Experience and Skills

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• My professional skills, work experience, and knowledge are specialized in culinary arts. 

• My perspective and ability to apply my knowledge make me a great problem solver. 

• High Standards, for cleanliness, quality, professionalism, attention to detail,  fair and honest treatment of coworkers and customers. I take pride in my professional integrity and will not compromise for monetary gain. 

• Sustainability, I work hard to be as sustainable as possible with my work and my skills allow me to treat sustainability as a fun challenge rather than a restriction. I've always focused on reducing waste, and reusing what we have before ordering new stock. 

• Inventory management plays the biggest factor when it comes to sustainability and food waste in my experience. I have even created inventory systems at workplaces to increase efficiency and reduce waste.   

• Work habits/professionalism/cleanliness, I keep my station as clean and organized as possible, I always step up when it matters, wash my hands religiously and correctly, adept at supporting the team where they need me most. 

• High adaptability,  is a necessity to being a great chef and consultant, thinking on your feet, using what you have, and strong communication skills are essential traits I have in spades and use often.  

• Compound/transferable skills perspective, this is one of my strongest and most useful skills. It enables me to perform a wide variety of tasks by thinking critically about the base concepts. For example, I was able to butcher a whole cow, half a pig, 2 lambs, and a goat in one week by myself in a refrigerated cold room, with no mentor, by focusing on 1 main skill. Separating muscle from bone and applying my previous knowledge from butchering poultry and fish. The main challenge was the anatomy, I had a base knowledge, without practical experience, and had an 80% cut yield compared to 95% by the end of my time as a butcher.  My base skill and knowledge level set the standard high from the start. 

• Food product yield analysis. When you account for the weight of the bones about 30%, fat/inedible trim about 10-15%, ground meat 20-40% (depending on the customer), and cuts 15-30%(depending on the customer), from an animal that weighs 857-pounds, you can expect to yield an average of 192 pounds of cuts. These cuts are roasts, steaks, organs, and specialty cuts. 

• Time management and awareness, some products require your full attention (butchery) while others can run parallel (stock). Knowing what processes are required I can make a workflow/prep list that prioritizes background items, fearful or curveball items first, items that can only be made to order or don't hold well (ex, apples will oxide) third, and the remaining items are second.

• Menu planning/design is one of my favorite things to do as it impacts every other element of the business. I love how resourceful I can be by crafting this box that is on the menu and then thinking outside of it. Each restriction is a line on the box that defines what limits are placed on the food and when you need help overcoming those limits I can almost always find a solution. Alternatively, I can strengthen the box and improve the menu design, order, portions, and any other tweaks.

• Restaurant costing, I strongly prefer to standardize recipes/product yields, even with estimates, and then use that as a template for food costing. This way I can pick out pain points early and address them. Fully absorbing "Unreasonable Hospitality" by Will Guidara has helped gain a broader and granular perspective. 

• Culinary Fundamentals, My specialty, I focus on learning fundamental concepts and techniques in order to execute a broad and high level of cuisine. For example, instead of learning how to cook salmon, I learned how to cook fish. This means my cooking, timing, knowledge/feel for the ingredients, and communication are strong but my finer and more specialized skills can be lacking at times such as intricate plating. However with my high adaptability once a skill clicks, I rapidly increase my proficiency with it. 

• Team Management, when it comes to managing a team, I feel the best way to set standards is to lead by example. This means you stay late to clean, if an employee is having a rough day give them a break when appropriate, have clear and defined responsibilities, and keep them consistent. 

• Investment in tools, I've invested more money and time than I care to admit in tools. They allow me to perform at a higher level and always be prepared for any situation. The most important tool is how calm I am in stressful situations and my problem-solving.

Other skills I have at the same personal standard with less professional experience 

• Videography, filming, editing, planning, uploading, production process, coordination 

• Writing, video scripts, articles, letters, creative writing, menu descriptions, team communications 

• Automotive, general maintenance, knowledge, repair, and troubleshooting 

• Electronics, purchasing, troubleshooting, repair (hardware and software), PC assembly, basic I.T.