Letter from a Chef

It's two o’clock in the morning and you can finally breathe. Life as we knew it as a restaurant operator is now a thing of the past. To come into work, turn the lights on, check for possible broken pipes -- maybe a blinking light on your office phone that an employee has called out sick -- those easy days are gone. It’s bizarre that we would now consider a flood in the kitchen and being short-staffed a dream day. We now have bigger obstacles to overcome. We now dread a thermometer reading. We now are afraid to say “good morning, how are you today?” 

"How are you today?" Wow, those are some powerful words in these post-COVID days.

We have done everything there is to do to prepare for a post-COVID world. We have disinfected from ceiling to floor drain. We have trained our employees on new standards and procedures, and follow up every morning with temperature checks and questionnaires. We have pre-packaged, social distanced, disinfected and covered our faces, but it still can’t stop the phone call that could come at any moment: “Chef, I tested positive for COVID-19”.

As a twenty-two year veteran of our exhilarating industry I thought I had lived through everything short of a tornado. How can we move forward and adapt like all the times in the past? We’ve adjusted how we operate before, right? If there’s an earthquake and no gas is available, it’s cold food only. If there’s a leak in the roof, we’ve thrown a trash bag over the hole. Broken refrigeration? Get a cold truck. We can adapt - we can do this!

What are the next steps we need to take? Trusting in our systems is a key contributor to running any successful business. Our due diligence in following HR protocols and operational checklists throughout the day will sustain our industry. Now is a time that we show how providing great food and service goes beyond the plate. We must understand how to make permanent change to not only make our guests feel safe but our staff as well. We are here to stay and we will combat fear with knowledge.

We will be able to look back and say we got through this tumultuous time by becoming better operators. We will take our fears and turn them into strengths. Whenever people ask me “how will you overcome? How are you going to run your shift with 4 callouts?” My response is always the same, “I have no other choice. Our doors will open at 11am and they will close at 11pm. We will figure it out. We will work as a team. And we will succeed. We have no other option.”

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Talia Zimmer knew by the age of twelve that she wanted to be part of the culinary world. She began an internship at a local bakery at twelve and, by the time she had graduated from high school, she had already worked for Wolfgang Puck and Julia Child, and had appeared as a guest chef at the Playboy mansion West. After attending the CIA, Talia worked her way up in kitchens and became an Executive Chef at the age of twenty one. In recent years, Talia has been an Executive Chef for such companies as Hillstone Restaurant Group, True Food Kitchen and Patina Group.