"CONSISTENCY Defines GREATNESS!" - Thomas Keller (@Chef_Keller) - Top 10 Rules

what's up believe nation it's Evan my one word is believe and I believe in you I believe in your potential and I want to see that thing that you've got inside you explode out into the world to have a big impact for you your family and the world so to help you on your journey today we're gonna learn from chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller and my take on his top ten rules for success rule number two is my personal favorite and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best and as always guys as you're watching if you hear something that really really resonates with you please leave it down the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired and when you write it down it's much more likely to stick for yourself as well enjoy what are the top three qualities that you look for when hiring a new talent for one of your restaurants desire desire and desire I mean you were quoted saying that it's desire that really matters it's not passion passion isn't leading people talk about passion you know is I sometimes it drives me crazy you know some of the some of the vocabulary that we use in people's house a young couple coming si so why do you want to work your office Jeff I'm so passionate about what I do you don't believe the passion I have I mean every morning I wake up I'm so passionate about this I'm thinking okay whatever this kid just doesn't doesn't understand it's wonderful to think it like that right think that you're gonna be passionate about your job all the time but we all know I mean passion absent flows I mean if you've ever had a relationship with somebody I mean I mean there there lies the perfect example of you know how how passion goes I mean we're passionate about somebody you know for a while and it kind of subsides and then you know reignites for some reason you know it's all over the place right and and if you relate that to food I mean you know the the first asparagus of the spring which we saw three weeks ago you just like wow that's amazing you haven't seen it all year long it's like I love it you know I'm passionate about doing something with asparagus what happens three weeks later when you've seen asparagus every day for the past three weeks it's like okay or whatever you know it's just another bundle of asparagus I gotta do something so what keeps you going with is it's the desire it's the desire to do something with the asparagus it's the desire to be with that person that keeps you with that person because it was all based on passion we'd have a different partner every other year right it's the desire to do something that really drives us so that's what I look for is I look for that desire I know that there are levels of skill that some people are born with and some people will be stars and some people won't and it breaks my heart to see those young individuals that are in our restaurants whether they're in the kitchen or the dining room who have this strong desire to do a good job and they just don't have the skills to do it that that's really heartbreaking and we try to find places for them or they're gonna succeed maybe it's not at the French Laundry maybe it's at Bouchon maybe it's at a colleague's restaurant and then and then those those ones who have amazing skill and you know they could be a star but you know they just they just don't have the desire and and that breaks your heart because you just wanted to stop them in the face of you know you are so good how come you don't you apply yourself more so less about desire and great restaurants have to be consistent we can all cook you know there's a lot of great chefs out there who can do a lot of great things but to be consistent 300 days a year you know lunch and dinner over and over and over and over again is really for me what defines greatness it's the one one-hit wonders or one-hit wonders to be there for a long time to be impactful for a long time to have a team that continues to evolve to have guests that continue to come to your restaurant to have that relationship with your partners with all your suppliers those are really really important things for me in restaurant I always knew that at some point in my career I was gonna have to transition into another level in other words I couldn't be the shift to cuisine at the restaurant forever so I had to prepare myself to let go which is a very very difficult thing to be it and you know every day I walk into my kitchen I want to be there I want to be that young cook I want to be on the line I still want to be cooking I mean it breaks my heart but I know that if I was there I wouldn't be able to do the job that needed to get done you'd have to really understand as you're planning for that transition what you're gonna be doing next and then who's gonna take your place Jonathan Ben oh here I might some of you may know Jonathan Ben oh he began at the French Laundry in 1995 and I shot in 1996 later became chef of per se today he has his own restaurant Jonathan came to me as a young chef de Partie is chef de Partie is an individual who works on a specific station in this case Jonathan was the fish cook he came to me one day and Jonathan does at Seaside chef he does that when he's making a point you points out you with all four fingers and his thumb underneath chef's I mean that you know you know he's serious I'm I'm not gonna have a cutting board on my station tonight and like I'm working I mean I'm busy you know it's back in the old days when would everybody had a lot to do and and not that we don't today but you know I was more immersed in it and I'm thinking okay well whatever you know that's that's interesting you're not gonna have a cutting board or you say yes I'm gonna be so prepared I'm gonna be so prepared I have so much confidence in my ability to have my me--some class done then I'm not gonna need a cutting board now every chef de Partie in every restaurant has a cutting board on their station some of them need a cutting board the butcher needs a cutting board to carve the steak Jonathan was doing fish everything's in place everything is ready to go I was just to do is cook and serve him I said okay that's fine don't have a cutting board at the end of the service flawless it's become the new standard for that station because Jonathan bento had the confidence and courage to step outside of what was the norm in any restaurant and say I'm gonna do better I'm gonna create a new standard I thought how to run a restaurant but I realized that that was a really good chef I was a really good cook I had