 Hi, my name is Jose and I am a cook And I'm gonna tell you that tomorrow's kitchen is starts with your past And my past was my father Cooking every Sunday for many people sometimes people we didn't even know and Making a fire with a very big pie a pen cooking for everybody. My father put me in charge of always gathering the wood and making the fire He will never let me cook because the paella you need to take care of the fire One day I wanted to cook daddy. I want to help you make the paella Nope the fire only the fire. I got upset. He kicked me out When he finished the paella he came to me and told me my son I Understand that you may think that the most important thing is Putting the spawn in the paella and is tearing the pot But actually you were in charge of the most important thing Making the fire Without that fire you are nothing That's been a very important lesson for me all my life He told me that Before you're going to the world you need to understand what's your fire You need to master that fire Once you understand what's your fire you can accomplish anything Are you with me so when we talk about sustainability and About the ingredients right and it's about recycling and composting all of that. Yeah But my friends, let me tell you that I believe we also need sustainable people. We've already been talking about this Yes, you can clap So I'm telling you that tomorrow's kitchen is about the people And let me tell you Rodolfo 24 years ago. I arrived Washington DC 23 years old to lead a kitchen I was not prepared to lead And we were still in the construction site 1993 and behind the bar was this guy With a kind of brown face full of white powder because again we were in the construction zone and I asked him What's your name? He says Rodolfo? Where are you from from Bolivia? And he comes to me and tells me Listen when the construction finished, can you hire me and say do you know how to cook and he says no Okay, and where where where what you used to do in Bolivia? I was an army officer, but they kicked me out because I left The the army barracks at night to see my girlfriend and I was ashamed and I came to America 24 years later Everything I am is because Rodolfo He became the chef he helped me open three four more Spanish restaurants He's been mentoring so many other people so chefs he invested in some of the restaurants My success is not my success my success is Rodolfo I know all of us we have our Rodolfo in our lives and every company needs a heart We all need to identify what our heart is We call the research and development, but that's such a nasty Kind of name we kind of call it Delta Force everybody should understand what the heart of your company is My research and development is Not my best people because they are the best culinarians, but the best people because they they feel like me You know, we come from the same place Hearing the audience and hearing Copenhagen. I have people that they are not my team. They are my brothers my family Where are you Rick? Where are you Robin? Where are you Eiter stand up? so We are like brothers we trouble together sometimes we travel apart and we all bring what we learn and we share Synergy is a very important word those synergies that makes us better every day And we believe we make each other better But I know that sometimes the name in the restaurant seems is mine Oh, they want to write about me But the truth the truth of what's going every day in the restaurants is that they are the ones making happen And everybody working in those restaurants every day Yes, you can So I'm gonna be telling you We believe in the One for all and all for one that's what we are doing here in Copenhagen in math Repeat with me one for all and all for one one for all and all for one That's what everything is all about everything else. It's so simple so I Do believe that the best restaurants are not at the one person with the name on the door But the best restaurants are the ones with the best possible teams Every name of every single employee should at times. I believe be right at the door and Let me tell you many of us we complain about workers, right? How many of you complain the ones that hire in restaurants that sometimes you don't find Workers I complain anybody complains. Come on We all seem to be complaining everybody's calling. Do you have anybody? Well, what's happening is that? When we complain that we don't have enough people at the people we hire they are not prepared Because they don't know like Rodolfo how to cook one of the things that relies that my role as a leader and Every role of every one of you as leaders Is to make sure that we make people successful In the old days we had to have no the lecture of Only French cooking and I say only You had to master eggs techniques and so how you cook cook you could saute you could try you can pair you can Then I Realized that the people were coming to me to work. They had no knowledge of cooking I couldn't expect them to learn for four years before I start running the kitchen So what we did we start rating the kitchens like if there were small stations Was no one kitchen was ten kitchens and when I got one person that never cook Gambas al ajillo garlic is rain before I put them in charge of making that one dish And I give them one more dish after a thousand times making garlic as rain They became the best garlic is rain makers in the world But the kitchen's work house the chef is screaming. Ah, I need the five is rain No garlic who is done moron now. I need grilled chicken sauce on the side Chaos was in the kitchen. Why because the chef was at the helm and The chef was controlling everything in expediting out The most important person was in charge of everything So we create a system that for us became super important which was in the traditional ways you will have Let's say the guest That will order to the waiter and the waiter will Put the order well, we'll write the check and we'll bring it to the kitchen and the chef who is over here The most important guy will scream the ticket garlic is rain 10 potatoes three chickens and at the end everything was like a line where the chef was right in the middle Things coming in things coming out total chaos the kitchen going down. What's happening? Jose's expediting I made sure that the chef was only one more team member the chef the guest Will order the waiter will take the order the waiter will put it on the Computer the computer will send it to the station