I am so grateful that you're all here today. This Thursday, live teaching is all about a battle cry, and a battle call to the chef's. So the restaurant industry has seen immense changes in the last couple of years. They have we've been through COVID, we've been through the housing struggles we've been through the recession. We've been beaten, battled and just utterly destroyed over the many over the last several years, in the foodservice industry in the restaurant industry, as chefs, we have worked really hard to make things work and to get things moving forward and going every single day. So today, I'm going to talk about what is this battle called, and I'm putting forth. So thank you so very much for joining me. My name is Nick Brown. I'm the founder of cooking physics. And I am very passionate about making sure that we as chefs, can have the sustainability and the lives that we want, that are enjoyable, that are in harmony with our work, and our family, that we can enjoy our time working in the kitchen, and not get to the point of being utterly destroyed, utterly, overworked, overwhelmed, exhausted, and just done. The last couple of years, we have seen a lot of the people of our generation of our chefs, who have lots of experience, leave the workforce, they're tired of all of the things that happen outside of the thing that we really enjoy, which is the passion for the food, the politics that have happened, the excessive pushing to get more and more and more, and the extensive hours and the lack of pay, the lack of staffing, and all those kinds of things have really come to a head ever since COVID started. And when that happened, a lot of the chefs realize that they're done. They're tired of dealing with it. And during that time, there were many chefs that weren't, you know, most of us weren't working. And a lot of them went to find other jobs and went to expand their careers and their you know, and their horizons and, and learn new skills. And, you know, I congratulate them for, for being willing to do something like that, for being willing to at that point in time. Just leave everything that they had built, and to start a new life and a new a new career and doing something that is completely outside of what they were doing before. And talking with them. Many of them are very happy and many of them were very successful. Now there are some who left for a time and have come back. And there are those that just took a we're able to take a very short amount of time and get right back into it. And those of us who have stuck around and pushed through all of this are in rare company and it's hard and we have seen that it's not necessary to have what will you used to have to deal with before. And that now, things can be better. And things can progress and things can get better and more enjoyable. The focus that we've had on the mental culture, the emotional intelligence of the leaders towards the staff, and the respect and the understanding of the struggles that everybody's going through the all of these things, although they have completely How do you put it really put a large stress on the restaurant industry, I really think that it's going to be so much better moving forward. Innovations are happening, people are understanding how to become more efficient, how to get more stuff done, they are getting rid of the stuff that isn't really needed. And finding new ways to to work and new ways to put out food and new ways to sell and market. So what this is all about, my goal is to help push this culture change even further, to more of just, okay, we need to start paying people more and we need to be more respectful and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. To one where it says no, this is not right. And we need to change this. And we need to turn this into an industry that builds leaders, that doesn't grind people down to the ground. And and say, Well, you weren't cut out for it. Or if the kitchen is too hot, get out, you know, if it's too hot for you get out of the kitchen, the sink or swim kind of mentality. The kitchen is going to be one of the premier. And one of the best places for leadership because every single day, every single chef, every single cook in there has an opportunity to learn to grow, and to become their own leader of the other team members of the team members. So what is this all about? My first battle call is the sustainability of self. Restaurants have talked about sustainability, in the food and in everything that we go, that they're going on. Talking about making sure that we have the food that we need moving forward, that it is produced and acquired in a sustainable method. And to be able to ensure that everybody is able to have the food moving forward, and we don't begin to have access. We don't become gluttons, and, and so many other things like that. And I want to talk about the sustainability of self of the individual as the person sustainability of the self is all about making sure that we understand who we are. And that we take care of ourselves that we understand that we don't have to work 10 1214 hours, that we can take breaks, we can structure our work around it, we can structure our time around it, we can structure ourselves around it there, of course, there's going to be times where we're having to work that much. We're chefs, we have to do it, okay, it's going to happen, but we don't have to have it happen every single day. Okay. Just like there are seasons for hunting and fishing, and seasons for gathering. There are seasons for working really, really, really, really hard. Okay. And, and we, we understand that. But too often, those seasons become the entire year round. And that's where the problem becomes is when that sustainability of our own self, of our own abilities of our health of our mental strength of our emotional endurance is tested because day after day after day, we are having to deal with something that really shouldn't have to be there. Okay. The next one I want to talk about is collaboration of our craft too many too many times leading up to this, this new