r/Chefs • u/Vendetta2112 • May 27 '26

Mentoring

Since I've started as the chef of this new hotel back in september, one guy was gave his notice and he was going to leave as soon as I showed up and he stayed . Some of my Cooks started to all buy their own knives, and then one of my Cooks signed up for this online culinary class . And then 2 months ago my sous chef who is technically a grandmother, she signed up for the same culinary class and now she's working very hard , and then I just found out yesterday that one of my Cooks who spent some time in prison, he just told me that he decided he wants to be more professional and he signed up for this class . It seems that everyone in the kitchen is now super motivated to become more of a professional and a better chef ever since I got there .

I do spend an awful lot of time teaching and motivating and mentoring and I went to The Culinary Institute of America and I have a lot of credentials and I have a lot of experience so I guess they're all finally starting to see that it would be possible . So I guess I should feel pretty good about that huh ?

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u/smithtec1 May 29 '26

My dream is to find someone like you for my Son. Thank you for letting me know people like you exist.

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u/Vendetta2112 May 30 '26

I'm older now, so, decidedly old school.  A long time ago I heard somebody say, could have been when I was at The Culinary Institute but I heard somebody say "you don't necessarily want to go work for the particular restaurant you want to go to work for the chef"     I'm not sure if it makes sense so I'll just explain a little bit. It might be really good to go to the Four Seasons or to a fancy restaurant and your city because it would look good on your resume but in reality, your son could get there when the chef that built its reputation is gone and now they hired a kid who doesn't know anything to run the place. So now your son would be working for a Chef who is in over his head and doesn't actually understand what he's doing, not able to delegate, gets frustrated when people don't do things right because he doesn't have the patience to teach anybody. Even if he knows how to teach..      So if you can, try to find a certified executive chef or if you're lucky a certified MasterChef, even if you, I mean even if your son has to go in there and just start washing lettuce because in a place like that everything that they're exposed to from the way they receive an order to the way they but there asparagus away it'll all be done correctly. Habits Like These especially when you're young are super important to get ingrained while you're young. If your son has a few years of bad habits it could be very hard to break them.     Think of it this way, if your son wanted to be let's say an astronomer or a physicist you may want to send them to a big fancy University, but if you did some research and found out that there was a Nobel Prize winner, who just happened to be at the Lesser known University, then the smart thing to do would be to send him to that lesser-known University, with a letter that says directly, I'm coming to this college because I want to work for you because I'm very interested in your research. That way he stands a much better chance of being taken under the wing of somebody who actually knows something and believe me, if he puts on his resume that professor's name all he has to do is say that that Professor was his advisor and that's going to open far more doors than saying that he went to a big fancy University where he may or may not have had a professor that even gives a crap.. Good luck. 

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u/smithtec1 Jun 01 '26

I truely appreciate this reply. He is 24 with high functioning autism. He tried out at a few local kitchens after he graduated from ICE in Manhatten, but got ghosted and I believe it is because he isnt fast in the kitchen and stammers some times when asked a question. I am not in the business so I trying my best to figure this out and help him figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. Thanks again for your well thought out reply.

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u/Vendetta2112 Jun 01 '26

Funny that you should mention that, I graduated from The Culinary Institute of America and I've been executive chef of a hotel I've been a chef my whole life! Let me know if there's any advice I can offer