Interview with world class Chef Brian Hughson of The Dorchester Grill

The Dorchester Grill at the Dorchester Hotel is one of the most prestigious restaurants in London. The Grill restaurant has become an institution in the London restaurant scene having first opened in 1931. Over the years it has undergone many changes, while staying true to its roots as a traditional British Grill.

Brian Hughson has been the head chef at the Grill since early 2009, he’s 20 years of experience in the best kitchens in London have earned him a world class reputation. Over the course of his career BH has worked for Marco Pierre White at Mirabelle, The Belvedere and Wheelers of St James, for Gordon Ramsey at the Savoy Grill and Gary Rhodes at W1 in the Cumberland Hotel, just to name a few.

I was lucky enough to work for him at the Grill and consider him to be a great source of inspiration and a mentor. I can say without doubt that I have never worked for such a skilled and talented chef who makes cooking and presenting dishes look effortless.
During the course of our interview we got on to the subject of kitchen operations and management. BH has a refreshing and forward looking approach towards these topics. He believes in nurturing a positive working environment in the kitchen and avoiding the stereotypical harsh treatment of kitchen staff. As he puts it our role(as chefs) is critical in delivering a positive guest experience, however we aren’t saving lives here, the level of stress and pressure put on kitchen staff is far too great in some establishments. Having been there and worked in those environments, he sees how not everyone is built for it. He talked about how particular chefs use a strategy of ‘breaking’ their staff only to rebuild them in their own style, but he has seen many chefs who have been through this process and have not been able to handle it.

BH believes in giving his team opportunities which allow them to grow, and entrusts them with a higher degree of responsibility than most would. In turn he is rewarded with a loyal team that not only respect him for his experience and obvious skills but his humane and down to earth approach.

I called Brian up full of enthusiasm about the articles I would be writing about top chefs in London and he was good enough to sit down with me for the following interview.

Why did you become a chef? I have always loved food, and as for a career I wanted a job that offered diversity. Becoming a chef brought together all the elements I wanted in a job. I started my working life at the Rolls Royce factory while going to college in the evenings to study to become a chef. It was hard work but it meant I was pursuing my ambitions.

What was your first big break? 15 years ago I made the decision to leave Manchester (where I was working at the time) and come down to London, I landed a job with Gary Rhodes and that was the beginning of my journey to where I am today. It was a major milestone in my personal and professional life.

Who has been your biggest influence? I have been fortunate to work with some of the top chefs in London (these include: Gordon Ramsey, Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White, Richard Corrigan and Marcus Warring), each of which have their own unique styles in the kitchen. I have drawn inspiration from them all. When you work as a chef as long as I have you end up developing your own style which is based on all the experience and inspiration you gain when working with the best in their field.

What is your greatest achievement to date? Apart from becoming the Head Chef at the Dorchester Grill, I would have to say it was while I was Head Chef at W1 (Gary Rhoads’s fine dining restaurant at the Cumberland Hotel ) where we were awarded a Michelin Star after just 7 months of being open.

What’s your biggest nightmare to date? (he laughs) Well as you know kitchens can be a tough place to work at the best of times, but I’d have to say one of the biggest challenges I have faced was during the launch of Vinopolis. It was a large restaurant (seated 200) and had a very small kitchen! So there were many challenges with the strategic and operational elements of launching the restaurant. But we did receive a Bib Gourmand award, so it all worked out!

Why did you decide to focus on British Cuisine? I was classically French trained and spent many years cooking food in that style. However as a chef you are always aware of issues such as cooking in accordance with seasonality and cooking the food that you have a genuine passion for. In the UK we have some world class produce and a large repertoire of classic dishes which have only been made popular within the past 15 years or so. As Head Chef of the Dorchester Grill, I have been given the opportunity to take the best British produce and turn it into refined modern dishes.

What is your signature dish? Scallops dusted with curry salt, a sardine pie, cauliflower cous cous , cauliflower puree and confit lemon.

We have seen many trends in London’s fine dining scene over the past 20 years, what are your predictions for the future? Well trends are trends and they always come round in cycles, so there could be a return to retro (classic) dishes that are updated with new innovations in the kitchen. We are definitely seeing more demanding guests with greater expectations and a growing interest in issues such as sustainability and other environmental related issues. All this challenges chefs and I genuinely believe that is a good thing as it drives us to continuously work harder to satisfy guests who are paying a premium prices in London restaurants.

