January 13, 2024 • 43 mins
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If you are a Chef or restauranteur that is curious about how to turn your restaurant into a well oiled machine, this episode for you.
Today, we are talking with Simon Zatyrka, the Culinary Mechanic about:
- Transforming your restaurant into a streamlined operation
- Nurturing your team's growth through effective teaching
- How to go from burnout to entrepreneur.
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Join us as Simon Zaturka, the Culinary Mechanic, shares the secrets to revving up your restaurant's engine for peak performance. With over 30 years of culinary finesse, Simon has transformed his chef's apron into an entrepreneur's suit of armor, and in this gripping discussion, he unfolds the roadmap to optimizing restaurant operations and nurturing a team's growth that won't just survive but thrive through any industry shakeup.
Simon and I travel down memory lane, reminiscing on the impactful shift from top-down to collaborative leadership styles. We reveal how the power of teaching and promoting from within can forge an unbreakable team spirit, capable of adapting to major staffing overhauls.
Relish the stories of kitchens transformed into meritocracies, where every saucepan and spatula has a purpose, and every team member knows their value. We highlight the importance of fostering a workplace where innovation isn't just encouraged—it's the main ingredient.
Huddle close for the final act of our culinary saga, where we explore the personal and professional renaissance that comes after the flames of burnout are extinguished. Picture a world where chefs carve out new niches beyond the kitchen, from tech-savvy solo ventures to leadership coaching.
Learn how the Culinary Mechanic shifted gears, launching a successful consulting firm and a podcast to amplify the voices of those who cook, create, and lead with gusto. Get a taste of the diverse chef's journeys, stir in a dash of resilience, garnish with innovation, and you've got a recipe for an episode that's as nourishing for the soul as it is for the mind.
P.S. Ready to take your restaurant to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can support you:
- One-on-One Coaching - Work directly with me to tackle your biggest leadership challenges and scale your operations with confidence. Learn more at christinmarvin.com
- Multi-Unit Mastery Book - Get the complete Independent Restaurant Framework that's helped countless owners build thriving multi-location brands. Grab your copy at https://www.IRFbook.com
- Group Coaching & Leadership Workshops - Join other passionate restaurant leaders in transformative group sessions designed to elevate your entire team. Details at christinmarvin.com
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christin Marvin (00:08):
If you are a chef or restaurateur that is
curious about how to turn yourrestaurant into a well-oiled
machine, this episode is for you.
Today we are talking with SimonZatyrka, the culinary mechanic,
about transforming yourrestaurant into a street and
wine operation, nurturing yourteam's growth through effective
(00:28):
teaching, and how to go fromburnout to entrepreneur.
Welcome to the no Hesitationspodcast, the show where
restaurant leaders learn tools,tactics and habits from the
world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, Christin Marvin,with Solutions by Christin.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
(00:49):
now partner with restaurantleaders to help them overcome
burnout, increase retention,reignite their passion and drive
successful businesses.
This podcast is sponsored byScheduleFly.
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(01:09):
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Simon has spent the last threedecades in the kitchen and is
now on a mission to help chefsgrow their leadership and
(01:52):
restaurant tours to improvetheir culture, systems and
profit with the help of hiscompany, culinary Mechanic.
Simon, I'm so excited towelcome you to the show today.
I can't wait to share yourstory with our listeners, as
well as share some of theexciting things that you've been
working on over the last year,because I know it's been a busy,
busy year for you, so welcome.
Simon Zatyrka (02:14):
Well, thank you Christin.
I really appreciate being here.
I'm pretty excited to just divein and get going.
Christin Marvin (02:21):
Absolutely.
I'd love to start with the nameCulinary Mechanic.
Where did that come from?
Simon Zatyrka (02:28):
You know, funny thing, chefs have been like the
chef as hero, chef as celebrityhas just been rising for the
last 20 years and at some pointit became really evident to me
that it could almost be a dirtyword.
And so, maybe 10 years ago, Istarted thinking about
(02:51):
restaurants and chefs as sort ofthe machines.
And what do you do with themachine?
You tune it, you work on it,you refine the mechanism.
And so I really focused on ah,what am I?
Okay, it's a culinary mechanism.
So I wanted to be a culinarymechanic.
And then, at the point that Ikind of decided to pivot out of
(03:13):
operations, I was looking aroundand I was starting to talk to
people and coach people and Ithought, gosh, what am I going
to call this?
I want to be legit, want to begrown up.
You know, when I have a company, it needs a name.
What am I going to call this?
Oh, my God.
And one day I went oh my God,of course, there it is, it's
(03:35):
culinary mechanic.
And I think that for me it'sbecoming almost an ethos.
It's how do we remove some ofthe for lack of a better term
the hullabaloo, how do we makeit nuts and bolts?
Where, like you understand thatyou got to buy the, you got to
be organized enough to store thefood, you got to buy the food,
(03:59):
you got to prep it and then it'sall got to go out in a timely
fashion and it's all machine.
So I think for me it's justbeing humble enough to say we're
taking the machine that is therestaurant and we're tuning it
up and making it go as fast andas smooth as possible.
And so you know, it's just,it's kind of a mind, it's been
(04:21):
my mindset of just how do I, howdo I optimize a machine, how do
I help people to do that?
And so I just it helps me breakbig processes down into little
ones when you start to thinkabout what each piece does.
So it's a mindset, it's a wayof life, it's all that great
stuff and it's the name of mycompany, which has become a
(04:46):
virtual restaurant advisory firm.
Right, you know, we'restraddling the line between
consultant and coach and justtrying to trying to help people
operate a little better.
Christin Marvin (04:57):
I love it and you I know the listeners can't
see this, but your logo is anawesome, awesome gear, which you
can see a lot on LinkedIn.
But I love that Tuning up thenuts and bolts and turning it
into a well oiled machine.
That's everyone loves to workin a restaurant.
That's a well oiled machine,don't they?
Simon Zatyrka (05:14):
So much more fun, so much more fun.
Christin Marvin (05:17):
So you've been in, you've been in kitchens for
30 years.
Where did you learn?
Simon Zatyrka (05:22):
And a little more yeah.
Christin Marvin (05:23):
Okay.
