Shine Now Magazine September Issue_r3 | Page 10

3 Leadership Lessons for the Culinary Kitchen & Recipe for 9-1-1 Chocolate Mousse Cake By: Dolores Lee A recent article I loved men- tioned well-known phrases used in the culinary industry. One of my favorites is: “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” The writer goes on to explain that you should clean and not stand around if you have free time on your hands. Be smart and use your time to clean your workstation, orga- nize and prepare for the next service. Next, she correlated it to leadership principles. After reading the article it inspired me to do the same. Below, I explain some common phras- es and share my the lessons I learned from the experiences. 1. In the Weeds In the kitchen, a calm day turns into a mess when a cook doesn’t show up for work. For example, the prep cook is sick. Fifteen (15) cases of pota- toes were not peeled and diced from the previous day’s work. It’s only one hour until dinner service when you find out. But, the job usually takes 2 hours to complete. It is what we consider being, "In the weeds." It’s the point of work overload when you fall behind and need help to get out. Many cooks and chefs have quit because of one too many days of being in the weeds. I don’t know who made the mistake of saying – "If you want a job done right, do it yourself." God never intended for us to do anything related to our destinies on our own. We must learn the art of delegation and team- work or we will always be in the weeds and end up quitting. 10