Chefs, Not Everything Needs a System
09.2024 EditionEditor: Justin Khanna Hey Reader, I'll just flat-out say it: not everything you do needs a system. Let me explain... Before diving in, allow me to make a couple of things clear:
What distinguishes great systems?Imagine...you walk into a kitchen having zero experience in the industry. Picture yourself back on your day one. You belly up to a stainless steel table, and the person in charge tells you what you’ll be responsible for that day. You’re nervous, but they assure you that you can relax. Because you just need to follow the system. Sticking to the instructions, you gather exactly what you need, and you start into motion. Your execution is a bit rocky at first, but you manage to make it work, even finding yourself with a feeling of monotony in the "middle" as you chug along. You know you’re nearing completion, because it’s been indicated from the system exactly where the finish line is. After the final step of the process is checked off, you can dust your hands and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Now, I’m curious for you: what task did you have in your head as you read that? (bonus points if you hit “reply” on this email and tell me!) Because if you go back and read it again, it doesn’t matter if you visualized peeling potatoes, breaking down chickens, making stuffed pasta or even running the entire fish station. Why? You visualized a great system in action. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s double-click into each word of my definition of system (a process that can be taught and replicated, in service of a desired result): Process - What’s the first step? What’s the final step? Why can’t you do one part of the process before another? Can be taught - The information of the process should be transferable. If it exists solely in someone’s mind, it’s challenging to teach. It needs to be articulated, preferably documented. On top of that, it needs to be in a format that others can actually learn from. So yes, this means you need to know your s#%* well enough to distill it down to a beginner level, not prance around in the "clouds" with your expertise. …and replicated - If a particular result can only be achieved due to a fluke or a unique set of circumstances, it can’t be replicated. Moreover, if multiple variables change with each iteration, it complicates the system, reducing its reliability AND replicability. In service of a desired result - Systems are more effective when the desired outcome is clearly defined. We dedicate an entire module to Results in Total Station Domination because it often involves asking specific questions, identifying indicators, and incorporating the opinions of others. This brings me to… A systematic approach to system creationWe can reverse engineer the creation of a system using four key questions:
An (often painful) exercise is to ask yourself: which of these four is glaringly missing from the systems I'm using? This can often show you that you’ve been driving around in a three-wheeled (or sometimes even two-wheeled) car. What doesn’t system wellThe high-standards-loving part of me geeks out about an entire operation having systems out the wazoo. But as I’m getting older, I’m becoming more aware to the fact that there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t “system” - and I think that’s okay. If EVERY piece is so easy to system, someone would've come along and copied it. Let’s take the example of coming up with a new hot-appetizer. Even if you tell me you’ve made a “system” for creativity, it probably fails to account for exploration, experimentation, or building in out-of-left-field inspiration. At best, you're just going through the motions (failing to actually allow for genuine surprise), and at worst you're missing those steps entirely because you're being a grey, boring systems-robot. I almost forgot - any endeavor where the sequence of steps doesn’t impact the outcome is ill-suited for a system. If there are no repercussions for deviating from the process, why follow it? In fact, rigid adherence to the same creative process often leads to stale results. So, instead, embrace the unpredictable. Let go. Do a taste test at a higher temperature. Add extra acid. Portion it half the size and plate it again. Flip through and explore a new cookbook. Heck, put the cookbooks down and walk through a museum. These random, spontaneous, unexpected events are the worst enemy of a system. But they often lead to the most exciting breakthroughs and new ideas. Remember the important “replication” variable of my systems definition? You’ll often see certain days in kitchens where the humidity was just right, the produce received had a specific height-of-the-season boost to it, and we just-so-happened to be making a specific batch size of a recipe where everything just clicked. On that day, the results were phenomenal. Chefs will have that happen ONCE and spend the rest of the week agonizing over how to re-create that, not realizing that there are inconsistent variables from that day that fail to work when forced into an attempted “system”. The best restaurants know this, and attempt to work within the seasons. The biggest restaurants avoid it entirely, and structure their operations around large-scale, off-site prep that’s shelf stable. Can you imagine if your closest McDonald’s had to source potatoes for fries from the farmers market? They'd run out multiple days per week, or start to get complaints about inconsistent fries. Their entire menu is a system, but it comes with the cost of the constrained ingredient list. Lastly, there are countless moments where we do behaviors with no desired result in mind. Wandering off for the afternoon while exploring a new city. Tapping on a YouTube video (maybe kick-starting a 2-hour long rabbit hole). Starting a conversation with someone. Take that conversation example. Can you imagine instituting a “system” for how to have a conversation with a guest? It would feel incredibly artificial at best, and end in an embarrassingly awkward disaster at worst. In any of these un-system-able situations, we can absolutely do behaviors that help us be more directionally correct, pushing towards "better". But since they, by definition, don’t fit the bill my advice is to release your white-knuckled hold on them and bask in a little wabi-sabi, sans system. To quickly summarize "what doesn't system", I categorize it into:
The goal, at the end of the day, is to identify what DOES system well, and leverage those consistently. In an effort to be relentlessly practical, here are 5 stand outs that you might use as a starting place:
Remember, when done well, you can auto-pilot your way through those processes (or better yet, FINALLY delegate them away). Afterwards, you can enjoy the additional brain-space that allows you to be sharper, more focused and more engaged in doing your best work with everything that remains. Worth Reading 💥Food Blogs are ChangingWe had two glimpses into the future of recipe content online this month. The first was Ethan Chlebowski's announcement of Cook Well:
The second was a personal experience, as I was testing out the new Arc Search (bonus points if you watch the product launch video, because it was one of the best I've ever seen). Here's what happened: I was heading to a friend's house for dinner earlier this week. An hour before the dinner, the host texted me and asked if I knew of any cocktail recipes that include maple syrup, considering they were excited to have me try their first batch of maple syrup that they tapped from the trees themselves (highly recommend getting yourself fun, weird friends). Now, I enjoy a great cocktail just as much as the next guy. But I can't remember the last time I ordered outside of my standard Gin & Tonic, Corpse Reviver No. 2, Negroni, Last Word or Daiquiri. Much less made one myself (I leave the mixology to the experts, I'll stick to working the stove or the grill). So I tapped open Arc Search on my phone, and asked it to pull up cocktails that use maple syrup. Within seconds, here's the web page it made me: All of this without having to scroll past ads, cross-reference multiple websites, or even pull up my keyboard again. I quickly sent the "Maple New York Sour" (5th down on the list from above) to the host, who exclaimed, "Let's try it!" In less than 60 seconds, Arc Search seamlessly solved my problem and made me look like an all-star. Not to mention, the cocktail was actually awesome (picture at the bottom of this newsletter). The TL;DR, and common through line for both of these (which also includes "Our Take"):
Just to tie this with a bow with a fun Google search result we stumbled upon this week when searching "plating layouts": Google referenced OUR plating layouts video - albeit, slightly screwing up in it's sub-descriptions of each one...but still, I'll remind you that this is the worst that AI technology will ever be. Have you been including AI tools as part of your research, business or creative process? Do you run a food blog and see this as a negative? Where do you see sharing content going? Hit "reply" to this email, we read every response! ICYMI 🙌📺🐻 Season 2 of The Bear is being broken down on YouTube! Episode 2 just went live, and you can get caught up on Episode 1 on the Justin Khanna channel This Week, We Learned… 🧠
To Peep 👀
Quote I'm Pondering 💭
"Even a few minutes personally witnessing true excellence can change how you spend your entire life." -Eric Jorgenson Thanks for reading, as always, 👊Justin |
