Work Ethics You Can Learn From the Chefs

Culinary, or cooking in general, is one of the most intricate yet special types of profession. You have to pay attention to detail from time to time in order to produce excellent dishes. However, cooking is not just about chopping vegetables and preparing meals. In fact, any other profession is not based solely on what you do but rather on who you are and how you act as a person.

Your work ethic and attitude are really all that matters. No diploma nor experience could ever suffice for you to succeed in any profession if you have a negative attitude, especially towards other people. Cooks or chefs who possess good work ethics and a positive attitude make a great team. On the other hand, cooks who think highly of themselves and mistreat others are more or less bound to get stuck in a position and could never get promoted. This is why wherever you are, whatever your profession is, it’s always best to learn and practice not just good work ethics but good manners and right conduct in general.

Don’t Work Like a Caveman:

These are the exact words of renowned French chef Daniel Boulud. According to Chef Boulud, a clean workplace helps in clearing your mind and gaining control over your tools and your employees. Aside from that, you are setting an example when you clean up your mess. Your trainees or employees will eventually learn and adapt to this particular habit or work ethic.

Chef Boulud suggests that if your workspace gets too messy, start cleaning up, place your tools on areas where they ought to be, and organize your kitchen if possible. Kansas City cabinet refacing offers a great deal of cabinet renovation and reorganization, should you consider completely revamping your workspace. This can significantly help you in an orderly setup because cabinet refacing allows you to install multiple drawers and other organizers.

Passion:

“Recipes don’t work unless you use your heart!” --Chef Dylan Jones

Action without passion is useless. Don’t work, chop vegetables, and prepare meals just for the sake of earning money. Or don’t try spending too much time in the kitchen only to come up with a new recipe. Everything has got to come from the heart. You have to mix passion with action. Without the heart, everything is pointless. Without your passion, food will taste as bland as how you were in the process of making it. Always make it a point to add a little bit of your heart to anything that you do, to your craft. Functioning without passion, inspiration, or motivation will only leave you empty and burnt out in the long run.

This is another take-home lesson from Chef Boulud. He says that there would be no great chef if there weren’t a great team. He acknowledges his whole team, every single one of them. Why? Because there’s no greater or lesser person when it comes to a group. No one is more important than anyone, and no one is also the least important. A team works together to produce good craft. In this case, to produce good food. A chef on his own cannot stand alone. You will always be needing help from others. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Your weakness may be someone’s strength; that’s why you really need to rely on your team sometimes.

In line with teamwork is companionship. Just like what Chef Prudhomme said, there’s nothing more wonderful than having another chef. A companion to whom you can share ideas and new learnings and insights with.

Perseverance:

Failure shouldn’t be seen as something negative; as a dead end. In fact, failure paves the way for new opportunities. According to Chef Chang, their team aims to succeed, and despite failure, they still do strive to reach their goals. This only means that they do not want to become stagnant. Instead, their team wants to continually grow and learn from their failures so that they can succeed in many different ways. Failure shouldn’t shut you down; it’s supposed to wake you up and keep you working hard to achieve your goals.

Passing Down of Knowledge:

Learning doesn’t have to end in learning alone. When you discover something new, the goal is to be good at it and eventually pass it onto someone, so they can cultivate their skills and be good at it as well. The same thing goes for the culinary industry. As a chef, you should learn how to pass on to the next generation all the things you have learned and experienced so that they too, can learn, train, and pass it on to the next. Learning and experience should fall into a closed loop system and a never-ending cycle. Through this, there will always be added innovation and new experiences to the original one.

Wrapping Up:

Good work ethics are a significant factor in any profession or industry. Companies may look at your diploma, educational background, and experiences, but what most companies today really search for are individuals who know how to adapt to their environment, compromise, and work with a team. People with negative attitudes are most likely to get stuck in a loophole and experience burnout. However, for passionate people who know good work ethics, then you probably have a long way to go, whichever career path you will be taking in the future.