The “Pay Your Dues” Mentality Is Holding Chefs Back

0:00Imposter syndrome is bullshit. The hardest working people in restaurants often go on notice and restaurant chains have their next big innovation returning to humans. My name is Ray DeLucci. This is the repertoire report. Thank you for coming back to another episode. Before we begin, if you are watching on YouTube, please hit the subscribe button. We are growing at a pretty good pace and at 2,500 subs, just it and I will take audience, question and answers. Also, if you've not seen last week's podcast and the description below is the link. It is one of our most viewed podcasts of all time, especially the story concerning Joshua Weisman's New Restaurant, so go check that out. And if you're listening on Spotify or Apple, please leave a review. Please follow along and share with someone else in the industry. All right, so my first story is actually going to be a Reddit thread slash post I saw. So basically in this post, the person says the following. Hey y'all, Lely, I've been having a hard time with being 22 and a sous chef. Feeling like I'm too young, not deserving of my position. Everyone around me is telling me, I'm great at what I do and deserve the title with my experience and great knowledge.

1:01But to me, it's hard seeing that for some reason, I'm not as creative like the head chefs or sous around me in 95% of my cooks are older than me. And it makes me feel like a fraud. As anyone else feel this way. And this really grabs me with me. And this is what I want to spend the first part of this episode on because I think it's so important. I cannot think of it more damaging, defeating, and quite frankly self-destructive mindset cultivated in the food industry, more than in posture syndrome. Imposter syndrome is the feeling of you believing you do not deserve the position you are in or the success you have attained. Imposter syndrome is that feeling of doubt, of wondering if you actually deserve where you are at. There obviously is going to come a time when everyone around you wakes up and calls you out for the fraud you are. Imposter syndrome is bullshit, but it's also highly prevalent in this restaurant industry. The scary part about this mindset is that you truly cannot understand it until you actually leave restaurants and I feel this tremendously. When I turned 21 years old, I was named Restaurant Manager for a restaurant group I was working for. I was young but able to work long hours

2:02and quite frankly travel to different parts of the country because I had no media family or friends like needing me to be around them at that time. I could move at the drop of a hat and go wherever I was needed. I was also good relative to my age and experience in the leadership role. Suda me way more to manage a restaurant with good, consistent, and high attention to detail service and food rather than try to break my way into a fine dining restaurant and a sous chef role and a two Michelin star kitchen. Every day I went into work, I figured I'd be fired the next day and I truly felt that. Any compliment or words of encouragement or just piece of advice I got seemed to be a lie or rather just words to keep me complacent while everyone around me knew I was a fraud. I always felt like, yes, I was doing well. People would just say, oh, you're doing a good job but in their minds are talking elsewhere. Like he's a total mess and there's no way he's going to do well. It was impassive syndrome that led me to be very anxious in my work and outside of it. I'd go home and I would just sit and stew and worry

3:04thinking that I had messed up. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't meant to be where I was at and I couldn't detach. And part of this, I believe, is because I never really gave myself the permission to accept and embrace where I was at. I think a lot of anxiety that I've struggled with and that comes in kitchens comes from the fact that we as people in the industry simply can never just accept that we are good enough, that we do deserve to be where we're at, that we do deserve the position we're in, that we deserve the work we've done, that it led to a result and we deserve that. But this industry is so focused on sometimes not even humility but even more like just knocking people down to try to get into a form of complacency I feel like there's a difference between striving to be better and then just totally not giving yourself any credit. And I think in the food world, we are taught that humility is key and I 100% believe that. But sometimes we are aggressively taught that

4:04and it leads to us not actually ever being able to truly accept that we might be good at something or we might be long or we might be deserving of the position we work for. I think a lot of people in the restaurant industry deal with this. When my restaurant closed during the pandemic, I was quite lost. Any new job I would take seemed impossible as how could I have worked in such an important position relative to my career and age in my restaurant roles culinary manager and then have it all taken away by a worldwide pandemic I had no control over. So I had all this worried I would be fired or demoted and in the actual force that took me out of restaurants was one I could never have predicted or seen coming or had any control over at all. I believe that imposter syndrome makes you a worse chef and even worse leader. Humility is important but never giving yourself praise or at least confirmation that you belong as a recipe for disaster pun intended. I truly believe the restaurant industry has baked in imposter syndrome as a feature and apart from the idea of paying dues. I think paying dues can sometimes be one of the most toxic traits slash dispersions of necessity that any chef

