My kitchen brigade
April 29th, 2008 by brian
What is it about working in a kitchen that is so addictive? It could be the adrenaline of serving two hundred plus people and never getting a send back. It could be the danger in playing with knives and fire for a living. (To date: one second-degree burn and about two thousand stitches not to mention countless other times when stitches were necessary but I was too busy to leave.) But for me the strongest motivation has always been my brigade.
A brigade is the kitchen equivalent to the military rank system. General equals executive chef; lieutenant equals sous chef and so on. In the kitchen a weak cook can bring the kitchen to a halt. Yet a strong chef who is aware of that cook’s weaknesses can guide and nurture him or her into a successful part of the team.
At one point in my career I’m positive that I was the worst in the kitchen. That’s why I am so interested in teaching my staff to be the best that they can be — not only in my kitchen but in the kitchens they’ll work in long after they leave mine.
Newman was just eighteen years old and an extern from a local community college. Actually his name wasn’t Newman — that was from his fake id — but it was a name even his mother called him. That kind of sums him up. He was a cocky, lazy American kid who was more interested in drinking and talking about waitresses than cooking. I guess I saw a little of myself in him!
We tortured him for the first few months; we had to see what he was made of. Yelling didn’t work when he screwed up (and he really screwed up!). I would have to embarrass him in order to get his attention so on one particular day I sat him in a chair in front of all the cooks and told him that since he couldn’t do the job right, I wanted him to sit there and watch the real cooks. He sat there for nine hours.
I know you’re thinking I was too mean but I had to break him. And over the next few months he improved rapidly. He worked all the stations in the kitchen and eventually settled on the grill — probably one of the most advanced places in the kitchen.
At age twenty-one he moved on to New York City and has since worked for the likes of Meyer, Palmer, Romano, Symon. It was one of the happiest days of my life when he called telling me he had done it — he was an executive chef.
It’s all about your staff in this business. A chef with a lot of turn over is never gonna be as good as one that has a loyal staff. I know this and that’s why I work so hard to bring out the best in my people. I depend on them for my restaurant’s success so why can’t I return the favor? They are my second family. (And because we can spend more than eighty hours together every week I often see them more than my family!)
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