225 | The Successful Chef Mindset: Adaptability

Welcome back, chef, to another episode of Cheflife Radio.

Today, we're gonna go deep into a vital topic for every chef, adaptability.

As chefs, we must stay on our toes and be ready to pivot quickly.

But adaptability isn't just about keeping up with trends, it's

about fostering a mindset that embraces change and leverage it

to your advantage.

How can I stay flexible and open to change in the kitchen?

What strategies can I use to embrace new techniques and trends?

How do I adapt my leadership style to suit different team members and situations?

In this episode, we'll discuss why adaptability is crucial to

your success as a chef, and how it can elevate your culinary skills,

and improve your emotional and physical resilience.

I'll also give you 3 action takeaways for increasing your mental

and emotional adaptability.

If you're ready to spark the flame and reclaim your passion, purpose,

and process, let's do this.

Welcome to Chef Life Radio, your go to resource for success, sanity

and satisfaction in the culinary industry.

I'm your host and culinary career coach, chef Adam Lamb.

And my mission is to elevate culinary professionals like you into

effective leaders who can excel in their craft and cultivate thriving,

collaborative teams to build sustainable, equitable, and regenerative hospitality cultures.

As a seasoned culinary career coach, I specialize in empowering

chefs to thrive in their roles through a unique blend of emotional

intelligence, relationship building skills, and communication mastery.

I focus on leadership development, work life balance, and professional

growth and career advancement.

In this series, I'm gonna break down the top ten attributes or

components that separate good chefs from the truly great ones.

Mindset, or what I'm now calling the successful chef mindset.

That's resilience, adaptability, leadership, emotional intelligence,

creativity, time management, collaboration, curiosity, self reflection, growth.

I have one in here that's close to my heart.

It's called play. Yeah. Playfulness.

Like, don't take it too seriously, man.

This is the recipe for your culinary career, which will result

in your success, sanity, and satisfaction.

If you're curious about how your current mindset compares with

my list, then take the successful chef mindset challenge and download

your free scorecard at link.chefliferadio.comforward/mindset.

And the link is in the show notes.

In this episode, we're gonna focus on adaptability.

Once as the executive chef of a particular restaurant, I had taken

time to cook a lunch for, all the prep cooks and line cooks for

a staff meal.

Typically, one person would be tasked with making the meal, and

then everybody would sit down and enjoy it.

However, this time, I decided I was gonna do it myself.

As I stood off the side, a proud papa watching everybody scarf

down this food, sitting on milk crates or leaning back up against

tables, My sous chef stood next to me, and I noticed a smug look

on my face.

He turned to me.

He said, listen.

Just because you cooked them lunch, doesn't mean that every single

one of them would gut you like a fish if they had the chance.

That kinda startled me.

I I looked at him, and I thought, the fuck would I do?

And it's not what he did.

It's what I had been continuing to do, which is not necessarily

treat people very well.

See, at that time, I felt like the mission was more important

than the team.

And it took me a while to smarten up and realize that the quicker

I shifted from me to we, the better everybody else was gonna be.

So in that particular case, I had to learn adaptability and very

quickly try to find a different way to do things.

Because if my sous chef was right, then it wouldn't be too long

before I was left alone in the kitchen by myself because nobody

would wanna work with me.

As you mature in your culinary journey, you must change.

It is inevitable.

Now this may shock you, but you'll think and feel differently

in your thirties than in your twenties, even though you feel pretty

certain that you're will always be this cool and edgy.

Just think, when you finally turn 40, you'll be able to rock that

park pie hat that all your friends now make fun of.

Chef Eric Ripert very famously had his transformation.

Begin at age 29, shortly after Laberda Dann ceded the first of

its 4 star ratings from the New York Times.

Chef should've been pretty happy about that, but he wasn't.

As a matter of fact, he's pretty miserable.

And he goes on to say, and I quote, one day, I don't know what happened.

I was thinking, why am I so miserable?

Why is everybody leaving?

I realized it was all about me.

All about being angry and scaring the cooks, scaring the employees,

and making them miserable.

He decided right then and there to change his leadership style

completely, leaving behind the old system of ruling through fear,

which is how he had been brought up.

I think all of us can relate to that.

So what exactly is adaptability?

