Skytop, not on top

During my extern, unfortunately i did not not get the best out of everything. However, i was work 10-12 hour days doing the same thing over and over everyday, so i did get a handle on the exact recipe of ricotta fritters, obsession batter, and how to bake the best already frozen cookie dough. Skytop was not my first choice, it was actually my last, i was going to go to arrows restaurant in Maine, but something had come up the week i was to go and stage.
I feel if i went to a different place i would of had a better experience, i would of wanted to do my work, and go into work everyday with a smile on my face. As i was on my extern i noticed, i wasnt getting paide the amouont they said they were, the business was still slow even though we were middle of june. Later in my extern i learned that in the past couple of years skytop has been slowing down with the economy. If i were to do my extern over again. i would take my time in finding the location, actually keep up with my module, and try harder to get the chefs to move me around so I can't get bored.

Management Styles

During my externship at Bouchon Bakery in California I experienced many different management styles. I wouldn’t say they were bad, but it just meant that I was going to have to learn what each of them wanted out of me and then do that plus more. When I first started I was scheduled to do the 4pm-midnight shift, which gave me an opportunity to work one on one with my pastry chef. She would always jump at an opportunity to help or teach someone something new; which I loved because that meant I got to do a lot of new things. My pastry chef had a lot of experience especially with working within the company, and she had done almost everything there was to do, so if you had a question or needed advice she was the person to talk too.
A couple months into my externship she moved to Beverly Hills to help open another Bouchon Bakery, which also would be closer to home for her. This meant that my sous pastry chef, also my supervisor, became the new pastry chef, and then they hired out of the company for another sous pastry chef. At first, I was really dreading the change because my hours changed, which meant that I’d be working with the new pastry chef. It’s not that I didn’t like her but just knew I wouldn’t be able to do as much with her or I would just be watching most of the time.
A few weeks later I began to understand her and realize that she was really helping me in the long run. Before I was allowed to do a lot of projects with my old pastry chef but now my new on was my making me work for it. I know really look up to my new pastry chef because she was honest, gave back helpful constructive criticism, and only rewarded you when she felt you were working hard and improving at something; she never lied about how she felt something was being done. She pushed me to want to work harder and to learn and ask more questions. At the end of my externship I walked away with winning the dough boy award, her personal email address, and a place for myself in the company if I ever wanted to come back. The first achievement not so big, just a nice pat on the back, but receiving the last two meant that I had proved myself, even if it was just as an extern.

Let your creativity flow

Going on extern I had set a goal for myself to gain a more creative side. I had the basic skills in the kitchen just not the creativity. At my extern The White Elephant in Nantucket MA, it was important to keep a creative mind open. We were all about fresh and local products and any special deliveries that were brought in were used as our daily lunch special and our appetizer special. I found most interesting was what makes a good manager.

My Sous Chef the person who ran all of breakfast and lunch production made me realize what it takes to be a great manager. He was always on top of things in the kitchen and new when orders were getting picked up and what banquets were that day. He was the person who taught me how to be creative and he let me do the lunch special for the day. It might sound lame that I got so excited over a simple lunch special, but it was something I created and people ordered. For the first time I was sure that cooking was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It takes a great person to make you realize that you really love something.

If my Sous Chef hadn’t pushed me so hard everyday and gave me great feedback and reviews I would have had a miserable extern. Great managers who show a positive attitude and show passion for what they do is really what every worker wants to see. My Sous Chef made everyone in the kitchen more energetic and made us all want to be in the kitchen, even if it was at 5 a.m! I don’t agree with the term boomer rang manager, even though it can be confusing if one day the manager expedites and then cooks on the line, you should always be prepared to be able to go from station to station because if something horrible goes wrong you need to be able to react and not waste time. Managers play a key role in the kitchen, without a strong manager shit would hit the ceiling.

A Rotten Tomato

During my senior year of high school, I was looking pretty hard for jobs to qualify my swift CIA admission. My choices were scarce and basically down to which franchise restaurant should I chose from. I looked pretty hard for a decent restaurant to cook in, until I found myself in Waukegan, IL. Walking down the crime filled streets I tripped into Campari Ristorante. It was a new restaurant opened by a young chef named Gabe. I told him that I was desperate for a job to qualify me and I agreed to work for free. I was to work everyday right after school until close.