Simon Zatyrka (05:24):
Where did you?
Christin Marvin (05:25):
learn about this well oiled machine.
Simon Zatyrka (05:28):
You know, I learned I feel like so many,
like so many others a lot ofwhere I learned about great
running restaurants was byworking for part of the
expression.
But shitholes.
I worked in places that werejust that I am so proud to have
been a part of, but oh my Godwere they dysfunctional and they
, they weren't organized andthere was chaos and you know,
(05:50):
and there was just like this dinof loud clanging and all this
stuff would happen.
I started cooking in New Mexicoin 1990, 89, somewhere in that
little area, and I was in aplace that had 400 seats and I
didn't know anybody.
I didn't know that that was bigor small.
It was a restaurant, right, itwas local and it was New Mexican
(06:13):
food and it was just go, go, go, go, go go all the time.
And I probably worked for themoff and on for like four or five
years I'd go.
I went to college for a year,came back, worked for a while
and just like, got out.
It was always my fall backuntil it wasn't, until I was
ready to move to the sort of thenext level, and then I got into
(06:35):
a hotel kitchen and that wasamazing, because now there's
order, right, like now there's abrigade, there's a chef and a
sous chef and a banquet chefover here and there's a whole
like area of like, like it's ownbig prep kitchen for banquets,
and there's two restaurant linesthat were side by side and
everything was big and stainlesssteel and everybody had a
(06:58):
purpose.
You know big, huge walk insthat led into big, huge walk in
freezers.
It was just so crazy.
And then just keep goingforward, right, like just boom,
boom, boom.
All of a sudden one day I saidI'm going to leave New Mexico
and I went to Florida and Ifound myself in another hotel
and just one after the otherjust kept moving.
(07:19):
You know, I did a small stint inProvincetown, massachusetts, in
1997, where I was the chef ofthe restaurant.
What a joke, oh my goodness.
I was 23 years old.
I was not ready to be the chef.
I didn't really even know whatthat meant, other than I had
creative control and I had acouple of specials every day.
But like I learned what didn'twork, I learned how I started to
(07:44):
learn, like, oh, I am not ready, right, like I just.
And so I pulled back and I wentback to cooking and I went back
to Florida for a while.
And so as much as, as much as Ilearned I find the early days,
as much as I learned about good.
I learned about oh, not sogreat, you know.
And then I I moved to Californiaand I feel like when I moved to
(08:06):
California, the let like theknob went from nine to 10, and
maybe even 10 and a half, andall of a sudden the professional
level just went up.
And now I'm in kitchens wherethey're yelling and screaming
and but things, amazing thingsare happening.
Chefs are on the line andthey're they're pumping out food
(08:28):
, and I was in LA, so you know,just, celebrities everywhere,
and you know, via, everybody's aVIP, oh, there's a VIP.
And the chef would screamEverybody's a fucking VIP.
You know it's like, oh, okay,everybody's VIP, so everything's
got to be great and it's just.
And I think that was where Ireally started to see that the
(08:49):
folks, the chefs that I workedfor, that were the most
successful, were the ones thatleverage their people.
They knew how to to garnerinfluence, they knew how to make
connections, you know, and theyuse those connections at the
same time to also, like, reallykeep an eye on things.
And you know, I worked for a guythat you know he'd go around
(09:12):
and I thought it was a niftything that he said good morning
to everybody.
But what I learned was not onlywas he saying good morning to
everybody, he was also lookingover their shoulders seeing what
their station looked like.
He was looking them in the eyeand going, oh, jimmy's got to
hang over.
This is going to be a rough dayon saute, you know.
And he pulled the suit, chef,and go, go sit on, jimmy, he's
(09:33):
going to, he's going to burn up,you know, or gosh, we had a
slow night.
There's a lot of prep on theline.
Let's really make sure thatfreshness is everything, but
learning wearing those littlethings right.
I worked for a chef and he wouldspend it 45 minutes before he
ever really talked to anybody inthe walk in and I was like,
what is he doing?
(09:53):
And he would touch everything,he would walk through and he
would just put his hand on a binof lettuce and he'd look at it
and he put it back up and hejust square everything up.
So when he walked out of thewalk in it was in perfect shape.
But that wasn't the thing thathe was doing.
What he was doing was takingvisual inventory, yeah, right,
and so again it's, it's startingto learn, like these great
(10:14):
habits that start to make thegears move, you know, and so
Continuing all along that sortof mindset was like, again, it's
the people, right, the guy whoyells, he gets results for a
couple days, the guy who calmsdown and just remembers to meter
(10:34):
his speech and speak clearly,people are just like, oh wow,
that's amazing, he's so calm andeverything's crazy.
And you know, it's likeunderstanding the people aspect.
Yeah, and that's what I reallytried to do as I got, as I
started to understand thatyelling wasn't going to work,
even though I that was modeledfor me for probably 15 years,
(10:55):
and then, like, starting to go,how am I going to get from being
a great worker to a goodmanager, you know?
And so that was.
I think that was a lot of how Iformed what I, what eventually
became culinary mechanic, andwhat I, what I teach now and now
like.
And so one of my, my ownpersonal mantra is they just
(11:16):
want to be led Right.
And I think that you talk allabout listening.
I listen to this podcast and Iread your content and it's about
leadership and it's, and it'sso funny to me that, like we all
, there's all this stuff andthere's all these great things,
but at the end of the day, Ithink if you just lead, if you
just like were to lead byexample, things would get 30%
(11:39):
better.
Christin Marvin (11:40):
It's certainly.
Yeah, I want to go back to startto interrupt you, but you,
there's so many important pointshere that you you've made and
and I want to touch on a coupleof them here when it comes to
culture and development,developing people you had
mentioned early on that.
You know, when you started outas a young chef, you thought it
was all about the creativefreedom and all about the menu
(12:00):
and I've experienced that a lotin my career to promoting chefs
from within line cook ready tobe come as soon it's.
It's hard because it's not allabout the menu, right, it's not
all about playing with food.
It's about par levels andordering and inventory and and
time management and motivatingthe line and showing up every
day Right, rested and and focusand ready to go and being
(12:23):
curious about how to work onyour equipment and you know when
things Right, being able towork on every single aspect of
the line and to dig out yourteam and break your team when
you need to recover shifts.
