Looking backward: if I could give today's culinary school graduates advice...

It is that time of year for an annual rite of passage: graduation.

Specifically college graduation, and among the colleges graduating students are dozens of culinary schools.  Many of these freshly minted culinarians are full of hope, and loaded down with debt.  Ready and raring to go in an industry that many have never worked in, but have only read about or watched on TV, ("you mean it's NOT like labs in school?"), longer than their required externship.  Having worked for, alongside, taught, and employed several culinary students/graduates over my career, I started looking back at the successes and utter cock-ups in my career, and imagined myself being able to deliver the commencement address at a culinary school.  (I do not claim that my observations, or advice is new or revolutionary.)  My way of "paying it forward," or simply making sure that my future employees aren't knuckleheads...(advice I would give to the younger me!) would go something, like...this:


"My name is Michael Beers.  I am an American Culinary Federation Certified Executive Chef; I have been certified as an executive chef for over ten years.  Before that, I was certified as a Sous Chef, a Chef de Cuisine, and a Working Pastry Chef, all through the ACF.  I started working in kitchens just shy of 22 years ago; my first position was as a dishwasher, and I have been an executive chef for the majority of the last 17 years.  I have had great teachers throughout my career, from my apprenticeship until today.  I have worked in private clubs, hotels, resorts, catering companies, and independent restaurants.

I congratulate you, and your family and friends that have, and will continue to support you, as you complete one phase of your journey, and embark upon new adventures in making delicious food, lifelong friends, and a difference in both your kitchens and you communities.

As I look upon you, the members of the Class of 2013, I see the future of my beloved industry
Because I apprenticed, and did not attend a culinary school, I became a career path "scrambler": I took the highest title I could achieve in an attempt to ,what I thought would, legitimize me and my abilities as a chef.  In retrospect I failed to "pay my dues."  And if I could do it all again, if 2013 Chef Beers could speak to 1993 Mike, here is the advice that I would give him, and you.


You want to be a chef?
Obviously you have all answered, "Oui!" to this question.

You have accepted that your life will be spent toiling in hot, sweaty  and uncomfortable conditions while achieving moderate financial success and remaining largely anonymous. 

Today, you are taking the first step, but become a Great.  Cook.  First.  If you are an awesome cook who comprehends and executes the fond de cuisine flawlessly in a "real world" situation, you are on the right track.

One foot in front of the other, but don't be afraid to, or discouraged by, stumbling.  These are your opportunities to learn what went wrong, how to fix it, and how to avoid the error/do it right next time.

Be realistic.
Unless you are the wunderkind of the culinary world, or have worked for your future employer before, do not expect to make a six-figure salary...EVER!  More likely than not you will be paid just north of what the stewards are making, and it will seem like you are having flashbacks to your internship.  Chances are the only media appearances you will make for the immediate future are in the background as your Chef is being photographed/interviewed.

Patience, Grasshopper.  Your time may come.  Just hang in there...BUT, be prepared to work.  Hard.

You are not alone.  EVERYONE in a kitchen is in this together.  You have a bond that very few in this world will understand; you will adopt your own lingo, jokes, social/anti-social behaviors.

You will not spend weekends, holidays, and nights with your family,significant others, and "normal" friends, (soon to become your old friends...acquaintances), you will spend almost all of your time with this weird social amoeba that is a Kitchen Crew; it will become your new family, you will find a new lover amongst its ranks...These are your New Friends now!!!

Follow your passion
So you have decided that cooking/becoming a modern day pirate/gypsy is your life...where will you ply your trade?  Is your goal to be a Michelin starred chef?  Is childhood hunger important to you, and you want to food school age children?  Do you just see cooking as a way to pay the bills?  The choices for cooks are myriad; pick a career path that you feel passionately about, and that you will be motivated to follow one, five, twenty five years from now.

Whatever segment of the industry choose, make sure you actually work in that segment.

I know that sounds like a no-brainer.  But I have seen far too many of my colleagues who want to be a "Star Chef" take the first job that comes down the pike...a short term paycheck at the sacrifice of their long term goals.

Chefs are cynical.  You cannot come back from that choice, "how is your experience at Applebee's going to help me maintain my NYT stars?"

It is the cooking version of "punching above your weight."

If you want to work on the big stage of NYC, or Chicago, or Copenhagen, or Spain, DO.  IT.  Pining away for those opportunities while cooking at the local eating place is NOT going to get there.  Trust me.  I know.  Chefs in these cities are going to ask other chefs from these cities for help/recommendations.  You are not getting a job with Tom Colicchio by scanning craigslist!  It's who you know.

Wanna be the best?  Then work for the best.  Go on...
THIS is possibly the one piece of advice that would have changed my career path more than any other.   I knew about the lifestyle, and the need to like your job.  Years as a musician had taught me that you needed to work on the rudimentary stuff to be able to pull off the complicated pieces.  But NO ONE had ever laid this nugget of wisdom on me: work for the absolute best chef that will hire you.

If your goal is to be a Michelin-starred chef, then you need to work for a Michelin-starred chef.  If you want to be a foodservice director for a school district, find and work for the industry recognized leader in school foodservice.  If you just want to be a cook, find the best opportunity or paycheck and follow it.

"You cannot aspire to that, which you have not experienced."

AND, if you get yourself into the upper echelon of kitchens in your chosen field, AND you are good enough to stand out, doors WILL open for you!