I was so excited, it was to be my first job in a working restaurant. I was in charge of salad station at first and I got a lot of attention from the 22 year old owner of Campari. He taught me his techniques for pasta and taught me the specials. We worked in a kitchen the size of a small bathroom that fit 2 6-top ovens, a cold table, a two door refrigerator, and a 3-compartment sink. Let's just say, it was a little crammed.

I worked there for about a month and felt pretty good about it. Until I realized how bad the place was suffering. Campari barely made enough to pay for food cost, let alone employee wages. Gabe started dropping people left and right. Acting rude to everyone and just feeling bad for himself. He went out for cigarette breaks every 20 minutes and would occasionally just leave without notice. I tried to learn more, but I didn't see the point of coming in after he put his other prep cook on the salad line and had me mopping floors. It was extremely discouraging to go to work for free when no one cared about you at all.

It all ended one afternoon when I text that prep cook, X, about how I felt. I asked him if he could help me learn more and he agreed to it happily. About an hour later I get a text from Gabe, telling me that he didn't appreciate my rudeness and that he "never wants to see my face again".

You know, I don't know if it was karma, but Campari closed that next day.

Gabe exemplified horrible management and people skills. He drove his own business into the ground in three months. He is someone who couldn't handle all the aspects that a supervisor must be on top of. And, it counts to be nice sometimes, even if you really just don't care.

Managment as a First

During my externship in California at Bottega Restaurant, I came in contact with what I can say is my first major manager control. Before the Culinary Institute of America I worked at Oakley’s Bistro in Indiana during High school. I was pretty much working with the only other dishwasher there starting off in a three comp sink. I worked in that position for 6 months before moving to the automatic washer for another year. Proceeding that I was moved up to the back of the house for another year and a half and finally worked sauté for 6 months. And although my boss was a fellow culinary institute graduate, he applied the “magic apron” method to my training.
Upon departing from the Institute to head west for Bottega, my culinary experiences were about to broaden. Chef Michael Chiarello knew exactly how to train me without a doubt. From the moment I stepped in he introduced me to everyone and showed me inside and out through the kitchen. He put me up in the Garde Manger station and had Chef de Cuisine Nick Richie instruct me every step of the way through menu item process. He and Chiarello took me inside and out in the line of Bottega and managed me all the way up to the last station at grill. They guided me well, corrected me when I was wrong, treated me like an actual human and not just another producer of profit. They listened to my ideas and thoughts and were always gratuitous with me.
Though I had a slight grasp of the kitchen workplace and workforce before I came to the Institute, but I sense being here and extern my knowledge and experience I say has greatly changed. One problem with Oakley’s is that the magic apron method is crude and doesn’t allow for standards to be set or hard work to be accomplished. Everything I have learned up until now has been all interpreted and is expressed most in my work and has been extremely fun learning.

Blogging Saves Trees

As someone who externed in San Francisco, my love for all things tree-hugging and nature has become as big a part of me as my...whoa, alright we won't go there but let's face it my hair has gotten a bit long. Anyway blogging "like totally" saves the trees, and I think saving the trees is good because I enjoy breathing and trees are semi-helpful in the production of oxygen. Who needs paper when you have incredibly confusing technology? Now without any further stalling in an attempt to lengthen this blog, onto the topic: Management.

Where to begin? Like I stated earlier I externed at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, a well known vegetarian restaurant located in the Fort Mason District. I had the privilege of being around for Greens 31^st anniversary celebration. I don’t have to tell you that a restaurant that exists for 31 years is no small feat. There are a number of factors that have attributed to the success of Greens. The beautiful location of the restaurant (Fort Mason is literally located on the bay with a view of the golden gate bridge), the food (one of the first vegetarian restaurants in the nation to serve upscale and gourmet vegetarian food), the staff (a very knowledgeable and friendly front of house staff), great raw materials (it’s San Francisco so of course the local produce is going to be amazing), and the management to a certain degree. My experience with Greens’ management was hit and miss over my 5 months as a cook there. There were times when everything seemed to run very smoothly, food went out fast and efficiently, there was always enough of the proper product available, and the quality of the food was good. However on these nights there would usually be problems with the front of the house manager and the servers he supervised. Servers wouldn’t run the food; they would come in and grab the complimentary bread and butter for the guest without taking any food out to the customer. This was a problem that would often infuriate my usual kitchen manager who would then start yelling and make life for the line cooks more difficult than it needed to be. Over the time I was at Greens this did change somewhat but depending on who was running the front of the house these bad habits seemed to rear their ugly head every now and then.

