Meet 12 Chefs Who Need to Put Their Attitudes on the Back Burner | Yes, Chef! | NBC
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[{'start': '1.534', 'end': '2.969', 'text': '-You are all here because you are the best of the best when we talk about cooking. -But each one of you has been recommended to us by a close friend. -They may call you control freaks. -Perfectionists. -Hotheads. -Any of you want to fess up to any of these characteristics? ♪♪ -I have people coming in doing deliveries, and they\'re like, "Where\'s the chef?" I\'m like, "You\'re looking at her, dawg." Like, what? I don\'t walk into the day wanting to make people cry. That\'s not my intent, I swear. -I think Chef Zain is overaggressive in the kitchen. The front-of-house manager will come back and be like, "A customer didn\'t like this." And she\'ll be like, "Well, I tasted it and I thought it was fine." -As a woman in the kitchen, I\'m not trying to be a [ __ ], but I am trying to be stern and I\'m trying to be serious with these people. My whole thing is, if you\'re already messing up, you can\'t be mad that I\'m yelling at you because you already did it. So if you didn\'t mess up, then we wouldn\'t be here in the first place. -I think she has what it takes to go to the next level, but she definitely has to work on her communication skills first, because, girl, it\'s not always what you say, it\'s how you say it. -My ultimate goal as a chef is for the world to hear me, to hear my voice in the kitchen, to hear my flavors on a plate. I don\'t care that I have attitude, and I think that\'s also holding me back. The moment I get that thing situated and I can actually teach people without yelling at them, then we\'ll be in a good place. I apologized first. That was the first part of our conversation. I said, "I\'m sorry for what\'s about to happen." I\'m definitely winning. I think we all know this. Y\'all know this, I know this. But I\'m humble. I\'m humble. -My front door has knuckles down the whole back side of it, and it\'s completely metal. So I have three waves of temper. The first wave, I\'ll say it nicely. My second one, I won\'t be so nice. [ Laughing ] The third one, you don\'t want to be around. -When Peter gets upset in the kitchen, usually it starts with him pounding his fist on the floor. -I get to a point of frustration where I just snap for a second, and I\'m just -- as soon as I punch a door, then I\'m fine. When I get mad, I just -- It\'s just like black. -You take it out on yourself. -Yeah. Now that I\'m working as a private chef, I do really need to control my temper. -Peter\'s my right-hand man in my business. He just hasn\'t showed me the potential yet that I could take him on as a true partner. -I would be a heck of a lot better and it would benefit me more If I had more patience. I think I would be the best boss in the world. I want to be the best, and I want to make sure people know me and know my food and know what I\'m about. Everything I\'ve worked for has been leading up to this day. -I will make a circus of drama if I don\'t win. I\'m such a bad loser. The biggest issue that I have is I don\'t have boundaries. I don\'t have personal space. I don\'t have filters. One time I kept making fun of someone so much that the boyfriend came and just beat the [bleep] out of me. -Katsuji can be a bit of a bully. -When I poke people, it\'s really fun for me. It\'s like a local joke that I\'m the only one who gets it. [ Bell dinging ] But, um, sometimes they cry. -Katsuji is definitely starting to realize that there are times where he just goes too far, and that he needs to be able to dial it back just a little bit. -If you burn me, I\'m gonna burn you. You hear what I\'m saying? Don\'t burn me. Be nice. I\'ll be nice. -Share space, man. -I swear to God. I think there\'s a fine line between being a comedian and a chef. I need to find really what\'s that line. When do I need to stop? The reason I need to change this mentality of being a poker and an ass, it\'s because legacy. Do I want to be remembered of me being that ass, that poker, that guy who was just a completely ass to you all the time? Are you gonna remember me like the sarcastic, funny chef who his food was kind of good? Of course I can change. You know, like, if there\'s $250,000 on the line, I will change everything. -It\'s amazing how much attention you\'ll get if you throw a bell at the wall. This is one time where I was trying to get a food runner to come back to the kitchen. We have a little call bell. Nobody was coming, so I took that bell. I threw it right at the wall and all of a sudden everybody showed up. -I have seen staff members run away crying. He screamed at them to get the [bleep] out of his kitchen and out of his way. -People will walk around on eggshells around me. Um, that\'s mostly when they see me start fuming. Uh, that\'s the point that they know it\'s going to start to get