Who are the most memorable people you have cooked for? Top of the list would have to be one of my all time heroes; HRH The Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) who I have cooked for on several occasions including his 60TH birthday. Other than that I have cooked for a long list of celebrities including Madonna and top chefs like Alain Ducasse who was just in the restaurant a few days ago.

This article is also available in Bazaar Magazine Kuwait

Stress Makes People Stupid

"A management consultant once said; stress makes people stupid... when emotionally upset, people cannot remember, attend, learn or make decisions clearly" (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 1996).

Stress is an intrinsic part of fine dining kitchens, its effects can push people to strive for more and push themselves harder. Stress can be a thrill, a rush which can be motivating and even self-empowering. However this type of stress is rarer than the more common form experienced in kitchens.

In his 2007 book entitled The 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene talks about how we see ourselves as rational creatures as opposed to emotional ones, separated from animals by our ability to think and reason. However he argues that in addition to these two factors we are separated by our ability to laugh, to cry, to feel a range of emotions. Greene makes a good point by saying that we maintain this illusion of rationality by engaging in daily routines which keep us in control, however throw us into an adverse situation and our rationality disappears.

The key point here is that the stress itself must be managed rather than overlooked or purposefully ignored. The goal is always to improve the quality of food produced and flow of service; surely this can be enhanced by ensuring the team is performing to its optimum level.

Go With The Flow

Most chefs would find it difficult to agree with a ‘go with the flow’ mentality in the kitchen, as professional kitchens require an organised, structured and well coordinated effort by everyone involved to ensure a smooth service. However there is a type of flow that we may be missing in the kitchen.

Daniel Goleman, author of; Emotional Intelligence (Bloomsbury, 1996) talks about “flow: the neurobiology of excellence”. Flow is a term coined by University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe the mental state entered when emotions are harnessed to their peak in the service of performance and learning.

The following are excerpts from the book which outline the concept:

“Athletes know this state of grace as ‘the zone’, where excellence becomes effortless, crowd and competitors disappearing into a blissful, steady absorption in the moment... remarkably similar to hundreds of men and women - rock climbers, chess champions, surgeons, basketball players, engineers, managers and even filing clerks – when they talk of a time they outdid themselves in some favoured activity”.

“In flow the emotions are not just contained and channelled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand”.

“Flow is an experience almost everyone enters from time to time, particularly when performing at their peak or stretching beyond their former limits”.

“Because flow feels so good, it is intrinsically rewarding. It is a state in which people become utterly absorbed in what they are doing, paying undivided attention to their task, their awareness merged with their actions”.

“Flow is a state of self forgetfulness, the opposite of rumination and worry: instead of being lost in nervous preoccupation, people in flow are so absorbed in the task at hand that they lose all self consciousness, dropping the small preoccupations”.

“People seem to concentrate best when the demands on them are a bit greater than usual. If there is too little demand on them, people are bored. If there is too much for them to handle they get anxious. Flow occurs in the delicate zone between boredom and anxiety”.

Flow is therefore a state conducive to producing excellent results, and it would seem that its origins lie in a natural affinity and passion for the task at hand. So why is there such little flow in our kitchens when passion is supposed to be a chef’s main driving force?

Passion does result in great food, broken down into a logical pattern of thought; the more passionate you feel towards your work the more attention to detail, perseverance and dedication you will have at every step along the way.

It is common to hear athletes talk about ‘entering the zone’, a state of mind they intentionally enter to achieve superlative results. Chef’s too should be able to enter such a state of controlled calm, in which they are confident of their skills and knowledge required to take on the task at hand.

The task is to create kitchens conducive to chefs entering this state of mind, aiding them in attaining ‘flow’ in the kitchen will inevitably result in better food and a smoother service. The following are suggestions which directly or indirectly affect issues such as confidence, skill level, knowledge, state of mind etc. all of which are vital for flow.

· To achieve ‘flow’ one must be pushed to their comfortable limits and then challenged to a point which is enjoyable rather than nerve provoking. Therefore as a head chef you can identify each individual’s skill level and aptitude within the kitchen, to aid in developing more strategically sound decisions on what duties to assign each member of your team. In doing so you will also learn their weaknesses which can be worked on once identified.

