Share
My brother-in-law runs a restaurant in Mumbai. I have always known it to be a tough job. You can’t work from home, for instance. You need to be there and on your feet all the time. The hours are long and the holidays are almost non-existent. When we made a weekend plan it simply meant that he wouldn’t be able to make it.
Diners though mostly nice can also be entitled. As someone who writes about food I’ve often wondered how an experience of eating out which brings so much joy to many of us takes so much to put together. It’s almost like a film that releases. All glossy on screen and years of hard work from so many people to be able to create that piece of art.
As an audience we are quick to judge and share our opinions. As diners we are hard to please as well. Is that why the stress levels in the hospitality industry are high? It’s a high pressure job which has been in certain cases referred to as toxic as well.
For those of you who have seen the much talked about 2022 American movie, The Menu, remember the climax when Chef Julian Slowik played by Ralph Fiennes has his moment or The Bear, a show that delves into the pressures of running a professional kitchen? While real-life kitchens may not always be as extreme, the underlying challenges of high stress, physical demands, and hierarchical pressure are very much present.
When I meet some of the most celebrated chefs in the industry as a food writer, they are usually always at their best. The food and the immaculate presentation is always on point and the chef is smiling. I don’t get to see the goof ups, the high energy in the kitchen. We are all different on bad work days, right? But I’ve always wondered what that time just before service begins is like, especially for young chefs. When they come starry eyed to work for people they have read about or whose work they have followed, is the in-person experience very different?
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Dealing With The Tough Guys
Recently, on Teacher’s Day I did a story where I asked chefs about their mentors and most of them shared fond memories. We also talked about ‘tough task’ masters and almost everyone seemed to have worked under one or often more than one. “It's fair to say that everyone who has played a role in shaping my career has been demanding in their own way. Working with both of my mentors was incredibly challenging, but I believed in the process and surrendered to it, as any good student would. The journey of being moulded, adapting, and evolving is never easy. Growth doesn't come naturally—it must be earned through perseverance and resilience,” says Hussain Shahzad, Executive Chef at Hunger Inc. Hospitality.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
While Hussain excelled at what he does and took the tough days in his stride, Chef Manish Mehrotra, Ex Indian Accent And Comorin, tells me that not everyone can. The chef who is currently taking a break after multiple decades of leading some of the most highly rated restaurants, says, “My mentors really prepared me for going through all the hardships in the kitchen, and how to deal with it. Many young chefs in today's generation break down because of this. When a youngster comes out of college, at the age of 20 or 21, he doesn't get an off on a weekend. When his entire friend circle is going out for a party, he feels disappointed, and left out. Maybe once in a while he can take a weekend off but how many times is he going to be able to do that,” he says.
Being The Tough Guys
“We are in an industry, which is being judged by everyone, every time they come to the restaurant. Our ideas, our concept, our philosophy of food, are all executed by someone else. We cannot cook everything alone in the kitchen. We can teach people how to cook, then they have to execute it. For example, I can’t tell a guest that I did not cook this food, this was cooked by a junior chef, that is why the salt was too much. The responsibility is mine. Everyone makes mistakes, but being careless is not good which is why we have to be hard taskmasters.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Chef Manu Chandra, Founder- Partner Manu Chandra Ventures who began to lead teams at the age of 20 fully agrees with Chef Manish. He admits to having been tough on certain occasions and having mellowed with age. “We are in the service industry, and I think a lot of youngsters have a tendency of forgetting that you are servicing a client at the end of the day. You're not just cooking because you're fascinated about it. You're selling your food. You are feeding people and not your egos.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash
He explains that today while there’s a lot of talk about work-life balance, taking it easy, not working six days a week and long hours, there are places that can afford to do that just as there are places that can't. “The restaurant business is a notoriously thin-margin business. There’s this idea about how people in this industry are minting money. It's not like that. For example, a young 21-year-old startup founder may suddenly become a billionaire overnight. That never happens to chefs in the restaurant business.”
Chef Manu tells me that he encourages his team to take their holidays, take down time when they are sick but demands full attention when they are working.”I tell my team, when you're on the job, please be completely focused on what you're doing. Don't spend all your time on Instagram and doing stuff that work doesn't pay you to do. I'm not expecting you to be a slave. I'm expecting you to do a designated task effectively and be on your way,” he asserts.
When I speak to Chef Gresham Fernandes, Chef Partner, Bandra Born, it seems like having tough bosses isn’t such a bad thing after all. He chooses not to mince words. “The only reason I’m still cooking today is because I had tough taskmasters. Today’s generation of chefs find many things toxic. You have to maintain high standards and that cannot be in a woke situation.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Speaking of the time, he was a new chef, he says, “No one asked us, how we were feeling that day. We do now, but back in our day when we were cooking, you came on time whether you had broken a bone or you had a toothache. You came and you did your job right because the guy next to you was also pulling a long shift. You have a common goal of making people happy and you have to be tough. If you have a really tough mentor it’s probably because he's learned from a tough chef,” he says.
The Chef’s Secret Sauce
Things between chefs and their mentors in professional kitchens have certainly changed over the years. When talking to Chef Varun Totlani, Head Chef, Masque Restaurant, I learnt that while young chefs today come armed with Hotel Management degrees, that wasn’t always the case. He shared an interesting anecdote with me about the time when he worked at Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai’s Shamiana restaurant.
“There was one particular chef who would make the biryani at Shamiana and his biryani was famous. My internship was only in the kitchen, so I spent a lot more time than regular interns in the kitchen. I used to make the biryani with him for almost a month every day. One day I asked him, I do the cutting, the building for the Biryani but you make the masala when I'm not there. Will you ever teach me how to make masala? He said, with all due respect, he knew that I have worked very hard but he will never teach me his masala recipe. He said that he was not educated and had spent 20 years at the restaurant. If he taught me, then with my degree the restaurant would choose me instead of him and he would be out of his job because they won’t need him anymore.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash
When I ask him if Masque has any secret recipes, he laughs “I'm not scared to share my recipes with anyone. I will give it to you because I know it is about the chef's instinct and the chef's hand. If someone asks me to publish it also, I give the exact recipe we use.”
Before All Else
The other thing that has changed over the years is that there are a lot more women working in professional kitchens in India which was earlier considered rare. Chef Manish sees this as a welcome change. “Personally I find girls are more organised in the kitchen than men. Also people are more cautious of what they are saying. They are careful about their mouth and actions, both.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash
When I ask Chef Hussain who is now a mentor for many young chefs, what the most essential value he wants to pass on to them is, his answer warms the heart. “If I had to pass on one essential value to young chefs today, it would undoubtedly be kindness. The world, especially the high-energy environment of a kitchen, could benefit greatly from a little more compassion. In the midst of our relentless pace, we often forget to pause and reflect, getting caught up in the constant cycle of doing. For me, instilling the ability to rationalise a situation before reacting is a value I believe is crucial to pass on.”
