Harvest America CUES BLOG

Walking down the streets in the once most robust city in proximity to my home, I was deeply concerned at what I saw. This was a tradition of early holiday shopping, hoping to beat the maddening crowds that typically flood shopping districts and restaurants this time of year. The stores were empty, and restaurant service… Continue reading

What culinary language do you speak? Are you fluent? Do you use the language properly? Do you show your place of origin through the language you speak? Do you feel connected to your language or is your language dictated by environment? These are serious questions whether talking about your heritage and situational spoken language or… Continue reading

Back in time, I remember a billboard in New York City’s Times Square that asked: “Would You Be Willing To Sign Your Work?” I’m not sure who sponsored the ad, but it left a profound impression on me over the past 50 years. When we sign our work, we take full responsibility for it. “I… Continue reading

When you dedicate a good portion of your life to something – in this case a career, it’s hard to step aside and pass the torch to the next generation. I see this among professionals in so many careers. We hear all kinds of chatter about being past their prime, too old to function at… Continue reading

Even the Michelin Guide broke the ice of snobbery in recent years. How’s that for an introductory sentence? Yes, it’s true – when the Michelin Guide decided to recognize some exceptional street food vendors with Michelin Stars, they broke the barrier of snobbery noting that excellence can happen outside of traditional fine dining. In Singapore,… Continue reading

One of the dilemmas restaurateurs’ face is the approach taken with the management and delivery of a restaurant concept and menu. To make it simple, the restaurant can choose to be either chef centric or restaurant centric. This involves, first and foremost, the decision regarding who to hire as chef and sous chef and the… Continue reading

Think back in personal time. Do you remember when you first discovered how to snap your fingers or whistle? What about that moment when the training wheels came off and you were able to balance and ride your bike independently? Throughout life there were extraordinary moments in time when discovery and learning coincided: driving a… Continue reading

I admit that sometimes I look around at the state of the world and wonder “what is the possible meaning to what I did for a living as a chef”? With all the pain and suffering, mistrust, and angst, and hate and fighting – is there a real benefit to what cooks do daily in… Continue reading

The light, butter rich, flaky pie crust that your mother made without effort; the deep, intoxicating smell of an Italian grandmother’s Bolognese sauce that simmered for hours on the back-burner in preparation for Sunday dinner; the aroma of a steak dripping fat on the coals of your dad’s bar-b-que or the first wood-fired pizza you… Continue reading

Mr. Miyagi was on to something in The Karate Kid. There is a process, a rhythm, and an order to so many things in life. You can’t get to the end game without going through the steps requiring “patience, young grasshopper”. We all need to learn the process, the rhythm, and the order to reach… Continue reading

Ahh…the quote we all remember from Charles Dicken’s – A Tale of Two Cities. We may not remember too much from the rest of the story, but we do remember that line. It is, as our English Literature teacher would have said – a tale of two conflicting realities: light and darkness, hope and despair,… Continue reading

Part Two – The Parable Continues So, here it is – Jack’s first day at the Main Street Grill. He brought his assignment to the chef before suiting up for work. “Chef, I completed your assignment and met with the three chefs.”“So, what did you learn – Jack?”“They were all very nice and took the… Continue reading

(PART ONE) I want to pass on a very important lesson – a lesson that begins the day you walk into that first kitchen job. As soon as you step foot in the kitchen a magical door opens. It is a door that only you have the key to; no one else has the power… Continue reading

Some who work in kitchens can distance themselves from the overwhelming responsibility of the cook or chef, but to others it is a heavy weight to carry. There are masters to serve, people who depend on the work of the culinary professional, who trust that their food will be prepared properly, that it will be… Continue reading

As Summer begins to close its doors and a much cooler Fall and Winter are around the corner – professional cooks and chefs begin to breathe a sigh of relief. What some who are not involved in kitchen life may not realize is just how physical the work is and how draining warmer months can… Continue reading

This may seem like a strange topic for a blog focused on the restaurant industry and the world of food but hear me out. Well, the pandemic is over, wait – no, the pandemic is not over – oh, the pandemic is now an endemic – wait “long-Covid” will be with many of us for… Continue reading

For the past six months I have been committed to an exercise regimen thanks to my Apple Watch. Closing the rings of movement, exercise, and standing has been a goal since I first strapped on the watch, a goal that consumes my attention and cannot be broken for fear that I will simply fall off… Continue reading

The media is in love with the drama, as confessions of abused cooks find ample press time, and despondent cooks who leave the business trash talk their previous employers. It’s all so overdone and not true of the majority. After absorbing all the negative press and glamorized abusive behavior it’s no wonder restaurants are having… Continue reading

The very thing that makes a complex kitchen environment work is the same thing that drives non-culinary folks away from professional chefs. Everything has a place, and everything is in its place, is a mantra that becomes an obsession with cooks and chefs. It is the very act that allows cooks to push through the… Continue reading

An addiction leads to a different way of thinking, or sometimes, not thinking at all. Those who have an out-of-control dependence find it difficult to act rationally, to make clear decisions, to think about their own wellbeing or that of others, to become somewhat irresponsible, and push aside logic. This is true with addiction to… Continue reading

A few years back, I posted an article about the UNWRITTEN RULES of the kitchen. It was an attempt to outline those universal guidelines for success in a kitchen, those attributes, and expectations of anyone who ties on an apron. The article was my first to go viral allowing me to realize that so many… Continue reading

A young cook once said to me: “Why are you so caught up in this ingredient, it’s just a tomato.” I was dumbfounded, it was hard to form the words that should be easy to say so instead, I just stared at him until he finally turned away and went back to work coring and… Continue reading

Most people don’t get it. Most restaurant owners, managers, family members of cooks, friends of cooks and chefs, those in other professions, service staff, and restaurant patrons, don’t get it. Deep inside that crusty exterior, behind the veil of authority, underneath the hard-nosed, sometimes reactionary body of a chef lies a person who is haunted… Continue reading

A few days ago, I decided to hang up my chef’s toque. After 55 years working and teaching in kitchens, it was time to step aside. This did not mean I would no longer be working on something food related, just not at the same level as I had for all that time. Simultaneously, my… Continue reading

These are the most significant words of advice I ever received. I have carried this mantra with me for more than fifty-years, a roadmap to not just success but a model that allows hard working people to sleep at night. It’s a simple directive – no matter what you do, what task you are required… Continue reading

Too often we fail to take a breath and really think about what we are doing as cooks. Some outside the profession may ask: “what’s it like to work in a kitchen and cook for a living?” When was the last time you thought about that or expressed your answer out loud? What is it… Continue reading

The single greatest attribute of a chef is confidence. “I can do this” are the words that rally the team, that instill calm, that pull people together, and attract supporters. This is what draws the very best employees to a restaurant, leads those with the means to invest in the business, and lights up the… Continue reading