Denial

   

It is a strangely unique human quality (one might almost call it a pandemic), that we cannot handle the truth, especially when it comes to admitting when we are wrong. An ethical topic since the dawn of man, lying, deception and denial have only recently been embraced and studied by scientists, though long known existentially as a sad fact of human existence. Perhaps it is (most probably) rooted in our pride that we have this innate ability to mar reality into the fantastic vision we then thrust upon ourselves and others.  Or maybe it’s our unwillingness to define anything as absolute for fear of falling short; that true and false become blurred shades in a relative existence. Religion, philosophy, history and psychology all  tussle with the notion of our pride or hubris (the delusion of self importance that far exceeds reality, thus warping our need to adhere to normal rules) and document its fatal outcomes. Oedipus, Icarus, Satan, Dr. Frankenstein, Macbeth, Nixon, Tiger Woods, Nebuchadnezzar, Basil Fawlty, Willy Loman, Martha, Oh heck, everyone. Everyone, yes EVERYONE, has an overextended sense of self that results in denying the truth, leading to a destructive situation at some point or another. And that realization is difficult and painful to deal with. Most often, we don’t. And with denial, we don’t have to.  Or maybe we buy into the doctrine of relativism, where there are no absolutes. This shifting sand of a foundation makes it easy to justify what was the red X of historical past as a justifiable stamp of approval when seen through our kaleidoscope-like mental perception of the“for me at this moment” generation. Not to mention the emotionalism that creeps in and affects our factual perception or counterfactual recollection that creates a psychotic alternate dimension of outcomes.  Either/or, whatever your historical, scientific, sociological, ethical or spiritual worldview, the facts are in; we are incapable of being absolutely 100% truthful, even to ourselves. Whether maintaining our self-esteem, or creating serious delusions, it is sad but true (pun intended), we cannot help ourselves (again, pun intended) when it comes to admitting to the truth of our failings. Which makes working in the hyper-critical environment of a kitchen so much fun. I actually had a hard time deciding on an appropriate anecdote for this one, not from lack of material but from a preponderance thereof.

It was.....well, another day in the kitchen. One of my cooks was busy preparing croutons for the upcoming service. I gotta tell you, I have more crouton stories than cats have liv...dogs have fle....ok, I have a lot of crouton stories. Anyway, our salad today was a Caesar salad, and was going to be topped with a nicely toasted golden brown crouton (crostini really) rubbed with a bit of garlic. Not traditional, but nice; the type of thing that explodes with flavor when your teeth have at it, emphasis on explode. As we closed in on service, I could tell it was not going to be a smooth opening. There was that awkward quietness that comes from a station when they are doing something wrong. It's not complete silence, it's a mere susurration, an awkward bustling which spreads discomfort around the kitchen like a sunburn under a starched wool dress shirt at a summer picnic. Normally incidents involving croutons end in smoke and turmoil, but this was different. This was the bustling of someone in denial.
Contrary to what I expect when a crouton fiasco arises, the crisp, golden brown garnishes actually looked quite nice. I was almost ready to pay the cook a compliment. Almost. You see, we were getting ready for a service of 80 to 100 people, and each was to receive a salad, each salad a crouton. One would expect that a person preparing for this would in fact make 100 croutons, if not more to compensate for loss, breakage, human error. What I came to realize was that this individual was way off, only preparing a fraction of what was needed in the next few minutes. And in their denialism, attempted to bypass the inevitable making of more croutons.
CRUNCH a crouton disintegrated as I came on the scene. The cook grabbed another, but paused at my approach.
"No, no, no, try it again." I needed to witness that which I deducted was taking place.
"So, what's the thought? You're going to make twice as many salad croutons by taking big croutons and cutting them in half now?" I asked in disbelief as my cook pushed a pile of dust to the edge of his cutting board. "Well let's see it, let's see it ."
CRUNCH, another crouton semi-exploded as the cook tried to bisect it. One of my other cooks commented that that was at least a little better than the last attempt; some of it might have been salvageable. I'm not sure whether this was done as encouragement or sarcasm, but either way the other cooked offered up their bread knife thinking it might prove to have better results.
CRUNCH
"Yea, yea...that was a little better." I confirmed, I mean after all one becoming one is better than one becoming none.
"So, how many croutons are there here?" I motioned to the tray of Mise en Place as my cook hacked his way through the crunchy toasts with mixed results.
"25" he responded.
"So if there were 25 and you cut each one in half perfectly...we're only going to do 50 covers today?", I mean I was legitimately curious. The other stations, four in total, had prepped for 25 covers apeice. We were planning on a hundred covers. Even with his best efforts, this cook would only be halfway there.
"So no matter how you cut those..."
"I could butterfly them, Chef." He interrupted my line of interrogation.
"Buterfly them?", WOW! This guy was in serious denial. I let him ramble on as his teammates chimed in.
"Well, this is actually working." Again he defended his course of action. Did I hear that right?!? This was working? The carnage was now growing. A couple others threw in their lame suggestions, which muffled out the sole sage advice, which at this point, was to start anew.
"Sooooooooo....?" I lead him,
"Should I make more Chef?"
"I think that would be best."
(enjoy the video)

