To Cook or Not to Cook? Interview with Mick Wong, Chez Panisse

Name: Mick Wong
Occupation: Sauté cook / Lead line cook
Location: San Francisco, CA
Age: 42

I'll be the first to say it: I'm jealous of Chez Panisse cook Mick Wong. Raise your hand if you are, too.
Mick lives a life that scores of food-loving office dwellers long for. Admit it: underneath your innocuous, bespectacled, tie-wearing exterior, your red and blue bodysuit sports a picture of a whisk and knife crossed and says, Superchef.

12 years ago, Mick quit his own office job, enrolled in culinary school, and went to work at one of San Francisco's best known restaurants, Michael Minna's Aqua. Five years ago, he landed a coveted spot in Alice Waters' kitchen, the famed Berkeley eatery that many say started the fresh-local-sustainable restaurant revolution in the United States.

The credo of Chez Panisse's kitchen is that “the best-tasting food is organically and locally grown and harvested in ways that are ecologically sound by people who are taking care of the land for future generations.” Having been lucky enough to have experienced the food, I know that the cooks take all that wholesome seasonable stuff and make it approximately one million times better.
So what does it feel like to live this culinary dream in a sustainable kitchen? And how can you, oh you office minion, dreaming of the clafouti you'll make from local Strauss cream and those cherries from the farmer's market, how can you make your move to live your own sweet cooking dream?

CG: Why did you choose your career?

MW: It's very basic. I love food. I love creating delicious, beautiful food. I like creating it for people.

CG: What were you doing before deciding to make the leap into the kitchen?

MW: I left college to work for a big bank developing their computer systems. I did that for nine years, starting as a clerk and moving up the ladder. Several years into it, I was doing what a lot of people do: thinking about food, thinking about how I might like to open a restaurant or be a chef.

At the time, I didn't have a lot of cooking experience myself. I cooked here and there, almost always from recipes. I started posting, “The Recipe of the Day” - recipes I found online and liked - on my cubicle wall for coworkers to take home.

Then the bank was bought and my job became redundant. I was suddenly eligible for a severance package. I decided to take the nine months of pay they offered as my opportunity to change careers and enrolled in the California Culinary Academy (now the Cordon Bleu Program).

CG: What path did you take to get to your current job?


MW: When I graduated, I landed the line cook job at Aqua, where I worked a brutal 70-90 hours a week for two years. Then I took an opportunity to become a sous chef at an Italian restaurant. After a short stint there, I left and tried my hand at catering and culinary instruction, teaching cooking at an after school program for kids. But after five years, I decided I really missed the energy of a busy restaurant kitchen.

I started cold calling the restaurants where I really liked to eat. Nothing. Then, Chez Panisse posted a position on Craigslist and I sent them my resume and cover letter. I did a series of interviews and tryouts (working side-by-side with restaurant and café cooks during both prop and dinner service) and got my current job five years ago.

CG: Did the philosophy of sustainable food play into your decision to apply for the job at Chez Panisse?

MW: Chez Panisse is a restaurant icon, which was the first thing that got my attention. I'd been interested in organics and was curious about the concepts of eating seasonally and locally, but I wasn't that knowledgeable about the overall umbrella of sustainability.

I’ve come to learn that “sustainable food” is about much more than the food itself. It’s about how we treat the environment – how we grow the food, package the food, transport the food – and the people involved, making sure farmers and other workers experience humane working conditions and fair wages. You can’t do one piece, such as grow food organically, without the others and be sustainable. It’s a package deal.

I think that sustainable food is more often than not the most delicious food available. The people who are growing most sustainably consider the impact on the land and that care is reflected in the quality of the produce they're growing and animals they're raising.

CG: Can you give us an example of what you mean?

MW: While working, I have these aha moments. Like the first time I ate a strawberry, in season, grown locally by Ella Bella Farms. I suddenly realized that this was what a strawberry was SUPPOSED to taste like...it wasn't this pale, huge, industrially grown thing. Eggs are another good example. You can taste the difference between eggs that come from chickens who run around eating insects outside in the fresh air and eggs from chickens in cages.

CG: And what is the actual experience of working in the Chez Panisse kitchen?

MW: It's a dynamic environment, because of the twice-daily changes in the menu. If you work in a sustainable kitchen, you see the seasons turn. You experience the cycle of the year through the food you're cooking.

Every day the dishes are determined by what's available. Every shift, after the cooks arrive, we sit down for a menu meeting with the chefs. That's the time where cooks and chefs can tweak dishes. We talk about their vision for the menu and volunteer our input for how a dish might be composed.
Besides that, it's similar to working in any restaurant kitchen. The cooking itself can be stressful and physically taxing. If you thrive on adrenaline and energy, great. Otherwise, this is not for you.

