A Guide for New BOH Team Members Hoping To Move up the Ranks in the Kitchen and Reach Culinary Success Quickly.
When I got a job working in my first legit, from-scratch kitchen—I didn’t know the difference between brunoise and béchamel. The job was brutal, but I was determined to move up the ranks and ended up being promoted to sous chef in just 18 months.
Looking back, most of my progress and success came from these five things I did every day.
If you’re ready to take your career to the next level, I’m here to share the secret ingredients to culinary success.
Get To Work Early
Some of the best advice I ever received was to show up to work 10-15 minutes early and go through EVERYTHING—the walk-in, dry-storage, pantry, lowboys, reach-ins, bins, and anything useful to you during your shift.
Why?
We’ve all worked with a line cook who can’t seem to find anything even though they’ve worked there for six months, and I’m sure you’ve been that cook on occasion.
You tell Chef, “I can’t find the gruyere. I think we’re 86.”
Chef gives you a patronizing look, then takes you straight to the cheese.
It’s embarrassing and wastes everyone’s time.
My chef eventually got tired of this and told me, “Get to work early enough so you can go through and put your hands on everything.”
He meant literally putting my hands on everything.
Touching each item created a mental inventory I could easily reference throughout service and know exactly what we had on hand.
My problem went away.
It wasn’t long before other cooks started asking me where product was or how much we had at that moment.
Chef noticed and leaned on me to help others in the kitchen—a sure sign you’re doing something right.
Go to the Library
When I landed my first sous chef gig, I was excited, extremely nervous, and wanted to prove myself.
I was also broke.
I don’t remember where I got the idea, but I found myself in the library surrounded by cookbooks.
It was a treasure trove of free knowledge, and I could borrow up to 50 books (who could carry that many books?) for three weeks at a time.
I read cookbooks all day, every day, stealing a ton of recipes and learning as I went.
If I found an especially interesting book, I’d bring it in to share with my team. It was fun, and we tried a lot of new dishes.
You don’t need to be a sous chef to hit the library stacks, though, and I wish I’d started sooner.
Read as many cookbooks as you possibly can, then read some more. And if a new book is published you want, either ask the library to order it or save up the money to buy it yourself.
Pay Attention
It was busy, and I’d just survived the first wave of happy-hour customers on a Friday night.
Chef stepped over and asked if I was doing ok. I said yes, but I was obviously struggling, so he gave me some advice.
Pointing at the sous chef, he said, “Jeremy is the best line cook I’ve ever seen. Pay attention to how he works, and you’ll get better.”
So I did.
Watching him, I absorbed lessons in efficiency, precision, and adaptability as he prepped his mise-en-place, plated food, and worked the line.
I watched how he’d set his knife down so it was always easy to pick back up, or the way kept his tongs clutched between pinky and ring finger on his left hand when he wasn’t using them so he didn’t waste time looking for where he set them down.
He had mastered the economy of movement.
Every time he moved, it had a purpose, and all those efficient microseconds added up to a much faster and more capable cook than myself.
Many people have conquered these skills before you—don’t let your ego get in the way. Pay attention, and you’ll master them too.
Eat Everything
Besides your cooking skills, your most valuable asset is your palate. The only way it can develop is to eat and to eat broadly.
Don’t fall into the cliché rockstar line cook persona that blows all their money on booze, weed, and cigs—that guy isn’t going anywhere.
Blow it on good food instead.
The best way to understand food is to eat it; by doing so, you immerse yourself in each dish’s techniques, ingredients, and history.
Going out to eat helps you stay current with food trends as well.
If everyone is raving about a restaurant in the city, go check it out. Find out what makes it unique, then see if you can figure out what they’re doing right.
How can you know what good food is if all you eat is Flaming Hot Cheetos and late-night Taco Bell?
Be a Team Player
Cooks have a reputation as a grumpy, surly sort—with lousy communication skills and an attitude that leans towards antisocial.
While these individuals exist, their demeanor is more a response to the intense job pressure than a reflection of their inherent personality.
That being said, if you want to stand out in the kitchen, you need to have a smile plastered on your face when the rail is full and the printer won’t stop chattering.
To be a respected chef, you must demonstrate that you can handle stress with grace and dignity.
You must be willing to go the extra mile and help others when necessary.
For example, if the dishwasher calls out sick and line cooks have to take turns knocking out loads of dishes, DO NOT complain. Get your ass back there and start spraying plates, and when you hear a ticket call for your station, hustle back to the line to get it done.
“That’s not my job” is not part of your vocabulary.
A good attitude in a kitchen is a tremendous asset to chef, and they notice how cooks behave when the pressure is on.
If you can perform well when the chips are down, management will take advantage of your abilities by giving you more responsibilities; pushing you up the ranks.
Kitchen Closed
To sum it all up, culinary success depends heavily on having a proactive nature—get to work early, read a ton of books, eat everything you can get your hands on, be observant, and be someone Chef can count on.
Keep cooking, keep learning, and most importantly, keep growing.