no idea about finances and I knew nothing about yeah I couldn't read a P&L and I didn't know how to run a dining room and and those are a big part of a restaurant you know certainly a big part of any business so you know it turns a financial so when I when I when I was able to buy Raquel I was able to buy a French Laundry I realized that I needed somebody in the dining room they can focus on it there was an expert on the dining room and I needed somebody you know who could take care of our financial and so it became a tripod there was me in the kitchen focused on the food which was really my expertise I realized that was my expertise that was my strengths and I need to play with my strengths and and find those individuals who could compensate for my weaknesses and so Laura Cunningham became the general manager to the restaurant we had a young bookkeeper named Pat McCarthy and she took care of all of our financials and that's what the basis and the foundation thought he was it's interesting cuz Italia by night so I'd been cooking for quite some time when I say quite some time I went to move to Paris in 1983 so I've been cooking now for almost a decade I think I committed myself since 1977 to make this my career so been focused on I'm working in and I've chosen French cuisine and haute cuisine as my métier so I was focused on that the best restaurants were the restaurants that you were aware of if you picked up a Michelin Guide if you picked up to New York Times you know you even New York magazine or any any any magazine that was either a travel or food magazine and or had a head of food a food section in the newspaper at that time was was always talking about the great restaurants and France and the great chefs so where else would you aspire to go if it wasn't the best I mean if you're gonna go to France which was which was arguably the the the best country had the best food the best products the best chefs the best restaurants that's what you wanted to do and so I set my sights high it took me quite a while to get there it was about three and a half years of trying to find somebody in France that was actually gonna commit to giving me a job before it actually left America you know many times the advice was well just go you'll find a job just go just go over there somebody will hire you I wanted to make sure that I had somewhere to go to I wasn't I wasn't convinced that I was gonna travel to France and knock on somebody's door but in reality that's actually what happened where I where I ended up having the commitment from was a one-star Michelin restaurant in our Bois which is in the Jura which is in eastern eastern eastern France just below Alsace a place I'd never heard about before a restaurant I had never heard about but someone suggested I write them and I did and I I arrived at the front door and a large matronly woman you know met me and she was very harsh and she took me up to my room which was this small cubicle with a window but the window was was covered with with with dust which I thought was dust and that was my room it was poorly lit and I had arrived at work the next morning in the kitchen downstairs at 5:30 and they would show me what to do and the kitchen downstairs at 5:30 and my first job was to shovel coal into the ovens and I realized that my my window wasn't covered with dust but I was covered with dust was covered with with soot with coal toast and the kitchen that I was in was nothing like any kitchens I had been in in America and I realized that that's not why I came to France and three days later I packed my bag early in the morning I snuck out the door caught the train went to Paris and ended up staying at a friend's apartment for almost two years and literally knocking on people's doors took for a job unfortunately you know my my persistence paid off and I had eight stashes age difference as I stash is an observation you know permission to have an observation and restaurant I was a stodgy heir and I was doing a stodg which is you know you go into somebody's it's almost like it's an apprenticeship if you will it's an externship if you will it's going into someone else's kitchen and actually becoming part of that kitchen there's some and and and it's up to that organization or that chef to define what you'll do so you know I did different things in different kitchens because each each chef needed a stash a year in a different way it was a normal thing and it still is today that period of my life in that period of my career in France was so so important to I am today and and really helped me understand a lot of things about running a restaurant that have supported my career and my success well know that there are so many details involved in what we do and so many individuals involved in what we do so a great chef is really supported by so many others tonight so I think what makes a great chef is surrounding yourself with those of like-mindedness with a common vision common goals and in many ways are much smarter than you are remember that always work with people that are much smarter than you are the only way to really get better is to is the with those who can teach you and be better so what I've tried to do with my entire career is surround myself with talented people so oftentimes at school we discuss how to respond to setbacks and the first restaurant that you opened for Cal in New York closed when the stock market bottomed out in the end of the 1980s what was the hardest part of that experience for you I think the hardest part of my experience is realized that you're your ultimate dream and your ultimate goal which was so so close and in many ways what was in your grasp was was something that could could just disappear without without something that you had no control over it as hard as hard as you worked as dedicated as you were as great a job as you did at that point though there was nothing that I could do outside of changing the format of the restaurant to to to make myself happier to make the restaurant successful yeah so it was a choice and I had a great partner sir Raul and he had a very successful restaurant not too far away across town in Soho and we had the choice to either to to establish a more of a casual restaurant because the Strand yeah it was like a bistro was like this was when you know fine dining became something that was unapproachable anymore people weren't willing to pay for and so everything was becoming casual and so we could casual eyes the racquel I could stay there as partner and as the chef or I could give it up and pursue my goals and I was I was so determined that fine dining was was