5:06or leader in the restaurant industry can give you. Gany experience to be relevant for a job is a required step. Paying dues for a person's arbitrary expectations is a waste of time where the culture of this has done is ruined many cooks. I think that the idea of paying dues having to toil, having to, you know, like I said, set an arbitrary timeline in order to make someone else feel like good about themselves. It's not, it doesn't make sense and it holds so many back. And if you haven't worked in restaurants, you might be like, what are you talking about? Like don't worry about others think but there is an inherent culture where you have to do XYZ for so long in order to seem valuable. And we don't actually praise talent and skill. We pray how long you've toiled and I've perceived, you know, in a perceived poor situation. Look at any other industry and being early as rewarded. Being someone young, talented and ahead of schedule is seen as valiant and sometimes even genius. But in the restaurant industry, this is diminished and often scolded and we confuse being early with not being valuable.

6:08In this reddit thread, I read you, the chef shares how they are being told they kill it as sous chef, but they feel behind due to a lack of creativity. I personally didn't feel fully talented in culinary creativity until I was 25. You were not expected to be grant accuts overnight and that shouldn't even be someone's focus at the age of 22 when you're working and starting out in kitchens. Comparing your ability to create is common and I empathize with it because I've done it. You look at your chef and wonder how the hell they could ever do what they do in food that does come with experience. That is only half of the culinary career coin. Your ability to manage, deal with administrative tasks and handle projects is more important often and not of kitchens. To be confident yourself as a leader or always working towards being better is really important. Being able to look yourself in the mirror knowing you have more to learn but also saying dammit I belong here is also very important. Impostor syndrome takes from you what you work hard to earn and it's unforgiving and can lead to self sabotage and ruin if you are not capable. While you worry if you are deserving

7:08of being a sous chef, a food YouTuber is making millions off of cooking content because they didn't have that roadblock. A private chef is making hundreds of thousands on a client knowing they knew enough to support that athlete or other public figure not letting the lack of dues or experience or necessary quote unquote requirements of job hold them back. Every day people like you wake up know how to cook and do their craft and and out of restaurants. Impostor syndrome is useless and while hard to get rid of is one of the most vital bits of self talk you need to discard. You belong, you deserve the fruits of your labor and you are a sous chef to this person in the reddit thread. Have the confidence to act like one and be able to say that you deserve and are qualified to do what you're doing. Impostor syndrome is just a brutal self manipulation cycle in my opinion and furthermore, it never serves you. There's nothing to be gained and this isn't a call to become an egomaniac. This isn't a call to be egotistical

8:08and to never like be have humility or be humble or show like grace or care none of that. But what this is a call for is we as an industry have to stop downplaying not only success, but downplaying the importance of roles and downplaying where people are at. And again, the pain dues conversation. I hate, whenever I hear someone complain about someone not paying their dues, I just, I'm not talking with that person. We're not having a conversation because it's so irrelevant in arbitrary. We're in 2026, the industry is shifting. Restaurants are closing, costs are up. Whatever you can do to be successful in terms of like finding a career in food, especially in restaurants, if you're finding success, you should be praised. What worked 10 years ago, what worked six years ago isn't going to work today. And when we keep calling the industry of people that we're told to not have any confidence in themselves because you can't have too much because you're so much to learn, we don't actually create effective people. We create the exact opposite because you have people like this person in the right of thread is 20,

9:08who's a sous chef position doubting every single minute of it because they've been told by others that at 22, you're likely not going to be where you're at. And so if you've got there, how the hell could you have done it? Because it couldn't be me that could be successful. And so I lead this podcast episode with a, maybe a just a request or an ask that if you ever have this in posture system self-talk, really sit with it and really try to like be done with it. It's harder than it took me years postkitchens to actually get to a point where I didn't feel like an imposter because I left kitchens. It took the, it took a long time. But I've realized on the other side of that, whether I was in kitchens or not is that it was the consistent hammering in of the industry to never truly like be to 100% because in restaurants lead to that, they lead to you not feeling stable because they're always dynamic. In order to show's up late, a person calls off their shift, you know, the countless of different things that happen to you are that are thrown at you