the cook will receive the order the chef Will get the dish will give it to the runner Where before was chaos? We achieve a perfect circle of peace now you come to a restaurant of mine with 800 covers in a day and Seems very peaceful When we create those sustainable kitchens kitchens where people feel at peace It's who really we can be investing in people that are really proud and happy to be working in the restaurant industry I learned these from McDonald's So tomorrow's kitchen is about not being pretentious even of those people that think they are not like us It's always something to learn from anybody. Are you with me? Even from the fast food industry and our role is pushing them even to be better I learned that from them and made me much better cool so Some people you know I'm telling you that tomorrow's kitchen is about the people I believe it Like Rodolfo. I hope he'll never leave on April Fool's Day last year. He came to me I didn't realize was April Fool's and he told me Jose I'm leaving. I almost got a heart attack Rodolfo, I know he'll always be there. He knows his role. He's the boss, but he has bosses But I have people that leave And they keep in touch But I'm realizing that the best best best moment is when I have people that leave like Jorge And sometimes they are on the edge of maybe when they come in back They leave with what they learned with you. They go into the world They gain more experience and if you've done a good job as a leader Those people in a very magical way come back to you Making you stronger. You're delivering into the world and then you are receiving back into your life And that's what we all need to be aiming for I love those just the ones that they stay just the one that leave But even more the ones that go and come back like birds The leaf with the cold weather and come back when we're already the beautiful spring shows up Yes, I've been romantic about that so In my company in my group of restaurants and we have now like 20 and I apologize for it Yeah, I feel guilty at times We encourage movement between Minimum wage, I think we don't need to talk about minimum wage We should be talking about the wage That our profession can make a living. We cannot have the people feeding the world not being able to feed themselves That's a minimum wish we need to fight for and for me going on vacation with my family is also going away I'm bringing many of my team members Over the years over 24 25 years the best bonds I've ever established is doing my family vacation bringing my family members of my restaurants Those moments are super important and I don't send them to fancy restaurants Sorry, Renee at times I Send them to the place that makes the most beautiful traditional paella. We're only a husband and wife work Or to the place that makes the best baby Fried fish or to the guy that makes 10 pieces of cheese every morning only Sometimes I know that all especially the young people we all want to be into the restaurants in the 50 best and Into the restaurants of three star Michelin. I have none. I dream that one day I will have one of those collades, but for no reason we don't stop working towards a Goal of perfection But what I know that the best gift I can be given my cooks is precisely Learning from those unknown heroes of our food system When is the last time you went ten hours on a little fishing boat to catch a shrimp or the last time that you spend eight Hours with the shepherd in the and the goats in the Pyrenees If we want to understand our food system, that's how we need to be a star train in the cooks of tomorrow So everybody has a true understanding of what the food system is all about So I've been talking about the team and I say I'm lucky to have an amazing team and I know like Is this African proverb that says if you want to go fast and believe me. I'm kind of the fast guy even This is research and development I'm not fat But the proper place you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far Go together. I Don't know if I've gone very very far, but every place I've reached I've reached it because I've been very lucky to go with an amazing group of individuals Next to me. Thank you again guys All right, so I believe that tomorrow kitchens Is to take care of everyone Rene spoke about human resources yesterday Sometimes companies for first time they hire somebody to help you manage better what you have a smaller big Or to help you manage your growth. Why not? But I'm gonna tell you something I Think sometimes we are teaching especially young people used to look for their leaders We need to start changing that We need to start teaching everybody that that's a matter if they are dead is washer or the CEO in the company Everybody has the obligation and they have to have the commitment to be leading down We cannot be expecting used to have a workforce that is always looking up for the next order We need to start creating a workforce that everyone is a leader Everyone in this room is a leader because you are already coming to a conference that is trying to establish What's the kitchen of tomorrow? So never never ever look up? To find the leadership somewhere above the leadership that starts we think it start leading not tomorrow right now Yep And my best asset I Don't know if he's cooking even some people say I can't cook But my best asset is being to realize my weaknesses and Covering every one of those weaknesses, and I was very lucky because 24 years ago I found my beautiful wife and partner for life Patricia Fernandez who she cover much of my weakness My guys began learning to hire your own bosses Don't be afraid to show your team that you are weak Actually will make you a stronger leader And together to create those organizations that can't keep looking to for a better tomorrow That's where I've done on my life. I hire always people that were better than me in many of the areas of my restaurants and The most important thing because everybody always tells me how you can manage 1,400 employees and 20 restaurants and growing Everybody knows the pyramid organizational charts Every single organizational chart is like a pyramid the boss is at the top What's happening down there is too far away so the boss is clueless and the new people that usually are the good people The Millennials like me they come under Because pressure they don't let them come up gravity doesn't let you go up because gravity is a very big force brings you down The boss one day is dreaming