How did you cultivate thoseyounger chefs when you were in
the kitchen?
How did you grow them?
How did you develop them?
Simon Zatyrka (12:47):
I think I started by going, hey, I need this, I
need that.
Then I started to realize, if Iasked rather than told, first
of all, things are going to geteasier.
I developed this idea ofmanaging in or managing out, and
I never wanted to be managingout, because managing out was
always at arms length For me.
(13:09):
It was like for lack of abetter term it was like a big
hug.
I always wanted to pulleverybody in so that we're all
working on the same thing andall working together.
I would explain to people thatif they listen to me, their job
is going to get easier, becauseI'm not interested in making it
harder.
At no point am I going to gohey, I'm going to make your life
(13:30):
tougher.
My goal is to teach so that youget better.
Then at some point I realize,gosh, the more I teach and they
get better, the more I getbetter.
That just became a big circlefor me.
I would teach people to move up, and then, of course, it's like
(13:50):
all right, so you're thedishwasher, but now you can prep
.
I'll pay you a little more ifyou prep more.
Then how about if you go find abuddy and bring them in and
then they'll wash dishes and youcan prep.
At that point it's wash, rinse,repeat and just get more people
and oftentimes sometimes to thebenefit, sometimes to the
(14:12):
detriment I'd have seven friendsor seven family members because
they'd all bring their people.
Sometimes that was great,sometimes that was, oh my God.
The family went on vacation.
What do I?
Christin Marvin (14:23):
do now Every time they go on vacation.
You know it's coming too.
You know it's coming.
You know it's coming, it soundslike you, really were excited
about teaching and providingopportunities for people, but
showing them that in order forthose opportunities to exist,
they had to kind of help forlack of a better term help fill
their position, find theirreplacement so that they can
position themselves forsomething else.
(14:44):
Love that.
Simon Zatyrka (14:46):
I mean, I remember being in a kitchen in
Santa Barbara, california, andit was a four-seasons of all
things and the chef there was sorough on me, oh my God.
But he had this thing wherehe'd be like, if it's so slow
that you can do what you'redoing and stop, then you should
(15:07):
be learning what's happeningnext to you.
So there should never be amoment where you're not doing
something.
So if you're not doing yourlearning, he goes, because at
some point that guy is gonnascrew you and you're not gonna
know how to do it unless you'vefigured out.
Now you know, and you just soall of a sudden it's like, okay,
I've only got two steaks on thegrill.
(15:28):
What are you doing?
Oh, you're searing halibut.
Sweet, how do you do that?
Great, oh, not too much oil.
Oh, make sure you season it.
You know, and I was always theyounger guy for years.
Just, I was always the youngestin the kitchen.
I'm always trying.
So I'm working with these salty, salty cooks and sometimes they
teach me.
Sometimes they wouldn't, but Ilearned like pay attention to
(15:51):
what's next.
And so I instilled that in mycooks in as many kitchens as I
could.
It's like, hey, pay attentionto what's next to you, because
you never know what's gonnahappen and you don't wanna look
stupid right Like you have tofind their pride too.
Nobody wants to look stupid.
And guess what, if you can workevery station on the line, you
(16:16):
probably get to pick A, whatstation, b, what schedule, and
then, beyond that, like, who doyou?
I work best with that guy, soif you're the best, what am I
gonna do?
I'm gonna promote yourwellbeing over somebody else
who's not taking care of menearly as well, and it becomes
this meritocracy over and overand over, and so I just always
(16:40):
tried to like give peoplesomething to strive towards.
Christin Marvin (16:44):
Love it, I love it.
They could see what was infront of them.
That's great.
What was the highlight of yourcareer?
Simon Zatyrka (16:53):
Woo.
I mean, I think there was apoint in 2009 or 10, and I had
Devel, I had two Rockstar souschefs and then they took one
away and that AM sous chef sortof became just my sous chef,
(17:19):
like it was just to us, and wekept the same results, right,
profits were still going justthe way they had been.
Customer satisfaction was realhigh because it was a
corporation, so they weremeasuring all that stuff in
there, giving you that feedback.
So profits were good, peoplewere happy, guess, satisfaction
(17:39):
was happy.
It was only him and I and I'dhad two in the past and my team
sort of rallied to the cause anda couple of guys who were real
close.
They were just Rockstars butthey wanted to be lead.
They just did all the littlethings.
And then I got a knock on thedoor from one of the regional
(18:00):
directors and he said I'm takingyour sous chef because he's
ready to be a chef.
And I was like at first Ithought man, I thought okay, and
so we went on the hunt and theygave me a month or two to find
a new guy and I found a new guy,we got him in, we got him
trained and the results stayedthe same right, like the profit
(18:20):
was there, the guess,satisfaction was there.
I was super proud of the foodon a daily basis and I thought
to myself huh, I'm leading, Ican take out a big piece, and
I'm still leading and we'restill doing well, and my team is
supporting the new piece of theand I thought this is what
you're supposed to do.
(18:40):
This is like what it's supposedto be.
You're supposed to be able totake out a section of it or a
piece, and it still goes.
And within a few weeks I meanI'm not gonna say it was perfect
, but within a few weeks, fewmonths I was able to get back to
my sort of my regular scheduleand I go home and like place
(19:01):
didn't fall apart, didn't burndown, I felt like I was winning.
Christin Marvin (19:06):
Yeah, I mean, there's such an important lesson
here, right, as so manyrestaurants are still struggling
to get staffed, and I think theawesome thing about that story
is that you could have looked atthat as a low point and said
now I'm fucked, I'm shortstaffed, I've just lost one of
my managers.
What am I gonna do?
How are we going to both workall these hours and maintain
these standards?
(19:26):
And yet you saw it as anopportunity to rally your team
and to excel, and it sounds likethat's exactly what happened.
And then, of course, your souschef got promoted, which is the
goal right?
That's what every great leaderwants, even though that
transition is always a littlesticky.
Simon Zatyrka (19:45):
Because the new guy wasn't nearly as good as the
old guy and there was a reasonhe was getting promoted.
But he was good and he listenedand what was most important was
that he trusted me enough totrust my team.
