Have you lost all perspective?

I was young and cocky once and it sometimes makes me smile when I look back on those times. More often, though, the memories make me wince. But that’s often the way of youth—you think you’re smarter than everyone else with nothing more than your overconfidence to back it up.

I was reminded of those days again recently while crossing paths with several young chefs. In a couple cases it was kids fresh out of culinary school who think their expensive degrees make them the next Bobby Flay. And maybe I’m a bit mean spirited, but I enjoy seeing those kids get their ass handed to them by a bunch of seasoned pros, many of whom never went to culinary school. Sadly, some of these young kids never make it in the culinary world. The blow to their ego is too much to handle.

I ran into another type of cocky youngster who is even more disturbing. It’s the kid who comes out of culinary school and somehow manages to gain some notoriety. And before you know it, someone with a lot of cash and dreams of being a hotshot restaurant owner hands him or her the keys to the car.

I went early to one young chef’s first restaurant recently and it was a disaster. The service was sloppy at best and the kitchen was wildly disorganized. Food took way too long to come out and orders were routinely botched up. Worse yet, there wasn’t a thing exciting about the menu nor its execution. I waited a couple more weeks before returning and the service had improved a bit, but the kitchen still performed poorly and food remained lackluster. The clueless owner didn’t seem to recognize how ordinary things were in light of the notoriety his chef had received. Even worse, the chef didn’t seem to notice as he walked around the restaurant as the chosen one.

I haven’t gone back, but I hear reports from others that not much has changed. And I also hear that the kid and his financial backer have plans to open more restaurants. Wow! Okay, so most likely the first restaurant, despite its mediocrity, is making enough money to encourage expansion. Never mind that the first restaurant has been open less than a year. But I can’t help but think that the first restaurant will decline even further in the wake of new restaurant openings.

This scenario has me scratching my head. Is it possible that you can get so close to your business that you lose all perspective? And how do you protect yourself from that? Maybe I’m wrong, but I see a bad collision down the road. But nobody at this business in question sees the same thing. It may just be me. What’s your take? Do you have checks and balances in place to prevent mass delusion and bad decisions from becoming reality? Email me.  

Michael Sanson, Editor-in-Chief
e-mail: [email protected]
twitter: @MikeSansonRH