For hungry line cooks and bright-eyed culinary students…
1. No one cares.
You may clearly be the second coming of Fredy Girardet, but right now you have a job to do, and that job is probably turning a case of 48-count artichokes or draining, cleaning, and refilling the fryer. No one cares about your ideas for a twenty-one-course tasting menu. Yet.
2. Outcomes matter.
The professional kitchen is a pass/fail environment. There aren’t any A’s or B’s or C’s. Something is right or it isn’t, plain and simple. Mistakes happen, yes, but you don’t have to serve them. Start now with holding yourself to a higher standard. You should be proud of every single item you serve, even if it’s a quenelle of butter or a cup of soup. Your career isn’t a sprint; in fact, it’s an ultramarathon with no finish line, so pace yourself and do things the right way, and before long you’ll be far out in front of your peers. Don’t leave any room for people to call you out on willful mistakes you’ve made.
3. Taste the food.
I can’t shout this one too often or too loudly. Why do people go to nice restaurants? Because the food we serve is better than what they can make at home. So if you’re working garde-manger and you taste the salad you’re making and it’s too salty, stop and throw it out and start over! Put yourself in the guest’s position … if you’ve been saving up for a special occasion, and now you’re in a beautiful dining room, you’re dressed up for the evening, you’re enjoying a glass of wine with someone you love; would you rather have a salty salad now, or a delicious salad three minutes from now?
4. Your chef has bosses too.
If he’s a good manager, he won’t “complain down” (credit to Bluebird’s Chef de Cuisine Christian Tondre for schooling me on this point), but he likely has bankers, vendors, lenders, investors, cities, counties, states and employees constantly asking him for money. He’s dealing with all of that on top of your bullshit, so try to make his life easier, not harder. Managing people is exhausting, and in a completely different way than spending twelve hours on your feet behind the stove.