10:09in a food business, you need to be confident. Confident is so important. One of the most important lessons I learned from one of my mentors Ross was in kitchens is he was like, I could taste when you're cooking without confidence. Nothing tastes worse than cooking without confidence. Confidence is so important. People can play confidence in ego and they're not the same. Being confident knows that you know that you are skilled. And like I said, dammit, you know that you can do the job and you can show up and you can be relied on. And what imposter syndrome does is it takes that away from you. And it's one of the most valuable tools that you're then, you know, your hands tied behind your back because you're not actually able to use that tool. And so I start this podcast as we go into fall of 2026 as we go into this busy season of the restaurant industry, be confident in yourself. Have the ability to say that you belong and just know that imposter syndrome is just a waste of time and it serves no purpose. And the more you dwell and you not deserving,

11:09the more awesome experiences and opportunities slip away because the only, the worst enemy you have is you. And as soon as you realize that, it gets a lot easier. So just some advice for this person who's 22 and in general imposter syndrome is bullshit. Next up, I want to talk about this story from the Wall Street Journal. So this is one I found interesting because it speaks volumes to a lot of the stuff we've covered here in repertoire. So this was published on September 10th by Heather Haddon and the title is America's Fast Food Chains are making a big pivot back to humans. Subtitled McDonald's and Burger King boost training to improve hospitality, quote, our restaurant seemed rushed in personal and sterile. So our Google is going to say that it turns out that the service with a smile has never gone out of style. After spending millions of dollars on digital kiosks and mobile ordering systems, Fast Food Chains are discovering a lot of customers just want somebody to take their order at the counter and do so in a friendly way, according to executives, market research and industry documents

12:10reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Convenience and speed aren't good enough for today's Fast Food customers. And McDonald's needs to improve how it offers friendly service to diners to attract them. Satiffany Boyd McDonald's Global Chief People Officer, the company is making one of the biggest hospitality pushes in its history next month, she said, quote, food is important, price is important, but experience has also become much more important than it used to be. McDonald's aims for workers to emphasize hospitality throughout customers' visits, delivering energetic greetings such as enjoy your meal and see you soon going to a recent internal training document when these is making service improvements part of a broader strategic overhaul, quote, the best service experiences feel natural to the customer. Some Fast Food diners have cut back on restaurants spending after years of rising menu prices, and others have shifted to chicken, beverage, and other competitors that offer a friendly service and fuller staffing. Screens and a lack of friendly workers has turned off customers such as Carolyn Blue and attorney from Charleston, South Carolina. She said she detests the shift towards app

13:11and kiosk ordering at locations in her area. She now goes more regularly to Arby's and Chick-fil-A, quote, it breaks my heart. She says, who misses McDonald's, we just won't go back. McDonald's and other Fast Food chains aren't ripping out their kiosks and it's suspending mobile ordering. Rather, they are rethinking the role that digital offerings play in their operations. And a Burger King managers are even being instructed to double check that orders are made the way customers want, ensure front counters are staffed, and responded to diner complaints as part of an enhanced customer program. We'll take a pause there. I talked with Justin with this. I would remember being out with the theater, maybe to see the Odyssey, maybe not. I saw a movie this summer, and I saw a Burger King at, and it was all about focused on service and having it your way. And this push for hospitality to kind of be introduced into chain restaurants, I think is super important, and it's really key information. Because what you realize is people really are looking for hospitality in these restaurants,

14:11restaurants are the last bastion of social experience that we all have. I've shared this many times. The social capital of going to a restaurant and being able to work with the theater, eat and sit down, or just, sometimes people are just alone, and they don't really see anyone of the only interaction they have is what the person at the front counter, or the person behind the cash register, which doesn't even really handle cash anymore. So it's very interesting, right? Because restaurants during COVID really wanted to automate, really wanted to become efficiency machines. And this is where companies like Wonder get a lot of backlash because people want in-person experiences, they want humans making their food, they want humans taking their order. And when that piece is missing, it becomes very sterile, it becomes very, you're just kind of a cog in the machine getting fed. And it's interesting for me to see the Wall Street Journal reporting this because at the end of the day, this is what customers, they want that human connection.

