Hannah

Accomplishing the goal of great food is a long and complicated journey.

Most members believe it rests in the hands of their chef, but General Managers understand it is more complex than just one person.

Mr. Bill Marriott knew this, so he entered through the loading docks during his hotel visits. He famously stepped behind cook lines and into coolers while engaging with the culinary staff. His parents grew up in the restaurant business, which explained these actions.

Chef Paul Prudhomme taught us to see the flavor before tasting it. He described the ingredients’ colors, textures, and even the evaporation to improve the sauces’ viscosity.

His motto was to preserve the natural flavor of the ingredients. He was passionate about the ingredients, techniques, and the story behind each dish.

Even the famed American painter Jackson Pollock knew great art was more than God-given talent. He was fanatical about his brushes, paint, and canvas—no different from our culinary ingredients, tools, and techniques.

A chef must be meticulous in their pursuit of culinary details. Here are some habits that support Chef Prudhomme’s flavor-first mentality, defining the arduous journey to create the best results.

Staff: A disciplined staff is a great indicator that standards are known and energized. A team-centric feel defines team pride and joy in themselves and their actions. It predicts a culture where the ingredients are respected and the vision for each dish has been established.

A laser-focused team instills confidence that their expectations for their station are understood. Positive eye contact and an engaging nature indicate that the service mission is owned. While individualism is important, it should not replace a team-first philosophy. Culinary is the ultimate team sport, with countless hands touching every dish.

The kitchen is a professional space free of idle chatter. A strong chef should set a tone where business is conducted while socializing can be done in other employee-centric club spaces.

Communication: The atmosphere of defined kitchen conversations signals an understanding of an engaged leadership hierarchy. Today’s modern kitchen has moved away from the yelling of “yes chef” and is replaced by staff nods or verbal communication through electronic headpieces. Key Sous Chefs are placed at focal points for the final inspection. This ensures technical cooking application that all cooks deserve.

Through trust comes the transparency of uncovering defects in a blameless system. Examples of defect-free processes are found in the utilization of documented recipes. From Michelin Star to fast casual, no successful organization operates without a recipe bible. When it’s owned and energized in lineups, meetings, and digital communication, team unity and responsibility in taste occur.

Environments: Clean food flavors can’t be created in a dirty kitchen. Aside from the obvious need to eradicate bacteria, a clean kitchen supports systematic methodologies. Cooking involves detailed touches first learned in the cleaning responsibilities of the kitchen.

Many kitchens may appear visually clean yet lack organizational systems, highlighting product rotation challenges and predicting expired ingredients that could be found in finished dishes.

Quality lighting and air conditioning are often overlooked. Lighting changes are great motivators for cooks in their ability to view food presentations.

Organization: From purchasing to cooler to the line, there is a system for food. Follow the product to determine if respectful handling is done with integrity. A club can purchase top-class ingredients but lose its uniqueness without a structured system.

From day one, ingredients begin to deteriorate. A race against time requires sound systems to secure their peak characteristics for as long as possible. Expensive ingredients are the gentlest, requiring experienced culinary techniques from mentors. Proteins should never be fabricated by the inexperienced. Learning starts by observing, which turns into respect for the handling process.

Techniques: Universal flavor building has systems regardless of cuisine. Hot food hot and cold food cold is very basic. Refrigerated products, covers, flat pots, and pans are a simple start. Step onto any line, and you can immediately feel if systems of organization and care are in place.

Observe if the cooks respect the products, massaging the proteins when seasoning and moving the items with gentle finesse in a sauté pan. These are what people call “having a soft touch or feel.” A great cook knows each principle of cooking and visualizes how the ingredients will react in those techniques.

On the line, there must be a graceful dance of cooking preparations—a seamless organization movement with the staff in how they approach each task, minimizing unnecessary steps. Each process is thought out, predictable, and repeated with each dish.

Great food quality is built when all touchpoints come together. With Food and Beverage being one of the top value propositions in any club, every Executive Chef should want these challenges and enjoy the power of building great culinary flavors.

Club + Resort Chef – May 2024

Lawrence T. McFadden, CMC, ECM is a food and beverage training consultant and search executive with Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace, a consulting firm providing executive search, strategic planning and data analysis services to the private club and hospitality industries.