Let’s face it, acknowledging the truth of our failings hurts. If we just alter our perception of the facts, we can relax at the lemonade stand of denial instead of wincing at the painful squirt in the eye, lemon juicer of reality. Truth can be confining, denial allows us to manipulate the reality into a more palatable elixir, temporary relief; as if we actually have control over this inane sojourn.  One undeniable fact however, is that truth always comes to light. Long term denial (lies and deception either internal or external) never works out, even if there's someone there enabling us through our delusion (and sometimes that someone is us). Perhaps Nietzsche was right with his claim that “the lie is a condition of life”. Everyone deceives, whether others or themselves, and if they tell you they don’t, they just did.

What's love got to do with it?

What kind of lunatic loves to work? As you might suspect, I do. I love to work because I understand its purpose, its meaning, and the intrinsic value it creates in me. We rarely speak of loving our work; quite often we speak to the contrary.  Perhaps it’s because we don’t know the true power of love. When one speaks of love, quite often it is regards to an emotional feeling and romance. The least understood and profound human motivator; easily spoken but enigmatically defined, love has been a hot topic throughout history. But love is much more than we are capable of comprehending, or at least what we commonly attribute to it.  Much more than an emotion, love is an active command verb, like run or go. While on a basic level love satisfies our earliest needs for nurturing, care, protection, stimulation and social contact, its real power lies in what it makes us capable of doing. Scientists have shown that emotional fondness for something can increase our abilities. Heightening of neurotransmitters Norepinephrine (adrenaline) and Phenylethylamine released during ‘loving’ situations focus attention, create feelings of euphoria, increase alertness, focus mental recall, and most interesting of all, when taken away can trigger depression. Scientifically speaking, love increases our abilities which makes us better workers. Therefore,  It makes sense to love your work. .

I had the pleasure of being a corporate tycoon media mogul’s chef as part of my career. Wonderful work if you can find it. The hours were great and the compensation was generous, especially when compared to my compadres in the restaurant side of the business. It certainly allowed me the ability to provide for and tend to, my family. I worked with an enthusiastic crew, and within the confines of a bizarre framework, was  allowed to be creative; I was stimulated and enjoyed social interactions with my staff. The corporate structure however was a bit lacking when it came to nurturing, care and protection.  We often called ourselves a family business;  one might have argued whether it was functional though.. No matter, the pay was good,  I for the longest time believed I had found the perfect job, the one I loved. It wasn’t until one day, a few months after witnessing my boss being delivered the bad news by her lawyers that she was going to jail over an insider trade she had made on the tip from one of her billionaire cronies, which only amounted to the savings she would have incurred if she stopped taking her dogs to the spa for a month, while serving her her egg white omelette for breakfast, that I came face to face with the fact that if my boss went to jail, my job would cease to exist as I knew it. Translation; downsizing. I didn’t know exactly how I would handle it until the day came. I assumed I would be scared and upset. To tell you the truth the day came and I was surprised. I never dwelt on the fact of the inevitability of it; I still loved going to work and working with the people I did. So a few months later when I got a call to report to “the green room” (oddly enough they chose to let people go in the hospitality room of the television studio. Oh, and it was Valentine’s Day-nice touch), I wasn’t heartbroken, because it wasn’t emotional. Sure the job satisfied me and some of my basic needs, but not all, and rationally I knew it was time to move on.  