· Setting a menu which takes practicality of execution into consideration. During new menu trials and tasting sessions, the finishing, style, presentation and fine details are sometimes set at a standard which is only attainable under those ‘menu tasting’ conditions. It is often easy for head chefs to over look the practicality of executing the dish during a full service, whether it be the skill level required by the chefs or the equipment/ space available to them during service. The menu should be set at a level which challenges the chefs, yet is practical enough that it can be executed to the highest levels possible during a full service.

· Encouraging a united ‘flow’ state of mind during service. Coach staff in to a united flow through the use of pep-talks and leading by example. Encourage awareness to detail and mental focus, chefs should enjoy and take pride in the fruits of their labour. Being vocal about this and developing it as part of the kitchen’s ethos and culture will ultimately result in a greater passion for the food.

The Daily Test

The service is a daily test of a chef's dedication to their work. Organised preparation and self discipline are key to operational success.

Mise en place; preparation should be treated by the chef in the same manner in which students are encouraged to study for their exams. It should be well planned out, timed, carefully executed and methodical. This preparation time allows the chef to become focused on the tasks to come and also improve their work continuously. Treating the time spent on preparation in such a way will ultimately guarantee a better performance during service as a student who studies well benefits in their exam.

Service; should be carried out with total control and peace of mind. Their movement must be fluid and confident, their mind clear and focused. Chefs must remain in control of their section, their staff and most importantly of their own temperament no matter what is thrown their way. Outbursts of emotion are distracting, if negative they are disruptive to all those working in the kitchen and therefore to the food being produced.

Chefs are professionals carrying out a detailed, skilled task. Focus, concentration and discipline are required to ensure quality and consistency, the two issues we constantly strive for and are tested on daily.

Work for Excellence

During an interview on a recent TV show entitled Michelin Madness: The Madness of Perfection, Chef Raymond Blanc (Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons) made a few comments which I believe are essential to the professional development of kitchens.

When asked about his views on obtaining Michelin stars:

“I don’t work for stars I work for excellence.... Work for excellence; make a very viable business, a good business which you have happy customers who will come back, staff who will stay with you. At the same time by creating this very viable business, you get the by-product of that is a Michelin star”.

When asked about his views on pressure in the kitchen:

“In kitchens its where you have some of the highest drug usage, a good kitchen is quiet, its well run, the passion is high, the emotions are controlled and you focus on giving your customer the best food. And with those places that completely scream at young chefs, completely undermine them, verbally, sometimes physically, shouldn’t be there”.

Cultivating the culture

As a leader you assume the responsibility for developing and inspiring your team. What if you were to develop upon this idea and take an active role in moulding the reality that your team live and experience?

Reality is your perception of the events, issues, information and emotions you are experiencing. Your understanding and interpretation of your experiences create your world. Working the long hours of a chef means that your team's lives and reality involve their work environment to a great degree as it accounts for so much of their daily life, thoughts and social interaction.

Providing your team with a positive energy at work by inspiring them, breeding a sense of self confidence and developing a winner's attitude will allow them to reach their greatest potential and strive for continuous improvement. In harvesting your teams intellectual capital you can build a team of solid, confident and driven individuals, motivated by the belief in themselves as being part of a winning team, as this is what all their senses are telling them they are part of.

The following are a few ideas on how a team can be brought together by an underlying sense of achievement, deliberately yet subtly diffused into the kitchen.

· Inspire a Shared Vision: Before you can develop on team building and goal setting, you need to make sure that you communicate to everyone in your team, your vision. How do you see your world? What direction are you leading the team towards and towards what purpose? What are the challenges? How will you achieve your vision? How will you and the team know when you get there? What are the incentives for the individual / team?

· Set achievable targets and progress from there. Allow the team to experience a sense of accomplishment as a unit by setting realistic, but challenging targets, which can be progressively set higher over time. Achieving their target or goal whether it be a daily challenge of running a flawless service, winning an award (no matter how modest the accolade) or getting a great review, will encourage each individual to perceive themselves as part of a successful unit, thus building self worth, high morale and focused individuals with a clear sense of purpose.

· Instill confidence in each individual. Taking a structured approach to your team's training and development will allow you to assess their abilities better and further coach them towards building upon their strengths and overcoming any weaknesses they have. The better their performance and contribution to the team effort, the greater their sense of confidence and pride will become, in turn this will have an impact on the job they do and take them through the upward spiral.

