The best chef I ever worked for lost her shit once or twice while I worked for her and it usually lasted about 10 seconds. But one night we just collectively sucked at service. It was not a total disaster but it was not good... and it was not as if we were mega slammed. She called everyone together and said, without yelling, "We are better than this. This was not a good service and we all know it. I want each of you to see if you can analyze why, starting with yourself first. We will talk about this again tomorrow. I don't want anyone throwing anyone under the bus, but I also don't want to see anyone walking around telling themselves 'I suck and I am a loser'. Neither of those is acceptable." It was amazing. We all felt like we had been scolded and lifted up at the same time. It changed the whole vibe of the kitchen. What I hate are the bullies that just enjoy picking on others and grinding down people with no effort to help them. You can tell those kinds of sociopaths do NOT care about anyone but themselves.
I always look at your subscriber counter after I watch a video and I’m just astonished that you don’t have like a million subscribers. The quality of your videos are just so amazing and I don’t get why people would ever want to watch anything else. So glad I found your channel. Thanks for the great video man!
I have worked for Western (French, Italian & English) & Asian restaurants and I can personally say based on my experiece that western kitchens are more chaotic because the menu changes everytime, too many heirarchy in a kitchen (where sometimes the higher chef takes advantage of the lower chefs) and also head chefs create different food which is insanely amazing but the downside is, it is hard to establish a solid workflow. Currently I am working for a Japanese restaurant and I can say that it is a very peaceful environment because we have specific roles that we do daily and it helps us master our task. Respect to you man and sorry for my english.
This is super true in a lot of ways! It's elaborate for a myriad of reasons but it can often cause these secondary problems that we all just "accept" as normal.
I remember coming up in these kinds of kitchens. Yelling, throwing things, boiling anger over things that could be remedied quickly with little to no effect on service. I’ll admit my first few years as the chef I was the same. But thankfully I had the opportunity to work with another chef at an event who absolutely blew my mind at how cohesive his team was and found out he never once raised his voice. He lead through expectation and support instead of fear and anger.
The first “real,” restaurant I worked in my chef and even the owner felt like bullies and most of the time it felt unfair. It was extremely demoralizing and it really messed with my head. Turned me off of the whole industry. sometimes I miss it but I don’t think I’ll go back to it :/
Amazing to get a behind the scenes look at life as a cook at NOMA. Have heard lots of stories from friends over the years. My time at Maaemo sounds a bit similar, maybe not to this extent but sure was a lot of yelling happening there too. Interesting to think about whether yelling is an appropriate motivator, I found I took if differently from day to day, situation to situation. Sometimes getting yelled at got me going and other times it shut me down. You live and you learn though! Enjoyed listening to this conversation!
I worked for a female upcoming chef I had good bearing in this kitchen . everything was yes chef 2 min chef 30 sec chef . one night chef had to much at the wine tasting and came back to finish dinner service . she just started yelling borderline stuff at the grill guy . the grill guy was a old school Mexican named I've knew him since I moved to Dallas . he quit instantly .food is still on tickets on order stuff needs to be fired . a snowball fight is turning into a avalanche bout to be a blizzard .now chef says she will work the grill ....and call tickets . after about 10 min I think for the first time I broke my bearing Got mad called her by her first name kicked the executive chef off our line .I'm still friends with chef and she's progressed very much from those days .
I found your channel through The Bear reactions, and this part of the culture of professional cooking is one of the most baffling to grasp. As an outsider Ive found it interesting see so many invested in the belief that yelling/bullying is --if not necessary -- an inevitable part of working in a high stress, fast paced demanding environment. The attitude being like yeah, they should probably apologize, but it is what it is, and they're a good person in general... I work in an ER as a crisis mental health nurse. Maybe it's not the focused race against the clock a service is, but it is high stress, fast paced, demanding and occasionally dangerous. A good amount of EMS and RNs used to work food service at some point too It's not one has ever lost their shit on a coworker. Or I guess a doctor yelling at a nurse would be the best comparison. It's not unheard of but it is rare, and it is considered deeply unprofessional, to the extent that HR would probably get involved. Also, the few times I have seen it, other nurses and doctors have instantly stepped in to say hey, what the fuck are you doing, back off, take a break, I'll take over the case and you come back when you have a hold of yourself. Not only is it unacceptable to yell, it's unacceptable to let someone do it without stepping in and deescalating To me, it seems that if you're screaming at your staff, it is because you have failed. You have failed to think of any other better way to resolve or prevent whatever the problem is. That failure indicates to me a weakness in leadership ability and poor emotional regulation + communication skills. One thing that does feel familiar though is how much joking there is about things that are clearly unambiguous symptoms of PTSD/stress induced mental illness. Black humour to the rescue
I would say most doctors and nurses are not as mentally ill as the top chefs in the world and not as obsessed. The stakes are way higher in your field its not even fair to compare it, but very few things match the level of passion upper echelon chefs have. Obsessed to the point its all they care about.