“Chef,” they said, “we will be cutting back on productions, and as such will no longer be needing your position.”

“OK, “ I said with a little less sadness in my voice than they expected.

“We’re letting you go.” they continued.

“I know”, I might have been smiling at this point. Remember, it was Valentine's Day...no work tomorrow...I could actually sleep in with my wife. I smiled a little more.

“Don’t you understand ? We’re letting you go. TODAY.” They actually seemed a little miffed I wasn’t upset.

“Sure I do. But do you?” I questioned.

“What do you mean?” As if this was the only thing going on this week.

“Well,” I started, “Taping today, tomorrow, the next...guests in house, that sort of stuff...you know...producing a tv show?” We’ll need food for that. Silence.

“OK then!” I popped up from my chair, my hand extended, “it’s been fun, thanks.” greeted by disbelieving limp hands I bade my farewell and left the room. I did actually feel bad, my crew was left holding the bag, a man down as it were. And it was a busy week on top of it all. Don’t worry, they did fine, I had a great crew, that’s why I loved working there. It’s not like I was indispensable.

Ultimately, I left satisfied, knowing that a relationship ended and I knew it was time to go. I loved my job (past tense). Now it was time to court someone else, lucky gal.

Loving one's job is similar to properly loving another person, it requires mutual fulfillment. I can guarantee you a good job worthy of loving is not just about the money. Money quite often is the top reason for accepting a job, but infrequently makes it even into the top 10 when it comes to reasons for leaving, those spots are filled by needs for acceptance, being acknowledged, convivial atmosphere, and sometimes growing apathy. Understanding one's own true need to be nurtured, cared for, protected, stimulated, and engaged socially is a prerequisite to beginning a successful relationship, especially with your job. When those things aren’t there, it is easy to separate yourself and end the relationship, or worse carry on in a dysfunctional way.

As anyone in a successful long term relationship can tell you, you have to work at it. The trouble with emotional-centric love is that confining love  to an emotional state will lead to sorrow; as the nature of emotions is temporal. This in-the-moment thinking leads to a falling away when the initial  blood rush inevitably ebbs away. In order to make love lasting, love needs to be understood fully as a determined action. Love is a willful act, directed proactively towards the relationship and not just passive feelings we feel when acted upon. Understanding love as more than emotion and as a willful drive towards creating within ourselves love, will allow us to  manifest true love’s super-abilities not only in our personal relationships, but further to our work relationship. Which ultimately enables us to truly love our work and create in return the benefits of successful work, providing us with needed fulfillment.. Admittedly, I love my work. I loved all the work I’ve done in all my jobs. But I’m not a masochist; I know when it’s not a reciprocated relationship and when it’s time to move along. So, love what you do; know it intimately, be passionate about it and commit to it. Short of that you may romanticize the relationship, even be infatuated with it, or care for it deeply, but consummate love embodies all three of these attributes and builds well rounded love in your relationships, including your work. Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I’ll go ahead and take it one step further, Love the job you choose and you will never work a day in your life.

Perfection

Much has been discussed throughout history with regards to perfection. An ever-elusive goal, perfection has been the siren's call for mankind. A conversation for philosophers, artists, engineers and Chefs alike.  For sure, there is no more innately human quest than for the compass setting to reach the elusive shores of perfection through the rocky, turbulent coastline of achievement. Sadly, (and somewhat discouragingly) when you consider that the carrot on the end of the stick will always remain unattainable, perfection is most commonly equated with an abstract scaling towards that which is good. The thought that a tangible, perfect item exists is erroneous; exponentially so when you factor in the plurality of everyone's individual ideals of perfection, and infinitely so when you factor in the ideals of perfection throughout the ages.  Many things elude to, but fall short of, the destination. Perfection is indefinable. It all (and we all) miss the mark. Instead it might be wiser to view perfection as a journey; a search for perfection whose path is paved with imperfect stones. Perfection, ironically enough, is easiest to find when looking at something done wrong. And what better place to find a kitchen anecdote than here?

