00:01I hopped on the grill one day when a line cook didn't show up to work at a
00:04summer job and I was like this is so much more fun than being a barista. I
00:09honestly did not consider myself a workaholic or someone who pushed too
00:13hard. It's only been once I found cooking and landed in positions where I felt
00:18really excited that that workhorse ethic has also come out and I think it's of
00:23course just because I'm inspired and excited and liking what I'm doing. My
00:41I grew up with a pretty close relationship to gardening and I was
00:45really interested in food systems at large. How food gets to people, who's
00:50growing it, the stories of those people. I thought I wanted to go into
00:54environmental policy but I pretty quickly was discouraged by lack of direct impact.
00:59During that time I was cooking super casually in summer jobs and, of course,
01:05for myself and friends.
01:09Nobody in my life and my family was a cook or a chef. I just had not ever seen it
01:14play out in my intimate upbringing so it was my dad at one point and a few other
01:19people along the way who were like, you could cook, you could choose this as your
01:24career. We were at the market just earlier this morning. We're starting a new menu
01:30tomorrow. We're gonna go into the kitchen and test some dishes with the team that's
01:35here today. We're at Dinner Party which is my restaurant here in Brooklyn. I'm the
01:41executive chef here so I do a bunch of stuff but primarily lead the kitchen team. We run a
01:47two-week long, four-course menu. Sous chefs Julie and Una and I will sit down on Mondays
01:53often, get to brainstorming all week in the kitchen. We're talking about it with
01:57the cooks who had what recently that inspired them or saw an ingredient at
02:01the market that they're excited about. We get to be so creative. There's no
02:04limitation.
02:07I opted out of going to culinary school. I really briefly thought about it but I
02:10had a wonderful chef at one of my first more serious gigs at a nicer restaurant
02:15in Manhattan. One day I remember asking him should I go to culinary school and he
02:19was fully just like, no just hang out here for a while. I was learning a lot of
02:24like new skills at the time that I was ready to put to the test. I was working
02:28daytime shifts so I had my nights free which was unusual. I started doing these
02:33little backyard dinner parties. I sold tickets for like 50 bucks which was a
02:37lot to me at the time. That was the first time that I hosted something of my
02:42own and really claimed the food I was making as my own. It was really really a
02:47sweet time. As an executive chef here at dinner party I make $80,000 a year. Got
02:53some other little bonuses weaved in there if we hit certain targets and such and I
02:58was also granted some equity in the company so I am a part owner as well.
03:02Restaurants can vary so much. So many places are big and corporate and owned by
03:06restaurant groups. I think it's often like a weighing of creative autonomy and
03:11who you work with and the kind of restaurant you want to be at versus the
03:15kind of money you can make. My friend was in here the other day and actually said I
03:20feel like it's Sunday dinner and I'm eating with my family like I always do at a
03:25relative's house that I've been to a million times but this aunt that's cooking
03:29this week used to be a crazy shop. You know the food is just gonna be really
03:32good and I thought that that was a really sweet way to put it. Even the way
03:36that we decorate and design the space is meant to imitate an apartment or a home
03:40of some sort. I always say that we serve elevated food in the non pretentious
03:45atmosphere. If people walk in here and feel as taken care of as they do at a
03:49friend or family members home that is I think the goal for me. My personal
03:55greatest challenge is you know there's always a decision that has to be made
03:59and now that I'm running things it's my decision to make. I find that I'm
04:03constantly tapping into my resources and people I know around to help me
04:07problem-solve. Definitely a lot of critical problem-solving, a lot of
04:10executive decision-making. The cooking is the easiest part. I don't think people take
04:16female chefs as seriously a lot at the time. I think that there's a certain edge and
04:21intensity that male chefs have or people assume they have. Even in this space
04:26sometimes I come and chat to the tables and they're like oh who are you and what
04:29do you do here and I'm like oh you know I'm Joy I'm the head chef and they kind of
04:33go oh and they straighten up like as if they were just so not expecting that to
04:37be the case. I do think that like a lot of the time I feel an undertone of oh I'm
04:42lucky to even be a female chef running a business so I should just take what I am
04:48given and not ask for more or too much and I think that men's whether it be pay
04:52standards or like demands for certain things in the workplace I think that
04:57those things are met a little bit more easily or without question. Right now I'm
05:02just moving slowly so whenever I have a moment a morning a night it's less
05:09frequent that I'm busying myself. I really feel like here we're you know
05:14working against the clock a lot of the time there's plenty to do in a day so
05:18when I do have a moment often to myself I try to like not really schedule much
05:23for myself kind of just like work through that a bit of time at my own pace.
05:31Fresh and delish. The most significant moment for me in my career so far I think
05:36is happening as we speak. Joining Dinner Party was totally a shift because I was
05:42moving into a much larger space and running this restaurant has been the
05:47greatest challenge so far but I also it's been such a wonderful opportunity of
05:52course and I can just feel that feeling of being locked into something where you
05:56know that it's still unfolding. I think that this is like a moment of a lot of
06:00growth for sure.
06:04Growing our own food would be really really really special. Those are further out
06:09things but for now we're just locking it in. I often just say I don't know what
06:13else I would be doing. I feel very just like I'm on this path and I'm taking it a
06:17day at a time and I do feel like I'm supposed to be here so therefore I keep
06:21kicking.
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