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Your Way,
M y Way,
a
NEW
Way
Understanding personalities
can help build harmony and
innovation in the kitchen.
By Ethel Hammer
LOTS OF NEW chefs exhibit
the kind of bravado you could call
“Frank Sinatra in the kitchen”—feisty
independents full of spit and vinegar,
each one determined to do it “my way.”
Has anybody encountered a new cook, right
out of culinary school, who will not listen to
constructive criticism, saying something like,
“This is my soup, like it or not?”
The National Culinary Review | March 2011
18-month course in a culinary-arts school,”
says Stephen Kleiman, who now runs The
Center for Creativity Through Awareness,
a Chicago foodservice think tank with a
teaching arm.
Or is your kitchen full of dutiful followers
who still wind up causing problems, even
when everyone seems to agree to do it
your way?
“I’ve had young chefs insist that they know
everything about the foodservice business
when they come to work for me, negating
my 30 years of foodservice experience
because they’ve graduated from an
Self-esteem is a wonderful trait.
Confidence is a winner. But, Kleiman
says, unless you can handle people who
think differently from you, stress levels
