Friday, March 23, 2012

Paths We Take II - Transitions Into Clarity


 I worked with John Smith at Cullen's in Clear Lake, TX for a time then hired him later when I was at Yelapa.  We made some kind of bond and have managed to keep in touch.  I asked John to share his story because I think that 'industry' people will be able to identify and hopefully get some benefit from these types of accounts.  We'll keep these up as the Order of the Chef continues to grow.  Please let us know your thoughts.  
Thank you, and (as John would say) Namaste.

...trailing off from Part I of this series, the story of a young man riding the restaurant merry-go-round continues as he decides that travel may lead him to a new place...

...West, where I knew nothing or anyone, and better than that no one had heard of me either. And thus started my tour as river-guide/camp-chef.  That lasted a season.  A non-nudity clause was introduced into the employee handbook, as well as another adressing non-fraternization with clients. I had made my mark.  Again.  So a short 18 hour bus ride back to Houston it was.  Again.  

A short jaunt to Boston.  To Colorado.  Then out of nowhere it was 2006.  And with my "charm" and "wit" I somehow landed a job at a stained glass collage of various, now defunct eateries back in the Houston medical center. And go-figure, by sheer coincidence they were owned by the same chef I started with ten years prior, back in 1996.  He, of course, didn't run the show. That was left up to the hands of 'Sanchez' Lopez.  Who, after hearing my fantastical story of travel and pseudo cookery, promptly hired me as his sous chef. Not only for one of the restaurants, but four of them.

My big break, I thought, and it actually was.  Just not a break for fame or fortune.  It was a break for the beginning of a path that I continue to this day.  It took about a week for chef to realize that I had talent, a work ethic, and a small amount of finesse, when I was sober, which started to be less and less often.  Yet he stuck with me.  He never stopped pushing me to learn techniques that I either had forgotten or never learned when I should have.  He began, upon looking back now, to show me what integrity and honesty and standards were.

Then, as I always seemed to do when there was any sign of success, I quit.  I thought we were done. Until three weeks later when he called me back to come work for him again.  I didn't stay long the second time either.  Yet, the seeds were planted. Watered.  Had begun to sprout.  I took some time off - out of the restaurants.To be precise, I took two years.  My desire and love of cooking never waivered.  My return in 2008 found me with a renewed sense of purpose and drive along with a new found sobriety.  

I started out again as the AGM of a corporate Mexican fast casual restaurant. That worked out for a very short time.  Not due to any slight of mine, rather due to the fact that three years earlier that sprout had become a leafed stalk.  A sapling.  And running 17 year olds to the point of passing out was not my idea of fun.  Also, in my spare time I was reading and making anything and everything I could get my hands on in attempt to get my style and chops back from being gone so long.  

Then came Yelapa, and the auspicious reconnection with an old/new chef/beginning friend...

 

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bushido III - Courage

There are seven aspects to the ethical code by which the Samurai composed themselves - Justice, Courage, Benevolence, Politeness, Sincerity, Honor and Loyalty.  I have chosen to spearhead an organization which can help chefs and other service industry professionals to make positive changes in their lives and I believe that those who are looking for change will find it on this path.
  
Each week we will examine one of the aforementioned virtues and see if Bushido may be a good path for the Order of the Chef to use as a guideline in inspiring industry professionals young and old...

COURAGE - the spirit of daring and bearing

These are cheesy, right? ...the motivational posters we've all seen in myriad waiting rooms, eh? ...well even a cliche is a cliche because it carries enough weight to enrich the many.

...doesn't mean you aren't scared, it means you go anyway
Inazo Nitobe calls courage "the spirit of daring and bearing" and says that it is as simple as doing what is right.  It is the active manifestation of the virtue of Justice.  It is quite often the most difficult choice one can make, often involves sacrifice and thus transcends ego by its very nature.

Just as we follow a trend in order to push our business to the next level - or at least to keep up with the Kardashians so to speak - as humans we naturally seek to follow an easily assimilated lifestyle in order to keep our sanity.  Our sense of community.  We want to fit in with our surroundings.  So what if you were to find yourself in a restaurant, bound to 12 hours a day and sometimes with not much to do but wait for the next rush...slow restaurants are like this and can make big problems for people with very active, artistic minds.  Like chefs.

The nature of the restaurant is excess...people don't go out to eat for a special occasion and look for moderation.  The highest selling items are not generally low calorie broths and fruit salads, they're macaroni and cheese, steaks and fries and bourbon milkshakes.  Successful restaurant people know this, its not a big secret.  So in a place steeped in the energy and intention of excess, focused on providing a lush, decadent experience to every finger that touches a water glass in your humble establishment, in a place like that, why would it not follow to naturally attune to the same mindset?