Right, my team wouldn't let himdown because they weren't gonna
let me down.
They were pretty after.
At that point they'd been withme for probably four years and
(20:07):
it was one of those like okay,here we go, this is the next
thing.
Christin Marvin (20:11):
What do you think was the key to retaining
your team for four years?
That's a long time, so I justwanted to tell this quick story
to our awesome guy.
Simon Zatyrka (20:17):
He did this month he told his team that he was
doing something.
I dumb luck.
Christin Marvin (20:23):
No.
Simon Zatyrka (20:25):
No, no, no, no.
I mean, you know, like I couldprobably tell you some stuff,
and some of it is just we pay.
We tried to pay a decent rateand I always tried to make it a
safe place to go and just rockout.
You know, I or somewhere alongthe way, somebody said to me,
(20:48):
you know, like, oh, leave yourbaggage at the door.
And I kind of didn't love that.
I was like that's implying somestuff and I don't need to imply
anything.
How about this?
When you walk into my kitchen,like everything that was
bothering you today doesn't haveto bother you because you don't
have to worry about that Likejust come in and this is a good,
safe place and we're just goingto like bang out some food
(21:10):
because this is a busyrestaurant.
I would say four, four, 50 wasan average Thursday evening and
it got a little bigger fromthere on the weekends, and so
the teams had to be, you know,they had to be locked in and
really ready to rock and roll,um and I.
So, I think, because we werebusy when other and, mind you,
this was like 2008, 2009, 2010when everybody in the country
(21:36):
was like there was redeverywhere red in profits, red
in customer counts and mycustomer counts stayed solid, my
profits stayed in the black andwe just we just kept crushing.
You know, um, and we were lucky.
I mean you just it felt.
It felt like a good mix of luckand just grit and determination
.
But keeping the people wasabout making sure that they had
(22:00):
what they needed right, and Ilearned to listen there.
When I first got there, I wasnothing short of an asshole on
certain days, you know, and Iand I and I it was my first real
executive chef job but I waslike, okay, I'm going to do this
.
And then I learned real fast.
If I just communicated more, ifI just used like some magic
(22:21):
words, just so you're aware, ifI did that, then people knew
what was going on and they knewwhat to expect and it worked.
So there's a little bit of luckin there.
It's like, okay, I think thisis what I've been, this is what
I've been training for years for.
I'm going to try a couple ofthings and a couple of things
didn't work.
(22:41):
And I think initially I was toofar in my own head and once I
got out of my head, um, and Ireally like I listened and and
people knew that, like if therewas a problem, they could come
to me and I I'd say, well, youbetter go deal with your family.
And they'd say, really, chef,and I'm like the guys and I will
, will, will, will close the gap, you know, and I'd go work the
(23:02):
line for an evening so thatsomebody could go take care of
his little brother, hisgirlfriend or whatever.
That would be Um and and I, andagain, I think we just we
created in that space and time agood, safe place to go and like
earn money and and rock out andnot have to worry about the
outside world.
Christin Marvin (23:22):
Yeah, I mean, I love it sounds like you were so
innovative in 2008, 2009.
And we talk about this a lot inin on the LinkedIn world, right
, and with our clients, but alot of the restaurants that are
seeing really high turnoverdon't had, they have not created
that safe environment like youdid, and they're not remembering
that they're hiring the wholehuman.
When they hire somebody, right,you can't but that old school
(23:46):
leave your shit at the door.
I was brought up in thatculture and it doesn't work.
It didn't work then and itdoesn't work now, and I think
you know people that areentering the workforce these
days don't want that.
They want to be able to show up.
However, they're showing up andknow that somebody's there to
listen to them.
And obviously you've alwaysthere's got to be a balance,
(24:09):
right, you've got to get thework done, but you humanized
everything about your team,which is just awesome, so kudos
to you.
Simon Zatyrka (24:21):
I, you know, call it being the product of hippie
parents, you know.
Christin Marvin (24:26):
I love it.
So let's talk a little bitabout where this idea for
culinary mechanic came from.
What was that transition foryou out of kitchens into being a
solopreneur?
Simon Zatyrka (24:40):
Holy cow, let's see.
Well, we had this little thinghappen in 2020.
And you know, to call it a testof metal would be like for me
an understatement.
2020 was okay, right, Like ohgosh, what do we do?
(25:02):
Like, I'm laid off, I'm back towork.
I'm furloughed, I'm back towork.
I think I had two layoffs thatyear, Going back to work in 2021
.
And I happened to be working fora company that had prepared,
that had been really ramping upthe to go mechanism, and back in
17, 18 and 19, we spentcountless hours refining all of
(25:26):
the systems that worked for theUber Eats and the Door Dashes
and the Grubhubs and all of thatstuff, and we got on with toast
and we got everythingconsolidated and integrated and
all those things.
And we I mean the company evenhad a and I'm getting off track,
but I promise I'll get backthey custom coded a printer that
(25:51):
would give you little stickylittle things.
That went on every single itemand it was the system that
you're now seeing itcommercially available.
But back then it was like wayahead of its time and so when we
came out of the pandemic orcame through it in 2021, we were
(26:12):
so busy, but we've lost six orseven chefs out of the total 21.
We had seven restaurants, soevery restaurant had a chef and
two sous chefs, and we were downseven by the end of 2021,.
I had trained nine new souschefs, trained or promoted, and
I was running at like theproverbial chicken with my head
(26:34):
cut off.
My it, just it taxed everythingI had physically and mentally.
You know I had I've had lessthan great knees for 30 years
because of youth, and they werejust hitting this point where my
wife was like really you're,you're really going to keep
(26:55):
doing this, and so I kind of hadher behind me poking me a
little bit going.
You know there's, there's gotto be a better way for you to
make a living.
There's got to be a way for youto make a living without being
gone from the house for 50, 60,70 hours a week.
There's got to be a way for youto like make a living and not
(27:15):
be so depleted, Right.
And so you know that, coupledwith some some sort of high
level staffing changes withinthe company I was working, I
just started seeing that like,okay, I'm heading towards 50.
The body is not loving thecurrent state of the Ram and Jam
(27:36):
sort of thing.