I think most of us can be pretty proud of ourselves that we're adaptable.

I don't know a single chef out there that is in part MacGyver.

Anything that goes wrong in the middle of the shift can be fixed

with some duct tape, some spit, and a good wrench of the saute pan.

How many times did the ovens go down?

How many times did we lose the lights in the middle of service?

And always, we were adaptable.

Put the mission on our shoulders and made sure it was good little soldiers.

We got it done.

But at its core, adaptability is about adjusting to new conditions

and changes quickly and effectively.

And while the previous example might prove that out, I would suggest

that adaptability goes a lot deeper than just what we can do from

a physical standpoint.

The most profound changes that we can make in our mindset, of

course is what happens internally or emotionally.

And some of us are not very good at being adaptable in so far

as how we feel about things.

Matter of fact, speaking for myself, that's typically when I would

fall on my sword or I hit a road bump is when I became completely

attached to a particular outcome or was absolutely certain that

I was the one who knew best.

The fact of the matter is that's rarely the case for anybody.

In a culinary world, this can mean anything from adjusting a recipe

on the fly to dealing with unexpected changes in staff or equipment.

Let's face it.

The kitchen is a incredibly dynamic environment.

Orders come in fast.

Ingredients may change.

Unexpected issues can arise at any moment.

Post COVID, you know, I talked to so many people who had to make

do with the fact that their purveyors weren't even showing up

at the door.

They would have to run down to the distribution centers and pick

that stuff up by themselves, all the while thinking everything

was gonna be fine for 11 o'clock.

I think that's one of the beauties about what we do is we actually time travel.

When we're prepping or getting a place set up for 7, 8, 9, now

10 o'clock in the morning, we're constantly projecting into the

future at 11 o'clock, at 5 o'clock, and figuring out what's missing

then, so that we can actually attack it now and solve the problem

before it exists.

Constantly scanning scanning our environment to see what's wrong

instead of probably spending a little bit of that time celebrating what's right.

Being adaptable means you can handle these changes without missing a beat.

It allows you to stay calm under pressure and solve problems creatively.

And that, in my case, wasn't always the way I went about things.

Adaptability is also closely linked to resilience.

In a demanding industry like ours, setbacks and failures are always inevitable.

However, how many failures and setbacks have put you on your ass

such that it took you a while to get back on that horse and get riding again?

I know there have been times when I had to take something on the

chin or get kicked in the balls, and I was down on the ground

for a while.

And it took me almost everything I knew to pull me up by my bootstraps,

and sometimes I couldn't even do it.

I had to rely on those who love me and who surrounded me and gave

me reasons to get back up.

An adaptable chef sees these as opportunities for growth and learning.

Instead of getting discouraged, they bounce back up and find a new path.

It's important to note that adaptability isn't just about reacting

to changes, it's also about proactively seeking new ways to improve and innovate.

I know for some of us, we get stuck in a pattern, man, and that's

where we would like to be because let's face it, those patterns are comfortable.

And the more we're comfortable with being uncomfortable, I wrote

a book like that, the better off we're gonna be.

So why is adaptability so crucial for the successful chef mindset?

For 1, it allows you to keep up with industry trends, stay ahead

of the curve.

Secondly, embracing an adaptable mindset will pay dividends for

all your relationships.

And it might just make you a little bit happier because you're

not so attached to a particular outcome.

Remaining emotionally flexible means that you permit yourself

to not always have to have it handled.

You don't always have to look good or at least not to look bad,

or have that need to be right all the time, which can be exhausting.

If you know what I'm talking about, yeah.

A little tip of the toke on that one.

It also helps to build a more cohesive and effective team, so

you can guide them through changes with confidence and poise.

Confidence and poise. Yeah.

Sometimes breaking bad news to a good crew can seem like an awfully

shitty situation to be in.

But as the leader, you get to own that, and you also get to own

the fact that you're the one making that decision whether or not

you made it.

The worst thing you can do is to put it on someone else.

It's the policy. Someone else.

The general manager wants us to That's abdicating your leadership.

Next, we're gonna dive into practical tips for honing your adaptability skills.

But before we get there, I wanna leave you with this one thought.

Adaptability is a skill that can be cultivated over time.

