Kitchen Culture

Abuse in the Kitchen

Everyone is familiar with Chef Ramsay’s hot-headed attitude, some have heard of Marco Pierre White’s volatile actions, and some have experienced these situations in their own life. We’ve seen articles about kitchen culture and the intensity of the industry. Often, these articles have portrayed the kitchen as abusive and advantageous over its employees.  With temperamental chefs who get all the glory at the expense of the cook. We want to share our experiences with this and to explain a piece of culture that we feel is misunderstood.

Let’s dive into the concept of abuse in the kitchen. Of course, there is some trick to categorizing actions as abusive, but let’s look at times our team has seen what we qualify as abuse from the Chef. One of our chefs had been in places where the chef would throw an absolute fit. Once while making sushi and being totally in the weeds our chef listened as their mentor stomped around and yelled about how poor of a job they were doing. The chef punched a towel dispenser, berated their ability to perform, and in general used aggressive and belittling language. We think this was an overreaction and ultimately not helpful. While our chef won’t forget this moment, they also understood why this chef was so upset. The food wasn’t coming out timely, therefore the customer could become displeased. Ultimately harming the restaurant and its reputation.

Another great example from a time in a very fine restaurant, our chef experienced situations like: The chef taking their hand and guiding them to the area they were supposed to find the ingredient in, saying “take my hand little baby.” Times where the chef would grab them by the coat and cuss them out. Even being told that they were stupid and incapable. Again, these are times where we don’t think these actions were necessary and could be construed as abusive. However, we can understand that in these moments there was some driving force that the chef was feeling, which made them take these actions. Often the chef is trying to push their team to be the best the can be. Of the collective 30+ restaurants our team has been in, there have been remarkably few abusive moments and the two examples above are the worst our team has experienced.  

We certainly don’t support abusive personal attacks, or degrading language. We don’t want to defend poor communication nor fear driven performance. We do have to understand our half of being good communicators though. When you receive these calls and these lash outs, you have the opportunity to understand, the person barking them is concerned that the guest experience is going to suffer. In the restaurant there is incredible pressure to have a fluid and consistent performance. It's been compared to piracy, a home for the misfits, laden with alcoholics and with a history of drug use. Kitchen service has been compared to war and the lifestyle is one that is revered and feared. If you are the owner of a 30 seat dinner restaurant that serves oysters and good steaks, you will know how tight the profit margins are. A good chef too, knows how important accuracy, consistency and experience are.

There is a lot on the line, from farmers, to servers, restaurants are a tiny community. At the heart of this community is either the floor manager, owner, or chef. This person has the vision and the knowledge of how to orchestrate a great restaurant, or not. From the top to the bottom, a great restaurant comes from a great team. Help Chef feel confident that the standards are being held or lifted, be excited to be part of this group. If the chef is incompetent or the management poor, if you feel uncomfortable or otherwise uninspired, move on. You deserve to be in an amazing space. But if you are coming into the world of professional cooking, it is best to be open to a breadth of people. Long hours and high stress can make people snappy. Do your part to keep calm, and cook on.

Ninja Ballerinas

When we think of Ninjas, we think, strong, fast, disciplined. When we think of Ballerinas, we think, graceful, flowing, disciplined. To be a Ninja Ballerina would be to wield such immense power, that there really is only one path to take, giving people a comfortable and safe place to eat wholesome food. To protect the crops we grow for consumption down to the very water that fills them, and to do our part to pass on our knowledge of food, community, and health.

We all love the Ninja’s To-do List: Slay the bad guy, Over-throw the leadership, Practice for the next mission. Some classics no doubt, but some lesser talked about items of note: Stretch and meditate, Sharpen the Katana, Scrub the toilet. It’s often easy to get caught in a smash-cut trailer, fists of fury flying and cherry blossoms, but a true warrior of any cause knows the importance of maintenance and balance. A Ninja is a trained assassin capable of feats that would seem impossible to the average person. The strength to size ratio would seem unreal, and the pain tolerance or understanding, unmatched. The Ninja practice for so many more hours than they actually execute. Ninja master their minds and are in control of their emotions and fears. Be the Ninja, be sharp, be healthy, be strong, and be stretched. Be the warrior in the garden, after all, Ninja or Shinobi, were just like us, trying to live their lives before oppression came for them. Be humble and blend in, strike when it is most effective, and never give up. 

Ballerinas, the thin, delicate and graceful, smooth and strong dancers. Capable of standing on toe tips and twirling, flexible and dynamic. Ballerinas are a symbol of art in dance, we too hope to be so elegant. All the flight and spinning of the ballerina comes at a cost though. That cost is time and discipline. The ballerina like a wrestler, must eat a strict diet to fit a certain shape and muscular build. They must stretch all the time and to extreme lengths to be able to pull off the wild moves they do. Ballerinas must practice their choreography to move as a unit of beauty and grace. Nothing comes without effort and practice. Bring the balance of strength and grace of a ballerina to the kitchen. After all, we dance here.