It was a day like any other; production for the day’s service was moving along, for the most part. Today's perpetrators were lollygagging in their work, thinking that they were better prepared than they were (as is always the case). So, they were not moving at an optimal speed for success, nor were they paying proper attention to detail; not ideal characteristics for successful cooks. Unfortunately this particular station was all about details in advance, it was my garde manger station. And the task at hand was the ever humbling crouton. You see a crouton, when done correctly, is a beautifully cut dice (in this case) of bread which has been carefully trimmed of the crust and sauteed in butter until a golden brown crunchy pillow of bread is produced. They go on a salad (in this case).

Well that's the way I would like them anyway...in my perfect world. But, it’s not a perfect world, RIGHT?

As it turned out the rampant torpidity had caused the station to fall behind and the cooks make a last ditch effort to catch up. With time fleeting and no time to do the job properly, vis a vis saute the croutons in butter, the anxious cook tossed the delicate cubes onto a sheet tray, drizzled them sporadically with half melted butter and dismissed them into the oven. SLAM. The minutes passed when an attentive cook would have remembered to pull the mise en place out of the oven for service. A distracted cook might have even remembered to pull them when the first order for the salad came into the kitchen. However this kitchen "Nero" has the capacity to neglect them joyfully until a billow of smoke made everyone in the kitchen painfully aware that the guest would be waiting more than a few minutes for their simple salad.

Moments later the cook approached.

“Chef? Is this too burnt?” smoldering sheet tray in hand.
I don't know, what does one say at a time like this. The waste of time and resource, the disillusioned guest...

“No Nero, it's not too burnt....you burnt it perfectly.”
"So what should I do?" crocodile tears began begging for a lifeline.
"Again." I paused, "You should do them again."
"Really?" he questioned. "Again? Are you serious?"
"As far as you know Nero, I've never lied to you. So yes, again."
"Chef, why do you keep calling me 'Nero'?" he paused.
"Look it up. You might learn something. Right now, I want my croutons!"

It's amazing how fast a cook can produce croutons when they need to; especially when compared to the inordinate amount of time he fiddled about when carbonizing the first batch.

Can true perfection be achieved? Depends on how you look at it. If it is a perfect perfect than no. Objective, absolute perfection cannot be achieved in that abstract "good" way,. There will always be a flaw. Don’t fool yourself, you are not perfect. What you do is not perfect. Nor is anyone else for that matter. And if you think otherwise that’s just pride talking. Intrinsically we know this; even our superheros that we create have innate, built in flaws that somehow make us relate to them and feel better about ourselves. Instead, you should be realistic and know you will never attain perfection, but you might come closer than before or even closer than anyone else. But know this, you will move towards but never arrive at your destination. Take heart though, it is that pursuit which makes it worthwhile. Look forward to the time when you are less imperfect than you are now.

Absolute objective perfection…not a reality, not in this world anyway. Everything and everyone is, to some degree, imperfect. Embrace it, learn from it. Unless of course you are talking about a perfect imperfection...than yes, there are plenty of those already.

One in a Million

I have to say that throughout my life I have had a chance to encounter a broad variety of people and not one of them the same; we are in fact, unique. While our uniqueness quite often is taken as a priceless commodity, it is commonly translated into the misconception that we are indispensable. It is true there is no one like you, but that is not to say there is not some one out there who can replace you. In this competitive world, you need to decide what kind of one-in-a-million you are. Are you the hard working stand out one-in-a-million or the standing still with all the others, one-in-a-million? In order for you to set yourself apart, and in one way or another you will, you must decide which you are. It begins with this simple choice, your personal answer depends quite frankly on how you read the phrase,  "I am deserving..." Are you deserving in that you are working towards it, or are you deserving because you are there and entitled to it? In fact, do you do what you say, or say what you do? Moreover, how you responsd will continually define you throughout your career and life.
     Anyone who knows me knows I love my dishwashing staff. As a chef, I know there is no other more important position in the kitchen than that of this overlooked manual laborer.  The magnificent hum of a well orchestrated kitchen is nothing if this essential position is not operating at its peak efficiency . Needless to say, I treat my dishwashers well. That is not to say however that they themselves are indispensable, just the task. Just like everyone.