Was this to say that the back of the house management was always at peak performance and only would break down due to the front of house’s mistakes? No of course not. The same kitchen manager that would be infuriated by the front of house staff, would often infuriated that same staff. He yelled a lot at certain servers, would make fun of people when they made mistakes, would rarely help out someone when they were in the weeds, and who’s temper was just not enjoyable to be around. He was a decent cook, and he would often boomerang, coming back behind the line often to cook and let someone else expedite.

The man who did the majority of the ordering and scheduling was also somewhat of a bumbling buffoon. A very nice guy but he screwed up more than he succeeded. He would order the wrong product, not check deliveries, worked a 9-5 schedule (in a restaurant…seriously), and he would mess up scheduling…and in an attempt to fix his mistakes call the people of whom he forgot to schedule and tell them that they were supposed to come in (despite not being scheduled).

These are just a few negative comments on the overall management scale, and it is only the negative comments. There are a lot of positives to the management at Greens but that is another story for another time. You don’t thrive for 31 years without doing something correct. A lot of good examples and bad examples of management but the negatives are sticking out to me more at the moment.

Learning From Example

Now being a post extern student at the CIA brings about a lot of new things in my life. One, being the realization of how important a good leader is, what they should be like, and why I need to groom myself to become more of a leader. While on extern at Abigail Kirsch Catering, I saw examples of very good leaders, some being supervisors in the kitchen, and some being actual managers. Also, I unfortunately was subjected to an example of a bad leader; or an executive chef who did not know how to relate to his employees as people. Seeing this on extern really made me think a lot, especially on those long production days. I was able to observe Chef’s interactions with the other employees while I tried to identify why chef had such a problem with his employees.

The problem was not so much as confrontation, as much as it was just a lack of respect for the employees, who then would not listen to what Chef had to say because he didn’t treat them with respect. Chef did not treat his employees like they had any experience at all, he would tell someone what to do without letting the employee have any say or opinion. It was his was or the highway! That really bothered me and showed me what not to do as a future manager. One other major issue was the fact that because he was so much higher up than the cooks in the kitchen, if someone was doing something wrong, he would not directly go to the cook; he would get a supervisor to correct the employee. That to me shows some disrespect to his staff and in turn is bad for the company.

Although I mention bad examples, Abigail Kirsch was full of great Chefs and supervisors who made my extern such a learning experience by showing me great examples of managers. See that opened my eyes to the right ways to communicate and manage employees so that you have respect and trust from your staff. Your employees are the most important part of the business and thus should be treated that way. For the time when I need to be a manager and a leader, I will already have knowledge to do my job correctly and efficiently.

Bad Example of Management

When I stated working in this field I was just a freshman in high school. My first job was at a local fine dining Italian restaurant. The owner was also the executive chef, and his girlfriend was the manager. Although I learned many things working at this restaurant, the main thing I learned was how not to manage people. During service when he was behind the line he would throw plates at waiters, and hot saute pans at the dishwashers. He would get very angry whenever a waitress put in a new order, and he was often heard by customers yelling profanities at waitresses and everyone else who worked at the restaurant. One night I even witnessed my boss throw dirty mop water on a busboy whom he had just fired. Everyone in the restaurant avoided contact with him because he was so unapproachable. Instead of asking questions, people would rather just guess about what had to be done because either way they were going to get screamed at. While I was able to ignore him and last there for over a year, many people were not and left shortly after starting. This created more work for me because I often was thrown the responsibility of training the new employees by the manager because she “didn’t have time.” Many nights I had to stay later then everyone else to bring the owner and his girlfriend, the manager, their dinner and clear the table. This dumping of jobs constantly happened. Eventually I had enough and left the restaurant, however returned roughly a year later after he moved to a new location hoping it would be different. Nothing had changed about the owner or his girlfriend’s management style so I left just a short time after I started. This goes to show you that bad habits are hard to change and taught me how not to manage and treat people.