Chefs are artists, someone told me today, and there goes along with the mind and mettle of an artist a tendency for compulsory, irrational and generally addictive behavior.  We sense.  We are experts at the visceral experience of life.  We can rock your world.  What on Earth makes you think we wouldn't know how to rock our own.  And we can do it well - any. time. we. want...

I've heard the argument many times that "I'm using my free will to [insert binge here] and if I just go home and be like all those 'squares' in their cardboard houses, I'll be executing my free will."  I say bollocks to that mentality and instead posit that free will is much more potent when it is used in conjunction with courage.  Courage to go against the norm.  Courage to have a sparkling water at a whiskey bar or eat a banana while you're working the pasta station or to go to a 24 hour gym instead of a 12 hour nightlclub.  Courage which is the spirit of daring and bearing - and to dare to bear the weight of isolation from the only people you see and bond with for 12 hours a day is not an easy spirit to assimilate.  But it helps.

When you can do it.

I don't pretend to be a teetotaler or anything, I go out with the boys and girls to the bars and the dance clubs and have fun on some weekends...and some weekdays.  Then I take time off from that.  And I have a support network, I go to my family and talk and find things to do to kill the time that adds up and is so easy to kill alongside all so many braincells.  I do yoga.  I work out.  I write this crap.  I share my story...and don't even need a dollar to do so.

I had to start somewhere and that was a very dim place from which I have travelled long and byzantine trade winds to uncertain shores by way of bottomless risks, but who can tell the difference between the risks of equally risky paths with absolutely opposite destinations.  Should I risk the next round of shots or the ride to the projects to score or the hours of sitting in stillness, squirming and crying and exorcising demons that most would never notice?  Should I risk exposing and facing my demons or should I risk their raucous festival under cover of shifty handshakes and code names for unscrupulous activities?

Courage has great bearing on the Order of the Chef.  We can help build courage because there is safety in numbers.  Even if you spend 12 hours a day surrounded by phase-happy college kids working a temporary server job while they figure out how to read the road map that leads their thumb finally squirming free of their toothless wonder.  Even if you're buried in prep-work and order-fire tickets from dawn til dusk and your only solace is the local flirt of a bartender who keeps you company from dusk til dawn.  Even then, we can provide a philisophical foundation for your courage.

Everyone carries a seed within them with the potential for great joy and abundant life.  Let's have the courage to find and nurture that seed.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Bushido II - Justice (Rectitude)

There are seven aspects to the ethical code by which the Samurai composed themselves - Justice, Courage, Benevolence, Politeness, Sincerity, Honor and Loyalty.  I have chosen to spearhead an organization which can help chefs and other service industry professionals to make positive changes in their lives and I believe that those who are looking for change will find it on this path.
  
Each week we will examine one of the aforementioned virtues and see if Bushido may be a good path for the Order of the Chef to use as a guideline in inspiring industry professionals young and old...


JUSTICE 

As a foundation for the remaining virtues upheld by those who walk the path of the bushi, Justice demands constant vigilance over one's own actions.  In his definitive treatise on Bushido, Inazo Nitobe defines Justice or Rectitude as "...the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering - to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right."  The path of Justice is not an easy or common path among most people, and so arose the concept of Gi-ri (literally Right Reason) in Japanese culture as an enforcer of Justice among the masses.  


Giri is a concept in Japanese culture that is understood as an obligatory service for those to whom one is indebted.  For a very simple example, if someone takes you into their home in a time of need, you will now have giri to pay back to that person.  This may be as simple as taking them for a nice meal or as severe as taking your own life to save theirs, it all depends upon the people and actions involved.  The concept came about to protect the integrity of family units because when familial love was not motivation enough for someone to do the right thing, the social construct of giri brought a motivation based on personal honor and duty as seen by a public eye.  


There is not enough giri in the culinary world.  There are certain understood rules that can be often difficult for young cooks to learn: show up on time, bring your own knife, give a timely notice if you plan to quit, work in a tidy and timely manner...  For chefs who have done their time in the industry, there is a sort of unspoken code that we have and the more "old school" the chef, the stronger this code seems to hold.  All of these rules, however arbitrary they may seem to an industry novice, can be made obvious by applying Bushido and by having a sense of giri. 
...peer pressure?


Perhaps more importantly, young chefs should be taught to respect and empower themselves in order to better serve their chosen "daimyo".  Often it is too easy for a young cook to be swept up by the popular current of good times and revelry in a new place, trying to fit in and protect a fragile ego.  However, a person on a path founded on Justice will have a much easier time in controlling his behavior and escaping the pitfalls of the restaurant scene.  The primary effect of following a code founded on right behavior is that the student develops a sense of constant vigilance over his actions and sets up a 'guard rail' to keep from slipping into a negative pattern.  Bushido can be a great stepping off point for a person who has demonstrated great Courage by initiating a positive change.