It's not something you're born with, but something that you develop

through experience and practice.

As my friend Ryan Dodge says, we as an industry do a pretty shitty

job of communicating to those that wanna come into the industry

that there is a learning curve.

We all know that. 1st, you learn how to make 1 omelette, then

you make 100, then you make a 1,000.

But there are gonna be some skills that you're gonna be able to

pick up through practice and rote.

There's gonna be a certain level of maturity that's not gonna

come until you've got years in.

I was watching an interview with, on 60 minutes with Jillian Murphy,

who was up for an Oscar for the movie Oppenheimer.

And he mentions towards the end of the interview that at one point

early in his career, a director told him that it takes 30 years

to become an actor.

Like, there's the skills to learn.

There's the patience.

There's the adaptability.

There's the resilience.

And then there's the maturity.

Like, knowing what to do in every situation such that it doesn't

knock you for a loop.

As soon as I heard that, I realized, holy shit.

It probably takes 30 years to become a chef.

I mean, a good chef.

I mean, a chef that people wanna follow.

A chef that can build a team that's highly effective and incredibly loyal.

That's not something that comes out of the gate.

That doesn't come from 4 years of culinary school, and that doesn't

come from I don't care how many stages or apprentices you have.

That is skin in the game that you've put in, and the repayment

from our craft is to build up wisdom such that you become the

leader that you wanted to have when you were coming up.

How do you build adaptability? 1st, embrace continuous learning.

Stay updated on culinary trends, techniques, and new ingredients

by attending workshops, reading industry publications, and networking with peers.

By constantly expanding your knowledge and skills, you'll be more

prepared to adapt to the changes in the kitchen and beyond.

Continuous learning also should not necessarily be solely confined

to culinary trends, techniques, food.

There's other skill sets that are gonna be incredibly powerful

for you, and tools that you could be put in your tool belt, like coaching.

Nobody teaches coaching in the culinary industry or hospitality industry.

That's why I had to leave the industry and take courses so that

I could learn to be a great coach, which made me a better leader.

So there's areas of expertise that you can develop a lifelong

curiosity about continuous learning that's really gonna serve

you in the long run.

It's probably important to note as well, have some patience and

grace for yourself as you learn these things.

Not everything's gonna work out of the gate.

As anybody who's ever built a recipe knows, that recipe might

have to go through 8 or 10 or 20 or 40 iterations.

I was watching a documentary on PBS about this, family of French

chefs, father and sons.

And his son was bragging at the table that he's been working on

this dish for 7 weeks.

This was an appetizer.

Take your time.

Enjoy the journey.

Don't be so focused on the destination.

Develop a growth mindset.

Approach challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning.

This is incredibly important about your internal dialogue.

The things you say to yourself in your head or could be another

voice in your head.

It could be your ego.

It could be your parents.

It could be an old school teacher.

It could be anything.

But be very rigorous about your internal dialogue because life

is hard enough.

This industry is hard enough.

You don't need any more help feeling shitty for yourself.

Be aware of when you your script starts turning into negative

self talk, and be vigilant enough to stop it right there.

And say, thank you for caring.

Fuck you for sharing.

I got this.

Because the longer you spend in that state, the worse you're gonna feel.

So this idea of holding it all with some grace and compassion

for yourself is a really important thing.

Instead of resisting change, embrace it as a chance to innovate and improve.

I keep saying that the only thing constant in life is change,

and if you've been in the industry any longer than 5 years, like

constantly a growth mindset allows you to remain open to new ideas

and flexible in your approach to problem solving.

I think that's probably one of the biggest benefits of embracing

adaptability, is it's going to open you up to new ideas and new

ways of doing things because you're gonna let go of that absolute

need to be right and to always have the answers.

When someone comes up with a different way of doing things, you're

probably more apt to say, you know what?

I never thought of that.

Let's check it out.

Let's test it.

Because that's the only thing left to do is to test any approach.

And that probably falls right into my next topic, which is cultivating

strong communication skills.

Effective communication is a key to navigating change and uncertainty.

Foster open lines of communication with your team, colleagues,

supervisors, Need I say your lovers, your parents, and your friends.

To ensure everybody's on the same page.

Clearly articulating your thoughts and ideas can help you to adapt

to new situations more easily and collaborate effectively with others.

