For generations – excellent meant complicated, intense, all-consuming, and sacrifice. Kitchens of great renown are staffed with dozens of talented young cooks, some even there as a stagiere – working just to learn and build their resumes. Meticulously clean kitchens; pristine, starched chef whites; the very best equipment and ingredients from around the world. Fifteen-hour workdays, no time for anything but the pursuit of excellence. Guests spending hundreds of dollars for a memorable meal and making reservations months in advance just to garner a seat. Wine lists that resemble an encyclopedia of the wine making craft are just the price of admission. It’s an incredibly difficult life, one that only a few have been able to master. The price they pay is a lack of balance in their lives, relentless stress, and always concerns about when their star will lose its shine.

Ah…but there are signs of change. A growing number of chefs are shifting their attention to independent operations that focus on foods with wider appeal that need a commitment to excellence. Cooking should be fun and designed to make all involved – happy. So where are the opportunities to do just that while providing a taste of excellence to a wider audience?

Start here: let’s make the world’s best, no comparison, out-of-the-park, mind-blowing, can’t even describe how good this… (fill in the blank) is.

[]       SANDWICHES: Think about the details: either produce, or find the absolute best, crusty exterior and rich, moist interior bread to be found anywhere on the planet. Now, make sure that the vegetables on the sandwich are at their peak and reflective of the season: don’t serve raw tomatoes outside of July and August. Out of season – do something interesting with tomatoes (oven roasted, marinated, sun-dried tomato paste, etc.) Make the tomato an experience. Don’t just slice a red onion for this sandwich – do something with it: pickled, grilled, sauteed, onion jam, etc. You’re a chef, don’t take the easy route of buying pre-cooked cold cuts for your meat – roast, smoke or braise your own; make it your signature and let the customer see the product being sliced in front of them. Cheese should be from a local or regional cheesemaker and let the customer know where it came from and why it’s so special. And then…dressings, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, or just olive oil – search for the best or whenever possible – make your own signature versions. Make the sandwich your life’s work. Act as if your family name was on the line. Leave your customers speechless and your employees beaming with pride. Finally, take care to wrap this work of art correctly. Wrapped with care in parchment paper, sealed with a stamp that embraces your logo, include an information sheet that outlines the source of ingredients, the history of your restaurant, and what goes into bringing this sandwich to the guest. Slide the works into a custom, recyclable bag with your logo and pass it on to the customer with a smile and “thanks for choosing us.” Approach the sandwich as a professional chef approaches the presentation of a fine dining meal – just without the pretention and costly trimmings that fine dining requires.

[]       PIZZA: Ahhh…one of America’s and the world’s top menu items. This was, after all, a peasant food, but now is in a class all to its own – from utility to high cuisine. There is pizza and there is pizza. There are pizza makers and then there are pizzaiolos just as there are cooks and there are chefs or there are bartenders and there are mixologists.

With only flour, water, salt, and a leavening agent – the dough that is seemingly simple, can take a lifetime to master. Make it your quest to understand, relish, respect, and create the very best dough and in-turn, the very best crust to be found from coast to coast. Respect tradition but don’t be held prisoner to all that is expected. Find your own voice in a market that is filled with 74 thousand pizzerias in the U.S. alone. Make it your goal in life to stand out, to be a pizza destination, to have customers stand around the block for a chance to bite into a piece of your pie. Make your sauce with the very best San Marzano tomatoes, search for the finest, fresh, Buffalo mozzarella, top with seasonally exceptional vegetables, call for a regional charcutier to make special sausages for your pizza alone, and grow your own herbs that fill the restaurant space with the fragrance of basil, oregano, thyme, chive, tarragon, and mint. Choose your oven wisely. Travel and experience what others have worked with for decades. Will it be gas, electric, wood-fired, or even coal? If wood – what type of wood produces the best results? Like those life-changing sandwiches, choose your packaging wisely and take every opportunity to let the guest know about the ingredients, their source, your relationship with them, and how your process, from start to finish, sets your pizza apart from the competition. Make pizza your life’s work.

[]       TACOS: Everybody loves tacos. Everybody loves food that you can hold in your hands. Tacos have become a staple in American diets, but in the process have almost been relegated to commodity status. A taco without history, without emotion, without a commitment to excellence may as well be categorized in the same silo as toaster waffles. Like a sandwich that depends on the quality of bread to really define itself, the taco is all about the tortilla. If tacos are your thing, then the tortilla must be revered, must become a life’s work, must be made in-house. If you want to exude excellence in your taqueria then you will grind the dried corn to make your own masa and shape it with care, rolling or pressing it into perfect corn tortillas, and griddle them to order. The quality of the taco depends on this ingredient. The beauty of the taco is that a tortilla can be wrapped around nearly anything and make it great. Set yourself apart from everyone else through the ingredient combinations that become your signature. Although Mexico and the Yucatan neighbors may claim ownership of the taco, you can build fusion cuisine options that use the tortilla as the unifier. Make sure those ingredients pay homage to seasonality, indigenous origin, spectacular technique, and depth of flavor. Make sure everything is made in house just like that fine dining chef would do for a ten- course tasting menu. Package it with reverence and class, and by all means, tell the story in the same way that is suggested for sandwiches and pizza. Your goal should be to become the mecca for taco lovers, a restaurant that people build their vacations around, and locals make part of their weekly routine. Build a taco experience that receives a nod of approval from those who boast their life from the taco’s point of origin. Make tacos your life.

[]       SOUP: Those images of the soup nazi on the show: Seinfeld, focus on a soup menu so unique, so good, so over the top, that people are willing to stand in line and follow the unusual protocol that the chef demands or face the consequences: “no soup – one year!” Soup is, to many chefs, a measure of a cook’s talent. Soup is universally one of those items that provides comfort, memories, and stability. Soup can be a “way to use leftovers” or a product that defines the very best of planning and process. Soup can be an inexpensive way to fill stomachs or an elevated product that attracts the most educated consumers and critique by those in the know. Seek to create your world-class reputation for the best Clam Chowder in New England, the Best Crab Bisque in the NYC dining scene, a life-changing version of Louisiana Gumbo, or a “get on a plane to try” Tuscan Bean Soup in a chef-owned diner in a Chicago suburb. Don’t accept anything less than total domination of a product or product type. Be the benchmark of excellence for others to admire and try to emulate.

Excellence need not be reserved for those who can afford it, nor must it require an army of cooks and service staff, the most sophisticated equipment on the market, a cadre of marketing experts to promote, and a million-dollar wine cellar. Chefs can stand out for their total commitment to even the simplest of menu items and fulfill their need to be “all-in” without giving their entire life to its pursuit. There is a need for excellence in everything from a $15 hamburger to a $200 (break the bank account) per person tasting menu. Chefs – find your avenue for expression and never lose your commitment to doing it right. At the same time – you deserve to have a life.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

“Work Hard and be Kind” – Dick Cattani

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