The last table is served, the station is broken down – everything’s labeled and put away; inventory is complete and now it’s time to meet me on the back dock, where all the important meetings are held.

Take a deep breath and enjoy a job well one

Now it's just between us.

1.) “Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and wherever we are going, we owe it to ourselves, to our art, to the world to do it well.”

2.) “To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.”

3.) “It is well and good to opine or theorize about a subject, as humankind is wont to do, but when moral posturing is replaced by an honest assessment of the data, the result is often a new, surprising insight.”

A little later in the show, we’ll be talking to Shawn Wenner – publisher of Entrepreneurial Chef Magazine so I thought I would read from the piece that he and his staff were kind enough to include in last month’s issue.

By the way, Shawn is offering a free subscription for an entire year exclusively to listeners of Chef Life Radio. The link and the discount code are in the show notes.

What to Do, When You Doubt

“In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases.” — Seneca

As a man, husband, father, chef and entrepreneur I have had my fair share of setbacks, failures and disappointments. I remember all too well the several dishes I was so proud of which didn’t sell or the restaurant I took over in Marblehead Massachusetts that six months later was shuttered because the original owner had a tax debt that couldn’t be renegotiated or wished away.

Often the memories, when I, my team or my operation have come up short, are more real, visceral, and annoyingly present than the successes we’ve enjoyed. Is there ever a time when you think about what you could have done differently to change the outcome of ‘X’? Maybe it was a stage, an interview, a job change, or a business that you started? My failures can sometimes be quite mesmerizing, haunting my actions and forming my perceptions in the now; causing me to mutter a mantra-like, ‘this time I’m gonna get it right’.

I consider myself essentially an optimist; what other label could apply to someone who has been married and divorced three times? If I am honest with myself I must also admit that there are times when I doubt. Sometimes that doubt can turn into an impediment to progress; it can stay my hand and have me questioning my decisions.

Nothing is so dangerous as doubt if it has us second-guessing our essential mission. If that is true, then it must also be true that doubt can also serve as a catalyst for change and evolution, forcing us to reconsider the mechanism for our vision. The trick is not to get stuck in the doubt and let it become a mental circle jerk, undermining the ‘why’ of what we do.

In moments when I doubt, I take heart in the realization that certainty is for fools and wisdom comes from a consistent evaluation of goals and the path with which we achieve them. There may be many trails up the mountain but the summit remains the destination.

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." — Marcus Aurelius

We visit Master Butcher Katri Underly and find out, even in Chicago, why family farms and ranches are so critical for our supply chain.

We meet Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.

Paul Sorgule is a seasoned food service professional with decades of experience as a chef, restaurateur, food and beverage manager, educator and culinary college administrator. In 1988 as a member of the New England Culinary Olympic Team he was awarded a gold medal at the Olympic competition in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2001 he was recognized…

Chef Life Radio in Season 2 is going to take a quick look back at the last year in order to chart our course forward. We'll take a moment to tip the toque to those who didn't make it to the other side with us. AND, we'll focus the rest of the time on skills and traits we take for granted because they come so easy for us.

The Great Reset

Episode #1 -Season 2 | 2021

Image courtesy of Rachel Elizabeth O'Shea

Introduction

Welcome Back

Questions

Station Identification

The Chef Life Crew

Tim Ferris FB Post

Chef James Shirley

FB Message from Katy

The problem as I see it

FB Post from CJ.

Calling out the problem.

What we can do about it.

Chef Jensen Cummings, Best Served Podcast

Who, Not How - By Dan Sullivan

Chef Life Radio

S2 – E2: Stress – What Stress? Chef Maria Campbell

Show notes

Maria Campbell is a chef and co-founder of Cooks Who Care, a Philly-based organization that supports the well-being of people working in all facets of the food & beverage industry. Driven by a desire to create change in the food industry, Maria and her husband, Chef Scott Campbell, started Cooks Who Care as a way to bring people together.

In this episode, Maria describes what keeps her going and why she’s so committed to helping her peers in the food business get ahead. You can help too. Learn what you can do to help Cooks Who Care spread its message and expand the reach of its community.

Timestamps:

0.00 - Introducing the Burnt Chef Project

01.01 - Welcome to Chef Life Radio

04:21 - Introducing chef Mary Campbell

05:28 - Chef Life Radio bumper

06:46 - Interview with Maria Campbell

10:19 - Corona madness

13:26 - You’re going down! The power of the internet

16:34 - Cooks Who Care

22:29 - Hiring industry veterans

24:03 - The new kitchen culture

31:23 - Does love play any part in our new kitchen culture?

34:30 - Takeaways from the conversation with Maria Campbell

35:54 - Chef Life Radio outro

Free PDF Download: The New Kitchen Culture: bit.ly/cookswhocare

https://www.cookswhocareinspire.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9wr7qH6UwyhQy2pI-Tn7Qg

ttps://www.instagram.com/cookswhocare/

Link to Member Site: www.chefliferadiocrew.com

Link to the mailing list: www.chefliferadio.com/signup

Maria Campbell, MBA is a Chef-by-trade is an

established educator and a mentor who uses her determination and positivity to

influence all who she works with. Through her role as a Partner and

Productivity Specialist with One Degree Coaching, she provides guided

leadership mastery to businesses of all types, helping them to reach their full

potentials and achieve success. As the Founder and Executive Director of Cooks

Who Care - a collective formed to serve as the Well-Being Concierge for the

Food Industry - she drives much-needed change in the industry she loves,

encouraging others to support the health of underpaid and underserved workers

who run our country's kitchens and serve our meals.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Reluctant Book Marketer Podcast

Jody J. Sperling writes fiction. He's spent twenty years dreaming of the phone call from FSG, accepting his novel for publication, but after landing a literary agent in 2019 and failing to woo publishers, Jody's dream wilted. While he never quit writing and reading, by the end of 2021, he'd so completely