Uh it's, I'm not having, I'mnot having fun.
And this is where it really.
That's where it really stuck,Because my wife was saying, yeah
, you're less than fun to hangaround, I'm not having fun at
work, and that was alwayssomething that was important to
me.
For at that point, 32 years, youknow like no, I have fun at
(27:58):
work, People have fun workingfor me, this isn't fun.
I'm not seeing smiling faces,I'm grinding people.
I'm going to make a change andso, finally, I think I just hit
a real spot of burnout and I Iknew it was there, but I didn't
know how, like how many layersof skin I'd burnt Right.
(28:18):
So I figured it out, at mywife's urging, but also knowing
that it was the right thing forme, and so I took what was it
initially going to be?
I'll take a month off and thenI'll start looking for a job.
And then my wife looked at meand said how about if you take
two and if that's working andeverything's okay with the
(28:42):
wallet and the pocketbook?
Christin Marvin (28:43):
then maybe you take a little more.
Everybody's jealous of yourwife right now.
Simon Zatyrka (28:52):
And so and it's important to note, she was
working from home and so tooksome time off hired a.
I actually hired a careertransition coach I'll give a
shout out to Happy Spectacularand their whole thing is happy
at work, spectacular life.
And I had a coach and he justhelped me kind of like sift
(29:15):
through the rubble that was mybrain at the time and we talked
about what my purpose is and wasand how that may have changed
over the years and the valuesthat were important to me and I
kind of got clear about what Iwanted and I started looking for
a job and I was aiming towards,like tech Right, I was aiming
(29:36):
towards doing some customersuccess work for a tech company
that was parallel orperpendicular to restaurant
operations I think restaurant365, even toast I was looking at
.
And then, I don't know, theuniverse just kind of opened up
and said here, try this.
(29:56):
And I got a phone call from alady who said I've been talking
to her for a couple months.
She was actually working fortoast but she had a friend and
that friend was a consultant andhe was looking for somebody to
cost a menu.
And I got on the phone with himand he's like you come talk to
(30:16):
me and maybe we can just getthis project taken care of.
He goes I'm better with thehigh level stuff.
I don't really.
I'm not in the kitchen.
He goes.
What I hear is you're real goodwith this stuff.
And I said well, I really likethe numbers.
Let's do a thing.
Got going, started askingquestions, you know, looking at
the operation, just trying tounderstand what they were doing
(30:41):
and trying to get all theinformation I needed to cost
that menu.
And in the process of askingquestions, the owner of this
company, who it happens to havefour units, says you know,
you've really hit on some thingsthat are not good about our
operation and I really like towork on them.
Would you want to be willing tocome do some more work with us?
(31:03):
And I was like sure, why not?
And got going a month or two inAgain, universe tapped me on
the forehead and said here andit was honest dumb luck Like a
guy I know that was a CFO,somebody called him for some
advice around you know inventorymanagement systems.
(31:28):
And he said you know I don'thave any bandwidth to help you
right now, but I know a guy whodoes.
So I talked to this guy.
Next thing I know I'm workingon the guy's POS system because
he needed somebody to do thatand he had me.
He wanted me to look around athis purchasing and look around
(31:49):
at some of the other fundamentalsystems of his organization.
And so I did and gave him someanswers and asked some questions
and kept going.
And then another person calledand said hey, would you be
willing to come and talk to mychef and sous chef?
They need some leadership.
And I hear you're the guy to doit.
(32:09):
And it was just anotherreferral.
And right about that time we'renow crossing like December 2022.
So I go okay, we're getting tothe end, I've collected some
money.
I'm going to have to figure outa thing Like okay.
So I, you know again, it's like, what do I call it?
Oh, all right, we're going tocall it a culinary mechanic.
And so, magically, I entered2023.
(32:33):
And here I am, I've got threeclients and I've got a company,
and it's a company of one, butit's company nevertheless.
Right, I feel official.
It says LLC at the end yeah,and you are, yeah.
Christin Marvin (32:51):
I mean, and you are posting incredible,
incredible tips and are reallyjust a thought leader in your
field.
Love what you're posting onLinkedIn.
You just launched your podcast.
Will you tell us a little bitabout that?
Simon Zatyrka (33:04):
Yeah.
So when I quit work, I was like, oh, I'm going to do a podcast.
One big problem.
I know nothing about them.
So I started down the road,like you know, and I was like
I'm going to be, I'm going to doa podcast.
I've listened to maybe twopodcasts in my life but it
sounds like a good idea.
Right, like okay, I got stuffto say you know I'm a chatty guy
(33:26):
, so you know, fast forward to Idon't know nine months down the
road oh, farther I guess and Iwas like I'm going to be, like I
think we're in a great positionto be talking about your year,
year plus um to just the lastcouple months where I'm just
like, hmm, I was thinking I,maybe, maybe I should pick up
(33:49):
that podcast idea.
And I was talking with a guy whoI was helping um, just through
networking, meeting people,because he's an IT tech guy and
he wants to kind of understandhow to position himself, and so
I feel like I'm getting good atthat, having done it right, and
so I'm talking about it and ithelps, helping him helps me, and
(34:12):
he stops me in the middle ofthis and his name is Joe and Joe
says have you ever thoughtabout doing a podcast and I was
like, no, why, like whoa, wheredid that come from?
We were just talking aboutpositioning and marketing and
he's like you just took this bigball of a problem and a concept
and I felt like within secondswe were on the floor building
(34:34):
simple blocks.
He goes.
That was amazing.
He goes and the sound you'relike you just, and you made it
compelling and I wanted to learnhow to build blocks with what
you had and sit on the floor, hegoes.
You got to do a podcast and Iwas like huh, huh, recurring
themes, okay, and so I juststarted to think about it and I
(34:54):
started to think about whatmattered to me and by this point
now I listened probably three,four podcasts a week and I try
to just grab as much as I canand I love hearing A, I love a
story.
B, I love chefs.
It is the culture that I'm infor a reason, at 30 something
(35:15):
years in the business, I lovewhat we stand for, I love the
way our brains work becausewe're different, and I realized
I wanted to tell stories or havepeople tell me stories of a
combination of that around whatchefs do.
But we're not gonna.
