Chefs have big egos. This is not opinion it is fact. I’m not saying this as a criticism, I’m just saying it. We work ourselves to death to just make it through the days but along the way little by little we develop more than just self management skills. We develop our own styles of cooking and dealing with products and in many, much more important cases how to deal with people. The latter skill has proven to be just as important as any other that i have acquired over my years in kitchens and restaurants in general. I can teach anyone how to cook but I can’t teach anyone how to look past themselves and see the bigger picture of what it takes to be a part of something beyond what they are doing in that singular intense moment. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a skill that I have mastered or have any desire to. This journey is just getting good. But like cooking, with every passing shift and the bumps and bruises that accompany those shifts I learn a little more about myself and just where and when my weaknesses stand out. On the other hand, I am also getting to a point in my career where I can honestly and for the first time say that I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about my approach to cooking or management. Because at the end of the day these lessons that I am trying so hard to figure out can only be learned in one school, the one of hard knocks (yeah, that was pretty corny and predictable).
I have worked countless special dinners with countless chefs and their egos. There are a ton of talented folks out there just as there are a ton of talented frauds out there. More often than not when we (chefs) get together for a collaborative dinner it just turns into a big pissing match. Everyone wants to make sure that their dishes get top billing and the only way to do that is to turn into a bulldog and passive aggressively make it happen. I know this because I have fallen into that trap and it is not fun especially if you are contributing to the negativity as well. Not all events go this way, I have worked side by side with many of the great Pittsburgh chefs and had a blast doing so. I am not saying that all chefs are passive aggressive jerks I’m just saying that we all have a bit of asshole in us and are bound to let it show every now and again.
So, the Lamb Dinner at Salt last night was an all together different story and unlike anything that I have ever been a part of. From the first dish concepts to the final execution and finishing touches it was truly an invigorating experience. At one point or another I had crossed paths with all of the participating chefs at different points in our careers. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but whatever it was had nothing in common with what ended up happening. Last night was the most fun that I have had cooking in a long, long time. Maybe ever. Much of the credit for the success of last night’s event I give to our collective egos and our abilities to check them without completely abandoning the confidence that got us all to this point in the first place. Everyone seemed to have brought their “A” game but it was different. It was and is as if there aren’t anything but “A” games and that was made it so fun. We weren’t trying to do amazing food we were just doing amazing food collectively as one cohesive expression of our love of this craft. There weren’t any weird moments when someone didn’t agree with someone else about bullshit minutia. We were operating with complete trust and respect for one another’s skill level and overall vision for execution of each dish, and it was beautiful!
Truly a special night for me.
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