What is a Chef with Jensen Cummings of Best Served

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 everyone. We are back with another one of our many episodes on what it means to be a chef. Although this one isn't so much a mini episode and it isn't necessarily just about what it means to be a chef. As many of you know, I have been going back to some of my favorite guests in the past and asking them this question since I didn't get to ask them it when they were on the show. So today I have Chef Jensen Cummings. I recorded a full episode with him back in August of 2020. And I reached out to Jensen because I wanted to ask him the question. I've been asking a lot of my guests this season, which is what does it mean to be a chef. Now I had a feeling that Jensen was not just going to come in and drop a little three minute tidbit here. This episode runs about 16 minutes. And it's not just about what it means to be a chef Jensen's going to start out talking about his background a little bit in food service. He's done probably literally everything in food service from washing dishes to Executive Chef, podcast host, you name it. So I wanted to let him set up the episode a little bit so you'd have some context about where he's coming from. Jensen actually really takes this as an opportunity to kind of talk about the state of the restaurant industry, not just what it means to be a chef. I don't think it's any surprise that people talk about how toxic the restaurant industry can be, how problematic some of these things are. And Jensen says yes, I was part of that system. I own it. I am part of the problem. But he's realized that and I think he's one of the most inspiring voices in culinary right now. Which is why I want to have him on the show. If you don't know much about Jensen, you'll get the whole rundown in this episode. And you can also listen to my full one hour podcast episode with him. I'll link all that up in the show notes. And as always, if you love the show, I would love for you to share it with everyone. Let people know the show is out there. It's on all podcast platforms. Maybe share the link to this episode. I really think it's important not just for Chefs Without Restaurants but especially Chefs Without Restaurants and working in restaurants. And if you want to go the extra mile, drop a rating and review you can rate and review on iTunes, Spotify or directly on our pod page website. Thanks so much for listening and have a great week.