generation and this new time. The chefs were very tight and and would not share the recipes. They would not teach other people. They would not help other people to grow and develop because they felt that if they do that than they will lose who they are. I'm here to say that we need to get rid of that thought, we need to get rid of that belief that, you know, anybody can make a recipe. And it doesn't matter if if you have a recipe, go ahead and share it. Go ahead and let people know. Teach your skills, let them know, build them up, help everybody. And let's collaborate for our craft. Get this collaboration amongst ourselves, where we were helping each other out. It started happening in COVID. And I see it continuing to happen. But I want to push it further. Let's work together as chefs, let's get other places together. And let's have a big, don't get together a big event that helps spotlight this the difficulties that are happening in the foodservice industry. Let's really get ourselves up and out out in amongst the other chefs, and really start opening up what it is. And what the kitchen is all about. Too often the the atmosphere and the atmosphere of the dining room is, is a completely different atmosphere from the kitchen. And I'm not just talking about the dining room, once you go into the dining room, you want it to be calm and relaxed, and, and you know enjoyable and you go into the kitchen, it's going to be hectic and fast and all that kind of stuff, that's definitely gonna stay the same. But the idea that when you go into the dining room, all of a sudden, you are nice and sweet and everything like that. And then you go into the restaurant into the kitchen, and everybody's yelling at each other. And I'm not just talking about calling out orders. And that kind of stuff I'm talking about full on yelling at each other, you know, belittling each other, let's build a collaboration, not only of chef to Chef, but from Chef to Front of House, from the back of the house to the front of house, build a collaboration from the Am crew, to the pm crew, from the banquet crew, to the restaurant crew, to the catering, and from the food truck to the fine dining restaurant. Okay, let's build a collaboration amongst ourselves. Because every single one of us, regardless of how we want to do the food, have the level of complexity, or simplicity. We, our main thing is we want to produce good food. That's all there is to it. I don't know a single chef who wants to create crap. We want to create good food, we want to create food that is happy, that makes people happy, that serves that need, we don't want to serve crap. We all understand the same thing. So let's all start collaborating with each other, and really building that camaraderie that can happen. mentoring the next masters. And why would I say it like this. This kind of goes along with what I was talking about before with chess was holding the skills withholding the the knowledge that they had, because they were afraid that the next person would take over. And that chef would be thrown out. We are at a point right now where we shouldn't have to worry about that. The best leaders are the ones who understand that they're not going to be here all the time. If we spend the time to mentor one another, to build each other up, to help each other really grow and develop. If we mentor those that are coming up before us, and teaching them everything that we know, they're not going to take our jobs away from us. Because we have that camaraderie and we've built that collaboration amongst ourselves. Teach them, show them the ropes, teach them the better way. We've been through so much. And we've learned how to overcome the overwhelm. We've learned how to you know deal with the stress of the unknown of the busy service. We understand those things As if things and we need to teach them to the rising generation, because they will become the next masters, they will become the ones who, yes, take our place. But they take our place and go further, further higher. They take our place because we have retired, because we're no longer doing this they are. So many of them will grow up. And this industry is, even though we got devastated from COVID, it is still expanding, it is still growing, they're going to come up and they're going to leave. And they're going to build their own restaurants. And they're going to bring that collaboration that you had with them to the new restaurant, it's not going to be taking over your position and you're being left on the sidelines and thrown out the thrown out the door of a moving car. And sorry, I got a new chef, it's going to be it's going to be the helping of each other. And as we spend the time to teach, and to help them grow and develop, they will be able to overcome those challenges faster, they will learn the skills needed to be able to be happy and successful in their careers enjoyment of the experience enjoying where you're at, enjoy what you're doing, no longer should we have to go through the grind, then no longer should we have to go through the grinder to be able to come out, we should be able to enjoy our lives, enjoy our experiences, enjoy working in the restaurants, we should be able to go to this, go to our work and enjoy it and be happy and successful. A lot of this is going to happen on the personal level, the situations aren't going to change, the the rush is still going to happen, the running out of things is still going to happen. Hey, the rude and the upset guest is still going to happen. In fact, they're happening a lot more often than they used to. People used to have a lot more respect, and a lot more patience. But now they don't. And so in order to be able to enjoy the experience, we need to start understanding about ourselves, we need to start realizing that we are the ones who determine our reactions and our actions. We are the ones that determined the situations that we are that and the meanings that are happening around us. We are the ones who can sit there and enjoy the experience. Sometimes that experience is going to be something that's