· Keep the team in touch with reality. Make sure you offer your chefs the opportunity to dine in the restaurant every now and again, allow them to experience the experience they themselves are producing for others everyday. How can you offer a service that you don't regularly experience yourself, how do you develop an understanding of how the fine details effect the overall result? If all your team sees is the BOH (Back Of House) all they will ever think about is the BOH, and what they need to keep in the forefront of their minds, is that results of their work lie in the front of house, in the customers’ perception of the dining experience.

If they see it, they will believe it; if they believe it they will act it.

Capitalizing on Human Capital

Why the restaurant industry is missing out on a key ingredient!

The restaurant business is no spring chicken, it has a history which dates back to the 1700s and a track record which proves that the business model is in general a viable one. The restaurant industry has evolved over decades, creating a vast array of dining categories, ranging from fast food, casual dining to fine dining, the upper end of more niche-tailored varieties. It’s been stirred up by a generation of more demanding, more discerning ‘foodies’ with a greater refinement and appreciation for what the food experience should be about. We’ve also witnessed a huge growth in the types of cuisines brought to us by talented chefs, relying on creativity as much as skill, who have recognised the gaps in the market and responded by modernising and updating dishes, fusing different cuisines together and making use of our understanding of food science to introduce diners to new textures and sensations for their more refined palate.

Looking at it in these terms it seems we have come a long way, however there are aspects of the industry which have failed miserably to develop where other younger industries have excelled. The area I am focusing on here is fine dining and its lack of development towards harvesting Human Capital. The restaurant business is labour intensive, both in the front and back of house. So why is this such a neglected area?

Much of this stems back to the origins of the fine dining restaurant business coming from domestic help. In a nutshell; fine dining’s origins lie in the homes of the wealthy European houses from around the 1700's onwards, post French revolution many top chefs who had honed their skills, and funded all their culinary endeavours in these houses, were left high and dry, trying to find a way to make a living with a skill that had no real value to anyone other than the rich. The restaurant business developed and began to really flourish. To bring prestige to the trade and develop it into a 'respected' profession Chef guilds where established and culinary schools opened. Escoffier (1846 – 1935) introduced the concept of splitting kitchens into various sections to improve the flow of work and encourage labour specialisation. He also introduced the brigade system, creating different positions and ranks in the kitchen, all of this was aimed at creating a more formal structure and re-enforcing the idea of making cheffing a respected profession.

Despite the developments made, it would be a distortion of the truth to say that a kitchen is now a professional business environment to work in. Employers continue to provide unattractive working conditions, in an era all about the ‘work life balance’. The kitchen remains a volatile environment with a 'school yard' mentality, where bullying, vulgarity and pranks are a part of everyday working life in many cases. It is still common practice for senior ranks to use an autocratic leadership approach, to coerce their staff and rule by fear. A hierarchical system is still very much in place with lower ranking chefs referring to their seniors by the title 'chef' (unlike in any other organisation other than the military). Staff turnover is high (in general the average length of tenure for a kitchen employee within a kitchen is one year to two). This contributes towards creating an unstable environment, low morale, increased recruitment and training costs, disruptions in consistency and, more importantly, a loss of talent and knowledge, as employees defect to the competition, which raises even more concerns.

It seems that the movement to develop the status of being a chef seemed to come to a stand still at some point. Now chefs are respected for their celebrity status rather than professionalism. You see many celebrity chefs hailed as heroes by their followers yet considered tyrants by their peers.

So where is the key to future development? What are practical solutions for these issues which will enhance the creative process and improve the overall standards? From my personal experience both outside and inside the kitchen the way forward lies in the investment in human capital and improving staff retention. As restaurants run on tight margins the solutions must be financially viable and easy to implement. Time constraints will also apply as it is imperative that the initiatives implemented do not disrupt the day to day operations.

The following are initiatives which meet these requirements and are aimed at further developing the kitchen and the professional status of being a chef in today's world.

· Create a Culture of Shared Values: First of all we must begin by developing a solid foundation and this comes in the form of establishing a professional business mind set in the kitchen where chefs are encouraged to see value in their own job. The idea is to create a culture in which vulgar language is unexceptable (as it creates tension, and is unproductive), respect among all ranks is expected and knowledge sharing is formalised by creating a knowledge sharing database, forums (both on and offline) where staff can share ideas and recipes as well as post articles which they have come across and recommend books and restaurants to one another.

