Dear Hospitality Hopeful,
Here are some bits and pieces I have picked up from being a chef for the past twelve years. I don’t know how useful they will be to you at the end of the day, but they are some things that I wish I had known (or had paid more attention to) before I started out .
1. Get Good Shoes
Yeah I know. Not what you wanted to hear first off the bat, but its fucking important. I promise.
You are going to be on your feet a lot. This is fine when you’re eighteen, or in your twenties — when your joints and muscles can take a good bashing, and you’ll still be right as rain the next day. You may not feel it then, but you will when you get older. By then it will be hell of a lot harder to fix.
Trust me on this one. You’ll thank me in about ten years. Working in the kitchen is a marathon, and you need to look after your body if you want longevity in the game.
2. Treasure your time in the larder section.
This is where you will calibrate yourself to the pulse and the heartbeat of the kitchen.
Many cooks can’t wait to get out of larder because it’s not as exciting or as flash as working on pans, grill or sauce, but there are many valuable lessons to be learnt here and you should absorb all that you can while you are in this section.
I’ve worked in multiple venues, from commis to head chef. I’ve worked in cafes, restaurants, casual bistros, private dining; I’ve owned and run my own successful business and still, larder is and will always be my first and most enduring love.
It’s where I experienced the most exponential growth in terms of speed and organisation, and where I learnt the most valuable skills that have helped me all through my career.
3. Process and consistency are more important than creativity.
You can be the most creative chef in the world and come up with the most incredible dishes, but if you can’t nail down process to produce them to the same standard, night after night on short order, then it’s all for naught.
Whenever I plan a new dish, or a new menu, process and consistency are always foremost on my mind.
What do I need to prep in advance? What do I need to re-heat/cook to order? How many steps from order to plate? How do I make service more efficient without compromising on quality? Can I make the base of this sauce free from common allergens and add them in later, or will this affect flavour/texture?
With these questions in mind…
4. There is no ONE right way to do things.
That said. Don’t be a smart arse, because it’ll only get you in trouble. Especially when you’re just starting out.
Prove that you can hold down a section before trying to make suggestions, and don’t assume that no one else has thought of your ‘brilliant solution’ before.
Keep an open mind, learn from the many chefs and colleagues that you interact with over the years. One of the most amazing things about working in kitchens is that you get to work with people from all over the world, and from all walks of life. It really is such a privilege.
Try and understand what it is that makes things work - whether it be a technique of rolling out bread dough or a particular flavour combination. Try food you’ve never tried before, and do this often.
The more you understand, the greater your position of manoeuvrability.
The worst thing that you can do to yourself as a chef is to tie yourself too rigidly to a particular way of doing things. The more tools you have in your backpack (and more ways in which to use them), the more likely you can get yourself out of any sticky situation.
In the words of an ex-boss and an old friend, “you have to know the rules to break the rules”.
5. Please use the goddamn timer.
Please.
The number of burnt pots I’ve had to deal with because some cooks think they ‘don’t need a timer’…(twice in the last week).
You will burn things in the course of your chef journey. We’ve all done it.
Just please. Minimise the possibility of this happening by using a goddamn timer.
(Also, if you hear a timer go off in the kitchen that isn’t yours, don’t just turn it off. Tell someone.)
6. Take a second to breathe, wipe-down and re-organise.
Things can get a little crazy during service. Your deadlines are minutes apart, you have multiple things in the oven and dockets coming out the wazoo.
You try to go faster, harder. Where did you put your bloody tongs? Why the fuck are we out of fine herbs??? KEVVINNNN!!! Oh wait, there they are.
If you ever feel like you are getting overwhelmed (and we all do at some point), take a second in between dockets to wipe down your section and re-organise your mise en place. This small, quick and focused activity will help collect your frazzled thoughts and put you in better stead to finish service well.
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Whether you need a hand to carry the 60litre stock pot, or you need someone to show you how to clean the deep-fryer, please ask.
There is nothing to be gained by pretending you know something when you don’t, or attempting to do something physical which may hurt you.
Remember, your team should want you to succeed. If you’re being ridiculed for asking, it might be a good idea to look at other work options.
8. Taste and technique are more important than recipe
I say this a lot, and I firmly believe in it.
Recipes are a guide. How you go about preparing something — the way you temper the spices, or the way you season at different stages through the cooking process — is so much more vital in making your food sing.
If you stick too closely to a recipe, you may not account for how the acidity and the sweetness of the tomatoes change over the season, or how your supplier was out of a particular brand of pomegranate molasses.
As I mentioned earlier, understanding is key. Taste at different points of the cooking process. Seek to trace how flavours develop and how to adjust accordingly with salt, sugar, fat and acid.
It is your mastery of technique that will set you apart from others, not your recipes.
9. Know your worth.
This goes both ways.
Make sure you do your research beforehand and find out how much award wages are for your role. This is the minimum you should be getting. Also make sure you understand what reasonable overtime is, if you are on a full-time wage. Some employers will tell you that it’s reasonable to work 20 hours over your contracted hours. It is not.
At the same time, when you’re just starting out, you will be making mistakes in the kitchen. The business wears this cost. Just a couple of weeks ago, an apprentice at my work accidentally switched off the service fridge when she was cleaning at the end of the night. When we came in the next day we had to throw everything out, including some prepped steaks and seafood. That’s hundreds of dollars in ingredients and opportunity cost.
It’s important to have a balanced view of what you can offer a business and what it offers you. Yes, you offer your time and labour and they pay you for this, but they also give you a space to learn and hone your craft, and absorb the costs of training you.
10. Work in places that can help you achieve your goals
Depending on where you are in your career, these goals may differ. You may be saving up for a year in France or saving up to buy a house. You may be aiming to open your own restaurant in a particular style of food, or you may have just had your first child and want to have more family time.
I started cheffing ‘late’. I got qualified at 24. The aim was to open my own venue by the time I was 30, so I needed to learn, fast. I chose to only work at chef-owned and operated venues with small teams so that I was exposed to more things at an earlier stage. I was on the opening team of two venues, which taught me a lot about setting up a business from the ground. I was upfront with my bosses about my goals and they were incredibly helpful in helping me to achieve them. One even offered to invest in my business and I was incredibly touched.
Twelve years on, my goals have shifted. I am now working on a PhD full-time, but I also don’t want to lose touch of working intimately with food. I work casually, 2–3 nights a week at a gorgeous local restaurant. The team is small, the food is fresh, and my head chef/boss is also studying and teaching on the side. He has a wife and two kids and makes sure he carves out time for them. It’s a lovely space to be in at this time in my life and it fits my current capacity and goals.
It’s also important to understand that the kind of business you work for or are applying to work for will affect the upper limit of what they can offer monetarily. Just because your previous work (e.g. a large hotel chain or an established restaurant group) could afford to pay you well above award wages, doesn’t mean that the small, owner-operated cafe you’re applying for can match their pay rate.
The smaller establishment may however, offer other perks, like flexibility with hours, weekends or nights off, shorter hours, less travel… etc. Always weigh up all the possibilities and decide what works best for you.
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I hope all or some of this helps you in your journey. It’s such a wild ride and you’re gonna have so much fun. I really hope you do. Being a chef has opened my eyes to so many things and has helped me look at life and people from a very different perspective. I wish you all the luck in the world.
May the sauce be with you. x