15:12And when we lack that, that's what hospitality is. And when you start to lack that, then what's the point? And I've said this before that I worry the restaurants that they're going to try to automate the point of your relevancy. Because at the end of the day, what is relevant about going to a restaurant, if it's all automated? What's the difference between going there and ordering and staying at your house or going through an automated drive-through pickup window? I think you're going to see a major return to restaurants and force. I've seen a lot of claims from people saying that August was one of their craziest months because as inflation takes up, as buying power goes down, as quite frankly, people are more lonely, restaurants are the last batching of social intermingling that we really have. And they do what they've always served as as a place for people to come and enjoy food and interact with other people. But they also serve as that one place where a real tangible experience can be had at not a very high cost. So they go on to say that a decade ago,

16:12McDonald's was an early mover among fast food chains with their self-served kiosk, digital menu boards and app ordering. Exactly. Some said that the ordering advances helped increase customer spending and reduced counter lines. And it also helped free workers to deliver food to tables. Yet many customers began to feel that hospitality had gone by the wayside. Some diners bristled into having to order from kiosk saying that many fast food corners were the most important thing to do with the food. Other from kiosk saying that many fast food corners no longer had people readily staffing them. In some cases, customers only interaction with restaurant workers might be taking their food after it's placed in the counter. Service from market research firm Technomica found that consumers give Chick-fil-A top marks for service with a Southern chain staffing its drive-throughs with tablet-toting workers to help guide customers while they are waiting. So even in the drive-through, they're having people take your order and ensure you go throughout the way. Wendy's Burger King and McDonald's receive lower marks. Younger people tend to be more comfortable ordering digitally, digitally, but technomics of the agro-ing percentage of Gen Z

17:13vast fast food consumers prized friendly service. So in June, McDonald's aligned a new global strategy promising great tasting food served with a smile at a good value. Quote, we want to coach teams to ensure greetings connect with customers through authentic hospitality. As part of its make it golden initiative, McDonald's has looked across retailers for examples of excellent customer service to emulate and expects the hospitality coaching and training to be a multi-year effort. Quote, there's nothing more important in securing a follow-up visit than the experience from the current visit. McDonald's had to later this year, it will begin retraining its more than two million global restaurant workers, company employees and suppliers targeting higher standards for hospitality and other functions. The company is scripting new guidelines for employee interactions with customers, asking workers to check on patrons and restaurant lobbies and before they depart, and they no longer need to ask customers if they are using McDonald's app according to the training documents and owners. Burger King has even unveiled a new restaurant prototype that includes placing a portion of the ordering chaos at the side of the lobby in US President Tom Curtis

18:16so the chain wants franchisees to continue staffing counters and serving patrons. Quote, they wanted friendly face. We had to lean into that because that's evaporating in the fast food space. Very interesting stuff. When you see a company like McDonald's investing heavily and reintroducing hospitality, hospitality reintroducing hand-crafted as much as McDonald's can do service, that's important. That's telling you a broader gauge of what's going on with diners in 2026. And so if you're a restaurant, take note because what you have as an advantage over a McDonald's or a Burger King is your hospitality, is your uniqueness, is your touch? And I hope that that translates to better business and better outcomes for independence that are looking to really serve their customers. All right, the next one up is an article I really enjoyed. This is coming out of Food and Wine. I just thought it was important to highlight because so many people in the restaurant industry go and notice, this is why I did Lionel thought, this is why we do repertoire. And I was really just blown away by the author of Zemina Belchran Clonque.

19:17They wrote this article in Food and Wine on September 8th called, quote, the hardest working person at this sushi restaurant is someone diners rarely see. Victor Vast was arrives in the kitchen at Mr. Tuna in Portland, Maine by 5 a.m., it cooks 40 quarts of rice a day. He's known as Vic and he is tired. Most people don't know it because he doesn't show it. Quote, he always takes on whatever challenges there are since 2025 Food and Wine best new chef Jordan Rubin. Chef and owner of Mr. Tuna in Vast West's boss. He has the greatest attitude, he's always in a good mood. To be clear, most people aren't lining up at the sushi hot spot just for Vast guys, but his hard work is but fundamental to the restaurant's success. He arrives by bike to open the kitchen at 5 a.m. to start his prep work. Most days he cooks upward of 40 quarts of rice. He spends the next seven to 10 hours to get everything in place for the restaurants 11 a.m. opening. He has the greatest attitude, he's always in a good mood. He slips out slowly after open and goes home to rest and freshen up. Then it's off to a second job at Bota. That's high restaurant, one mile from Mr. Tuna.