going to be my venue that I separated myself from the restaurant that believe me I mean when we were building the restaurant the contractors would come in in the morning and they would they would do their work and the place would be a mess and every night I would clean the restaurant knowing that the contractors would come back the next morning and make it a mess again I mean there were nights I would sleep in the restaurant this was this was this was my life this was gonna be my restaurant this was this was my future and and to five years later realize that it wasn't gonna be anymore in that New York City which was which again was my life in the center of the universe the universe for me wasn't gonna wasn't gonna be the place that I was going to be was was devastating but what are your choices I mean at the end of the day you're faced with a choice you know either you can do something you can compromise on what your goals are you know I could have casualized the restaurant and been there and been miserable or I could have I could've left and and pursued my two goals of fine dining and and hopefully finding that that Avenue that would lead me to to success and it that was in 1990 when I when I when I left Raquel and moved to Southern California people ask me a lot of times about success and I thought about it for years and I realized that success is not about Fame it's certainly not a about fort fortune recognition awards it's about memories about the memories that we collect throughout our lives and I'm sure each one of you have wonderful memories about things that you've done in your life and a lot of that was about success at define success for me and certainly one of those memories or one of the biggest compliments I can receive is when a guest comes to our restaurant has dinner and then comes back to the kitchen or I meet them in the courtyard and they say chef this reminds me of and they go into this wonderful tale about an experience they had I don't know in the South of France in Paris and Italy in Spain or even in America a great experience that had in another restaurant and I can only hope that that individual goes on and has another great experience and says this reminds me of the French Laundry as therein lies the true meaning of success I'm gonna prepare one of my favorite dishes which is a simple and one of the important things that we intend to neglect is bringing our protein up to up to temperature what I mean by that is tempering it so that the product is at room temperature before you you start to roast if it's cold when it goes in the oven obviously the temperature is going to drop in the oven so it doesn't cook evenly it takes longer to cook so one of the first things we're gonna do is we'd like to remove the wishbone which allows us to take the entire breast off of the carcass we're just gonna scrape a little bit of the flesh so we start to feel that this point then I'm going to take my knife and on the outside of the wishbone just cut it down towards the joint where it meets the wings like very simple and then fingers up that wishbone coordinate meets the breast pull it out we're going to take our wings and we're going to slide them underneath the body of the bird that will help support it when it's in a roasting pan or in this case in our saute pan we're a season the inside with salt and pepper we could do any things with the bird as well you can put put herbs in there thyme rosemary bay the next we're gonna trust our chicken or tie it with butchers twine we do that so we can create the same density in the bird see that we can compact it all together and helps it cook in warm evenly take a piece of butcher twine slide it underneath the tail and then we're gonna do a figure eight be well very simple take on top of the leg and underneath the legs you can see that eight right there now we're going to bring our legs into the breast take our string underneath the neck tube right there and we're just gonna do a simple Slipknot and we have our trusts chicken ready to go down liberally liberally salted I like a lot of salt creates a nice a nice crust we like to season from up above so that as the salt falls through the air it separates then you get a nice dusting some temper if you like that's also it works well if you want to use a roasting pan and add vegetables to it I'm gonna put just a little bit of thyme leaf chopped thyme on top and there I like to have it at a high temperature for reporter 450 of course timing is different for each bird this is about a three and a half pound bird it may take up to 45 minutes 50 minutes a smaller bird may take less I'm not putting any fat on this I'm just gonna roast it as it is there'll be some natural fats that come off of the bird I don't baste it in the oven it's again it's a very very simple roasted chicken for me this technique evolved from really cooking family meal at the restaurant and having to cook six or eight chickens at a time in an organized way so we went and put this in our chitara me so here we have our our beautifully roasted chicken you can see the the nice uniform the color of it so now as I said that carving the bird is relatively easy just remove the twine being able to cut right down I've taken that wishbone out of there so there's nothing to stop me from taking that entire type of chicken right off of the carcass there how simple can that be thank you guys so much for watching I made this video because Danny Kaye asked me to if there's something you'd like me to cover in a future top ten check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote I'd also love to know what did you learn from this video what lesson really hit home the hardest what are you going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business leave it down the comments below I'm really curious to find out I also want to give a quick shout out to Mike Markham from restaurant HR com Mike thank you so much for picking up a cup of my book your one word and doing the review and post it online I really really appreciate the support and I'm so glad that you enjoyed the read and I just won't do a review on even Carmichael's your one word thank you guys again for watching I believe in you I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is much love I'll see you soon I study philosophy actually yeah I think it I think has helped me understand and start and analyze what I do and and try to attach other examples of other professions to what I do in trying to understand it and elevate it elevate our profession our job as chefs and as restaurant owners today is not just about our restaurants of