1. PERSONAL
APPEARANCE:
I've never
met a chef whose hair wasn't clean and off her face. I've never seen a chef
with dirty nails or schmutz on his clothes (except food). Enough said.
2. RESPECT:
Professional
cooks learn day one that their jobs depend on a certain amount of respect.
Respect goes beyond people. It extends to the kitchen, the equipment and the
ingredients. Cooks learn early on to clean and store equipment properly and
keep their heads down and their stations clean. Our chef at Haven's Kitchen,
David, carries on the Thomas Keller torch with the constant reminder that
"ingredients don't come from the walk in. They come from the farmer."
It's not just a piece of meat or a potato; it's someone's hard work. Or in the
case of the meat, a cow's life.
3.
SUSTAINABILTITY:
Owing in
part to that respect, professional cooks learned ages ago how to use the entire
vegetable, or pig, or what have you. They've known forever how to manage waste
by thoughtfully planning, storing and utilizing. On top of the fundamental
understanding of what went into those ingredients, chefs know more than anyone
how expensive those ingredients get. And restaurants need as close to zero
waste to be close to economically viable.
4.
APPRECIATION OF LEARNING:
Chefs know
better than anyone that we learn by doing. But when there are paying customers
out in the dining room, there can't be any mistakes. So the kitchen is a
veritable hotbed of education. Line cooks build on the technical skills they've
learned in a real time environment. It's what separates the cooks from the
chefs. And while the chefs who work at Haven's are actually teaching classes,
all chefs learn from other chefs, and all chefs teach other chefs. Chef David phrased
it this way "We're all constantly learning and constantly teaching."
It's a beautiful system and one that has remained mostly untouched.
5.
APPRECIATION OF PROCESS:
Building on
#4, no young cook eager for a career in the food world would dream of opening a
restaurant before working her way up the ranks at other restaurants. In the
chef world you start at A and maybe, with a ton of hard work, burns, cuts and
blisters, maybe get to C. Or G. Or whatever. But if you've ever heard a
20-something question why he shouldn't just be hired as a CEO, you may agree
that the idea of working one's way through the ranks seems like an anachronism
to many of our young people. I see that as a problem and it's virtually
non-existent in the restaurant community.
6. BE PREPARED
and CLEAN AS YOU GO:
This goes
back to neatness and respect, but watching the pros work is like watching a
beautiful ballet. It's passionate and full of talent, but the technical piece
is critical to a truly special end result. Chefs learn to make their mis en
place, which literally means, "putting in place" before they turn on
a burner. Everything is cleaned, measured, chopped, and then laid out on the
prep station, making the process smoother and easier, not to mention less
vulnerable to mistakes. For the most part, chefs are trained to clean their
workspaces and tidy up after each step of the preparation. I've adopted both
techniques in my home cooking and it's made a world of difference (plus I feel
cool).
7. MAKE THE
BEST OF THINGS:
If you've
ever been in a professional kitchen, it's most definitely not smooth sailing
all the time. Things get messed up. It just happens. And there's no ordering
take out if the main course burns. So chefs learn to improvise, use what they
have and make it work. I wish we could all do that... instead of hitting a
brick wall and breaking down crying, chefs say, "Huh. A brick wall. Let's
see how I can get over, under, around or through it." Admirable.
8.
TEAMWORK:
While we
see a lot of big egos on television food shows, the world of restaurant chefs
is all about mutual respect, admiration and working together to make beautiful
food. For every component on the plate at your next restaurant meal, there was
probably at least one cook responsible for the dicing, slicing, par boiling,
shocking, pickling... you get it. It takes a village to make a restaurant meal.
9.
APPRECIATION of SCIENCE AND NATURE:
I've
covered the appreciation and respect of ingredients, and this is a bit of an
extension of all that. Jonathan Benno, who trained David at Per Se and was
trained by Thomas Keller, has a famous quote in the chef world that is
something along the lines of, "show me how to use NaCl and then I'll show
you the rest." Molecular is great, foams are fabulous, but good cooking is
already all about chemistry and alchemy. The fundamental understanding of
natural laws and reactions is a part of a chef's daily work. Wouldn't it be
amazing if that was how they taught high school science?
10. DO WHAT
YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO:
The most
wonderful part of working with professional cooks and chefs is the absolute
love they have for feeding and nurturing people. Some are quieter than others.
Most I know are somewhat introverted. But watching them work and transform
their ingredients to create the food we eat is a privilege I enjoy every day.
Even if its as simple as olive oil, salt and some acid, chefs touch their food
with a certain magic, and as I watch, I'm stuck by how lucky these people are
to have figured out what gives them pleasure. And then they figured out how to
make a living doing it. That's a skill more of us need. I know perfectly well
that not all cooks are in the kitchen out of love, but I bet if you asked the
vast majority of them if it's just a job, they would say no. It's too challenging,
too hot, too intense to be just a job. It's a labor of love. And by the way,
angry chefs never make good food, keep that in mind!