20:19There he works as the kitchen manager there for the same number of hours. He does these double shifts five times a week. Quote, it's not easy to carry a heavy load and keep going since Vast guys. There are days when I'm trembling with exhaustion. Just yesterday I didn't want to go to my second job because I felt completely drained, but I told myself, quote, this is God's will after half an hour my old body warmed up and the feeling passed. The 47 year old has been working this way for almost 22 years. A Guatemalan immigrant, he saw out employment in restaurants. He gravitated towards sushi and Japanese concepts before he landed at Mr. Tuna shortly after it's opening in 2017. Quote, I work hard and save up as much as I can for his family and services to the people who depend on him at the restaurant at home. He has a preteen son and a teenage daughter with special needs. Go on and do what I can to set aside money for them in case I'm not around for them because the only God knows what might happen in the future. Among his colleagues, he's known as I'll take care of a guy. Over the years, his dedication has led to a greater role in the kitchen

21:19where he often will sushi alongside Rubin, Chef Rubin. And he feels honored that the owner calls him chef when they work together because he never attended culinary school. He sees it as an acknowledgement of his dedication. The labor is invisible to most diners and it takes a physical to physical toll on Vazquez, but he says he's exactly where he wants to be. We have built our focus around of chefs around media, of attention, whether it be TV, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, what have you, or anywhere else where it's a camera pointed at those we deem quote unquote elite. It's my opinion that the elite people are those like Victor. The reality of our industry is that it is proud to buy a multiple of even more workers that will never be highlighted on a chef's table on a YouTube channel or on a TikTok. I have worked with many Victor Vazquez's. Those who have come to this country and found the food industry as a space to forge their careers and support themselves and to support all of us. And this there is an inherent lack of understanding of how critical workers like Victor truly are when it comes to the broader public. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has spent time in kitchens with people like Victor Vazquez busting their ass in not one,

22:21but two kitchens, where they can have nothing about respect for someone like him. And so I just share this to say that a friendly reminder that the people that make up this industry, most of them are working two jobs, are trying really hard and are reliable and care and just like, it's it they're just, like this industry breeds some of the best people. And the general public sometimes forgets that whether it be the environment we're in now or policy or anything else. And so I just say this to say that Victor Vazquez could you imagine? Like he's someone we should admire, highlight and that's why I am into highlighting because to work two jobs, to be fundamental to two different businesses. To do all that because he needs to, to support his family and be he's willing to do that because of the food industry and just the last bit, the recognition, to call him chef, to recognize him of someone valuable. That little word that act,

23:23have a go such a long way. I love this article, I love that Victor was highlighted. I felt like I just needed to share the podcast because again, our industry is made up of incredible people that are overlooked and we don't shine the light on them. And we should because it's these people that truly make our industry not only better but a place worth going into work as well. So I just really wanted to highlight that story. Last up is this other story by the Wall Street Journal that I found very interesting. If you don't know I worked in development for MioKids for a while. And I've been wanting to cover this as published on August 19th. We haven't had the time, the news world has been busy for food. But I thought the story was pretty interesting in terms of MioKids. This story comes from the middle of August, I haven't been able to cover it yet, but I really am interested in this stuff and I really think that knowing and understanding what has happened with Blue Apron over the last few, the last month is pretty incredible because it's all based off one supplier that is going out of business that filed for bankruptcy and it's totally disrupted Blue Apron's supply chain. And so from the Wall Street Journal quote, the MioKid industry is in disarray

