Phillip Frankland Lee on the Grind of Working in a Kitchen

While I was playing music, actually, I turned the studio certain nights a week into a little poker room. So I'd have friends over and we'd play cards at the house. But while I was touring, I eventually decided, because when I decided to stop going to school, I said to myself, if the music then doesn't work, I'm going to go to sushi school. So the music thing did work and a couple years went by and actually my godmother owned a catering company. And so in between tours, I didn't really want to keep working at like Jamba Juice or Starbucks or anything like that. And so I asked her if I could work for her. And so I invited her over to the house. I cooked dinner for her and she said, well, I'll introduce you to my chef. And if my chef wants to hire you, then you'll be hired. And so I went to her catering company, met the chef. The first thing was like, OK, you're making family meal today. And so I cooked for the whole staff and she said, I'll hire you as a dishwasher. Oh, Jesus. And because that was the only job they had available. Looking back at it, I was offended and angry, but I didn't care because of what she said after that, which is you don't get to start being a cook. You have to start as a dishwasher so you can have respect for what it is that the dishwashers do. And she said, here's how this works. The faster you clean that dish pit, the more I'll teach you. So whenever that dish pits clean, you come and find me and I'll give you a task. But if there's ever any dishes, that's what you're doing. So it kind of gave me that bit of work ethic of like, all right, I'm going to work my way into that next position. That seems to be a theme with great restaurants. And when you talk to chefs, this work ethic theme, because it seems like when you know, you talk to people that have worked in restaurants, one of the things that they will almost unanimously discuss is the amount of hours and the grind and how difficult it is. Yeah. And that development of work ethic almost is like kind of a boot camp for chefs. It is. It's I mean, it's not so much anymore. Laws have changed. Culture has changed. But it was your spending like a 16 hour day was not even a really long day. I dated a girl once who went to college for restaurant and hotel management. And then she got a job at this restaurant. And I remember I would go visit her and she was fucking miserable. I mean miserable. She couldn't believe the hours that she had to work. But you have to love it. Yeah, that's an industry you have to love. Well, she just wanted a career. You know, she went to school. She graduated from school and then she had this job that was like and then she had this boyfriend who was a fuck up, who was a comedian. So it was like very, very weird for her because like I had most of my day completely free and she was working, you know, 14, 15 hours a day at least. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where if you really want to take food seriously and cooking seriously, you're going to have to, you know, make a lot of sacrifices. Yeah, you know, I've just the time. You're not there for birthdays. You're not there for anniversaries. You're not there for Valentine's Day for sure. Because you have to work because you have to work. Yeah. Because someone has to cook at all those restaurants you go to. Yeah. Yeah, people listening, if you are thinking of going down this path, prepare yourself. Yeah, it's a fantastic path, but you have to understand what it's like. And I think the reason it worked for me or the reason I loved it so much is it really felt like being on tour, except I got to sleep in my own bed. Well, like playing music, you spend all day getting ready for the show that night. And there's something to getting to the restaurant and prepping all day getting ready for the show that night. And so I feel like the camaraderie of being on it, like being in a crew is much is a lot like being in a band. The hours are a lot like being in a band. And the shenanigans, you know, after hours are a lot like being in a band. The boozing. Yeah. Talk about. Yeah. That's the other thing that I learned from Bourdain. I didn't know how hard people partied. Yeah, I mean, when I was younger, there was a lot of nights you just don't go to sleep. You just get out of the restaurant at 1 30 in the morning. You go to the bar, then you go somewhere else. Then you go back and open the restaurant the next day. That doesn't seem good for you. No, it's terrible. I had to and I for the Red Bull comes in. Well, no, I quit Red Bull earlier than that. But thankfully, I never got into drugs. So it wasn't that. But I would drink a lot. And I actually had one time where I finished service, took two steps and just collapsed. Just hit the ground. Wow. Yeah. I had the end of the day. It's the end of the day. It was holding all nighter. I think two or three days in a row. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. But I was like 21. Two or three days of no sleep at 21. Yeah, maybe like an hour and a half sleep here and there. Jesus. But yeah, I mean, when I I my first sous chef job. I was on the schedule. It said next to my name all seven days said OP-CL open to close. We did breakfast and we did dinner service. So I would open the restaurant at about 7 a.m. And I would leave around 1.32. So when you open the restaurant 7 a.m. What time are you actually arriving? Man, this was like a long time ago, but I probably was getting there. I was probably getting there on 7 6 45 7 when I say open. I mean, I would get to the restaurant open the door. Not that we were. So there was someone there that was already prepping. Yeah, I'm trying to remember because we were at this in this sort of like the restaurant was a lunch and dinner restaurant, but we served breakfast and as like a commissary to like there was like it was like in a building complex. So I really wasn't responsible for breakfast. So there would be I think there was people there before I would get there building like an office building complex. Yeah, yeah, they would just grab something quick. Yeah, that kind of yeah, like so I would get in there and the dishwasher would already like it'd make be making like ham and cheese sandwiches or something like that. But and so you were there from 7 a.m. And then what time would you get out of there? Usually, I mean, probably 1 1 30 and nowadays with labor laws. You really couldn't schedule that. Well, I was on I was on salary. Interesting. But that salary would have to be, you know, 3 X at this point. Yeah, because because now they've changed the rule a couple years ago. Salary is no longer a contract between you and I salaries have to fall into a certain you have to qualify. So you can't just be like, oh, I'm going to not give you overtime by giving you a salary to have you work when I ask you to write. Now you have to pay them pay everybody a specific dollar amount and they have to have hold specific responsibilities in order to not accrue overtime. Yeah, I think that's good because I think there's a lot of employers that are abusive. But I also think there's something romantic about this story of you almost dying. You know what I mean? I mean, like I do appreciate like long hard work days. There's something to that because like I hear that and I know you got through it and you became very successful. So I'm like see it works. Look when I think Margarita in my first date was at that restaurant and it was I mean people ask me all the time. How did how did you get her and it's food as has to be. That's hilarious. Well, you're a cool guy. Don't tell yourself short and push it kind of cute. Jamie. I'm top three in this room for sure. Top three. I'd say so. But so because of that schedule, I couldn't take her on a date. And so I remember the very first date we had was at the restaurant. I told her to show up at 1230 after I sent everybody home and I had spent all day secretly prepping a special menu and she showed up and I sat her in the dining room that like overlooked the kitchen and I would make a course bring it out to her sit down with her have a sip of wine and then go back in the kitchen make the next course. Oh, wow. Yeah. What did you think she did during the time where you're in there cooking? Why told her to bring a friend with her because I told her that I'm going to you know, otherwise, she's there for 20 minutes in between each course. That's that well, listen man, that's a clever move. Look it worked. Yeah, clearly. Yeah, that's a that's interesting. I mean, I would imagine that that's probably one of the most difficult occupations to date in. Yeah. I sacrificed a lot of relationships prior to that one. Yeah, I can only imagine.