Who is more important?

In the food industry, some debate on who to take care of and who is the most important: the owner, the employees, or the guests. They are all very important, in my opinion, when it comes to the establishment. Most of the class on Thursday said the employees should be taken care of first so they can make the guests happy and that will make the owner happy. This is definitely the perfect scenario for our industry, but this doesn’t always work out. The Greenbrier, the place where I completed my externship was more than willing to make the staff happy so we could please the guests. I was lucky enough to experience this while it lasted. The Greenbrier was going through many changes while I was there. They opened up a brand new casino, along with the re-opening of one restaurant, and two brand new restaurants. During this time this establishment was extremely short staffed, and the employees were the ones that suffered. Everyone was on mandatory overtime with no guaranteed days off. Many employees went a month with no days off as well as working twelve-hour shifts. The employees weren’t happy, but we still had to give the guests five-star service. We were expected to keep our standards at all times. This was very difficult at times due to exhaustion and frustration, but we still did our best.

Boomeranging

My first week of Management, I found myself feeling a bit uninspired by most of our discussions in class. As someone who was affectionately referred to as ‘kid’ on extern, I find it hard to believe that I will some day manage a kitchen. I find it even harder to believe that that day may come sooner than I realize. The first topic discussed in class that sparked an intense interest in me was the ideal of a boomerang manager. I found this so curious not because I firmly believe in avoiding this behavior, but because I disagree to a certain extent. I completely understand the importance in embracing the role of a manager and realize how tricky it can be to make that transition. However, I think it is equally important to occasionally revisit the role which one once played.

I was fortunate enough to work with someone on my externship that inspired me on a daily basis. I immediately felt from my sous that there was no reason why I couldn’t do any one thing that I was asked to. He had complete faith in me, and over my eighteen weeks, demanded that I also have faith in myself. My boss was is an excellent role model in all respects, but the most impressive thing he ever did was pick up a broom.

The first time my sous swept the floor of the basement prep kitchen, I swear my stomach dropped into my butt. That was definitely something he should have asked me to do, or rather that was something I should have known to do without asking. Wearing the guilt on my face, my boss responded, “That’s one thing I haven’t learned yet kid; I’m still such a mess.” He would sweep up after himself a few more times, snatch prep work from me simply because he wanted to, and say or do other small things that made him wonderfully relatable. In this case I found that occasionally boomeranging gained my sous immense levels of respect and even adoration. Because he otherwise strongly maintained his role as a supervisor, his visits to the world of an extern were never taken for granted and certainly always appreciated. From my sous, I learned the importance of embracing the role as ‘boss’, but also never forgetting what it means to be a ‘kid’.

Blue Moon

I turn and quickly glance at the clock on the wall. It is nine-thirty; half an hour before close. In front of me an old bus tub full of dishes from the last table. I grab a dish and bang it against the side of the garbage can next to me, spray it off, and place it in a rack. I repeat the process until there is nothing but a small pool of sauce with grains of soy soaked rice floating throughout the tub. I slide the Tetris of dishes into the dish washer, close the hood, and press the button. As it runs, I clean the sink of all the debris, remove my gloves and apron, and make my way to the front of the restaurant. I walk past the bar to see my owner, Moon, sitting in the waiting area staring out the window. The reflection reveals his eyes, and that Look of despair will forever ripple in my mind. I call to him, “Moon, I’m going for a cigarette.” As he turns, he changes face, forces a small smile, and nods. I sit on an old soy sauce bucket in the back of the restaurant and reflect on that look I have seen so many times. That Look of not knowing what to do to bring in money. The worry of losing your business because nothing you have tried has worked. That Look comes to mind often when sitting in class.

Our discussion of having a balance of technical skills and managerial merit was the first to spark this memory. I remember countless days my owner had to step up and boomerang back to cooking tables because of understaffing, when he should have been focusing on the restaurant as a whole. He was a very proud man, and felt like he had to do it all himself. It was his restaurant. All the money was counted by him, the purchasing, receiving, overseeing the daily operation of the kitchen and front of house was all done by one man. I knew even before stepping foot in Hyde Park that this was not how a restaurant should be run. Having these memories engrains the importance of setting yourself up for success with a good staff, and being able to trust them enough to let them work independently. Knowing your staff will produce up to your standards without micromanaging frees up time to look at the bigger picture. To do so, you need to lead by example and motivate your staff by simply showing that you are technically sound, that you possess strong interpersonal skills, and have a positive outlook of the future of the establishment. When considering opening my own restaurant I will take in consideration what I have learned in class, but no amount of schooling can teach me more than that Look I cannot forget.