Yeah you definitely couldnt if someone raising their voice triggers violent behavior in you. Yelling isnt even the worst thing though, it’s when a chef absolutely annihilates you verbally in a calm soothed tone of voice. That shit feels way worse haha!
Great video dude. Just yesterday I found my first time yelling at someone for seasoning steaks with the floor and continued to plate em. Sure felt bad after and apolagized but I would do it again.
I use to yell. But after 25 years of running kitchens, I have learned that it does zero good. I create a positive and peaceful environment. My cooks look forward to coming to work and learning, growing and we fire in all cylinders every service. I highly recommend it.
There is never any reason to yell. Yelling is a pathetic excuse for any chef that simply can’t control their emotions. If you have to resort to a certain tone rather than the content of what you’re saying, you’re doing something wrong.
This topic need to be spoken about more to help create different perspectives and understandings as to why chefs yell at staff or talk to staff in a commanding way. I had I dishy in my way just the other night during service putting plates away in a very slow fashion. I had 10 covers in front of me at once and he entered my space. I had to take command of my area and tell him to move his butt out of my way immediately. As I didn’t have time for his slow attitude, That’s the polite version. The pressure was on!!!! I have also been in the receiving end so I understand what is like.
I feel like yelling at your staff is a reflection of your insecurity that you either feel like you didn't hire the proper person or you don't feel confident in your teaching abilities or you are worried about what others will think of you. It's subconscious of course, but it's an insecurity nonetheless.
The best chef I ever worked for lost her shit once or twice while I worked for her and it usually lasted about 10 seconds. But one night we just collectively sucked at service. It was not a total disaster but it was not good... and it was not as if we were mega slammed. She called everyone together and said, without yelling, "We are better than this. This was not a good service and we all know it. I want each of you to see if you can analyze why, starting with yourself first. We will talk about this again tomorrow. I don't want anyone throwing anyone under the bus, but I also don't want to see anyone walking around telling themselves
'I suck and I am a loser'. Neither of those is acceptable." It was amazing. We all felt like we had been scolded and lifted up at the same time. It changed the whole vibe of the kitchen. What I hate are the bullies that just enjoy picking on others and grinding down people with no effort to help them. You can tell those kinds of sociopaths do NOT care about anyone but themselves.
What a speech 🤩
There needs to be more humble and respectful people in the kitchen nowadays
I always look at your subscriber counter after I watch a video and I’m just astonished that you don’t have like a million subscribers. The quality of your videos are just so amazing and I don’t get why people would ever want to watch anything else. So glad I found your channel. Thanks for the great video man!
Harlequin i know right haha Justin is a rare gem!
💯
You guys are the bomb - appreciate you watching!
like wise the content here is fire
instablaster...
I have worked for Western (French, Italian & English) & Asian restaurants and I can personally say based on my experiece that western kitchens are more chaotic because the menu changes everytime, too many heirarchy in a kitchen (where sometimes the higher chef takes advantage of the lower chefs) and also head chefs create different food which is insanely amazing but the downside is, it is hard to establish a solid workflow. Currently I am working for a Japanese restaurant and I can say that it is a very peaceful environment because we have specific roles that we do daily and it helps us master our task.
Respect to you man and sorry for my english.
This is super true in a lot of ways! It's elaborate for a myriad of reasons but it can often cause these secondary problems that we all just "accept" as normal.
I remember coming up in these kinds of kitchens. Yelling, throwing things, boiling anger over things that could be remedied quickly with little to no effect on service. I’ll admit my first few years as the chef I was the same. But thankfully I had the opportunity to work with another chef at an event who absolutely blew my mind at how cohesive his team was and found out he never once raised his voice. He lead through expectation and support instead of fear and anger.
This is the way
The first “real,” restaurant I worked in my chef and even the owner felt like bullies and most of the time it felt unfair. It was extremely demoralizing and it really messed with my head. Turned me off of the whole industry. sometimes I miss it but I don’t think I’ll go back to it :/
Amazing to get a behind the scenes look at life as a cook at NOMA. Have heard lots of stories from friends over the years. My time at Maaemo sounds a bit similar, maybe not to this extent but sure was a lot of yelling happening there too. Interesting to think about whether yelling is an appropriate motivator, I found I took if differently from day to day, situation to situation. Sometimes getting yelled at got me going and other times it shut me down. You live and you learn though! Enjoyed listening to this conversation!
Thanks a lot! Yeah I feel like so many of us have been there..
Old Noma was a war and it was tough, nowadays the new Noma is pretty chill and relaxed.