Selecting an Executive Chef involves more than assessing culinary skills; it also requires confronting the stark gender imbalance in the pool of applicants and the broader implications of diversity within the industry. Panel interviews are complex. The search committees who run them generally represent a cross-section of the membership. Each is vested in selecting their next culinary leader and they must navigate complex issues including gender dynamics within traditionally male-dominated spaces.

The focus on “diversity” prompts a deeper dialogue: Is the interest in diversity genuine or superficial? Many clubs still maintain male-only dining areas, complicating the inclusion of female chefs by restricting roles based on gender. Despite a broader diversification of the food industry, many club kitchens remain led by American white males, indicating a slow demographic shift from the previously European-dominated chef roles. This change points to a journey toward gender balance still fraught with challenges.

Historically, Europeans dominated culinary leadership roles until the late ’60s. Then, in the mid-’70s, the American Culinary Federation transformed cooking from a trade to a profession. The ’80s saw a surge in culinary education, producing technically proficient cooks, many of whom trained in Europe and returned to assume leadership positions. Today, however, despite high female enrollment in culinary schools, the presence of female chefs in leadership roles is disproportionately low.

The data suggests that the pool of qualified women should match today’s leadership opportunities, yet private clubs often obscure talent assessments, focusing instead on finding the right culinary “fit” among members. Questions like “Would a male-dominated kitchen follow female leadership?” highlight sociological barriers more than capability, reflecting a bias that still pervades the industry.

Another barrier for women includes succession planning practices at historically male dominated hotel kitchens, where the corporate chef often appointed known associates, traditionally men, to lead newly emerging hotels. Only as the company’s diversity organically grew did new faces begin to emerge in top culinary positions. Still, women were lacking opportunities in this male dominated movement.

As Marriott focused on diversifying their executive committees, the demands of their clientele evolved accordingly, influenced by families and female business leaders.

So, if culinary institutions are filled with female students, where are they in the industry today? The same schools report that more than half of the graduates leave the field within five years. Combined with limited opportunities in private clubs, this leaves only a small portion of the market available to them. Despite these challenges, the importance of discussing diversity remains.

Chef Penelope Wong exemplifies such leadership. As a dynamic chef (or “shef” as she likes to be called), she shattered stereotypes and ascended in her role at Glenmoor Country Club (Englewood, Colo.), serving as an inspiration to many cooks. (See Why I’m Leaving and What I Hope to Leave Behind.)

Her story raises an important question: Would she have even been considered for an interview if she were competing against male counterparts? Her prior role within the club earned her the trust and respect of the members, but this raises concerns about whether a woman without such an internal track record would be seen as a viable candidate in traditional clubs.

While we may not have definitive answers to these questions, it’s clear that when clubs are hiring an executive chef, assessing culinary talent is only part of the equation. Other factors, often intangible, complicate the hiring process. I often say, “I got every job I interviewed for before interviewing in private clubs,” a reflection I share with many skilled candidates who are ideal on paper for one position but not the next.

The education of candidates is increasingly important, with culinary school success underscoring the value of degrees and certifications. Some clubs worry about over-qualification, but as I reassure them, “any certification or degree demonstrates lifelong learning,” with some clubs offering financial incentives for these achievements.

Numerous factors can complicate the primary goal of enhancing a club’s cuisine. This objective drives us to seek candidates from a variety of industry backgrounds and educational sectors, all in the pursuit of professional advancement, which remains the ultimate goal of each search.

Upon initial review, candidate resumes might appear misaligned with the club’s past direction. These professionals’ careers might seem too innovative for the club’s established dining habits, a topic that should be central in hiring discussions. These emotional deliberations often lead clubs to identify the “safest candidate,” a decision that may overshadow considerations of gender, as committees prioritize maintaining a certain image in the eyes of their members.

During these extensive discussions, it’s commonly stated, “Our Executive Chef is one of the most important decisions for our club.” As a former chef, it’s encouraging to see this role garner such respect today.

In conclusion, while the path for female Executive Chefs is not entirely clear, initiating progressive conversations within hiring committees is essential. Change is slow but invariably leads to progress, potentially paving the way for greater prominence of female chefs in the future.

Club + Resort Chef – April 2024

Lawrence T. McFadden, CMC, ECM is a food and beverage training consultant and search executive with Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace, a consulting firm providing executive search, strategic planning and data analysis services to the private club and hospitality industries.