It was a typical Saturday night, so I thought, and the kitchen was getting hot and heavy into the first seating. Orders were coming in, the kitchen fervor building and from what I could tell from our first seating, it was going to be a great night. 
As we got into it however, it became apparent to me that one of our teams was not keeping up. Strange, it was a Saturday, I had my best in the kitchen. The laggards were in fact the dishwashing crew. The cooks on the line began to clamor for saute pans, and the wait staff for glasses and cutlery as we tried to regroup for the next big push. 
"A little faster there boys" as I shot a passing update, " we're gonna be busy here."
There was a slight uptick in one of the young gentlemen, trying to comply. He was a solid kid, always going above and beyond no matter what the job. They called him "Ardilla", I think it means squirrel in Spanish, because he was always keeping busy. A true "one in a million". But, what I noticed next was disturbing. The "head" dishwasher put his hand on his shoulder and scolded him, "No, slow." Ardilla looked crushed. He loved his job, but it soon became apparent the crew had decided to, as a team, slow down.
"Come on guys, I need you to pick up the pace. We are getting busy here!" The waitstaff was now bordering on panic as they tried to retrieve the glasses and flatware to reset the tables for the next turn. And quite frankly my sphincter was tightening up as I saw all the saute pans piled up not being washed; the kitchen printer began to whir....orders started coming in.
"Chef, we want to talk to you." the "head"dishwasher chimed in, almost on cue as we got slammed.
"Later sunshine, once we feed all these people."
" No Chef, we'll talk now" By now, they were at a dead stop. I was pissed to say the least. I won't go into my ability to treat someone well, but I will tell you they were well compensated individuals. I would feed them whatever they ordered and I would purposefully overstaff so I could give people a proper break or let someone go home if they wished or needed to; I was a good boss to have. All I expected in  return was good solid work. Well, as a side note and unbenounced to me, the crew had a gentleman who helped them get into the country, get them papers, and lodge them. In return, they gave him their paycheck and got a little in return to live on. They supposed if they could get a raise without him knowing, they could keep the difference; a fact I would find out in the near future, but a story for a different time. Right now, we were in service.
"You are kidding me right!?! We need to talk RIGHT NOW!?! Right now or what!?!" I was done being nice and out of the corner of my eye I noticed the whole kitchen was now on edge, including my "Ardilla".
"Or no more work." The ringleader now presented his hand. The rest of the crew, save one, folded their arms and stopped moving.
"Oh, I get it. You're not going to work? Unless I suppose I give you more money?" I affirmed.
"SI!" The crew nodded, again save one. I'll let you guess who.
There was more than a little tension in the kitchen at this point, everyone was screaming for the things they needed. My dishwashing crew had a lever right up my fulcrum at this point and they knew it. I could tell from the smug looks on the their faces.
"Well now, that makes this all so much easier...why didn't you just say so!" (sarchasm intended).
They all began to nod their smirking gobs.
"GET THE F'explicative' OUT!" I reeled, verbally smacking that stupid looks off their faces. "You really think you are going to get more from me by giving me LESS!?!" . I pointed to the back door, "OUT! NOW!"
I don't think they saw that one coming. They really didn't know what to do. Most people don't when their bluff is called, especially in a situation like this when there is so much on the line. They thought they had all the cards, but they obviously were not aware of what a Chef was capable of. I escorted them to the door by the scruff of their necks, not so gently or politely.
Kicking the door shut behind them I bellowed to the kitchen, " You, you, you and you" pointing to my line and a few bus boys, "scrape, rinse, machine, stack." My gesticulations coinciding to the person and their newfound position.
I jumped on the line. Grabbed the dupes off the printer and began to call out our next seating. 
"And I need pans, flatware and glasses yesterday!!! You hear me? Or do you want a raise now too!" (again, sarcasm, my preferred dialect.)
"No Chef, Yes Chef, coming right away!" They burst into action.
Before you knew it the kitchen was back up and moving, I mean really moving. Something really inspired those people; a little fear? Perhaps, not necessarily a bad thing though. But more so a reality check. And once again we were on the same page, serving the same purpose.
What happened to "Ardilla" you ask? Well that's a story for a different time, in the meantime...