24:24after a major supplier went bust. Customer is a Blue Apron Marley spoon, demand refunds and stop orders over almost empty boxes and missing ingredients. So this was written by Sarah Nasser on August 19th. Marlene Cooper has paid $100 a week to get a box of five meals from Blue Apron for the last decade, delighting in dinners like chicken enchiladas skillet and cilantro paneer and chickpea curry. But a few weeks ago, the 53 year olds who lives in Ferdonian, New York started noticing problems with their orders. Some ingredients were missing like all the vegetables or those who were replaced with acceptable substitutions like garlic tahini for regular tahini. This week was worse quote, it looked like some random person through stuff in the box said the clinical trial is executive. Customers of MioKid companies like Blue Apron and Marley spoon are angry over a host of recent problems including missing ingredients nearly empty boxes or no delivery at all. The root of this problem is the bankruptcy of a major supplier earlier this year. Both companies recently transitioned to a new assembly and shipping supplier, which is caused a cascade of issues. And so they wanted to say the missing ingredients

25:26incomplete boxes delivery delays were in the middle of an operational transition and it hasn't gone as smoothly as plants had Marley spoon on Monday. And Blue Apron offered a similar message quote, I've skipped the next four deliveries for these reasons. And so they're going to say that the stumbles add to a string of struggles in the MioKid industry since the boom times of the pandemic receded. MioKid companies typically sell recipes and ready to cook portion ingredients and some have expanded and ready to eat. But what is interesting about Blue Apron is Blue Apron was purchased by Food Delivery Startup Wunder in 2023 for around $103 million far below its IPO value of $1.9 billion in 2017. In fiscal 2022, Blue Apron report revenue of $458 million. The company is now temporarily focusing on our menu, what we're confident we can deliver adding quality checks before boxes ship. The reason why Blue Apron's having this issue is Freshroom, who is the main supplier for Blue Apron and Marley spoon. If filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after a series of Listeria outbreaks,

26:26its factories last year led Walmart, a major customer to end the relationship. Walmart stopped buying its food such as some store brand prepared meals in January according to core documents related to the bankruptcy filing. Walmart accounted for over 20% of the company's revenue at the time, said the filing, Blue Apron, Freshroom's largest customer also filed a lawsuit to attempt to get out of its contract with Freshroom. How a fresh largest meal kit company has escaped unscathed is it has all of its meal kit manufacturing in-house. Bankruptcy lawyers and executives for Freshroom didn't respond or request for comment. As part of its bankruptcy agreement, Freshroom sold some of its business, including parts of its Blue Apron and Marley spoon contracts to misfits markets. The transition process through bankruptcy has been incredibly messy and incredibly fast. Earlier this year, Blue Apron owner Wunder discussed with misfits the idea of buying Freshroom as bankruptcy proceeded. If the doors closer to Freshroom, as you can imagine, the doors end up closing for everyone they're doing fulfillment for. In recent weeks, more meal kit orders were transitioned

27:30from former Freshroom locations to one of misfits regional warehouses, said Ramesh. Some inventory counts reported as part of the bankruptcy proceedings were incorrect, leaving the company scrambling to find enough ingredients such as Buffalo sauce and croutons. Quote, I feel for the customers because it's a horrible experience. This week, it preemptively canceled orders that more have their required ingredients. He said, Ramesh helps to be back to more normalize shipping within the next two weeks. For over a decade, Stephen McGinty has spent around $70 most weeks for three Blue Apron and Cook Meals to cook dinner for himself and his husband. Last week, two chicken portions were missing, said the 43-year-old pricing analyst who lives in Atlanta. Quote, we just went to the grocery store this week like normal people as they've stopped the service. So, Freshroom, a major supplier in the milk and industry. Have you been seeing all over the news about Blue Apron failing, about milk hit, blue Apron disruption? This is what's going on with Blue Apron. Their major supplier, Freshroom, has filed for bankruptcy. They're basically not able to support this anymore. And you're at a point now where customers are suffering,

28:33these businesses are not doing well, Blue Apron, Marley Spoon, it's because of major supplier like that. And that's the issue with a food industry where a lot of sourcing comes under one person and so, or one company or one entity. So, I just wanted to share this in the back end. The idea that Blue Apron is struggling right now is very real and a big part of it is because of the inability to source their products accurately. That is all I have on today's repertoire report. Thank you all for listening. Again, if you have not listened to last week's co-op, so would Justin and I go check that out. As always, please like and subscribe on YouTube. We are really getting close to the 2500 subscriber mark, where we will do a question and answer for our listeners and our people in our community. So please subscribe on YouTube. Follow along if you're on afterwards Spotify and share with someone you know. And we'll see you in the next repertoire report.