today. I want everything blue But you were only dreaming you were not giving an order next day. Everything is blue What's going on here blueberry season again? I began doing this People sometimes were working because they couldn't see each other in every side of the pyramid for the same goal And they were not working together because they couldn't see each other and people were working hard to move up to heart Make your organizational charts flat Don't be afraid to be at the same level as everybody else At your best this washer may have the solution for you to bring cause down if you are willing to listen to him I'm able to talk to him a New cook may have the best idea on how to improve food cost Start changing the way we're running our kitchens and our food world make it flatter where we are almost all equal Everybody's gonna respect the boss no matter what but we need to start making them flatter. Are you with me? And when I mean flat even my office is flat We have 50 60 people working in the home office. It's a very big office with no walls Everybody works together. It's chaotic at times But everybody sees each other I come and I can be connected to anybody at any second and also be open on your dreams Don't keep your dreams for yourself share your dreams with everybody Don't make people that work with you, especially the ones many years Not being able to decide their own future If they gave you their time and their commitment The least they deserve from you is that you share with them What you're dreaming of the future so they can be part of that future Don't leave them blind into their destiny open Everything you are and you'll always be I believe more successful in that than that's what I've done and has worked well And tomorrow's kitchen guys It's about embracing competition here. We have Journalists they're competing between themselves to the best story who writes the best chefs were competition But we need to embrace that competition because that competition I believe in a healthy way is Making all of us but I told you we don't have to start Michelin so We are in big leaves, but we we work hard to maybe one day being but the still we cook for us To please ourselves and to make sure that we are proud of what we do and to the people that want to come to share those moments with us so We encourage even competition within in a good way Towards the smartest who come up with the best idea the best technique or finds the best relationship with farmers or fishermen But they realize that the biggest problem and the biggest competition was myself Within my own company. I realize I am the biggest threat of my own restaurants Sometimes because you cast a shadow over everybody else if you are not careful so one of the things I've been trying really to do is To make sure I didn't became a black hole that sucks everything in And we began doing this by them powering everybody to be themselves One chef at a time one manager at the time one sommelier at the time Companies that have chefs that are on TV and they have had times this kind of Moment that things can turn into negative. So we've been trying to make sure that I Began letting go. I didn't try to manage every second And by letting go I relived myself of pressure But letting go I began empowering everybody to take action and become their own leader letting go is one of the best things I've ever done Making sure that everybody knew that they could be on their own their own leader and keep moving their dreams forward and Traveling with my team around the world and learning what every one of you is doing around the world Has made us better and we've learned what you guys do out there, and you know what I realized That you know Spanish cooking and then you learn that this also French cooking above the Pyrenees And then you learn that this also something called Italian cooking and when I was young I don't know how you learn but and then one day you learn is Asian cooking and in England they cook too And you are like what I Don't know you but I'm 47 right now And now I see the beautiful cooking happening in every corner of the world and what I realized that the more I know The more I know that I know nothing Watching Jack Pepel making the omelette yesterday uses like let me go by and 100 dozens of eggs and start prepping Yes, you can so We're always learning watching what every one of you would do is a good learning tool for me and my team and The more we travel the more we learn And when we learn we want to share what we learn with others That's why we open more restaurants not for the business sake But because for us it's a way of doing like a masters We open the Chinese because we travel through China we open a Greek because we travel through Greece We make our Philo we make our wantons for us. It's a way to grow to be better We don't open restaurants. We tell stories Every one of our restaurant is a story. No our story is story of far away people and Tomorrow's kitchen for me It's not about the restaurants anymore Tomorrow's kitchens to me. It's about improving our Communities and the lives of the people around the world Chefs in this room many of us we feed the few But we need to be in the business of feeding the many Yes We need to be allowing our employees and find systems to allow them to be part of community service We cannot have successful restaurants in Washington DC and across the street having a mother that doesn't know who he's gonna feed It's five children. I cannot be buying coffee from Haiti by having people working in that coffee Production system going hungry every night So we need to start being very logical in what we can do and we don't need to find the way to feed three billion people We only need to try to feed one at a time And we can be solving the issue one plate one person at a time I do believe our restaurant community has his destiny to do this in this century I do believe that tomorrow's kitchen is to provide for others What what you want to provide for yourself? It's our destiny and I want to end paraphrasing With a phrase of a chef you may know you may know called renais red sepi Like he said it's not it's not conflict between a better meal and a better world. I Believe in that I know renais and the math team believe in that We all need to believe in it and go together into the world Stop clapping at times like sills and stop taking action because together we can feed the world in a better way Thank you very much