We may all understand the training process for cooks: develop strong knife skills, identify ingredients, know the foundational cooking methods like the back of your hand, building a cook’s palate, and developing an eye for enticing plate presentations. Cook’s may start with prep or breakfast cook shifts and then gradually work through all the stations until someday, once their competence, confidence, and speed are evident – they arrive as a sous chef. But what determines if they are truly serious about the craft? Seriousness demands that they love what they do, appreciate those who produce the ingredients used, connect seamlessly with the team, know what the guest experience is, and enjoy learning more every day.

         A cook is serious when they can rattle off the seasonal differences in a carrot or onion, school others about how animals are raised to produce the finest cuts of meat, demonstrate the right way to cast a line for salmon fishing, point to the anatomy of an animal and describe the right method of cooking based on muscle characteristics, and describe, in detail, which wine, from a particular vineyard and a specific year, offers the best pairing with items on a menu, and admire proper service technique that raises the dining experience to a different level. Unfortunately, much of this is left to chance and rarely encouraged by restaurants. This type of training takes time and is expensive (such is the claim by restaurateurs and chefs), but I would argue that this is one of the most important investments you can make in building an extraordinary experience for your guests and for driving revenue as well as return guests.

         If you are an accomplished chef or restaurateur, think about why this is so. Maybe you have traveled extensively; you may have come from a family that appreciated great food and dining and made sure that you experienced that during your youth.  Maybe you grew up on a farm and know the work involved and how to nurture great ingredients. Or maybe, just maybe, you worked for a chef or restaurant that knew how important it was for you to have experiences as well as learned processes.

         Serious cooks not only have exceptional skills, but they are also well versed in every aspect of food and quality food experiences. They have benchmarks of excellence to point to, a breadth of historical perspective and an appreciation for the time and effort it takes to do everything right – to sweat the details. So, what is your role in building serious cooks? If you are a chef determined to build something great, then I would encourage you to invest in exceptional training.

         Make sure that your cook development program includes:

[]       AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPERIENCE DINING (in your restaurant and occasionally others that excel at providing experiences)

[]       FREQUENT FIELD TRIPS TO FARMS, COMMERICAL FISHING, AND RANCHES FOCUS ON CARED FOR ANIMALS

[]       STAGIERE EXPERIENCES IN DIFFERENT RESTAURANTS, FARMS, FISHING BOATS, ARTISAN CHEESE OPERATIONS, BREAD BAKERIES, WINERIES AND CRAFT BREWERIES

[]       WINE TASTINGS, DISTILLED BEVERAGE TASTINGS, BEER TASTINGS

[]       TRAVEL TO FOOD DESTINATIONS (take your cooks to major food cities for inspiration – New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, etc.)

[]       BUILD ALL OF THIS INTO THEIR SCHEDULES, PAY THEM TO PARTICIPATE, REQUIRE THAT THEY SUMMARIZE THEIR EXPERIENCES AND GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT WHAT THEY LEARNED TO OTHER COOKS

I guarantee, if you follow this process – the food in your pass will improve, the culinary team will become more focused, ingredients will be cared for because they appreciate how hard it was to produce them, food waste will decrease and food cost will improve, and…you will attract and retain great employees because they see you are investing in them. The cost of operating this way will be offset by so many other gains that impact the bottom line.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER – INVEST IN YOUR COOKS

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