bad. I lose my temper because I\'m super passionate. Cooking is very important to me, and I just don\'t like to see people not take it seriously. -Jake will be one of the best chefs in the world one day. He just needs to get out of his own way. -I don\'t know why I thought that any of this would be easy. I guess it\'s just a little bit of my ego. I would love to be able to learn a better way of communication. Sometimes people are scared to work with me, and just not gonna work If I want to own my own place and be successful. Out of this competition, I\'m expecting to gain some confidence, really showcase what I can do. I\'m ready. Let\'s get at it! -I walked into the kitchen, I fired everyone, and I had to open up the restaurant the next day and serve brunch alone. I yell occasionally and get mean occasionally, and then I feel really bad about it, and I\'ll text them later and say I\'m sorry. But in the heat of the moment, like, watch out. -"Dread" might be a little bit of a harsh word, but I was definitely not always looking forward to working with her the next day. -I will tell you how I\'m feeling. I will tell you if you upset me. I will tell you if you\'re doing something wrong, and I will tell you if I hate it. -When it comes to working with people, she struggles a little bit. -No one works like I do. I\'m very fast. I\'m very clean, I\'m organized. And I\'ve just always been burned by others in the kitchen. I\'m definitely nervous going into this competition because I have to potentially work with people, but I think that\'s just going to make me a better chef. This is why I can\'t be in a restaurant. This is why I hate this, because I can\'t trust you people. I need to learn how to share with others and be less ruthless and be more trusting. I think that being able to collaborate and work with others is just going to be the thing that kind of skyrockets my career to the next level, and I think that\'s what\'s holding me back. I think winning this competition will definitely show everyone that I\'m not just a pretty face, that I\'m here to play. -In my kitchen, you would expect hell. I do say it with a smile -- I am a recovering alcoholic. When I was drinking, I was a very angry chef. I tried to tone it down just a little bit. Unfortunately, I do know that some of it still does come out. -He\'s throwing pans and throwing a fit and cussing and refuses to back down. -I\'m like, I\'m [bleep] fuming. And then my blood pressure rises, and I have made sous chefs cry. I have made people quit because of the way I am in the kitchen sometimes. My food is never the issue in the kitchen. It\'s usually my ego. -Chef just slid me a note. I\'m sorry. It says, "Say good [bleep] or I\'ll make your life a living hell," with a "heart" and "Chef." -My culinary goals are to be the best chef I could possibly be. I show more grace now, and I understand that people make mistakes. Things do happen in the kitchen. It\'s life. I will always be teachable. The day I\'m not teachable is the day I hang up my apron. And I always try to work on progress rather than perfection. Winning this would blow my ego so high that this bald spot would be just my whole head. -I\'m definitely gonna have to rock the boat. And if you\'re going to be a casualty and have to be thrown off the boat, that\'s exactly what\'s going to have to happen. It\'s a privilege to work for me. I love what I do, and I just don\'t have time to waste. So sometimes that results in me yelling and screaming and, you know, having a bad attitude. -There are times where you\'ll screw something up or maybe you do something that you weren\'t supposed to do, and she\'ll come at you for it. -When you come on this competition and the level that they\'re expecting, you think "fine" is gonna pass? I impose my own passion onto others. And then when they don\'t grasp the concept, I think that I tend to just kind of like snap. -Yelling does have its place sometimes, but consistently doing that is not only detrimental to her because of the stress she\'s putting on herself, but also the team. -I know my communication is not the best, but I\'m hoping that through this competition that I\'m able to overcome that because this next level of success is very important to me and I have to achieve it. Nothing\'s going to stand in my way. Absolutely nothing. -H.R. once called me in and asked if I called someone stupid, and I said, "No, I asked if they were stupid." It\'s not the same thing. I\'ve made a few people cry. It\'s not on purpose. A lot of chefs do find me to be somewhat difficult in kitchens to work with at times. If I\'ve asked them to do something multiple times and they don\'t do it the way I want them to do it, I\'ll just do it myself. And then at that point, I\'m definitely getting more and more angry throughout the night. -He wears his emotions so much on his sleeves, and he does feel so passionately about stuff