Everyone would love to think they are indispensable. In a temporary sense, some are and some aren't. But you can look through a history book or a cemetery and realize that at some point or another there will not be a you; and the world will go on. What we are capable of being is indispensable "now". You can choose to work hard and do your best and act like what you do is vital,and it probably will be. You should find yourself in a place where that act is additionally vital to someone; and you should continue to do it with the same vigor and passion you had at the start. In turn you will build your self worth and a proper place in the world. Or you can think that you are vital, and that people should find in you worth knowing that your uniqueness means what you provide is thus rare and valuable. You would be wrong in this assumption. Thinking you are the only one who can do the job is a dangerous and short lived way to find security. It's what you are capable of doing not being that formulates your success. As well, I can assure you, it is a far more satisfying route and leaves you more in control of your career and life. You're either the needle which is sought out or one of the many wisps of hay in the stack.
So, which one in a million are you?

You have to want it

Some people are just more likely to achieve than others. Some people attribute it to intelligence, but studies show that is not the best indicator. Some people attribute it to position, but being born with it doesn’t mean you’ve achieved anything, actually it's quite the contrary. Studies also show more and more successful people come from poverty. So what “determines” our ability to achieve? That’s right, determination. It’s been a hot topic as of late, people trying to figure out what makes one person more likely to achieve than others. We’ve been told from an early age that you can do anything you put your mind to. While I know that literally anyone cannot do anything they set out to do, the evidence supports the notion that it is a good indicator for success. A desire, a need to overcome, creates within us a determination to do something; and this determination is the leading cause of success. If I may quote the wisdom of Solomon, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes to poverty”. Such sayings speak directly to this innate human psychological need.
 
I often give tests. On one occasion I decided to place within the 100 question test (#42 to be precise), a sub-test on following directions. Question #42 simply stated “For the sake of the environment, please submit your test completely blank and you will receive a perfect score.” For while I was handing out the exam I told everyone to read the exam thoroughly before beginning, including writing your name. I was surprised at how many of those tests I had to grade. There was one young lady, though, who carefully read through the pages; the rest dug right in after a cursory perusal. After about five minutes the diligent young lady approached me. “Chef, are you serious ?” She pointed to the question. “Absolutely.”, my hand outstretched to receive the pristine paper. “But…” she hesitated. “What ? You don’t want the 100 ?”, I taunted. “Yes, but I really want to take this test. I know I can ace it.” “But can you get 100 right here, right now?", It surprised me only a little when she went back to her seat and, nose down, hunkered in, determined to ace the test. It was an amusing hour. About 35 minutes in, people started getting to #42. The room was filled with sighs, groans and a couple of cusses too. “Shhhhh! We’re in the middle of a test people.", I chuckled as I looked up and caught that one young lady’s eye as she wagged her head at me.

Let’s face it, you've gotta want it. Not even necessarily the goal, the perfect score, the extrinsic thing, but the desire to get it, the act of accomplishing, the intrinsic internal satisfaction derived from the doing. Deep down inside you create this desire to control your situation and its outcome. You actually revere the pursuit and becomes its own reward. And when the achieving the reward in fact becomes the reward, it become a marked step essential for self fulfillment, a fundamental human need. In essence, doing for the sake of doing trumps doing for the sake of reward. This determination is the first step towards success. Next, recognize this relationship we have, of ourselves to our environment and others. And how our determined action plays its part. Once we own this, we can recognize the value in what we do; we have agency and self importance. Our achievement becomes connected in a human need way, that of connectivity. The next step of a determined, motivated person is demonstrated by the value of what they are doing and its relevance to the world. Once we grasp the intrinsic nature and relevance of our determined act, we can set ourselves towards a truly motivated achievement of the goal. We recognize the value to the group, now we recognize the value to self and our autonomy. How we fit our independent achievements into the collective enables us to find our meaning, our purpose. So what should we take away from all this ? Set your sights, be resolute. You want to achieve something? Set your mind to it, realize its importance, and internalize it. Know that what you are doing is important and needs to be done. Not just to get it done but to be getting it done. Once you’ve got that under your belt, get off your butt and do something about it; act. Don’t just think about it, do it. Remember, it wasn’t about having the perfect score, it was about getting the perfect score. There’s a difference, it’s called determination.

