Sous Chef

They say every Chef has at least one mentor, maybe more. You learn from your mentor, not only about food and cooking but about the business of running a kitchen, managing people and being a leader.

Having a mentor means learning how to be a mentor.

Recently I helped open a restaurant with a bad-ass Chef who quickly became a mentor to me, and who encouraged me to, above all, mentor those beneath me in the ranks. As his Sous I busted my ass to make better cooks out of the lot I had to teach because they needed it. My Chef demanded that I didn't just put out food, take and make orders,  but that I teach all the line cooks how to do it as well as I did.

The Chef Gets Fired

After the kitchen was set up, everything running smooth, the kitchen pumping out 300 covers without a hitch, the owner fired the Chef. Kicked him to the curb and didn't say a word to the staff. On his first day off in a month, while I was running the line, Chef came in the kitchen and said "Well, it's been great boys. They canned me". After he left, I looked at the full board of tickets hanging, looked down at the plates I was finishing, looked over at my lead line and said "I really don't want to finish cooking this food. But I'm going to, and afterward I'm gonna walk in there and put my keys on their table cuz that's fucked up."

I walk

I finished service, walked into the owner's office and did just that.

They Negotiate

They bought me a beer. They told me not to make any rash decisions. They told me if I walked out I had no integrity; that I would be letting down all those guys I worked shoulder to shoulder with every day.

I told them:

I am a cook. I work for Chefs. Without a Chef who am I working for? I'm not the Chef of this place. I don't want to be. If you wanted me to be you should have asked me before you fired the Chef, but you didn't say anything. I was working for the Chef so if you wanted me to work for you, you should have made me an offer. With him I had clear expectations. With you, how should I know? He was doing a damn fine job running this kitchen and I can't do any better, so how should I think you won't fire me at any minute too? My contract was with him, so now that he's gone, I'm gone too.

I Question My Decision

I didn't sleep well for two nights, wondering if hadn't done the wrong thing. But looking back, seeing how they used my Chef, and how they just expected me to fall in line, work even harder without a raise, without a word even about their plans, I know I did right.
By my Chef, by my team, by my mentors and by those whom I was mentoring.

Sous Chef Is...

Sous is an intense place to hover. Loyalty means everything and its the time when you make or break yourself as a future Chef, mentor, leader. Even in a business as tumultuous as this, the very least I can do is thank my mentors by sticking by them.