John and I have been watching Kitchen Nightmares (Fox 9/8c) with chef Gordon Ramsay. And I have to admit I find him a fascinating person to watch. I admire his passion and natural skill with which he runs a restaurant. It's a part of who he is. He's not just an excellent chef (what I wouldn't give to taste his food), he's an excellent restauranteur. He enters a restaurant and in the space of one week finds all the trouble spots and fixes them.
He confronts in a way that is scary. It reminds me of a term I heard from Joy Dawson a few years ago - "brutally honest". He says the meanest things a person has probably ever heard and yet most of them give him total respect. They listen to him and change. He's not there to make friends, he's there to fix their problems. He also knows when to come from a softer angle, using gentle, encouraging words to breakthrough to people.
I feel like I can learn a lot from this guy, particularly when it comes to staffing and leading DTS's which is something John and I have talked about doing (even though I am not 100% excited by the idea!) I feel like DTS needs to become part of who I am, as restaurants are part of who Gordon Ramsay is. I need to have the same levels of passion that he has. To believe the values and objectives of the DTS. To understand it and know why it works, and how it can continue to work better.
I need to not be afraid to confront, even if it means being "brutally honest". Being a DTS staff is hard, because you want to be friends with the students, even though that is not why you are there. You need to give up being friends with the students, because your goal is for their growth, and sometimes that means pissing them off like crazy so they can grow. And that's hard! I am afraid of good confrontation, which is weird, because I am quick on bad confrontation. Watching him has made me realise I need to step it up and not care how the students might react, just know that sometimes a slap in the face is exactly what people need to grow and change. And then of course, there's the times of knowing that you just need to love, encourage and affirm someone to see them grow and change.
All that said, I think he's cool. And I would love to taste his food one day. I'm contemplating getting a Gordon Ramsay cookbook in the hopes of being able to cook some meals half as good as he does!