going to be very difficult, very rough. And we need to be able to enjoy it in the sense that we understand that we're learning at this point. And that we are growing and developing and going through this tough patch pushing through these challenges. If we have the mentality of growth and development, if we have the mentality that this is not so much of a challenge, but an opportunity to grow an opportunity to become better, an opportunity to lift yourself up and become stronger. That's when you start enjoying even the most difficult and tough situations. Okay. Next is that drive for self development. Same kind of deal. Who you are as a person. Restaurants are going to be tough, restaurants are going to be difficult. It's going to be hot, it's going to be you're gonna get burnt, you're gonna get cut, you're gonna slip you're gonna fall. Lots of things are going to happen in your life. And it is how you take it and how you personalize it. How you put meaning to it is going to determine whether you have that sustainability whether you have that enjoyment, whether you're able to still mentor other people, even through these difficulties. To be able to get to that point. We need to work on ourselves and have a drive for self development. Every single time that we are working together every single time that we are striving to become better every time that we work on our ourselves on our mental abilities on our emotional abilities, and being able to withstand the rigors of working on the line. When we work on ourselves as far as how productive we are, if we begin to strive for to be an influential person within the kitchen, and understand what that means, not only for ourselves, but also what that means for other people. If we strive for that leadership, and and building each other up, and knowing that, if I can do it, you can do it as well. That's going to make everything so much better. Where else? What other job? What other career Do you know of that will take somebody who was in prison in federal prison, for who knows what. And it takes that person from that place and puts them inside of a kitchen where they are able to grow, where they're able to develop, and they become a leader, and they end up being an executive chef, of a famous restaurant. It can happen here in this industry, this industry is the one industry that can take somebody from the slums, all the way up. We have respect for each other, we have tolerance for each other. We do not judge one another in any way, shape, or form based on our past. You were only as good as your last dish. I'm sure you've heard that before. It doesn't matter what you've done before. You're only as good as what you're doing right now. What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to become the best that you can become? Are you working on yourself development? Are you building yourself up? Because this kitchens, the restaurants, this is the place that you can do it. Nobody judges you. People accept you for who you are at that moment. And if we continue to build this mentoring of these masters, this collaboration amongst ourselves, we will begin to help and lift every single person within this industry. And the restaurant industry will produce the biggest the best leaders out there the most influential. The final one that I wanted to talk about is a victory of our vision. Let that sink in for a little bit. What is the vision that you have? What do you see in the future it will become our victory we come into this industry loving food. We come into this industry knowing that the best of the best of the best are in this industry. We come here with a passion for food. And as we are able to hold on to that passion and hold on to that excitement for producing the best food out there. We will achieve it. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking to myself the other day about the visions that we have about the future that we have. The restaurant industry is growing and it's going to continue to grow. There's no stopping it. restaurant industry, culinary arts, it's all about the arts. But as artists, too many of us too many artists, whether it be musicians, painters, sculptors, writers, and all those kinds of artists. The Culinary Arts is the one career that you can go to. You can guarantee that you will be successful. Why do I feel like I can say that? I like to say the one reason why I came into this industry, I had a couple of choices was because everybody's got to eat. Everybody has to eat. We as chefs are providing life to other people. Seriously, literally, we are providing this life giving food to other people. And an artistry that comes is from our passion, and that goes into the food. So it becomes from just something to sustain life, to something to make life enjoyable, to make life, a pleasure. What we put into the food to make it taste really well, to make it taste amazing, that wow factor that that pop that happens, what we put into that food that is our soul, we're putting into this food, the artistry that some of us chefs put in into the food, it's a work of art, that plate is a work of art. And people look at that plant like I don't know if I should cut into it. It's beautiful. We're able to do that. We're able to take people and give them life. That is our passion. We absolutely love to do that for other people. That victory of our of our vision. That is my battle call. That no longer are we going to settle with the things that as they were. No longer are we going to just allow things to go as they used to go before. We as chefs, we do the impossible, whenever it is thrust upon us. But we will no longer destroy ourselves in the process, just to achieve it. Let's stand together as we remake this culinary culture into one that thrives. Let's build that sustainability of self collaboration of our craft, mentoring, the next masters enjoyment of the experience, a drive for self development and a victory of division. So join me comm sign up to my newsletters on cooking physics.com and come join me and let's do this together. Thank you so very much for watching.