Thanks a lot man to bringing out all this stuff that happen on day to day basis in kitchens
It happens to all of us , you just keep your head down and roll with the punches and come back better the next day
People think Gordon Ramsay yelling in Hell's Kitchen is a big thing but for industry standards it's actually pretty mild.
I worked for a female upcoming chef I had good bearing in this kitchen . everything was yes chef 2 min chef 30 sec chef . one night chef had to much at the wine tasting and came back to finish dinner service . she just started yelling borderline stuff at the grill guy . the grill guy was a old school Mexican named I've knew him since I moved to Dallas . he quit instantly .food is still on tickets on order stuff needs to be fired . a snowball fight is turning into a avalanche bout to be a blizzard .now chef says she will work the grill ....and call tickets . after about 10 min I think for the first time I broke my bearing Got mad called her by her first name kicked the executive chef off our line .I'm still friends with chef and she's progressed very much from those days .
I am so happy you are being more active, really cool to kepp learning 👌 thanks for your work man it really appreciated
Glad to have you watching, Milo!
I found your channel through The Bear reactions, and this part of the culture of professional cooking is one of the most baffling to grasp. As an outsider Ive found it interesting see so many invested in the belief that yelling/bullying is --if not necessary -- an inevitable part of working in a high stress, fast paced demanding environment. The attitude being like yeah, they should probably apologize, but it is what it is, and they're a good person in general...
I work in an ER as a crisis mental health nurse. Maybe it's not the focused race against the clock a service is, but it is high stress, fast paced, demanding and occasionally dangerous. A good amount of EMS and RNs used to work food service at some point too
It's not one has ever lost their shit on a coworker. Or I guess a doctor yelling at a nurse would be the best comparison. It's not unheard of but it is rare, and it is considered deeply unprofessional, to the extent that HR would probably get involved. Also, the few times I have seen it, other nurses and doctors have instantly stepped in to say hey, what the fuck are you doing, back off, take a break, I'll take over the case and you come back when you have a hold of yourself. Not only is it unacceptable to yell, it's unacceptable to let someone do it without stepping in and deescalating
To me, it seems that if you're screaming at your staff, it is because you have failed. You have failed to think of any other better way to resolve or prevent whatever the problem is. That failure indicates to me a weakness in leadership ability and poor emotional regulation + communication skills.
One thing that does feel familiar though is how much joking there is about things that are clearly unambiguous symptoms of PTSD/stress induced mental illness. Black humour to the rescue
I would say most doctors and nurses are not as mentally ill as the top chefs in the world and not as obsessed. The stakes are way higher in your field its not even fair to compare it, but very few things match the level of passion upper echelon chefs have. Obsessed to the point its all they care about.
I couldn't be a chef if someone shouted at me they would be on the floor seeing stars 🤩
Yeah you definitely couldnt if someone raising their voice triggers violent behavior in you. Yelling isnt even the worst thing though, it’s when a chef absolutely annihilates you verbally in a calm soothed tone of voice. That shit feels way worse haha!
Great video dude. Just yesterday I found my first time yelling at someone for seasoning steaks with the floor and continued to plate em. Sure felt bad after and apolagized but I would do it again.
Fire them
Man that's rough...some things are common sense but then there's the difference between "laziness" and "not understanding the standards"
I use to yell. But after 25 years of running kitchens, I have learned that it does zero good. I create a positive and peaceful environment. My cooks look forward to coming to work and learning, growing and we fire in all cylinders every service. I highly recommend it.
There is never any reason to yell. Yelling is a pathetic excuse for any chef that simply can’t control their emotions. If you have to resort to a certain tone rather than the content of what you’re saying, you’re doing something wrong.
No, sometimes an authoritative command will put someone back in line when they're losing control
Have you ever had a FOH member come on the line during service lol. I agree with you but it would be hard not to in this case lol
Bro this guy cook frozen meals
I really like the video about chef and cook I really look at myself different I'm 51 and I know I'm a chef know thank you
Thanks for watching Shawn!
This topic need to be spoken about more to help create different perspectives and understandings as to why chefs yell at staff or talk to staff in a commanding way. I had I dishy in my way just the other night during service putting plates away in a very slow fashion. I had 10 covers in front of me at once and he entered my space. I had to take command of my area and tell him to move his butt out of my way immediately. As I didn’t have time for his slow attitude, That’s the polite version. The pressure was on!!!! I have also been in the receiving end so I understand what is like.
amazing pod..
Thanks a bunch!
I feel like yelling at your staff is a reflection of your insecurity that you either feel like you didn't hire the proper person or you don't feel confident in your teaching abilities or you are worried about what others will think of you. It's subconscious of course, but it's an insecurity nonetheless.
If you can't take the heat get out the kitchen...