Lessons from inside Michelin starred restaurants

It’s an open secret that despite over 20 years working in healthcare management and consulting, I have a passion for serving people great food. Working as an associate and interim over the past few years has allowed me the opportunity to explore the world of professional cooking. It is only now, as I look back that the lessons for my day-job have emerged.

The start

Back in 2016, I was a frustrated amateur in my home kitchen. All the classic symptoms of a mid-life crisis had already been experienced and treated. The sports car had been and gone many times over and the tattoos were in place, so they clearly weren’t the itches that needed scratching. There was something else bugging me. In life there always seemed to me to be two career options; do the thing you are great at and fund your hobby or make your hobby your career and struggle to pay the bills.

As I entered my 40s it occurred to me that I needed to know if my hobby could be my career. Would real customers like and pay for my food?

The kitchens

My years as a management consultant had taught a range of sales techniques and no small amount of bravado. Armed with both, I decided to approach the best restaurants I had ever eaten at. I figured it best to start at the top and work my way down, so I sent an email to my clear favourite, the Michelin starred and impossible to get a table at, Dabbous. Carefully crafted message sent, it was time for a coffee. 

Before the kettle had boiled my inbox pinged. The Le Manoir trained chef Oliver Dabbous at Dabbous in London had replied. An out of office message no doubt… No. Ollie, as he would later insist I call him, was offering me two weeks work in his kitchen. With the bit between my teeth I started to roll the snowball down the hill. I emailed Michael O'Hare in Leeds saying I was going to be at Dabbous; could I please come to The Man Behind the Kitchen after that? No problem Mike personally responded. I messaged Tommy Banks to ask if after Dabbous and The Man Behind the Kitchen he would mind me honing my talents at the then Best Restaurant in the World, The Black Swan? No problem. And so, the snowball grew.

Slight problem in all this. I had never been in a professional kitchen before, let alone a Michelin starred one. I didn't have any talents to hone. Within two weeks however, following a walk-out by a very angry Frenchman responsible for the fish station, I would find myself in the heat of service preparing a dish for the renowned food critic Matthew Fort and learning some lessons along the way.

The lessons

Front of house. Back of house.

Despite the seemingly bitter (and often hilarious) rivalry between the kitchen and dining room, no restaurant gains and keeps a Michelin star unless it works as a single indivisible organism. 

No better example of a one-team mentality exists than the family meal. Every decent restaurant the world over stops before service. There is always something more pressing to do but the best teams sit down for a fresh cooked, tasty and lovingly prepared family meal. Everyone who works in the restaurant comes together to break bread. Even if it is for only 20 minutes, it is essential to success that the barriers break down between those that face the customers and those that work in the background.

Excellence does not get delivered if one part competes to be better than the other or fails to fully value the other. Only by appreciating the contribution that everyone makes, from the pot washer to the head chef, can excellence be consistently delivered. On one evening at The Man Behind the Curtain I had the pleasure of sitting a chatting with colleagues whilst Mike O’Hare worked on his own in the kitchen to prepare a tasty Thai curry for his 25 staff. It was the first and last thing I saw him cook. For him it was important for him to feed his team in order that his team could feed his customers.

Mise en place

A Michelin starred kitchen during a busy service is a crucible. There is no try. You either succeed or you leave. I saw several chefs chose or be selected for the latter.

That preparation is important is hardly an earth-shattering insight to share. The difference in the heat of service though is that success and preparation are the same thing. Not that preparation is important; but that it is integral and far reaching. Everything must be in its place.

Mise en place is about having the right amount of everything you need prepared to the required standard and in the amounts required. Too much and you commit the kitchen sin of waste (margins are fine enough without throwing away ingredients flown in that morning). Too little and you almost needn’t have bothered doing anything. It is about pinpoint forecasting of demand and a deep understanding of the resources required to meet that demand. More preparation when you are serving 13 courses to 160 people in 3 hours is no option. Fail to prepare and you are in the worst place possible; the Weeds.

It is also important to see mise en place in its widest sense. It is not just about chopping, picking and preparing. It reaches all the way back through the supply chain. Finding and building relationships with the best suppliers. Regular, almost live, communication with them to ensure Just in Time delivering of the very best ingredients. It is about what can be done in advance and leaving only what must be done at the last minute.

There is no ‘right way’

The different management styles adopted at Dabbous and The Man Behind the Kitchen could not have been more different; yet both had the Michelin seal of approval and were almost impossible to get a table at. The same ends but my completely different means.

Dabbous, with clear signs of Ollie’s early training by Raymond Blanc, was incredibly traditional despite the modernity of the food. Ranks in the kitchen were based on a military structure and once service commenced there was silence except for two words, “Oui Chef!”. Everybody had a clear role. Within that role they had clear tasks and quality standards to meet. If every individual did everything perfectly then the whole operated smoothly and excellence was achieved. 

Creativity was the role of the chef, for everyone else their job was to do as they were told. When it works, the result is a thing of beauty. When it doesn’t the kitchen closes and re-opens only when everyone is back and aligned. If that is 5 minutes or an hour, it is unimportant. Restaurants do not maintain stars by muddling through. Nothing leaves the kitchen if it is anything short of perfect. You do not want to the person letting the team down.

My knives sharpened and my whites washed I next headed off to Leeds to The Man Behind the Kitchen. Despite Michael O’Hare’s maverick reputation, based on my sample of one I fully expected to slot into the team in the bottom ranks and start picking herbs on my first day. I figured there was a way or running a successful kitchen. I was in for a surprise! The music was loud, the laughter raucous and the responsibility huge from the first day.

The best analogy I have for the management style I experienced was that the team worked like a river. Everyone was heading in the same direction, and all the gaps were filled, but the work flowed and expanded and shrank almost imperceptibly. Some dishes would have 5 chefs adding elements, whilst another would have just one. Everyone could do everyone else’s tasks. Big tasks were done by everyone at the same time working as a team. There was a broad plan and a very clear destination but to this day I am still not sure how so many world class dishes ended up in front of so many diners on time. I believe that part of the answer is that the chefs also served the dishes to diners. There was a direct link between the kitchen and the dining room. Between production and the customer.

In contrast to Dabbous, creativity was everyone’s job. Every dish had to be excellent but in each there was an opportunity to add a touch of personality. My mise en place for one whole morning involved not julienning carrots but instead dipping water balloons in lactose and hanging them from washing lines. For Mike, this was his normal. And it worked. Both ways worked. Same results, different styles, and I still don’t know which I preferred.

Personal lesson

From a personal perspective I learned something far more important. Reflecting on my career in healthcare management I realised I wasn’t just good at what I do; I also really love it. I have a passion for healthcare and improving the lives of people we work for. I had just forgotten it along the way. With that in mind I have thrown myself back into my career with renewed vigour. That doesn’t mean I don’t pop back into the kitchen every now and then though!

Craig Barratt continues to be a passionate healthcare executive and management consultant, focusing on working with global healthcare leaders.

This article was based on a month spent working in Dabbous and The Man Behind the Kitchen. Many thanks to Ollie Dabbous, Michael O'Hare and their teams for their kind and warm welcomes.