· Devise a 360 Degree Orientation Programme: Training chef's to adapt to the restaurants style is of great importance. A week long induction program in which new comers are trained in the head chef's culinary style, cooking methods and plating, followed by training related to understand the restaurant's food costs and methods of managing inventory and wastage. Section head's (Chef De Partie) must be trained in the following areas; time management, coaching and mentoring skills, communication and management. Anyone who has worked in a multicultural environment will also see the benefits of introducing a cross cultural training program to improve communication, understanding and tolerance between staff members.

· Empower Your Team: Following on from the previous point; developing systems in which section chefs (Chef De Partie) and sous chefs are responsible for the career development of the staff they have in their section. Providing these chefs with tangible tasks which ensure they are training their staff and role modelling the desired behaviour. As most of the training will be practical it is important that the head chef plays an active role in assessing the development and provides them with constructive feedback.

· Set Up Efficient Documentation Procedures: Improve documentation, by this I mean keeping accurate records and checklists for each section. The best example of this is the systems I currently use for my fridge and freezer storage. I use an inventory sheet which is recorded once a week and then updated as and when items are added and removed providing me with a running, up-to-date inventory of all the stock I have at all times. This allows me to make a more informed decision when ordering. In addition I keep a record of sales by recording key components of my mise en place before and after each service (this also serves as a great method of ensuring I am fully stocked for the service to come). Overtime this raw data is entered into a spreadsheet and turned into meaningful information which allows me to track the activity on my section, best sellers, slow moving items etc. once again this translated into more informed decisions when ordering stock and provides a good idea of wastage and guidance for developing new menu items.

· Create a Culture of Team Effectiveness: Developing the team by using activities and games. As structured as kitchens are from an authoritarian perspective they do have a casual attitude which lends itself to alot of personal relationships developing (both positive and negative). The idea of actively developing a team which works well together as a close nit unit is imperative to the overall development of the kitchen and to encouraging longer tenures. The best example of this that I have come across was Genghis Khans hunting games. During the seasons in which his army was not at war, Genghis Khan would create large scale hunting games which would last for weeks. The army would be split into teams all hunting a target through different terrains until they met at a central point. The idea was that these games improved the skills they needed to fight well in war, including tracking, survival and team work while allowing them to engage in an activity which they found enjoyable. Why not set tasks for the kitchen team to work together on developing dishes in which the winning dish is put on the menu or create challenges which require them to use practice their cheffing skills. Ultimately the goal is to bring them closer as a team while practicing the skills that will improve their work.

· Set Up Career Development and Training Programmes: Currently the majority of chefs will either go to a culinary college or join a restaurant as an apprentice and work their way up. Their progression is dependent on three components: 1. Their technical ability, 2. The length of period they have been in their current position and 3. Opportunities within the kitchen as and when they arise. Unfortunately there are many cases in which this system results in good chefs being promoted into bad managers. It’s somewhat ironic that the skills that make a particular employees stand out and thus get promoted for, are often the skills that hinder them when they get promoted to management positions. Rising through the ranks in a kitchen is more of a sporadic, natural occurrence as opposed to a planned move in which the chef is coached and trained to develop management skills (ie; team building, delegation, planning, HR utilisation etc) in order to take up a senior position successfully. Establishing career and training plans for your staff will improve staff retention and ensure that your employees are effectively placed in their positions. In doing so you retain the knowledge and talent which you have invested in, the longer these team members stay with you, the greater your return on that investment.

In today's kitchen we are far away from an idealistic silicon valley 'utopian' work environment and this may not even be a feasible goal for this industry however that is no reason to stick with the status quo. These are just a few easy to implement ideas to spur on an evolution within the kitchen rather than a revolution and to improve the kitchen from all perspectives. As with all businesses, restaurants will benefit from having better trained, more focused and satisfied employees.

Just like the icing on the cake – it’s a top down process! The key to the success of these ideas will always lie with the Management Team. The motivation for success and development must come from the head chef/ restaurant manager and trickle down to all team members. As a chef de partie, you are a supervisor, as a sous chef you are a manager, as a head chef you must be a leader.