It’s February here in NYC and at the moment, we’re looking for a cook to join our team at The Four Horsemen. I’m proud (and thankful) to say it’s not a situation we find ourselves in too often. Because of that good fortune, my sous chefs and I really get to take our time and find solid cooks that will hopefully be a part of our restaurant for years to come.
Throughout this whole process over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking that this may actually be an interesting thing to share with you all. Whether you’re in the industry or not, I think most people that love food and going out to eat find it fun to get a look behind the scenes.
Although generally a bit stressful, it can actually be pretty exciting to put up a job post for the restaurant. People from all walks of life and from all over the world begin to reach out and I feel like it really gives me good insight into who’s cooking in the city these days. Some cooks write in with resumes featuring years of experience in top restaurants in NYC and abroad. Some cooks are fresh out of culinary school, eager to learn and full of ambition. There is also a fair share of career changers (mostly from tech) and sometimes there are even farmers looking to see the other side of the process or food writers looking to gain a few extra skills to level up their game and give them an edge over those who write about our industry without any real experience actually working in it.
Each interaction begins with a brief meeting at the restaurant. I really love to put a face to the name and to kind of give each applicant the lay of the land before we invite them in to cook with us for a day. I can get a sense of where they’re at in their career and hopefully understand what they’re looking for in their next role. This initial step helps me to judge whether or not our kitchen will be the right move for them. We have a good track record of retaining cooks for 1.5-2+ years and I honestly think that all starts with this simple meeting.
Over the years, I’ve developed somewhat of a spiel that can be custom tailored to each cook in the moment, but it generally starts out with a bit about the restaurant and its history, the food we serve, our sourcing practices, the culture of respect and kindness in our kitchen and the tools we provide each cook as well as the expectations we ask for in return. I like to think of our tiny kitchen as a university level classroom. Not in some cheesy way, but more that you get out what you put in. If you want to learn and grow and hone your skills, we’ll be there with you to provide the support. If you want to flex your creative muscles once you get a good grasp on the day to day of the job, we’ll provide a sounding board and the ingredients you need to flesh out your idea.
We’re a small kitchen and there just isn’t room for cooks just looking to punch in and punch out while going through the robotic motions in between. It’s actually quite the opposite. I do my best to create a dynamic environment for growth, inquisitiveness and discovery. This 15 minute initial interview lets me know if a potential cook, no matter what their skill level, understands this and is excited about the potential to work in such a kitchen.
I hate to say it, but I barely read resumes these days. I find this initial step (the 15 minute meeting) in the hiring process to be so much more important. Some of my best cooks who’ve stayed with me the longest have had no experience or very little experience in some restaurant you may not have heard of in a town not known for a vibrant food scene. But they have passion and they really want to push themselves to be better each and every day. That’s something that’s inherent and hard to teach and it’s our job to suss out these individuals as quickly as possible.
That first interview is also a (sorry for the cringe verbiage here) vibe check for me and the other managers. Ask any cook who has worked for me over the past few years and they’ll tell you that the most important attribute I look for in a cook is a positive attitude. I can teach anyone to cut vegetables, sauté fish, grill meats, butcher whole animals, etc. It’s much harder, however, to teach someone to have a good attitude day in and day out.
It’s definitely a tough career, especially at this level, and I don’t take for granted how much courage it takes to even walk in the door at our restaurant. But we have a tiny basement where cooks work on top of one another (myself included!) and shimmy behind you while you’re slicing paper thin sheets of prosciutto or breaking down really expensive fish. The menu changes often and is tweaked up until the moment service begins. The place is fully sat right as soon as the doors open and packed until the end of it and there’s a chef hovering right over you on the pass checking each and every plate that goes out of the kitchen, tasting and adjusting and making sure you’re present and putting out the best food you can each and every service.
I can’t say it’s easy to smile throughout a whole 12 hour work day in this kind of environment, I know I’ve had my moments in the past. Some people just have that spirit in them, though. And they’re the ones we’re aiming to find. You really have to roll with the punches here and kind of just take in the craziness of our craft with a bit of a smile. I have this constant thought that if these cooks can survive and thrive here, they’ll be able to do it anywhere. So many other restaurants of this caliber have multi-million dollar buildouts and more space than they need and all of the tools and cookware a chef could dream of. We pride ourselves on making due with what we have, which is a tiny kitchen and prep space that was initially built for a small wine bar that has since become an international dining destination with a multiple month wait list. Needless to say, we’ve outgrown those initial floorpans, so we just have to find ways to make it work no matter how tough those constraints can be at times. It’s a big ask of our cooks and those that get it really learn the power of working clean, organized and tight.
At any rate, after the meeting, we decide if a kitchen trail (working a shift with us at the restaurant) is the next move. If so, we invite the cook back at a later date to join us in the kitchen for a few hours. I generally have them arrive at noon or one, so they get to see a bit of prep and kind of shadow one of our cooks for the day. Some of the things we are checking are; proficiency with basic knife cuts, cleanliness, organization, time management, the way they move in a kitchen and how well they follow instructions. But beyond that, i’m observing how they interact with the team. Are they respectful and kind? Are they treating the dishwasher the same as the sous chef or the other line cooks? Are they asking good questions about the food and the service? When they taste dishes (we always let the trails try almost every dish on the menu), do they provide feedback or show genuine interest in what we’re creating?
During service, we just have them observe and taste food. I know a lot of restaurants that just throw potential cooks onto the line, but I never really understood that. At least at restaurants of a certain level. You have guests out there paying a lot of money for food and coming in for a certain experience, generally with high expectations and a reservation they booked over a month ago. We train people for a week before putting them on the line, so it just doesn't make sense for me to expect them to cook and plate our food the way we want it to be done without any training whatsoever.
After our first turn (a seating at the restaurant) at about 7:30, we’ll head down to the office with the trail and just kind of check in to see how the day went. This gives us the opportunity to gauge their interest and to go over any questions that they may have after working with us for a day. If all goes well and there’s a sense of excitement in both parties, we’ll invite them back for a second trail.
The second trail is really just a chance for them to come back under more comfortable circumstances and is also a chance for some of the rest of the team to meet them. Again, we’re a small restaurant so making sure everyone is happy and on board with a new cook is pretty crucial. We really want the team to gel and for new blood to inspire us and help push us forward.
The first time you set foot in a new kitchen, especially while doing a trail, is really stressful. You don’t know where anything is, you don’t know anyone’s name, you don’t know the restaurant’s lingo (each place has it’s own unique dialect) and you kind of just feel like you’re in the way the whole day. As chefs, we know this and understand that it’s not the most ideal of scenarios. When the cooks come back a second time, they don’t feel that initial anxiety about the unfamiliar. They know where all of the containers are, they know a couple of the cooks and servers, they know how the dish station is organized and they know a bit of our ridiculous lingo and phrases.
While on their second trail, we have them make and plate a few dishes right alongside the cook they’re shadowing who is responsible for that particular station. This lets us get a sense of their palate and if we need them to make adjustments, we see how they handle the feedback and adapt. Their eye for details as well as how consistent they are with their plating is also something we’re looking out for. And again, we’ll check in after service to see if we all want to move forward. If all parties are on board, we offer the position and hopefully welcome a new cook to our team.
That’s the long and short of it. What it takes to cook at the restaurant is a whole different newsletter. Right now, I need to get dinner started!
Great article I like the way you ease someone into the position they are working towards to many times I seen cooks thrown in to the deep end of the pool to sink or swim and remembered that during my own hiring processes. I'd been thrown in a time or two myself, my favorite being the chef going on vacation and never coming back I inherited that kitchen my second week working there, wasn't my first rodeo luckily.