Easy is its own punishment

No one said it’d be easy. As a matter of fact, as I journey from day to day, I am constantly being reminded of the contrary, life is hard. Our delusion that somehow things should come easily is perhaps mankind's most common anti-evolutionary battle cry. The rest of the natural world fights it out for survival, what makes us different? Why do so many people think they will be successful at whatever they endeavor, and with minimal amounts of effort at that?  Our need to succeed is innate, yet we are also inherently lazy; we try to optimize our successes with minimal amounts of effort. We insist on doing this disservice to ourselves and our herd by negating the beauty of working hard for something. I blame our newfound obsession with immediate gratification; we’ve been conditioned to not wait for our satisfactions. Amazing technology that makes our known world more convenient (cell phones, fast food, fingertip connectivity) leaves us not wanting for access to all we demand. Inundated by the instant, our ‘don't make me wait for it’ generation, has bought into the marketing of all the available things QUICK our magnificent world has to offer. However, we need to take this sparked curiosity one step further and look at ourselves, research our abilities, and set out  to accomplish that which we desire in a responsible manner. We need to be aware of our aptitude and apply it properly to what we set out to do. And once again there is no better mirror for this reality than the kitchen.

It was a typical day and one of my cooks was attempting his fourth shot at making mashed potatoes (that's  right, you heard me, mashed potatoes...and yes, four times). After so many tries this person's clock was counting down to service when this component was desperately needed. Needless to say, he was feeling the pressure. As simple as the procedure is, if pieces of it are neglected or omitted the result is tragic, something this young individual failed to learn on the first three tries. You see a potato, in its simplistic beauty, contains starch. When the starch is properly cooked and dried and folded with the correct amount of fat, it produces a smooth, unctuous, creamy salve that elicits many a childhood memory and acts as a structural base for plating... and is a darn fine bit of food.

Attempt #1: when too much water was left in, the potatoes yielded a soupy mess. Garbage.

Attempt #2: potatoes cut too small in an attempt to have them cook quicker. Unfortunately the potatoes disintegrated during cooking. Garbage.

Attempt #3: running out of time and undercooking the potatoes and trying to mash them anyway. What a treat that was. Garbage.

Again and again, he tried to shortcut, take an easier path than the direction he was given. In his laziness he actually created more work for himself.

So, last but not least, attempt #4: a last ditch effort to redeem every precious moment lost; potatoes cooked in the cream they were to be mashed with. A sound concept if everything is measured correctly, yet a drastic mistake when not and compounded further by the use of a high speed stick blender to finish the job. At 10,000 rps it’s a short trip from soupy to glue. The blades quickly broke  the light fluffy swollen cells, released their starchy interiors and formed glue. I could tell from a distance we were in trouble as the powerful motor of the blender began its muffled groaning descent into the coalescing mass.

“Chef, can you come check my potatoes?”, I heard from across the kitchen. Aside from being devoid of any seasoning, the texture was at best, terrible.

“What made you decide upon the stick blender?” I asked painfully calm.

“Well, I was watching Food Ne….”, I cut him off.

“So! Instead of the directions I gave you...In the middle of the state of chaos you have wallowed into….on your FOURTH attempt at something soooo simple…” (Dramatic pause)

“You put your trust in a television program…..and not your Chef.”

“Just because you see it on TV doesn’t mean you should do it.” I ripped. “I mean I (gerund explicative) watch Animal planet; but you don’t see me trying to wrestle an alligator do you?”

And...Garbage. (and by garbage I actually mean the compost bin.)

What’s the quickest, easiest way to do something? The right way. Chances are if you are cutting corners, taking shortcuts or neglecting directions and procedure you are on your way to finding yourself in a time wasting situation of having to correct or redo something. Which, ironically enough, expends more energy. Things take time. Either in the planning and preparing or in the pain and punishment. Nothing good comes easily. We are suckers for the notion though. We do love the idea of a get rich quick, take a pill to fix, hit the button for solution (in this case a high powered emersion blender), promises; but they are empty. You want to make sure you get it done right, do it the right way. Many have gone before you to provide you with the right path, take it. If you want to accomplish your desired aim or purpose do it in the prescribed way. Once you get those tried and true procedures under your belt than you can color outside the lines. Until that time though, leave the gator wrestling to the professionals.

Don't think, you're not good at it.

I would like to preface today’s entry with, “Happy Independence Day”; a  day when we celebrate all those who came before us, people who sacrificed so we may live in freedom.  So in honor of those who took the time to think this through and then do something about it, here is today’s entry. The same fire melts wax, hardens clay and strengthens steel.