A Taste of Management

During my externship at Meadowood Napa Valley I experienced different management styles in the two kitchens I worked in, both of which consistently produced quality food. The first kitchen I was in was the Restaurant at Meadowood. It is a 2-Michelin star restaurant that offers up contemporary California cuisine. The chef running the kitchen was very much a Theory X manager with an Autocratic leadership style. While he was very personable and friendly outside once in the kitchen he was constantly yelling and haranguing especially during service. Even when he made jokes they were at the expense of someone. While he certainly had the Conceptual and Technical Skills necessary to create food worthy of the 2 stars, his Interpersonal Skills were definitely lacking and it showed. During my 18 weeks there was considerable staff turnover, certainly more than I saw in the next kitchen I worked in.

Following my time at the Restaurant I moved to the Banquets kitchen. This kitchen was run in a completely different way. The chef had a Participative leadership style and practiced Humanistic Management. While he also expected you to work hard and deliver he was always there with you in the trenches. He was always in a good mood and took the time to inquire about your well-being. The result of this was that the staff in the kitchen was extremely loyal to him with most having been there for at least 5 years. Some of my colleagues in this kitchen were even offered jobs in the Restaurant and turned it down because of the way the chef there managed. The food that came out of the Banquets kitchen did not suffer because of the Democratic leadership style. In fact it was of high quality with plates that looked restaurant worthy.

Working the Plate

My externship was at Quaker Ridge Golf Course in Scarsdale, New York. My chef Raymond Hollanda is a very, very patient man, he pretty much has the perfect demeanor for a chef. One day, a couple weeks into the externship we were in the middle of a rush and they needed a fruit platter; Raymond asked me to plate one, after getting the fruits, knife, and cutting board, I started hacking off the skin and clearly did not know the proper way to de-skin a honeydew, cantaloupe, or the pineapple, we did not have any classes at CIA that taught us how to properly break down whole fruits, so I did what I thought was right... next ting I knew Chef came over during the middle of service and all the busyness and called over Alex. He showed Alex and I how to properly break down the fruits and how to place them on the platters. Raymond did not yell, he was not angry, he was just happy to teach us something to us that we needed improving on, he showed us how to curve your wrist and contour it to the different fruits and stayed with us until we got the hang of it, he was not glaring or impatient waiting on us to get it correct, he helped us until we had the finished product. From then on, we were assigned to do all of the fruit platters when asked. The Sous Chef, at Quaker Ridge, Chris is an Italian man who is sort of impatient but full of life. Chris is always looking for the next project to complete and the next task to jump into. He did not beat around the bush, what ever is on his mind; he will let you know it without hesitation. Chris and Raymond make the perfect team. I feel I was lucky to find a very welcoming, informant, externship. Chris and Raymond have pretty much mastered how to teach and treat people in the hellish kitchen settings.

Leading by example combined with light atmosphere breeds chemistry.

While on extern I had the pleasure of working under an extremely patient and hands on Chef. Raymond, My chef had a great sense of humor and greatly appreciated humor within the kitchen which mad the day go by quicker. The main thing I admired about this man was his tremendous work ethic. The amount of work that Raymond would put in within a day was amazing. He worked six days a week over 13 hours a day, and he never got tired. In his spare time Raymond runs marathons. In fact every year Raymond runs the New York City marathon and then comes into work and puts in a solid 10 hours. As I read over the the previous blogs I noticed that most of the chefs mentioned were very hands off. I find this very disturb and frankly it makes me challenge the integrity the leaders in our industry. I'm I'll about a chef expediting and observing others work but if you observe while participating and help your coworkers I think it makes your people respect and admire you more. There were times when Raymond would disappear and clean an entire walk in by himself. Twice I saw the man on his hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floors with the dishwashers. Raymond loved to work the al la carte hotline and many night I found myself shoulder to shoulder with the man throwing out covers at an amazing pace. It was amazing to see a true Manhattan veteran work the line. I learned so much from Raymond by simply watching his work habits and movements. He taught me to always look behind me when moving onto a new job so that you dot leave a mess that snowballs into a disaster. Raymond also loved to joke. He was very mischievous and with the combination of sous chef Chris, myself, a band of mexicans, and two African dishwashers the kitchen was fun place with a lot of laughing. That kitchen was incredibly comfortable and I relish the opportunity to work with Raymond or Chris in the future. The point of my ranting is that actions always speak louder then words and leading by example, patience, and humor will ultimately give you the respect of your coworkers and inevitably make them work hard for you.

