Cut to the Confidence

Here's the thing about being a chef; we’re supposed to be arrogant right? With all these movies out there glamorizing chefs to be these passionately arrogant a-holes it's now expected that if you aren't arrogant than you're not a good chef. I am a good chef, a great one in fact, but arrogant I am not. The funny thing is, that without that arrogance comes a certain insecurity that plays a huge part in your instincts. You second guess everything, and as a chef one of your best tools, other than your knives, is your gut. I can usually tell when something in my oven is done by instinct alone. A small voice says go get it, it's gonna burn. It's that small voice that gets muffled when you're an insecure chef. There is this need for validation, and of course that’s always there because we're human beings. We want to be accepted and liked and when you're a chef it's your food that you want to get appraisal for. So the question is, how do you remain humble yet passionate without being arrogant? It's a fine line and one tip too far in the humble direction and you’re spiraling down a rabbit hole of insecurity. While you're at the bottom you're plagued with doubt, everything you cook seems to have its myriad of flaws. You boil over oil, your cakes fall, your eggs burn and you're left feeling like you're in the wrong profession. Here's the truth about all this though; even the greatest chefs are going to burn their eggs and their cakes are going to fall. They just don't always talk about it because who wants to talk about their failures? The truth is though, our failures make us better. Every time I fail in the kitchen I learn from it, and boy do I learn. Sometimes, especially if it's my own recipe, it will take me a couple tries to get it right and there will still be criticism. There is always going to be criticism, because people have different tastes. It’s how we take that criticism that effects the way we continue on. Do we let it get to us or do we take it for what it's worth. Which is just an opinion, one persons opinion. We, as chefs, or even as the novice home cook, have to learn to take the opinions of others with a grain of salt. Take what they say, say thank you and either use the advice or discard it. The ability to sort through the opinions of others especially in the culinary world is just as important to our confidence as the food we prepare. We have to learn to be confident, not arrogant, but confident. The way our minds work, combining flavors most others wouldn't think of, it's a gift. Being insecure about that gift isn't using it wisely. It's wasting it and we don't waste anything in the kitchen.