I didn't wanna just like, allright, let's just go to the top
(35:37):
of the list and find the JamesBeard Award winners and find all
those guys, cause I think thatthat's whatever.
There's people doing that,right?
So what is the next thing?
Well, I wanna find chefs thatare doing different things.
I wanna find chefs that spent 20years in the business and then
went off and became a recruiterand like how does the mentality
of a chef, how does the ethos ofa chef, how does all of that
(36:02):
stuff translate into great workethic in other places?
How does being starting as acook and moving along the line
and then becoming a private chefor a country club chef cause
don't talk about country clubchefs, right?
So we used to talk aboutcountry club chefs.
Is that's how you go to retire?
(36:22):
But I know a guy who's down inSouth Carolina and he's running
two of the most like progressive, innovative restaurants where
they're doing current, up todate food, because the folks are
young enough to appreciate it,right, because it's a younger
community, and so that privateclub thing is evolving, and so
there's just all these differentlike chef journeys and that's
(36:44):
what it's called.
It's chef journeys and thatwe're gonna highlight and talk
about and help.
Maybe it helps other cooks,other chefs, understand what's
possible.
Maybe it takes the civilians inthe world that have never been
in a restaurant and helps themunderstand that there's more to
(37:06):
life than just food, where it'sput together with tweezers and
microgreens and fancy cool stuff, but like that there's chefs
that are doing all sorts ofthings out there.
And I think that that's what'sthat show.
Dirty jobs, right.
Like I wanna be a mixture ofdirty jobs and telling a chef
(37:29):
story, Like just sort of there'smore to it than celebrity chefs
.
There's like the anti-glamorousthing.
Christin Marvin (37:36):
Yeah, I love it .
So the podcast is called Chef'sJourney, and where can
listeners find your podcast?
Simon Zatyrka (37:44):
All right, just this past week I got it all, so
we're on Apple Podcasts andGoogle Podcasts and Spotify and
Amazon.
Wait, the way they say it, theway I always hear it, is
wherever you find podcasts.
Christin Marvin (37:58):
Yes, that's what I said.
I love it I love it.
Simon Zatyrka (38:04):
So it's there.
But I'm also starting to take.
I'm also recording everythingin video and I'm dropping the
interview episodes on YouTube soyou can find my first couple
episodes both on YouTube underCulinary Mechanic is what you
need to search for, but they'rethere.
(38:25):
I intend to do a little bit.
I think that my journey willget thrown in there in solo
episodes.
I also have this concept forthe occasional episode of Uncle
Simon's storytelling time,Because there's just a ton of
good stories about chefs andkitchens and the culture, for
(38:49):
better or for worse.
Christin Marvin (38:50):
Absolutely so.
Will you talk a little bit moreabout who again for listeners
listening to this, who's theideal client for Culinary
Mechanic?
Who do you want to help?
Simon Zatyrka (39:03):
Wow, that is such a good question.
I really want to help therestaurant owner, the restaurant
company proprietor.
It's got a couple ofrestaurants, Maybe it's two
restaurants, three restaurants.
Likely they don't have acorporate chef, but they maybe
(39:26):
need somebody to guide theirchefs along.
I think it's really easy tohave a couple of restaurants and
get things going and well, noteasy, but you got to get things
going.
All of a sudden you're notseeing necessarily the best
results, whether they befinancial or for whatever reason
.
You hire the sous chef thatwasn't 100% ready to lead.
(39:48):
Now they're the chef and theyneed a little help with their
leadership.
Perhaps they need just a littlebit of coaching around like,
hey, let's help you manage yourtime so that you have time to
manage your people, so that youcan create a culture that keeps
(40:09):
people around.
I'm trying to work withrestaurant companies small to
mediums and restaurant companiessmall to medium hotel companies
that have chefs that need alittle pull along.
Maybe you need a mentor figureto just make sure that they've
got what they need to succeed.
(40:30):
I think that almost anybody canrun a restaurant when it's
running well.
Running it when it starts tosputter or do some weird things
is altogether different.
I've got a wealth of experiencewhere I've seen small ones and
big ones and purple ones andfunny ones and sad ones.
(40:52):
I've seen some great operationsand I've also seen some really
troubled operations.
So I think what I can bring topeople is the ability to
troubleshoot and help people geton the right track, Whether
that's inventory management,writing a good recipe or just
like, hey, be nice to people.
Christin Marvin (41:13):
Yeah, we need more of that in the world, don't
we?
Simon Zatyrka (41:17):
Yeah.
Christin Marvin (41:17):
Well, simon, can't thank you enough for
coming on the show, reallyreally appreciate it and would
love to have you back at anypoint.
Thank you.
We can dive deeper into culture, into how systems create
culture, impact culture.
I mean gosh, there's so manytopics we could talk about for
sure.
Absolutely.
Would you tell listeners howthey can?
Where can they find you?
(41:37):
How can they get ahold of you?
Simon Zatyrka (41:40):
The easiest way is culinarymechaniccom.
I'm on LinkedIn every day whatseems like all day, but it isn't
really so.
If you want to find me onLinkedIn, that's really easy.
You can go to my website andkind of check out the fun stuff
(42:00):
we're doing there.
There's links to the podcastfrom there.
I need to do one quick plug orunmasked capitalism, and that is
.
I've just started a merch storeso you can get things that say
culinary mechanic on them andget things I'm in love with
bacon, so you can get shirts andhats.
Christin Marvin (42:20):
You've got an awesome.
That's the one that say bacon.
You're wearing one right nowfor people that can't see.
It's a pretty awesome shirt.
Simon Zatyrka (42:27):
The letters are four inches tall, because what
else do you want but baconacross your chest?
And so that's.
The easiest way to find me isculinarymechaniccom or on
LinkedIn.
Christin Marvin (42:40):
Awesome.
All right, simon.
Thank you so much.
Okay, everybody subscribe andlisten each week.
Like Simon said, wherever youfind your podcasts, and be sure
to follow me on LinkedIn atKristen dash Marvin.
We will see you next week.
Thanks, everybody.
If you are a chef or restaurateur that is
curious about how to turn yourrestaurant into a well-oiled
machine, this episode is for you.