course we want to make our restaurants better but our but our overarching goal is to elevate the standards of our profession and we do that by bike training by mentoring by giving the skills knowledge to those next generations so that they can not only help us in our restaurants but then go out and be impactful in other restaurants and of course hopefully one day open their own restaurants that man on the Left Rowland henan taught me why I cook he was my mentor it's my mentor today mentorship is such an important part of success we continue to mentor our staff we assign mentors we ask you who you want your mentor to be it's a process that we embrace wholeheartedly I began my humble humble career as a dishwasher oh and I'm not sure why my mother allowed I guess because of the age difference my brother Joseph was allowed to handle a knife therefore he was allowed to work with the cooks I was year and a half younger therefore I had to be sat in front of the dishwasher I guess it was a much safer position for me but you know around the dishwasher whether it was at that early age or more importantly when I began to realize that I wanted to cook was at the Palm Beach Yacht Club and I learned six disciplines at the dishwasher which have I think become you know foundation for for my career and I think for many people who aspire to have success in their careers not just not just in the culinary profession not just in the hospital the profession but anything I learned that organization was was really important an organization is dishwasher really meant that you had to set up a template for the servers to you know where to put their dishes so you always had a bread butter plate and one spot a service paid in one spot a bowl or whatever whatever whatever the service where was you had a piece set up on the counter on the drain board where they were supposed to put it you've had your different areas for your knives or forks or spoons things like that of course you had your class racks for specific racks so that organizational aspect allowed you to be more efficient which was kind of the second discipline that I learned his efficiency was really really key into doing things well if you could be more efficient than the person next to you then you could have more time to learn what you wanted to learn to continue to grow and continue to volley to progress so efficiency became important you know how you lined up the racks you know how you put the the plates in the racks or when you when when was the time to wash the glasses when was the time to wash the the civil war so that nothing so that everything became seamless for everybody feedback was the third discipline you know if you didn't if you didn't properly rinse or stack or sort the silverware or the dishes correctly and you put them in the dishwasher a minute and a half later when the Machine open they would still be dirty and so that was immediate critical feedback you know you knew when you did a bad job and you knew when you did a good job and you know what it was okay either one you learned from the mistake of doing the bad job that you learned that that you needed to either stack your your dishes differently rinse them differently sort to some word differently or whatever it was that critical feedback taught you that's what you needed to do so you modified your behavior to be successful you know of course if you were successful then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job and no one told you those things you realized them on your own and that was really important as well of the fourth the fourth is meddler was the repetition right the I don't want say the art of repetition but the the ability to respect repetition and embrace it we're cooks we do the same thing over and over and over and over again so if you don't why if you don't want to be repetitive in what you're doing you probably don't want to really be a cook you know learn how to cut brunoise learn how to peel an onion learn how to slice I mean all these things that are our you know part of that repetition was what I learned to the dishwasher because the dishwasher you do the same thing over and over and over and over again I learned the importance of ritual doing things at specific times of the day and having them having leading up to those time and being prepared for those times you had to you had to change the water in the dish machine every two hours you had to check the soap every three hours you had the empty of the garbage can three times a day you had to sweep before you know at these specific times you had to do different things at different times a day which began which which which were part of the ritual of your job and rituals are very very very important and the last not not any more important than the others was was was the the idea of teamwork and embracing that you as a dishwasher even though you may have been perceived as the lowliest position in a kitchen you were you touched everybody and your job was critical in their ability to be successful you had to deliver the the the dishes back to the chef's right so they could plate the food you had to have the Civil War to the server so they could set the tables you had that the glassware to the bartender so they could do their job so everybody relied on your ability to be organized to be efficient to have your job done thoroughly to understand repetition rituals and give them what they needed to do the job and those six disciplines are what we do every day as cooks and I embrace that I understood it I didn't recognize it until much later in my career but I realized it and and I understand that that was a part of the foundation of why I became a good cook and ultimately was able to become a good chef [Music] yeah the most important work ever if you had to think of one word that's most important to you or that sums you Apple that would be like a little beacon pay believe nation if you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey will.i.am and Howard Schultz I have a very special secret video for you check the description for details [Music]

Channel: Evan Carmichael

Views: 49,874

Keywords: entrepreneur, consistency defines greatness - thomas keller - top 10 rules, thomas keller top 10 rules for success, thomas keller, thomas keller motivation, thomas keller advice, famous chef, how to make it as a chef, how to make it as a restauranteur, restauranteur, success advice, motivation for success, thomas keller interview, thomas keller speech, best of thomas keller

Id: CfLEciWo1hk

Length: 27min 38sec (1658 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2017