23.2022 Edition

Editor: Justin Khanna​

Hey Reader,

As I’ve been writing more menus and really challenging myself to articulate my ideas for content shoots (shoutout if you’ve been following on IG or TikTok), I thought I’d share some of the mental models that I have “running” in the background that are influencing my thinking.

There’s a great book that I read when I was 18 or 19 (I probably didn’t even fully absorb all the info, it’s overdue for a re-read) called Cooking: The Quintessential Art.

Structurally, it’s fascinating. It’s not a nonfiction book about cooking technique or even a collection of essays. It bounces around between debated conversation, practical exercises, and case studies from different dishes and food history.

But the lesson I’m hoping to share with you today is around manipulation. The book argues that:

“An ingredient no longer belongs to nature once a cook has gotten hold of it. It’s true, because the job of the cook is exactly that, to transform. Nothing the cook does is natural. Cooking is a paradise of artificiality.”

And that provided me with a lot of clarity, because as I was training and learning as a chef-de-partie, I was whiplashed through two very distinctive “eras” of food.

The “make food completely new and unexpected” from titans like elBulli and Alinea, and “return food to nature and age-old techniques” of New Nordic execution.

This book taught me: It’s not about “manipulated” or “not”. Everything is manipulated by us. It’s to what extent do you manipulate?…and when do you decide it’s “done”?

If the goal was to get as “natural” as possible, we aren’t needed 😉

Now, I hear you, this opens up an entirely new conversation around “simplicity” as a variable, but that’s another monologue.

Bonus - I have a friend who tells this joke on manipulation that I still find hilarious to this day (I’ve heard him tell it probably 25 times now)…This works best if you have someone’s fully captivated attention and you’re “sharing a new idea with them”:

So we’re gonna take the beets, we’ll boil them in salted water until the skin gets soft. Then we’ll take them out, ice them down, and knead a salt dough. We’ll wrap those beets in salt dough and bake them at 375F for 53 minutes, or until a cake tester goes in clean. Once they’re cool enough to handle, we’ll peel them, puree them with some potato starch, spread them thin on silpats, and dry them out slowly in the oven. After they’re dry, break them into pieces, and fry them until they get crispy. Put those shards into a blender and turn them into a powder. And after that’s passed through a chinois, we throw it in the trash.

Gets me every time 🤣

Feel free to steal this and use your most complicated "run-on-recipe" as the subject to tell to the new guy/gal this week.

​

Top Highlights 💡

​Why Ask Guests If It’s Their First Time at Your Restaurant?​

Being asked about the experience when it comes to personal safety based on that experience is understandable. However, when Luke Andrews got asked if he had ever been to a particular restaurant before, he didn’t fully understand the reason behind it. In Luke’s experience, no training manual requires the line: "Have you been here before?”.

Why is it not a good question? Because every guest should be treated the same. According to Luke, everyone should receive the best service regardless of their status or dining experience.

Here’s an interesting quote from the article: “Nobody asks at a McDonald’s if you've had a Big Mac before. A Michelin-starred restaurant already knows if you’ve been in previously based on your reservation. And a great 24-hour diner cuts out all the chitchat with that perfect line: "What can I getchya?”

Our Take: It's a downside of being a human-centered business. We have the ability to subjectively change our behavior based on the situation, and we have to avoid that "over-delivery" (even if we really want to). We're not built like robotic vending machines, where regardless of the person standing in front of us, we can automatically deliver the same product. We WANT to change based on the context.

I'll offer 2 additional perspectives on this if you wanna continue down this rabbit hole. Remember when Pete Wells went to Daniel and ranted about how he got a different experience because he was a critic? What about this rant from Jon Taffer about how to "market to 3 visits" in order to get 70% return rate in your business?

​What I Learned Going from the Front of the House to the Kitchen​

Amethyst Ganaway spent years in the front of the house and was promoted to an assistant manager position. This came with doing shifts in the kitchen and that’s when she realized that she was more passionate about cooking and wanted a kitchen manager position instead of a service manager.

Moving departments gave her an insight into the biggest differences between the front and the back of the house. According to Amethyst, it was “Inflated egos and a lack of effort. Everyone in the kitchen thinks they can do the front’s jobs better (and vice versa), without ever having stepped into the role.”

How can this be avoided? By switching roles and cross-training staff members.

Here’s an interesting quote from the article: “There are always heated moments, and there is always a finger to point to place blame, but at the end of the shift, we all come together and make it work. And then do it all over again the next day. “

Our Take: Funny how that "walk a mile in someone's shoes" cliché actually works, huh? Start to look at the success of the entire team vs just you, and things really start to open up. There's another cool anecdote from sports that comes to mind: there comes a point where you start doing it for the name on the front of the jersey vs the name on the back.

Quick Hits 💥

​S2E15 Turn your skill into a scalable online income stream: Justin Khanna - PropaneBusiness - Check out my full interview with Jonny & Yusef from PropaneBusiness. If you prefer to listen on faster speed, check it out on Spotify here. I expand on what it felt like to really be the weakest member of the team at kitchens I worked in (in ways that I haven't shared in other interviews before).

​You Ordered Your First Japanese Knife. What Happens Next? - Check out this video showing the behind-the-scenes with KnifeWear's warehouse manager Tiffany. See everything that’s involved in getting your order to your door in perfect condition.

​Ai and Om is doing 20% off - it's a Summer Sale that actually includes brands like Nenox, Kitaoka and Ohishi. No kickback for us from sharing this, just wanna hype up a great sale and a really solid company!

​Everyone Eats …But that doesn’t make you a restaurant critic - Over the past few years gastronomic authorities have changed and food bloggers or platforms like Yelp have taken the role of critiquing the food. Due to that, fewer people are relying on professionals...

ICYMI 🤳

​Rachael Nemeth | Better Training, Onboarding and Career Development for Kitchen Staff - Ep. 150​

My guest for this episode is Rachael Nemeth, the CEO & Co-founder of Opus. Rachael’s got 13 years of experience in restaurants, and she’s building Opus to be the mobile-based training powerhouse for frontline workers. Check the full video episode here, or listen to the audio-only version.

To Peep 👀

​New Kitchen Shoes by Misefootwear​

MISE was scratch-made with the specifics of the culinary industry in mind. These shoes are slip-resistant against oil, grease, water, and additional fluids commonly found in kitchens. The materials are chosen to resist moisture and hot spills to keep your feet safe. You can pre-order MISE here.

Quote I'm Pondering 💭

Thanks for reading,

👊Justin​

​

​