9-to-5 world no place for most working chefs

PBN Staff

09/17/2011

When does a chef have office hours?
In my experience, around 9 in the evening. If I need to get in touch with a chef, I am fairly certain he or she will be in and available to speak at that time. I have received email replies from chefs at all hours of the night.
The restaurant business is a night-and-weekend one by its nature. After all, we go out for dinner for the most part and we go out on Fridays and Saturdays, most of us anyway. The 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. world is far away from the chef, as it is for many artists whose craft is practiced when most of us are home on the couch.
But that 9-to-5 world calls out to chefs in a way it does not to other artists, such as singers or sculptors. And unlike singers or sculptors who can continue practicing their art well into their senior years, the physical demands of the kitchen take their toll on us humans. Restaurant cooking is a young person’s game. Besides, many chefs simply want to have a life outside the kitchen. So some aspire to jobs with so-called regular hours. Others try working so-called regular hours but find that their muse does not work then.
Casey Riley is a great example of a talented chef who traded his toque for an executive position and is thriving at it. Riley was executive chef of Castle Hill Inn in Newport, as well as the Agora in Providence (now one of the two places in the state named Centro.) In 2009, he became director of culinary operations of the Newport Harbor Corp. overseeing all of the company’s culinary and hospitality operations, including Castle Hill, 22 Bowen’s Wine Bar & Grille, The Mooring Seafood Kitchen & Bar, The Smokehouse Café, The Boat House, Trio, Waterman Grille and the Newport Yachting Center.
He was on-site on the wharves of the yachting center supervising during a recent weekend food-and-wine event. Riley remains no stranger to restaurant kitchens. He most recently oversaw the transition of two of his executive chefs, Jonathan Cambra who went from Castle Hill to The Boat House and Karsten Hart, who took over the kitchen at Castle Hill. Riley also continues to work closely with area farmers who supply the group’s restaurants.
Kitchen duties extend far beyond the kitchen for today’s chef, who often is also the restaurateur. There are administrative functions that go along with the day-to-day running of a business that must be tended to, such as payroll and expenses. Then there are industry-specific tasks.
Ingredients have to be ordered from established sources or, if new purveyors or growers are being evaluated, tastings to be arranged. Savvy suppliers synchronize their schedules to “chef time” and make appointments for late afternoon consultations. These days it is not unusual for chefs to go to work for wholesalers. Upscale suppliers such as Sid Wainer and Sons employ former chefs as consultants who sell to restaurant customers. Angie Armenise went from being a group executive chef at restaurants such as the now-closed Post Office Café and Waterplace to an executive position with the food-service provider at Bryant University. She found, however, that her creativity was more suited to the atmosphere of the culinary community, as was evidenced by a recent guest appearance she did at the Newport Winefest, where she was executive chef for an exhibitor serving thousands of guests at the weekend-long event. Several of the attendees at the festival who lined up to sample a short rib, asada-style taco she prepared remarked how they had enjoyed her cooking when they had dined at her restaurants.
Armenise has decided to return to restaurant cooking as the executive chef of Blackie’s Bulldog Tavern in Smithfield. The proprietor of Blackie’s, who has operated fine-dining restaurants in the past, wants to take the sports-themed pub in a “gastropub” direction with more creativity on the menu while retaining its casual atmosphere.
Sylvia Moubayed, owner of CAV restaurant in Providence said without hesitation on my radio show recently, “No chef works 9 to 5!” She continued, “[At CAV] we don’t want a chef to work more than 50 hours per week. I personally think you need two days off so you can really create with joy.”
“Chefs would work 70 hours [if we let them] but at CAV, we take care of them, insist they take two days off each week and work no more than 50 hours.” She explained a greater vision at work here.
“This is what we do with the food. We restore the human spirit and this is what we want, for everyone to have a joyous experience,” she explained.
It makes sense. We have all heard how if you love what you do for a living, you will never work a day in your life. Most chefs I know would not trade their vocation. And it shows in their enjoyable creations it is our pleasure to share every time we dine out. &#8226

Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” food-and-wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays on WPRV-AM 790 and stations throughout New England. He can be reached by email at
bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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