Chef, the French word for boss assigned to those who run a professional kitchen to say Simple enough term. Turns out, not so much. At least for me. My name is Jensen Cummings got 22 years in the industry. I want to take just a couple minutes, tell you about some of my personal journey, some of the joys and pains of that word chef, and give you also some insights into what chefs are going to be held accountable for responsible for opportunities and challenges that they'll face in the future of our industry. Like many of you have run the gamut from dishwasher, line cook, sous chef, executive, sous chef, Chef de Cuisine, executive chef, chef owner, even taking stances bartender, General Manager. Back to wishing I was a dishwasher consultant, owner of CPG companies, consulting firms have event production. This really touched every area had a nonprofit working on culinary events. So you know, many hats like a lot of you, I'm sure understand and have gone through as well. And now with best serve creative, really focusing on unlocking the stories and potential of chefs, among others in our industry, through media, messaging, and marketing. We have to tell meaningful stories, we get so chummed up in the minutiae of what we do and how we do it, we forget why we do it and who we're doing it for. And so the idea is to really amplify the worth and work of those who feed their community, through media, messaging, marketing, being able to get those stories out there, because the food and this is hard for me to say, as a chef, the food is just the proof that you are who you say you are. And we need to really understand that and get to that. Alright, a little on the on the background side, kind of where that started as a dishwasher. That story actually though, starts long before I was even around. I am the fifth consecutive generation in my family to be in this industry. My great great grandparents opened up a restaurant couple of fond house in Little Falls, Minnesota, and even fond you all know fond the the French sauce of deglazing pan drippings. So we even have some Parisian family that was also in the industry that set us on this trajectory in the United States. So 122 years. We are gluttons for punishment, to say the least. And then great grandparents had restaurants bars in San Francisco, a grandfather, also a barman in San Francisco. And then I have three uncles, my father's three younger brothers, all own restaurants. And even my younger brother also in the industry, we cook together for quite a few years, as well. So there's a lot of family legacy, which, you know, I was never told when are you going to get a real job and big air quotes like a lot of us in the industry have been. So there's a lot of opportunity and empowerment that I felt also a lot of a lot of burden and weights of that legacy as well. I'm sure that'll come up a little bit more as I speak with you throughout this. And then for me professionally, it started at 17 I was a as a fucking punk kid and doing all the stupid shit, selling drugs, doing drugs, getting into trouble. Just you know, skater punk from Southern California didn't quite fit in. You know, I used to think I was smarter than the cool kids and cooler than the smart kids turned out I was dumber than the smart kids and not as cool as the cool kids. And I always kind of felt that at 17 years old when I graduated high school, my uncle said come out to Ames, Iowa, where my two uncles had kind of built a little, a little Empire mini Empire five, six restaurants. At the time in Ames, Iowa where I was stayed is come out here for the summer. Get out of California, you know, chase some college girls and wash dishes at my restaurant. And I went and lived in his garage for a couple of months until like so many of us know I bunked up with people that I worked with and got myself into more trouble that he had the first day in the kitchen. The intensity of it the controlled chaos of it the dance the the The beauty of all of what you know, I don't need to tell you, if you're listening to this, you are somebody who understands that deeply both the joy and pain of its stack of dishes as tall as I am six, two, that's a serious stack of dishes to work through. And I just, I felt at home, like I found my people very, very quickly. And that's intoxicating. And it sucks you in. And there's a lot of a lot of opportunity and challenges that that creates. And I think a lot of you know, and I spent a lot of time talking about the, the toxic culture they're in, because there's a lot of it, when I felt the camaraderie which there's also a lot of right away. And it put me on a path. That's at 17. I knew that term chef again, I wanted that I wanted to be at that top level, I wanted to be somebody because I'm competitive, I wanted to, to run shit. I wanted to be able to be creative and innovative and be in charge. So run a team that was important to me. And I know again, a lot of you understand what that's like. So fast forward for me, I really got on that kind of culinary school path, I got on to the chef driven type path, opened up multiple restaurants with my uncle's there and Ames. And then decided I wanted to be kind of on that James Beard, you know, recognizable chef name, kind of trajectory, and move to Kansas City and work for Debbie gold, who's James Beard award winner, Master Chef competitor, just great, great mentor at 40. Sardines, they're in Kansas City, and learned a lot about what it meant to be kind of at that high end, progressive, fine dining that level. And again, there was this level of intoxication, where like, whatever it took to be that chef, I was going to do it, fuck my health, who I had to, to work with and uplift or who I had to stomp on, honestly, to be able to get to that point. And again, something that's we just you get chopped up in the minutiae of what you do and how you do it. And so I felt that I felt that intensely. And that, you know, got me to a point where at 24, moved to move to Denver, Executive Chef at 24, way too young and dumb, at I was ambitious, I was hungry, I was talented enough, and worked hard enough to be able to get to that point that started a six year trajectory, where I started getting noticed started getting accolades started getting invited competitions, winning little awards, getting on TV, radio, in articles. And I think of that quote from, from Christopher Nolan from Batman, where you either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. And as I reflect back, I noticed these moments where I just, I just held on too tight. And as a leader, what I know now, but I knew then I just couldn't see it was that is not their responsibility to learn what you have to teach them, your team or for them to live up to your standard. It's your responsibility to guide them. Right. Every time that I have uplifted and empowered my people, I have succeeded in every single time that I've taken them for granted that they were lucky to be here because my name was mentioned alongside blah, blah, blah, I failed. And I think this is a failure, that becomes a part of the culture because we we prop up these ideals. And we only think in the transactional nature of what value you can bring to that service and look their strength in being able to live in the moment and being able to make sure that every single plate that goes up is quote unquote, perfect. It also creates a ton of vulnerability. And, you know, you're only as good as your next plate up, smile as part of your uniform leave your shit at the door. We create this environment that is so, so self abusive, and abusive to the team. Yeah, we buy into it so deeply and I bought into it so deeply and for a short time. It does create the illusion of success. It really, really does. And you do Hit those benchmarks of being able to have a successful restaurant, it what we've seen play out in the last 20 years, the the food network effect of we became caricatures of ourselves, it became about not the finding your people and being able to create something beautiful, because we didn't want the nine to five, we didn't want the suit and tie the cubicle. We wanted something different. We were those misfits, or, you know, sometimes, unfortunately, the pirates on the pirate ship as Bourdain called us. And so it created again, this like false reality for ourselves. And I was all in on that. And what I realized now, and what chefs are going to have to realize now into the future, is that we are stewards of something different. We are creating a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose for ourselves, for our business for our community. And if we galvanize around those values, we have a real chance to be something special, not just be able to say, here's this cool shit, I'm doing come buy my shit. And I did a lot of that. I think as an industry, we did a lot of that. And now chefs, are going to be the vanguard at the forefront of building something new, something different an industry that is equitable, profitable, sustainable, for all people who are a part of it. Something that I call the whole house approach, we know this, we know that we have to break down those those self inflicted barriers of Front of House versus back a house, am versus PM, bartenders versus servers, we create these, these false enemies within the team, one team one mission that is there to try and accomplish the same goal. And that's what I want to see more of that whole house approach. That's the opportunity that chefs and other leaders across the industry are going to be able to put forth for us. And when I see things playing out, like labor shortages, we don't have a labor issue, we have a culture issue playing out at mass scale, restaurants are not a great place to work. And we're being called out on that. And we don't like it. And I understand because I am responsible for helping build the dynamic that is at play. The state of this industry is not the fault of a 22 year old, quote unquote, kids these days, they're the best chance we have to succeed if we listen and lead with some empathy, something I forgot, a long time ago. And I'm fighting desperately to find again. And so when I think about that, I think about what experience are they having. And then I think back to my experience starting out, when I was that misfit when I didn't quite fit in when I found that sense of belonging. And we need to give them that. And so I imagine what do they look at when they see this industry, this business, this hierarchy, this toxic brigade system that yes, is deadly, effective, yet deadly to the sustainability of both people and businesses. Again, we see that playing out. So for me, I think about what happened to me and to us as an industry again, I kind of alluded to that food network effect, we went from being those misfits help being the fucking help pretty much for so much of the existence of this restaurant industry. To all of a sudden we're the cool kids. All sudden, we're on TV, for me. I remember getting invited to, to avalanche games by players on you know, professional hockey players and after parties and all this stuff was like, Who the fuck do I think I am? And went to my head. I thought that's, that's what we were meant to be these, you know, micro celebrity chefs that that somehow gave me status and leverage. It just gave me ego. And that didn't help anything. So we went from being the misfits, to the cool kids, to the establishment. And now, kids these days are saying they don't want the cubicle, the nine to five the suit and tie except they're saying we don't want the overworked, underappreciated undervalued. That is this industry. I'm not going to work for for poverty wages, in abusive environments, to maybe someday be able to be what the chef owner of a restaurant that has a 4% profit margin. Like, Sign me up. Sounds awesome. And that's what we need to break through. That's this new whole house approach that we're going to take that we create an environment for the guests, internally and externally, that we create stories that go beyond the food that include all the people that are behind the food. And we create this place that people on all sides feel seen and heard and valued and included in that narrative. And the leaders, the chef's that shift that narrative, they're going to have a real opportunity. And that's who I'm looking to support. So best served is all about, that's the people we want to have on our shows that people we want to help with, with messaging and marketing, the types of individuals, teams and businesses that we want to put on a pedestal. So again, our mission, we exist to amplify the worth and work of those who feed their community. And that's you, Chef, I appreciate your time. Cheers.

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