Today we are talking with SimonZatyrka, the culinary mechanic,
about transforming yourrestaurant into a street and
wine operation, nurturing yourteam's growth through effective
(00:28):
teaching, and how to go fromburnout to entrepreneur.
Welcome to the no Hesitationspodcast, the show where
restaurant leaders learn tools,tactics and habits from the
world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, Christin Marvin,with Solutions by Christin.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
(00:49):
now partner with restaurantleaders to help them overcome
burnout, increase retention,reignite their passion and drive
successful businesses.
This podcast is sponsored byScheduleFly.
Schedulefly provides a simple,web-based and app-based
restaurant employee schedulingsoftware backed by legendary
(01:09):
customer service.
If you're using pen paper,excel or a fancy scheduling
software with tons and bells ofwhistles that you don't use,
schedulefly is perfect for yourbusiness.
When I was a regional managerhandling seven locations,
schedulefly was our go-to forscheduling.
It's, hands down, the easiestplatform I've ever worked with
(01:30):
and their employee communicationtool awesome for shooting out
mass messages about crucialrestaurant updates.
Visit ScheduleFly.
com and mention no Hesitationspodcast to get 10% off.
Simon has spent the last threedecades in the kitchen and is
now on a mission to help chefsgrow their leadership and
(01:52):
restaurant tours to improvetheir culture, systems and
profit with the help of hiscompany, culinary Mechanic.
Simon, I'm so excited towelcome you to the show today.
I can't wait to share yourstory with our listeners, as
well as share some of theexciting things that you've been
working on over the last year,because I know it's been a busy,
busy year for you, so welcome.
Simon Zatyrka (02:14):
Well, thank you Christin.
I really appreciate being here.
I'm pretty excited to just divein and get going.
Christin Marvin (02:21):
Absolutely.
I'd love to start with the nameCulinary Mechanic.
Where did that come from?
Simon Zatyrka (02:28):
You know, funny thing, chefs have been like the
chef as hero, chef as celebrityhas just been rising for the
last 20 years and at some pointit became really evident to me
that it could almost be a dirtyword.
And so, maybe 10 years ago, Istarted thinking about
(02:51):
restaurants and chefs as sort ofthe machines.
And what do you do with themachine?
You tune it, you work on it,you refine the mechanism.
And so I really focused on ah,what am I?
Okay, it's a culinary mechanism.
So I wanted to be a culinarymechanic.
And then, at the point that Ikind of decided to pivot out of
(03:13):
operations, I was looking aroundand I was starting to talk to
people and coach people and Ithought, gosh, what am I going
to call this?
I want to be legit, want to begrown up.
You know, when I have a company, it needs a name.
What am I going to call this?
Oh, my God.
And one day I went oh my God,of course, there it is, it's
(03:35):
culinary mechanic.
And I think that for me it'sbecoming almost an ethos.
It's how do we remove some ofthe for lack of a better term
the hullabaloo, how do we makeit nuts and bolts?
Where, like you understand thatyou got to buy the, you got to
be organized enough to store thefood, you got to buy the food,
(03:59):
you got to prep it and then it'sall got to go out in a timely
fashion and it's all machine.
So I think for me it's justbeing humble enough to say we're
taking the machine that is therestaurant and we're tuning it
up and making it go as fast andas smooth as possible.
And so you know, it's just,it's kind of a mind, it's been
(04:21):
my mindset of just how do I, howdo I optimize a machine, how do
I help people to do that?
And so I just it helps me breakbig processes down into little
ones when you start to thinkabout what each piece does.
So it's a mindset, it's a wayof life, it's all that great
stuff and it's the name of mycompany, which has become a
(04:46):
virtual restaurant advisory firm.
Right, you know, we'restraddling the line between
consultant and coach and justtrying to trying to help people
operate a little better.
Christin Marvin (04:57):
I love it and you I know the listeners can't
see this, but your logo is anawesome, awesome gear, which you
can see a lot on LinkedIn.
But I love that Tuning up thenuts and bolts and turning it
into a well oiled machine.
That's everyone loves to workin a restaurant.
That's a well oiled machine,don't they?
Simon Zatyrka (05:14):
So much more fun, so much more fun.
Christin Marvin (05:17):
So you've been in, you've been in kitchens for
30 years.
Where did you learn?
Simon Zatyrka (05:22):
And a little more yeah.
Christin Marvin (05:23):
Okay.
Simon Zatyrka (05:24):
Where did you?
Christin Marvin (05:25):
learn about this well oiled machine.
Simon Zatyrka (05:28):
You know, I learned I feel like so many,
like so many others a lot ofwhere I learned about great
running restaurants was byworking for part of the
expression.
But shitholes.
I worked in places that werejust that I am so proud to have
been a part of, but oh my Godwere they dysfunctional and they
, they weren't organized andthere was chaos and you know,
(05:50):
and there was just like this dinof loud clanging and all this
stuff would happen.
I started cooking in New Mexicoin 1990, 89, somewhere in that
little area, and I was in aplace that had 400 seats and I
didn't know anybody.
I didn't know that that was bigor small.
It was a restaurant, right, itwas local and it was New Mexican
(06:13):
food and it was just go, go, go, go, go go all the time.
And I probably worked for themoff and on for like four or five
years I'd go.
I went to college for a year,came back, worked for a while
and just like, got out.
It was always my fall backuntil it wasn't, until I was
ready to move to the sort of thenext level, and then I got into
(06:35):
a hotel kitchen and that wasamazing, because now there's
order, right, like now there's abrigade, there's a chef and a
sous chef and a banquet chefover here and there's a whole
like area of like, like it's ownbig prep kitchen for banquets,
and there's two restaurant linesthat were side by side and
everything was big and stainlesssteel and everybody had a
(06:58):
purpose.
You know big, huge walk insthat led into big, huge walk in
freezers.
It was just so crazy.
And then just keep goingforward, right, like just boom,
boom, boom.
All of a sudden one day I saidI'm going to leave New Mexico
and I went to Florida and Ifound myself in another hotel
and just one after the otherjust kept moving.
(07:19):
You know, I did a small stint inProvincetown, massachusetts, in
1997, where I was the chef ofthe restaurant.
What a joke, oh my goodness.
