Humility (file under the mother of all realizations)

Many of those that read this are people that have known me a long time. At times I have been boisterous, cantankerous. Obnoxious, loud, overbearing. Difficult and so much more. One of the things that I have had to learn while working at reservation is humility.

The dictionary defines;

hu·mil·i·ty n

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Those that have known me a long time know that I have never operated with any measure of humility. In fact, in instances where I should have exercised it I instead jumped out and was louder than I would have been before. In hindsight (which is 20/20) I could easily make excuses for it but I think I will merely say this; I was all the things that I mentioned earlier in this post because I had yet to find a home. A place that I belonged.

Now even at Reservation, at times it is hard for me to exercise humility. But take this for what it is;

I am a man. 33, to be exact. Almost 34. With the exception of 3 back of the house staff I am the oldest. 2 of whom are chefs and one of whom works the line. I work with people that have more experience than me who are 21, 23, or 25. To them I am merely a tool to help them execute their mission. To make them look good. For someone like me this is not easy.

I don’t like being told that I am bad. Or that something I’ve done is shit. I don’t like being called names, told what to do or being made fun of. These are things that happen to me on a daily basis. Now is it meant to be that way. No, I am quite certain of that. But I can say that it does make it very difficult sometimes.

So how does this relate to humility. Former Executive Chef and now Director of Operations and I were having a conversation last night. He and I spoke for about ten minutes and he asked me to tell him a story. Naturally I started talking about what was going on around me. He spoke about humility, how when he was coming up he did not have an opinion. He just did his job to the best of his abilities. Until he became a Chef he had no opinion because ultimately, in OUR environment, the only opinion that matters IS THE CHEFS! Unless of course you are asked for your opinion, that is entirely different.

Speaking with the DOP (I still call him Chef) he recognized that it must be difficult for me. He also, in his own way, gave me kernels of wisdom that I will not share here. But I will say that I am looking at what I am doing differently now. I am going to work and doing the best that I can and trying to learn as much as I can.

I guess I could say that every day I am practicing the VIRTUE of humility and that is going to make me an even better Chef.

Saint Augustine once wrote; “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM