Chefs as Teachers - What is a Chef with Eli Kulp

Welcome to the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast. I'm your host, Chris spear. On the show. I have conversations with culinary entrepreneurs and people in the food and beverage industry who took a different route. Their caterers, research chefs, personal chefs cookbook authors, food truckers, farmers, cottage bakers, and all sorts of culinary renegades. I myself fall into the personal chef category as I started my own personal chef business perfect little bites 11 years ago. And while I started working in kitchens in the early 90s, I've literally never worked in a restaurant. Welcome to another episode of Chefs Without Restaurants. So today is one of my what is a chef episodes. If you listen on the show, you know it's something I've been doing this season. I sit down with amazing people in the food and beverage industry. And one of the questions I asked them is what does it mean to you to be a chef? So today's answer comes from Chef Eli Kulp. Eli's another one of those Philadelphia chefs that I love to have on the show. You might know him as the host of the wildly popular chef radio podcast as well as his second one called delicious city. Eli is the co founder and culinary director of high street Hospitality Group. I can't wait to share the full episode that I had with Eli, it's such an inspiring story. I don't want to give too much of it away. But many of you probably know he was a chef working in Philadelphia, he was traveling back and forth to New York City working on getting a restaurant opened. And in 2015, one of those days he was commuting back and forth. The train he was on actually derailed and a bunch of people died. And in that accident, he suffered a massive spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed. And now he's in a wheelchair. So you know, we're really going to dig into that part of the story. You know, what do you do when you're a chef? And you can no longer you know, find yourself working a line working in a restaurant, what do you do? So that's going to be our full episode. So you know, like I said, as part of our conversation, I asked him what it means to him to be a chef. So again, this is just a brief episode. It's a little teaser. Our full conversation will be released really soon. So keep a lookout for that. As always, I love your feedback. Please hit me up in the DMS on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants. Send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com. And if you go to chefs without restaurants.org You'll find all kinds of information, like the latest podcasts how to sign up for our weekly newsletter, you can get gig opportunities through the Chefs Without Restaurants referral network. I would love to connect with you there. So the show will be coming right up after a word from this week's sponsor. COVID has redefined the world of dining. While the pandemic certainly up into the restaurant experience the personal chef industry experienced record growth. The United States personal chef Association represents nearly 1000 chefs around the US and Canada and even Italy. USPCA provides a strategic backbone that includes liability insurance, training, communications, certification, and more. It's a reassurance to consumers that the chef coming into their home is prepared to offer them an experience along with their meal. Now, join with our inflation fighter special and save $75 on premier provisional and preparatory memberships, you can join today@uspca.org and use code inflationfighter22. You can call Angela with questions at 1-800-995-2138 extension 705 or email her at aprather@uspta.org. Payment plans are available. And as always, all this information will be in the show notes. And now on with the show. Thanks so much and have a great week. I have one little mini segment that I like to throw in my show. And it's something I've been doing this season, which is I like to ask my guests what it means to be a chef. And this could be like a whole long thing. But like kinda concisely what does it mean to you to be a chef like someone says, a chef is how do you finish that sentence?

Chef is for me, I think it would be being a chef for me it was opportunity to teach. You know, I had been taught I had mentors. And you know, I love feeding guests I love you know making people happy and you know, especially events and you know seen people come in and people Please leave excited and, you know, say great things about you and, and all that. But for me, it's teaching, I there was nothing that was more important for me, once I was able to get to a level of, you know, accepting cuisine where I was running the kitchen, and, you know, I had these young cooks coming in, they were eager, and they wanted to learn and, you know, to pass on the knowledge, that's what our, that's what our industry is, it's just, it's just, you know, passing on of knowledge. Yes, everybody will have their own creative thoughts and be able to apply their, their own creative touch to their food and make it make it theirs after they've sort of mastered the basics of running a kitchen and learning. I think, a lot of times when you first become a chef year, to regurgitating what you know, of what you learn from other chefs. It's not, you know, you're not doing a whole lot of singular viewpoint stuff, where as you get older, as a chef, he starts, okay, now I start taking a little bit of all of my knowledge, and turn it into something that that is new, you know, it's like any artist that out there, you know, has been taught, you know, there's going to be influences from their mentors, typically, unless they just rediscover like, or discover, like, a whole new genre or something. So you're always gonna see touches of, you know, my food will have touches on different chefs have come before me. And you know, it is this, it's, it's really about teaching, that's what that's what it is. And for me being I was always in an athlete growing up. So you know, Coach is no different than a teacher. And, you know, that's the way I approached my job was like a coach and have a sports team, you know, where you have your players, you put them in the best possible areas to succeed. You know, it is this, you know, you're always kind of scheming about sort of how to inspire your team and, and get them as fired up as you are about what they're doing every day. So yeah, I think I think for me, being a chef is, is really about teaching.

I think the coach analogy is perfect there and one that you see over and over, especially in kitchens, because kitchens are not unlike sports teams and a lot of regards. Absolutely, absolutely. Go to chefs without restaurants.org To find our Facebook group, mailing list and check database. The community's free to join. You'll get gig opportunities, advice on building and growing your business and you'll never miss an episode of our podcast. Have a great week.