Being willing to play with this idea that 2 minds very often can

come up with a better solution than 1.

I know we're very good.

I could put my hand up on this one.

Very good at taking a problem and then wrestling it to the ground

in my head until I come up with an answer and then come back up

out of that reverie and make a proclamation.

It's not even a conversation.

It's like, okay.

The garden's going over here.

The line is gonna go over here, and this is the way we're gonna

set up the cooler without taking anybody else's input.

So it's incredibly important to, again, hold it all loosely.

But when you're articulating your thoughts, be direct.

Don't be don't be assertive.

Don't be antagonistic.

But there's nothing wrong with you being sure of what you're trying

to communicate, and communicate it in the simplest way possible.

Use less words, as my friend Greg Barnhill would tell me.

That's too many words, Ben.

That's too many words.

I want you to reflect on your capacity for adaptability.

This is not to make anybody wrong or right or kick you in the

ass or any of that.

This is about just taking a stock, being self aware enough to

take a moment to realize, gosh, how adaptable am I?

Am I actually willing and open to change?

What happens when somebody changes something on me?

How do I react?

That's probably a great place to start because typically, your

reaction is based primarily out of this idea of whether you're

adaptable or not.

If you wanna test your mindset against this particular list, the

successful chef mindset.

Take the challenge.

Download the scorecard, score it yourself, and share that score

with me on LinkedIn.

Just DM me or whatever.

Let me know what your score was and, any areas in that checklist

or that scorecard that you scored anything less than 3 on.

And there were a couple that I scored less than 3 on because it

hasn't been an area of focus for me.

It's a great ladder to build that successful chef mindset.

I want you to share your thoughts.

I want you to share your experiences.

Let me know how this episode landed for you.

If you got any choice tidbits out of it, hit me up on Instagram or LinkedIn.

It's important that we treat ourselves with kindness because we're

probably more apt to treat others with kindness if we're treating ourselves.

Next episode, we're gonna be going over the 3rd component of that

successful chef mindset, leadership.

Well, I'm gonna break it down as succinctly as I can and to give

you 3 action takeaways in which you can continue to build each

one of these components.

As you build your leadership skills, so does your adaptability,

so does your resilience.

It's not a binary list. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

It's a recipe, and you know as well as I, that when you put stuff

together, sometimes you gotta let it simmer.

Just let it simmer.

Let all those flavors come out because it's the synergy of all

of those things that's gonna really make you an excellent chef.

That's it from this episode of Chef Life Radio.

See you next week.

Join the successful chef mindset challenge in at link dotchefliferadio.comforward/mindset.

Remember, cultivating a successful chef mindset isn't just about

what happens in the kitchen.

It's about embracing a mindset of growth, resilience, and positivity

that will elevate every aspect of your culinary journey.

Let's embark on this transformative journey together and unlock

the mindset of a true culinary champion.

That's it for this episode of Chef Life Radio.

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Here at Chef Life Radio, we believe that working in a kitchen

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should be demanding.

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It just shouldn't have to be demeaning.

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It should be hard.

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It just doesn't have to be harsh.

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We believe that it's possible to have more solidarity and less

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suck it up sunshine, more compassion, less cutthroat island.

Speaker 2 00:18:03

We believe in more partnership and less put up or shut up, more

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family and less fuck you.

Speaker 2 00:18:10

Stand tall and frosty brothers and sisters, but consider for a

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moment, for all the blood, sweat, and effort you've put into what

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you do, at the end of the day, it's just some stuff on a plate.

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None of it really matters.

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It doesn't define you as a person or make you any more special

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or less than anyone else.

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It's just the dance that we're engaged in, so we might as well

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laugh and enjoy every bit of it.

Speaker 2 00:18:30

Or didn't you know that the purpose of your life should be to enjoy it?

I just like it, Jeff.

I love it.

I am humble.

Goddamn Rory Fox.

I don't live on now.

Speaker 2 00:18:43

Visit the website at chefliferadio.com.

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Subscribe to the podcast at any of the major podcast directories.

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Please take a moment and give us a thumbs up and write a review.

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It really does help spread the news.

Speaker 2 00:18:54

Thanks for listening.

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Until the next episode.

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Be well and do good.