Is it a good thing to be scared of your supervisor?

In class, we discussed the roles and characteristics of a good leader. On my externship site I was extremely lucky to have an excellent leader as the executive chef. From the accolades alone, you can tell he was doing something right. Everyday, my chef would enter the kitchen and shake hands with every person in our kitchen. Having such a large staff, this took him quite awhile, but he always would make the rounds to ask how everyone’s day was. Even the Dominican dishwashers were included in his morning greetings, where he would say, “hola” and ask them what music was in the headphones they were listening to on their way in. He truly tried to make everyone feel at home. Although, he seemed to be the six-foot four, super hero in whites, everyone does have their flaws. His are still questionable to me.

As welcoming as he was, there was always a sense of urgency to check on your own work when he walked through the door. Whether this was to impress him, I’m not so certain. It almost seemed as though people bustled around to make sure their mis en place wouldn’t get them screamed at and “sent to the corner”. It seemed that chef was not hesitant to embarrass the staff in front of everyone. This brings to my attention the question: is it okay for employees to be slightly nervous around their supervisor? It was beneficial in the sense that everyone was on point while he was there. It brought up standards because you knew anything less than perfect wouldn’t be accepted. However, if something was wrong it was on you to fix it, without help. It also brought a level of anxiety to the kitchen to quickly scrub down, check your work, and perfect every inch of your station and appearance. I am yet to decide on my opinions of this technique in management because both sides seem to have their positives and negatives. Maybe other people can comment or have similar experiences?

passing the buck

at my extern site there was a lot of dumping of jobs. people working there just didnt want to do work. everyone would put stuff off until the manger or chef would tell them to do it. even when that happen they would tell someone else to do it. i would be setting up the main expo with ice and all the garnishes that the final plates needed and a manger would come up to me and tell me to go work on another job. so doing as i was told i would go work on that job and as i was working on it the same manger would come up to me and start yelling at me that the expo was not set up completely. i would respond you told me to stop doing that and work on this. by then they realized that they were the one who told me to stop so they would not say a word turn around and walk away. there were two more examples of this. one of them was when the manger went up to someone on the line and asked them to prep and the person said no to the manger so they turned around and came to me and told me to go and prep while i was prepping for my station on the line to go and do this so i had drop everything and go prep. the other example was the chef asked the manger to go take inventory of the walk in. so that manger came to me and told me to take inventory of the walk in so i did. i saw the chef go up to the manger and ask them to go inventory the walk in, but i did not say a word. it just showed me how lazy people really are

michael 'scarf' scarfuto

Good and bad

I had a great time during my externship I was able to see and learn a lot. During my externship I was able to do anything I wanted to learn like butchering meat and fish, working the line, and working important banquets. The people I worked with were all great. They hard working and always had very uplifting spirits they are the kind of people that you just always want to work with. They make you want to come into work and smile. The Executive chef who was from Johnson and Wales by the way was the same way. Very nice always welcomed you and was willing to teach you anything as long as you were willing to be taught.

If I were to rate my externship on management though I don’t think I would rate them very high. The chef would always hide in the office when there seemed to be a problem. Even though you knew he was pleased he did not like to give positive feedback. When you asked questions about something that should have been ordered by him he would put the blame on somebody else. In other words he did not like to take responsibly for things that were his. When you would try to give him some advice he would give you a look like who are you to tell me that I should do this. Also his way of training was welcome to the line here is a pair of tongs and a towel good luck. In other words he would kind of just throw you in to the fire and wish you luck. In my Option I think for some people that might be ok and for me it turned out ok but I do wish it would have been a little bit of a longer of a training time.