Our cognitive abilities are certainly paramount to our success as a species. The human mind, with its reasoning, curiosity, sensual and factual memory have lead us to great achievements. Language, arts, science, math are hallmarks to the comprehension, calculation, reasoning and decision making skills that define us. However, it must be noted that as much as we pride ourselves on this ability, it is not prudent to assume we do it well all the time, especially when we are under stress. As a matter of fact, some of our most tragic decisions are made in such circumstances. I think back to those moments when either myself or others were under fire for a poor decision followed up with an obvious error. When grilled about the intent, the phrase used to excuse the behavior often begins with “I think…” or “I thought…”,  to which I say, “Don’t think, you’re not good at it.” There is certainly a time to think; during the times of planning.  When we are calm and focused, good decisions can be made. But when we think under pressure we usually arrive at the wrong course of action because really our only goal is making the situation stop, not creating an environment for our success.


“Chef I think the fryer is on fire”; Not exactly what you like to hear minutes before a kitchen opens for service. It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting, but was nonetheless something that needed to be dealt with. It all started, as many such situations do, with a bit of unpreparedness followed by a bad decision. In the absence of all the necessary components, sometimes it is best to wait until you have what you need in order to continue. This is certainly the case when turning on a deep fat fryer and what this particular cook overlooked when setting up his station.

Let’s face it, people do not think well under pressure. Pressure induces stress and stress changes the nature of our cognitive being back to that of a primitive animal. Stress is good for fight or flight, not thinking. Even when you analyze all the ways self help coaches tell you to better yourself at thinking under pressure; you realize that they are actually ways of alleviating the pressure, not thinking well during it. Most sources have one thing in common, negate the stress, whether by familiarizing yourself with it, accepting it or avoiding it. The theme is common;  acclimate to or avoid stress.

Best thing to do is not to think. Adrenaline is shown to divert blood flow away from certain parts of the brain and other organs to muscles, limiting cognitive performance and interfering with clear thinking. The release of adrenaline can enable the body to perform far beyond its normal parameters, but the mind? Not so much. So why use your brain in this environment when it clearly is not suited for the task. Truth is you shouldn't, at least not yet.

Don’t think; know. How do we know? We prepare for it, we do it enough, we see it enough so we can reason that it’s coming. We don’t allow ourselves to get into a situation that we don’t know how to deal with. 'State dependency' tells us there is something to operating in the environment in which something was learned. Recall is bolstered when tested in the environment where it was first encoded. So, train yourself to be in stressful situations. In this way you can find yourself functioning better in them. Additionally, repeated exposure to stress increases levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY), an amino acid which dampens fear responses and enables animals, at least the tested monkeys and mice, to perform better under extremely stressful situations. Yet another indicator that control under stress is made better through consistent exposure.

So what do we gain from all this?  There's one way to get through stress, avoid it. Not avoid the stress per se, but rather avoid it being stressful; prepare for it. There will be times in your life that are stress filled, and you will have to be productive. Best advice, consistently expose yourself to such things so the stressful becomes manageable and suddenly the beast has lost its teeth.  So when you see someone who’s cool as a cucumber in a crazy environment know that they are either oblivious to the situation or have conditioned themselves to be in it.


"Chef I think the fryer is on fire".
As I made my way towards his position, fire extinguisher in hand, I asked "What makes you say that?".
"There's fire coming out of it!".
"That would do it." I calmly noted the tongues of fire lapping away feverishly at a strategically placed sheet tray. One that (unfortunately) blocked his view from the dangerously low level of oil yet (luckily) prevented the flames from engulfing the kitchen. Even more unfortunately, the same sheet tray was diverting the fire into the adjacent deep fat fryer, which was filled and up to temp. Not a good situation at all.

This situation highlights both approaches to a stressful encounter. A cook, who decided to turn on his deep fat fryer without setting it up properly, filled it just enough so it could superheat, go aerosol and combust. In his moments of debilitating fear he did what most do, shut down. Then there's Chef. With an ability to remain calm in the face of it all because maybe he'd been through something like this before.


Whoosh. A well placed dose of pressurized chemical tamed the situation. I looked over the wreckage.
"What made you turn on a fryer that only had a few quarts of oil in it?" I asked.
" Well Chef, I thought if I turned it on it would be warm for when I added the rest of the oil."
To which I responded, " Don't think son, you're not good at it."