that if he can\'t figure out how to keep the anger under control or how to keep those opinions to himself, it\'s just gonna continue to be a bigger issue for him. -I try not to be the angry chef as much as I possibly can. I don\'t always have control of it. I do carry a lot of bitterness inside of me, and I struggle with believing in myself. I do know that that is holding me back in a lot of ways. -I think he\'s gotten better at trying to wipe the chip off of his shoulder, but he\'s definitely not perfect yet. -So I sense that you feel your confidence growing. -Slowly. One step at a time. I do think I have the capacity to change. I need to believe in myself more than I ever have before. -All the runners and bussers decided to sync their phones at the same time to some terrible song and scream it. And our kitchen is right next to the dining room. And I yelled, "What the [bleep]?!" I don\'t like to yell at people unless it needs to happen. My reaction is usually a look. I definitely have a stink eye. -Emily has a hard time hiding things on her face. She has her opinion written on it. -Cooking brings out the best and the worst of us. I do have a self-confidence issue. It is a massive struggle on my growth. I\'m almost doing this to prove to myself that I\'m actually the kind of chef I am. Like, I know I have all this experience and I have all this, but I just don\'t have the confidence in myself. -Sometimes the anxiety gets the best of her and she doesn\'t know how to funnel it. So I think if she were to be able to sit back and really think about a situation, she might be able to respond better. -I think I want to focus on myself rather than focusing on how to be better than someone else. I am ready to start cooking. -Even when something does go wrong now in the kitchen, I can\'t have a meltdown, because everyone\'s looking to me to figure out what to do. I know how to get things done in a way where, you know, I\'m soft and I\'m nurturing when I teach, but also, if it\'s time for service, then it\'s time for service, and things got to get done. -If she sees something she doesn\'t like, she\'s gonna let you know. This all stems from her being a perfectionist. -I think my biggest obstacle as a chef will be maybe that perfectionist side and that like maybe self-doubt and rumination of trying to get things perfect. My competition is internal. I\'m fine as long as I get the hell out of my own way. Yeah, I think being more aware of a lot of those perfectionist tendencies would help me a lot in my career. I do think I am too hard on myself at times. Having this win in this competition would be just an undeniable thing that even me myself can\'t convince me that I didn\'t deserve it. -If I\'m hurting your feelings, I get it. You\'ll get over it. I\'m very focused in the kitchen. If I see that you\'re not respecting the product, then I\'m gonna get a little pissy with you. -The things that my mom needs to work on is her stubbornness. She is very set in her ways. -It\'s very difficult to get good quality people in the kitchens these days. It takes a lot of patience, and now they\'re extremely sensitive and they cry a lot. We don\'t have time for you to have an emotional breakdown right now. Like, you need to suck it up. -She\'s an extraordinary chef, but she needs to have a little bit more emotional understanding about what\'s happening. -It has been brought to my attention that I do have a resting [ __ ] face. -You came in here like I was the problem. -I rolled my eyes not because of you. I\'m rolling my eyes because -- -But you gave me bad energy. -I\'m working on my self-awareness, and I think this competition is going to help me in many ways, to sit there and understand how I make people feel about me. I\'m here to win. I\'m here to make my daughter proud. I just want to come here and kick ass. -You don\'t just get to graduate culinary school and be called "Chef." You don\'t get to, like, take some trending Instagram, TikTok recipe that 9 million people are doing, and throw it up out in the world and be like, "I\'m Chef So-and-so." Let\'s be honest, how many of those followers are real? -He\'s a control freak. Definitely has a little temper on him. The spark is already lit. Anything else is gas. -There\'s something like weird and pretentious and douchey about, like, stopping in the middle of service to pull my phone out to snap a picture. Like, who\'s watching this content? -Lee definitely needs to work on his anger, as well as the way he carries everything on his back. -The goal is to come back a better version of me. I have been nominated as a James Beard semifinalist, Best Chef Northeast, the last two years. It\'s an incredible honor. I probably do not have the right ego to say I even deserve it, but I\'m definitely gonna take it. The title "Chef" is something that I hold kind of real near and dear to my heart, and it\'s because I\'ve earned it.'}]