Bitting off more than you can chew

From lazy to ambitious, between confidence and hubris, lies all the egos of the chef. Some of us are rock stars with skills to tempt the gods, others are far far from that, but most of us have had moments much like Icarus when we foolishly fly with waxed wings too close to the sun.

 

We all have to grow into our identity and develop, not only our skills, but our understanding of ourselves, what we do best, what we can improve upon, and what our limitations are so that we don't bite more than we can chew. I love trying new things and if I fail my first attempt that's fine, I dissect the problem and make a course correction. However, trying out new things on a client's order, can either be a triumph or a total disaster. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious or pushing our limits to achieve new goals however there is something unfair to the customers when you accept a request that you really are not able to fulfill perfectly.

 

Everyone that has ever received a good review of their cooking skills thinks they are a whiz in the kitchen. A great many of these whizzes also thinks that they are ready to be a caterer or a chef. Please understand, that pulling off a event with food has a large number of moving parts that must be considered and controlled and the paying client has little grace about the excuses about why it wasn't all that they asked for and more. No one cares that you were under staffed because of employee call-offs, or there's missing items, slow service, or just about anything else that can go wrong for the chef or event site.

 

I'm certain that there's nothing wrong with declining an offer in order to protect your client and your business reputation as a quality service and product. I have worked for owners that do not understand this concept and have gotten angry with staff because they were unable to forgo other important  commitments in order to put in unfathomable amount of time and energy to complete a order that was beyond the capability of the company.  It is not unusual for chefs to work double after double shifts in order to get everything done for a company but tax your body will pay, will take its toll sooner or later.  In my younger days have pulled 18 and 20 hour work days, I have skipped personal events, not taken vacations, and done so until I have gotten sick. I am sure that the type of demands I put on myself when I was younger has taken a toll on my health today.

 

Knowing how much you can handle, how much your kitchen is capable to producing, how your staff's skills are or are not, understanding your hot holding and your cold storage capacity, makes all the difference in the world. Can you afford to take on more that your capacity, risk losing product due to inadequate refrigerator space or lack of hot boxes, risk not being able to serve food at the correct temperatures, risk ending up with burned out or injured staff, or worse of all end up getting someone sick via food poisoning?