CLIP: The Toxic Culture of Kitchen Nightmares

0:00But it was just a lot. But I wanted to give it another go in a smaller kitchen. Like at the square, we're doing like 100 covers lunch and dinner. So I went to a restaurant called Pierre de Terre. It was very strict and very disciplined, but it was very fair. There was no like bullying going on or, you know, like Shane Osborne was the boss and that was it. And everyone respected him. But everyone wanted to be the best. Do you know what I mean? There's only like six of you and you're all pushing each other. and it's all like you're all competing against you in a healthy way you know um does that always still stay in a healthy way or no it doesn't i don't think yeah um i think in kitchen some people want to put other people down um don't know why and as i've grown older i feel that that's an internal issue right it's like it's the same as you could as bullying when you're a teenager at school you think it's you but it's actually the person that's doing it it's got the pain right yeah just projecting the pain onto you you're just the vessel for that pain yeah does it feel

1:00Olly Fawcett:like a lot of insecurities when chefs and people in kitchens do that in terms of they don't think they're good enough on that person so they'll send that negative energy that way is that what yeah or they feel threatened by it yeah um yeah because kitchens will always be competitive right like there will never not be a level of competition within that because that's what breeds such big creativity would you say that yeah i i think but we shouldn't we should compete to all just get better as a team yeah right yeah definitely and i don't believe that you have to be uh shouty or any of these things that you hear in the in the industry um to be successful or to be a good leader or to be a winner yeah you know what i mean there's i'm constantly looking at different when i look i look at myself every day i'm not perfect but i'm constantly going how can i make that person tick okay what's up with that person okay that person needs something different than that person.

1:55Yeah, let's move this around. Yeah. You know, like how can I look at this guy in the eyes and he goes home at night knowing that his boss cares about him. Do you know what I mean? Like I literally look at, I tell my guys every day, like I love you guys. Do you know what I mean? And if we do something wrong, that's how I'll introduce it. I love you guys, but we cannot cook like this. We have to, you know, guests are paying this amount of money. We have to cook at this level. We know how to season things properly. please can we pay attention and just think about those details guys and speak to them you know and i think that's a constant growth and a learning phase in my position now that i've never been in before you know it's an unknown for me um and what's interesting every different character has different personalities we're all so different right yeah um and what i i just try and be who I wish someone was for me when I was that age.

2:51So what you're saying, you didn't really have that. I didn't have, I don't think, like it was all very like, it was all very like work and boss and you just work for that person. The way I look at it is, even if it's two in the morning and one of my young chefs needs something, but it's got nothing to do with work. I want him to know that I will get up and I will go and help him or her.