A Chef Can Do It All

The first restaurant I worked at, the head chef and owner did everything. I bring this up because in class we talked about the man in the video who failed because he was a boomerang chef. I worked under Stanley Novak who puts in sixteen hour days every day for months while he puts in a garden for produce he uses in his cuisine, does his own landscaping, is a perp cook, a line cook, does pay roll and trains staff for front of the house and back of the house, while writing his own seasonal menus and cleans the entire kitchen everynight after service. He tore his ACL, went in for surgery on Monday, the only day his place is closed and set up for Tuesday the next morning. I worked there for two and a half years, and only ever saw him take 1 sick day. I would like to say now that his establishment has been in buisness for over 16 years, and has been voted one of New Jerseys top five restaurants more then once. His credentials are outstanding, and before he aquired a new pastry chef, he baked fresh bread, rolls, and pizza dough every several days, while doing most of the dessert work himself. It is possible to do everything and be succesful. All he ever asked of his staff was that we try as hard as he does. Because of him I do not look at chefs who have a hand in everything as failures, or someone that can not rely on a team, but simply someone who stays on top of their livelyhood.