Lead Like the Best Chef on Earth
How you lead reveals who you are
At the end of the workweek, when you’re dog-tired, and you want nothing more than to go home, this is when you find what drives you.
It’s that moment when you think you have nothing left. The preceding days have stacked upon your shoulders, and the weight now feels unbearable. It’s late, and you have a dirty kitchen to clean.
All you really want is a shower and to fall asleep with a towel on your head.
It’s at this moment when you dig to the bottom lungs for one more breath. Have you got a spark left that will allow you to create one more thing?
You do.
Great leaders know how to pull it out of you. René Redzepi is a leader like this.
René Redzepi is the world-renowned chef that opened Noma in Copenhagen. Noma has been crowned the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine for five years.
Noma was awarded a third Michelin star in 2021.
Redzepi worked his way through the most prestigious kitchens in the world before opening the doors to his own. With Noma, he has refined and reinvented new Nordic cuisine. He forages for food in the wild and handpicks the chefs in the kitchen from across the globe.
The book Hungry by Jeff Gordinier follows Redzepi on new adventures as he seeks out some of the other unique flavors and travels around the globe. Gordinier is a master storyteller. The way he strings words together make my eyeballs trip. They are lovely. I let them swim through my brain a bit.
His word choice is elegant.
Gordinier shows Redzepi as a food genius, for sure, but also as a fantastic leader. You can be a food genius, but your gift may be lost if you aren’t connecting with people.
Redzepi can connect.
Restaurant work is grueling. Long hours and late nights don’t even cover what these talented people do. Redzepi knows this, of course, and he also knows how to bond with his team.
Late on Saturday night, at the end of a long week, when the staff is completely burnt out and still has a kitchen to scrub down, Redzepi hosts a competition among his team.
Each chef gets the opportunity to present a new creation. Redzepi will taste it and critique it in front of the team. He tells them how they may improve it, and he is ecstatic about what they did well.
After the judging, his team is buzzing.
They grab a beer, toast to the end of the week, and pitch in to clean the kitchen.
Here’s what Redzepi gets really right about leadership at this moment.
Get to know your team
This weekly competition lets Redzepi get to know his staff better. He can see their personalities and where their talents lie. Most of his time is spent running the restaurant. He is also the star. As Executive Chef, he doesn’t usually have time to stand around and catch up on everyone’s weekend.
He gives the chef presenting the dish his complete attention during the judging.
The way the dish is presented is an insight into who they are and how they operate. What talents do they have that maybe Redzepi did not see yet? He gets to find out.
The competitor gets a moment with one of the greatest chefs on the planet. He tastes what they’ve made and gives them feedback right then.
Feedback is invigorating
When a leader you look up to gives you undivided attention, you feel validated and seen. You feel like all your hard work is getting you somewhere.
Holding a Saturday night competition is genius because Redzepi has set aside time for feedback for his team every week.
It’s built-in.
After each critique, he ensures he leaves them uplifted, no matter what. He’s honest, but he understands that if he says something is flat-out terrible, it will crush that person. He has emotional intelligence and empathy.
After the presentations are over, the team hi-five each other, and a flame inside them is re-lit. They can now dive into scrubbing the kitchen and cleaning up.
They play loud music and talk. After a long week of hard work, cleaning would generally be a slog, but Redzepi has made it almost fun.
Team bonding
If there were ever a way to quickly bond people, it would be by shared experiences.
This team works together all week in the kitchen but being able to share a bit of themselves on Saturday night makes the hard work even sweeter. The chefs are allowed to celebrate with one another.
They can rally behind the originality and the creativity of the dishes and cheer each other on. They get to know one another better.
They’re allowed some fun, and they can toast to a job well done — cheers all around.
Team bonding like this can work no matter where you work. You don’t have to work in a kitchen.
Let people show you who they are. Let people shine.
How you lead is you
René Redzepi is passionate about food. He also loves connections. How people connect to each other and to food — it’s a driving force.
This is leadership. Connection is leadership.
Redzepi gives actionable feedback and praise for the hard work his team brings forward every day. He ensures that he makes time for his staff. Every week, Saturday nights are set aside for them.
He gives his team access to him and reinvigorates them. He understands that all of this leads to team bonding and having a more cohesive team. Sharing his time with his chefs is precious, and they know that.
No matter where you work or how many people are on your team, you can incorporate some of these skills. When you understand the people on your team better and know what motivates them and what makes them unique, you’ll be able to guide them better.
They’ll respect you more when you set aside time to know them.
Your job will be more fun too. That’s the key. Great things line up when people can be themselves. This is how great teams are forged and it’s what makes great leaders stand out.