These two lifestyles are good examples of the payoff that dedication brings. Moving forward, make an effort to live as a ninja ballerina. Make time to rest your body, take care of those around you, and practice, practice, practice. You are as powerful and smart as the next, do your best every day, and fight for what you believe in.

Cook vs. Chef

Every aspiring chef starts as a cook. And like every child waiting to become an adult, they just can’t wait to make the jump. We know how this goes; we’ve experienced the same thing. What we hope to do here is suggest to you a different path that will help you become a better chef and in a reasonable time. 

Respect the chef, until it is your circus you have no idea how many monkeys are in this one. Simply, the most important message we can give a new cook is this: You are here to make the chef’s recipe. Simple right? For those new to the 8, we speak in concepts. The chef’s recipe is symbolic for “the way”. Your position is to cut the cuts the thickness you were shown, you are to cook the onions how the chef asks. The best thing you can do for the restaurant is consistently what you are asked and to consistently produce the same dishes. We all think we know the way, a lot of us trust our judgements. That’s all great, but the importance of this first message can not be dismissed. Why? Because consistency is key in the industry. 

We have seen so many cooks who thought they knew better. They figured “What’s the big deal if I do the recipe differently?”. Given time and exposure any aware and diligent cook will know, 5 minutes here, a lid or not there, 350 vs 375, these differences will make a notable difference in the end product. Cooking is molecular for goodness sake! Every minute change and treatment will begin to yield different results. In a top tier environment with delicate dishes and flavors the wishy wash of these cooks can really hurt a Michelin chase, and in a less driven environment will likely lead to corners cut and laziness in general. If you indeed are in an environment where you know better than the status quo, then move on or improve the standards. To stay in a poorly managed environment as a cook will only lead to poor experience for you. Remember your time to lead and call the shots will come, for now be a sponge and absorb all you can. Take the good and leave the bad.

That being said, experience is everything. We have trained brand new, never been in a kitchen folks and had them running in circles around 26-year veterans in 3 months. Experience is everything, if you are used to 6 smoke breaks, eating on the line, minimal prep, opening cans, then you are going to be drowning in a scratch kitchen. And for the record, we believe this is the only type of kitchen that should exist. Experience is everything. Get out there, start small and close. What’s the best kitchen you can get into now? Here’s a pro tip, THE BEST KITCHENS ARE ALWAYS HIRING. Honestly, and the old school approach still holds, start working for free and you will almost always get the job. Run 2 jobs if you need to until you get in the kitchen you want. Turn over is huge in this industry and the intensity of good kitchens pushes people out a lot. But whatever you do, work at the best level you can. If a calibrated and driven kitchen doesn’t humble you then we suggest you reframe your vision. Unless you are hitting every time on your dishes, unless you crush your prep list every day, unless you have the fastest knife skills in the kitchen, until you know every recipe and every purveyor, every position and system, then you have plenty to learn. A true chef knows no one can do it all alone. The team is far more important than any one player. Be eager to learn, be eager to better your times and cleanliness. Like listening to understand vs. listening to respond, you need to be looking to grow, not looking to create.

Practice makes perfect, and practice takes practice. There’s just no way around it, you must put in the time. We suggest buying bags of onions and potatoes and dicing, slicing, and chopping away until you can do it blindfolded. And yes, most folks with good knife skills don’t need to look at what they’re cutting. Here’s a two part tip, knives cut best while moving back and forth vs up and down, and the “claw” is an absolutely crucial part of cutting, you will always have the knife against your knuckle and will be able to feel the knife more than watching it. Nothing will replace the knowledge of practice, and like your experiences, you need to be diligent about the techniques you practice. Start with cleanliness and organization. Have your station layout memorized, evaluate your practices and habits as they develop and always push for the cleanest, most efficient, and best practices you can. We have talked about knife skills here predominantly but that is a small portion of what you need to practice. You need to practice awareness of the heat in your pan, the time left on your roast in the oven, your bandwidth for more and more stimulus. Use all your senses, listen to the searing, smell for the toasting bread, see your sous chef approaching and move out of their way. There is so much to practice in the kitchen. The feeling of a medium rare vs medium steak. The practice of staying composed as your station takes on a bunch of orders. Practice makes perfect, so get out there and get the time in. 

The difference between being a cook and a chef is vast, and many chefs become directors as there are just so many moving pieces. Nothing will rustle a chef like a cocky new guy freestyling on their menu, for that matter, an experienced cook who doesn’t understand our first principle will also piss off Chef. Imagine working for 15 years to become the chef of a beautiful restaurant and some arrogant “chef” comes in and undermines your recipes and systems because they “know how to do it”. It’s simple respect. There are an uncountable number of ways to cook any dish, to butcher a chicken, hell, to cut an onion. Respect Chef’s way. Keep moving forward squids, keep getting up, keep moving forward.