Better kitchens.  Better pay.  Better positions.  Heck...someone with deep pockets may love your recipe for calamari and decide to back you when opening your own restaurant!

Borrow and steal ideas...then "kill yer idols"
It is completely natural for any artist, in any medium, to emulate those that admire while searching for their own identity.

Guitar players will learn Jimmy Page riffs.  Painters may start painting like de Kooning.  Chefs will cook and plate like whomever their "chef crush" is.

Completely understandable.  BUT if you emulate el Bulli, or Alinea people will call you to the carpet on it: there will only be one el Bulli.  One Alinea.  EVER.  So what are you to do?  Pick and choose proven, successful aspects of other chefs' cooking, plating, design, philosophies and work them into who you are.  Cook what is true to you, what is in your heart.  Synthesize and distil what you are inspired by into something new and unseen.

Originate.

Learn the numbers
This is the one that can really separate the Chefs from the cooks, and it is rarely emphasized in the mentoring of young culinarians.  AND it seems like most students really don't want to hear about spreadsheets, and why the "Q Factor" is bull shit...they want to plate with tweezers and make liquid ravioli...

If you are going to run the business of running a kitchen, (a.k.a., become a Chef), you are going to need to know how to calculate your cost of goods sold, labor costs, and generally be able to determine if you are making money or not!

Do not underestimate the importance of this!

Still want to do this, eh?
AWESOME!  If all of this hasn't deterred you, YOU are who we want to follow in our footsteps!

BUT, remember there will always be someone better than you: use it as the fuel that drives you to be better tomorrow than you are today.

You will NOT always know what you are doing: take the advice that a Certified Master Chef gave me, "If you want people to believe that you know what you are doing, act like you know what you are doing."

AND, remain humble.  Treat every interaction with every person you meet with care.  Salespeople will strike up a conversation with your dishwasher because he/she may be the chef that is buying product from them in ten years.  That server you can't stand may get a seven-figure job after he graduates from college...and may be that investor you are looking for in your restaurant.  A mediocre line cook that you may have given up on, may call you one day to hook you up with your dream job...or she may hire you someday when no one else will.

To paraphrase the warrior poet, "Crash" Davis:
Cook with fear and arrogance and humility.

Now, enjoy the last Saturday off you will EVER have, and congratulations once again.

Food Fight! or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Culinary Competitions

(I started writing this on Monday, 4.15...Marathon Monday...and put it on hold for obvious reasons, #BostonStrong)

I have competed before; watching Chef Richard Rosendale, CMC and his commis, Corey Siegel, prepare for this year's Bocuse d'Or competition online, made me want to jump back in the ring.

photos courtesy of Bocuse d'Or USA

There are hundreds of live cooking competitions around the globe every year; I just needed to find one that was close to home, and that I could squeeze into my work schedule.  And, as it often happens, opportunity knocked: the ACF White Mountains Chef of the Year competition based on the ACF's 1-hour category K contemporary competition category.  It was not nearly of the magnitude involved with Bocuse d'Or, nor was it approaching the stress levels of the competitions that I have participated in previously.

I was in!

"Sign me up!"

When I agreed to participate, my sole intention was to win; crush the competition!!!  Pull out all of my culinary tricks.  No holds barred! (Especially after the chef who "took" my old job entered the competition)

My contemporaries in the area all poopoo modernist techniques.  My solution: include as many modernist techniques as possible.

Presentation?  Make it as contemporary as possible.

I was going to ride into town like Sheriff Bart in 'Blazing Saddles"...people were going to sit up and take notice of me, possibly dislike me at first, but eventually hoist me onto their shoulders in adulation!

Yaaaaaay, ME!

Then something happened while I was working up my formulas for the competition.  Something unexpected:

I stopped caring about winning.

I have been a hyper competitive person my entire life, "How could this happen?" I wondered aloud.

Now, don't get me wrong, I will be overjoyed and downright giddy to have have a President's Medallion hung from my neck on Friday night.  But this is no longer the end game.

It became about the process.  It was cooking for the sake of pure.  Cooking.  Nothing more.  I had a chance to learn more about quinoa, and how it cooked in various liquids, and how seasoning affects the cooking...

I broke down whole salmon, (MANY whole salmon), for the first time in a long time; each time with the goal of being faster, cleaner, more efficient.  I became an R&D chef: just how much fish sauce is too much?  Should it be added to the sauce hot? Cold?  I adopted the Rosendale/Siegel motto:

"Push Yourself"

I had a "program" that was easy.  Safe.  Easily executed in 60 minutes.  Not challenging...SO, I pushed myself, and crammed as many elements into 60 minutes that I could execute (while still building in some "Oh, crud!" time).




I took a page from Chef Rosendale's playbook, and focused on the organization before the competition.



I worked on refining the individual steps needed to actually execute the dish.  I consciously thought about each part of my program and what I could do to make each phase easier to execute; taking my cues from the photos above, I packed all of the equipment needed to execute each component in "kits."  All of my food mis en place was packed in kits as well...everything completely organized so that there was no searching, or guesswork.

It became about the journey...the destination was a receding horizon.  I practiced my recipes individually, and then ran through my entire dish several times...certainty that my dish would come together in 60 minutes was cemented.  During the competition I learned from my fellow competitors about some of the nuances of competing that I had forgotten about; seeing three of my contemporaries cook was inspirational both in a "I am going to steal that idea," and a "I wouldn't have done that" kind of way.

I exited the kitchen that day knowing more than I had arrived knowing; I was a better chef than I was the day before.