CG: Would you say the stress and activity are the most challenging aspect of being a chef?

MW: I'd say that the biggest challenge is having to cook even when you don't want to. You have to really love to cook, because when you have to work, there's no saying, I don't feel like cooking today.
And overall, it's hard work. As a cook you are on your feet 8 or more hours a day, working in the heat, unless you're a butcher or make salads. You're surrounded by dangerous things: knives, hot pans, hot oil and water. You have to be physically coordinated. Cooking in a restaurant is like doing athletics.

CG: So is there a good way for people who are interested to try it out?

MW: There's a practice in the industry called staging, (pronounced stah-jing) which essentially means as a would-be chef you work in the kitchen for free. You can stage for a day or two, some people stage for months.

If you can afford to take the time to do it, then you get to learn hands-on what it's like to work in a restaurant kitchen. A fair warning: you don't get to do glamorous things. You get to do things like shell fava beans for hundreds of people. But you do get to work next to people who have experience working daily as a chef. And some people stage as a substitute for attending culinary school.
One new chef I know staged for a year in the Chez Panisse kitchen WHILE attending culinary school and bartending for his living at the same time. Now he's a sous chef. You hear a lot about the success stories because those are the people who are really passionate about what they do.

CG: So you don't have to go to culinary school to become a chef?

MW: No, you don't. Culinary school isn't cheap. I believe it can cost about $50,000 for a 15-month program. You can become a successful chef without going - like Alice Waters: she had a singular focus and passion, she followed her vision and now people know her work.
Whether or not you choose culinary school, it makes sense to figure out practically whether you want to do this kind of work before going. A lot of people want to do it. Only some people make it and of those that do, only a few really love being a chef. That doesn't mean you wouldn't love it I'd just recommend you try it out and talk to chefs to learn more.

CG: If you had to do it over again, would you go to school?

MW: It did give me exposure to 30 different chefs in a year, who came from all different backgrounds and with different styles. I learned about the business side of running a restaurant as well as the artistry of cooking. I would say I got a good, basic foundation from school, but I learned 90% of what I use today working in restaurants. It did get me into Aqua, however. So there are definitely benefits.

CG: How long does it typically take for someone to go from square one to sous chef?

MW: It all depends on the person, the type of restaurant they aspire to work in, and their luck with timing and opportunity. It can be as little as 2 years but that's fast. I was actually a sous chef about 2 years out of culinary school at a nice, neighborhood restaurant. Now, I've been cooking 12 years and I'm not a sous chef, but I’m working at a nationally, if not internationally, renowned restaurant.

CG: What about the pay scale for chefs?

MW: It's all over the map. Most people right out of school can expect to make minimum wage. In a fairly successful, nice, casual restaurant a sous chef could make $45,000. Chefs working at big hotels or restaurant groups might make over $1M a year, celebrity chefs or not.

CG: You mentioned working long hours at Aqua. What's the reality of a chef's schedule?

MW: In reality, as a sous chef, you can work 70 hours or more a week. You're working during mealtimes, when the rest of your friends and family are eating and socializing together. It's definitely something to consider.

I feel lucky because Chez Panisse's values of sustainability go beyond the food. The employees are treated to sustainable lives, and as a result, it's one of the most humane restaurants I know. We're closed on Sundays, giving everyone a day to rest. We work reasonable hours.
We also have a really interesting chef setup. Both the cafe and the restaurant have 2 co-chefs. In the cafe, one chef is in charge of menu for 3 days and the other for the next three other 3 days.
In the restaurant, one chef works for 6 months then their co-chef works for the next 6 months. Each chef has 6 months a year off to travel to France or do whatever else they want.
But this is a truly unique place. Maybe as more restaurants become sustainable they'll follow Alice Waters' lead.

CG: Is there anything else you'd suggest to beginning chefs?

MW: I didn't know much about what I was getting myself into before I enrolled in school. I'd read a few books, like Becoming a Chef. The chefs featured in the book are down to earth and practical, talking for example about how you'll graduate and get a minimum wage job. But they also mention how hopefully that job is at a place where there's upward mobility.
I'd also recommend you have fun cooking on your own. Challenge yourself at home to cook a lot of different things and experiment.

CG: Any parting words?

MW: If you have the slightest inkling you want to do this, look into it. Chefs come from all different backgrounds and have all different experiences. I can't see myself doing anything else. I love it, warts and all.