perilously trying to forget is losing my notebook at my previous place of work just days before leaving – that’s one hard year of unique and invaluable knowledge thrown away never to be retrieved. It’s a painful feeling. But what about the chefs that never scrawled down a single letter in the first place?
I suppose ignorance is bliss after all. It’s sad to see any young chef traipsing around a kitchen with a borrowed knife and no fiery endeavour to learn. It’s a symbol of a dying passion – a generation of chefs that believe two grams of weed and a shiny Japanese knife will gift them with a free pass to fame and wealth. Working in a kitchen is a steep curve to success, and learning is the only tool a chef can truly exploit to obtain this seemingly rare final goal. A place to store this barrage of potential knowledge is pertinent.
The notebook and pen idea is where the chef will discover the truth behind their passion for food. If a chef wants to learn how to cook, then they will, and they’ll do everything they can to do so. If they don’t, then they’ll find that the relentless hours and never-ending stresses of work will hit them harder than a wet towel dipped in the fryer to the face.
The kitchen is a classic example of the “what you put in, you get out” concept where the hard work you carve out between those four monotonous grey walls is guaranteed to reward you in return with experience to build the future, more successful version of yourself. It should never be about money.
Chasing money in this industry is like a dog chasing its own tail. You will move from job to job earning slightly more money each time until you’ve burnt through half of your career potential with little to no passion and a shady knowledge of real food. Don’t fall into this trap. Knowledge is key, and the money will only come if the knowledge is there in the barracks of your mind ready to be deployed.
Using these two simple tools will not only benefit yourself, but also prove to your head chef that you’re in that kitchen to play ball. You’re there for a reason and you, unlike the other chefs, are physically proving that you don’t want to be flipping burgers at the age of thirty. It’s quite simply common sense. Work hard and learn hard and you’ll make it. Chase cash and drift through job to job and you’ll crash and burn like bacon in a fryer.
A blog from an erratically ambitious chef with one foot in the hospitality industry and the other desperately trying to run away. You can read more of Frank's blog posts here
