Catering has changed a lot in recent years, the figure of the chef has gained interest and society is more aware of chefs than ever. It is increasingly common for a chef who has just started or is already in the job market, to have doubts about what is expected of him or her in the restaurant business.
We have spoken with Roberto Holz, executive chef of the Hotel Sofía and Director of the Executive Chef Diploma of the Culinary Institute of Barcelona, to try to answer some of the main questions. He has worked in the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton hotel chains in cities such as Berlin, Chicago, New York and Miami. For Roberto, the chef of the 21st century must be clear about his objectives, listen more to the needs of the client, learn about new trends in the kitchen and know how to work as a team. Roberto has told us about his experience in hiring and managing teams and how this experience has allowed him to be clear about what, how and why a cook should be trained to be prepared in the professional market.
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Roberto considers that the attitude and motivation of a cook is very important. A chef is expected to have a career that follows a plan. Roberto usually asks the cooks he interviews how they see themselves in two or three years. He believes that it is important to have a motivated team and eager to scale up. He always tries to give his employees opportunities to change their game often, so that they can learn other ways of working and be promoted if they have a proactive attitude.
Every cook must have a deep knowledge of the product and raw material, and acquire the skills to know how to make proper use of techniques according to the different contexts and objectives. At the CIB, we believe that in addition to this knowledge, anyone who aspires to be a chef must also possess a set of lateral skills such as creativity, the ability to work in a team and lead, or the ability to express themselves freely. That is why it is so important to train and adapt to the workplace, and be able to add value in everything that is done.
The restaurant is increasingly open to the world and nowadays, the chef must know well the international client, their customs and context. Adapting to the customer is increasingly important and for a restaurant to be inclusive it must also take into account other consumer preferences such as vegetarian cuisine or notions of Halal cuisine among other restrictions or gastronomic cultures. At the CIB we make a special effort to bring specialists in national cuisines and gastronomic trends so that the chefs we train have a broad vision of cooking beyond their individual perspective. We understand that gastronomy is global and that pizza is no longer only Italian, nor is Japanese sushi. Knowing the kitchen in its different contexts allows us to enrich the possibilities of application of each product or technique.
There are many techniques that have been incorporated into the kitchen in recent years. Roberto underlines the usefulness of techniques such as low-temperature cooking or sous-vide cooking to streamline processes, better preserve food and finally to improve the customer experience. In parallel to the need to know and know how to use international cuisine, it is also necessary to know the local product to claim a more efficient and responsible management of the resources available. Sustainability is increasingly important, also in matters such as waste management. In the future these needs will also have to be taken into account by suppliers and collaborators throughout the process chain. At CIB we spend many sessions not only learning about techniques and products but also understanding how they should be used creatively and responsibly.
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Not all those who have studied cooking become a chef, for this it is necessary to grow professionally from work experience. Attitude and leadership skills are vital to earning the confidence of yourself and others to advance into positions of greater responsibility.
One of the objectives of a chef is to avoid having a high turnover in his team. This has a high cost for the company in the training of new hires. It is vital for the restaurant to have an experienced team that knows their position and stay in it. The ideal chef profile is someone who wants to take on greater responsibilities and the ability to change their game if necessary.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified cooks and invest in them. Dedicating attention and training them is crucial to develop versatile cooks who can assume responsibilities of other areas at any time if it is necessary.
"The kitchen is very dynamic. Being motivated, being aware of the client and the partner and having a common goal with the company is vital." - Roberto Holz
We see that many of the keys for a cook to be hired do not depend only on their knowledge and handling of culinary techniques. As we said before, 87% of the layoffs do not have to do with knowledge and practice of cooking. That is why at the CIB we are committed to training in communication attitudes, lateral skills and leadership such as teamwork in a complementary way to culinary training in order to prepare students for their internships in restaurants and for their future professional.
A student of the Culinary Institute of Barcelona in his "stage" restaurant internship
Roberto emphasizes that creativity must be used responsibly and must always be adapted to the context and needs of the restaurant where you are working. When applying culinary creativity and innovation, important elements must be taken into account that have an impact on the cost, time or quality of an elaboration. A creative culinary proposal that involves interaction with different team members or parties can negatively affect the customer and the business.
In this way, excessively expensive products are not necessary for the customer's experience to be satisfactory and, paradoxically, their recurring use is problematic. Roberto talks about the importance of doing homework in controlling the cost of the product.
"Almost 50% of restaurants close within 5 years of opening." - Roberto Holz
Having integrated the following aspects and the creative use of them are today requirements to be a chef:
It is becoming more and more important to develop a restaurant concept that defines its style and the type of customer it is aimed at. From this concept, a gastronomic proposal that makes sense is elaborated. It must be profitable and the client who is going to end up visiting the establishment should like it. Do not be afraid to ask the regular customer and get to know their satisfaction level to know if you are working in the right direction at all times. The same gastronomic proposal is not valid for all types of customers and often, taking a concept that has worked in one place and with a specific audience to another context does not have the expected success. Each client has a certain horizon of expectations and the chef must be transparent and communicative with the innovations he/she proposes.
The use of digital and social media tools are increasingly internalized and are very useful because it is possible to know and communicate in a much easier way. They are also problematic because at the end all gastronomic proposals end up being similar and that is why it is necessary to invest in R&D. Digital platforms such as Tastewise try to predict from predictive models based on artificial intelligence, gastronomic trends, market dynamics, price specification by region, target or restaurant category. These technologies are growing radically to change the restaurant sector and try to help the chef to create value in an increasingly prepared and creative market.
The figure of the Chef in R&D, which already existed many years ago in the United States and Asia, has become increasingly essential in more European restaurant businesses. Roberto considers it very important to have such a figure in a hotel or in a gastronomic restaurant. He is a person who ideally is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, since he is in charge of developing elaborations that fit with the concept of the restaurant and he must know many techniques, trends and products. He must study the competition and make proposals to improve the offer.
"It is going to be more and more important where you buy, who you buy from and what your supplier does for sustainability." - Roberto Holz
Precisely because of his long work experience in the United States, Roberto has been able to identify that many of the trends in concepts in restoration that appear first there end up arriving here after a few years. He believes that delivery and takeaway systems or businesses such as dark Kitchens that have grown exponentially with the pandemic are here to stay. In the other hand, consumer preferences change and as there is a tendency to cook less at home to consume more delivery, delivery must also adapt to new kitchen formats that have not worked as much until now, such as healthy cooking. All this revolutionizes the appearance of new proposals, the way of consuming, interpreting the quality and the value proposition.
In a hectic moment like the current one, the chef must know himself, know what his strengths are and which he has to improve, either in techniques, social skills or management and he must know what needs the gastronomic business in which he works or in The one who aspires to work and train in what he needs to improve.