I was 23 years old.
I was not ready to be the chef.
I didn't really even know whatthat meant, other than I had
creative control and I had acouple of specials every day.
But like I learned what didn'twork, I learned how I started to
(07:44):
learn, like, oh, I am not ready, right, like I just.
And so I pulled back and I wentback to cooking and I went back
to Florida for a while.
And so as much as, as much as Ilearned I find the early days,
as much as I learned about good.
I learned about oh, not sogreat, you know.
And then I I moved to Californiaand I feel like when I moved to
(08:06):
California, the let like theknob went from nine to 10, and
maybe even 10 and a half, andall of a sudden the professional
level just went up.
And now I'm in kitchens wherethey're yelling and screaming
and but things, amazing thingsare happening.
Chefs are on the line andthey're they're pumping out food
(08:28):
, and I was in LA, so you know,just, celebrities everywhere,
and you know, via, everybody's aVIP, oh, there's a VIP.
And the chef would screamEverybody's a fucking VIP.
You know it's like, oh, okay,everybody's VIP, so everything's
got to be great and it's just.
And I think that was where Ireally started to see that the
(08:49):
folks, the chefs that I workedfor, that were the most
successful, were the ones thatleverage their people.
They knew how to to garnerinfluence, they knew how to make
connections, you know, and theyuse those connections at the
same time to also, like, reallykeep an eye on things.
And you know, I worked for a guythat you know he'd go around
(09:12):
and I thought it was a niftything that he said good morning
to everybody.
But what I learned was not onlywas he saying good morning to
everybody, he was also lookingover their shoulders seeing what
their station looked like.
He was looking them in the eyeand going, oh, jimmy's got to
hang over.
This is going to be a rough dayon saute, you know.
And he pulled the suit, chef,and go, go sit on, jimmy, he's
(09:33):
going to, he's going to burn up,you know, or gosh, we had a
slow night.
There's a lot of prep on theline.
Let's really make sure thatfreshness is everything, but
learning wearing those littlethings right.
I worked for a chef and he wouldspend it 45 minutes before he
ever really talked to anybody inthe walk in and I was like,
what is he doing?
(09:53):
And he would touch everything,he would walk through and he
would just put his hand on a binof lettuce and he'd look at it
and he put it back up and hejust square everything up.
So when he walked out of thewalk in it was in perfect shape.
But that wasn't the thing thathe was doing.
What he was doing was takingvisual inventory, yeah, right,
and so again it's, it's startingto learn, like these great
(10:14):
habits that start to make thegears move, you know, and so
Continuing all along that sortof mindset was like, again, it's
the people, right, the guy whoyells, he gets results for a
couple days, the guy who calmsdown and just remembers to meter
(10:34):
his speech and speak clearly,people are just like, oh wow,
that's amazing, he's so calm andeverything's crazy.
And you know, it's likeunderstanding the people aspect.
Yeah, and that's what I reallytried to do as I got, as I
started to understand thatyelling wasn't going to work,
even though I that was modeledfor me for probably 15 years,
(10:55):
and then, like, starting to go,how am I going to get from being
a great worker to a goodmanager, you know?
And so that was.
I think that was a lot of how Iformed what I, what eventually
became culinary mechanic, andwhat I, what I teach now and now
like.
And so one of my, my ownpersonal mantra is they just
(11:16):
want to be led Right.
And I think that you talk allabout listening.
I listen to this podcast and Iread your content and it's about
leadership and it's, and it'sso funny to me that, like we all
, there's all this stuff andthere's all these great things,
but at the end of the day, Ithink if you just lead, if you
just like were to lead byexample, things would get 30%
(11:39):
better.
Christin Marvin (11:40):
It's certainly.
Yeah, I want to go back to startto interrupt you, but you,
there's so many important pointshere that you you've made and
and I want to touch on a coupleof them here when it comes to
culture and development,developing people you had
mentioned early on that.
You know, when you started outas a young chef, you thought it
was all about the creativefreedom and all about the menu
(12:00):
and I've experienced that a lotin my career to promoting chefs
from within line cook ready tobe come as soon it's.
It's hard because it's not allabout the menu, right, it's not
all about playing with food.
It's about par levels andordering and inventory and and
time management and motivatingthe line and showing up every
day Right, rested and and focusand ready to go and being
(12:23):
curious about how to work onyour equipment and you know when
things Right, being able towork on every single aspect of
the line and to dig out yourteam and break your team when
you need to recover shifts.
How did you cultivate thoseyounger chefs when you were in
the kitchen?
How did you grow them?
How did you develop them?
Simon Zatyrka (12:47):
I think I started by going, hey, I need this, I
need that.
Then I started to realize, if Iasked rather than told, first
of all, things are going to geteasier.
I developed this idea ofmanaging in or managing out, and
I never wanted to be managingout, because managing out was
always at arms length For me.
(13:09):
It was like for lack of abetter term it was like a big
hug.
I always wanted to pulleverybody in so that we're all
working on the same thing andall working together.
I would explain to people thatif they listen to me, their job
is going to get easier, becauseI'm not interested in making it
harder.
At no point am I going to gohey, I'm going to make your life
(13:30):
tougher.
My goal is to teach so that youget better.
Then at some point I realize,gosh, the more I teach and they
get better, the more I getbetter.
That just became a big circlefor me.
I would teach people to move up, and then, of course, it's like
(13:50):
all right, so you're thedishwasher, but now you can prep
.
I'll pay you a little more ifyou prep more.
Then how about if you go find abuddy and bring them in and
then they'll wash dishes and youcan prep.
At that point it's wash, rinse,repeat and just get more people
and oftentimes sometimes to thebenefit, sometimes to the
(14:12):
detriment I'd have seven friendsor seven family members because
they'd all bring their people.
Sometimes that was great,sometimes that was, oh my God.
The family went on vacation.
What do I?
Christin Marvin (14:23):
do now Every time they go on vacation.
You know it's coming too.
You know it's coming.
You know it's coming, it soundslike you, really were excited
about teaching and providingopportunities for people, but
showing them that in order forthose opportunities to exist,
they had to kind of help forlack of a better term help fill
their position, find theirreplacement so that they can
position themselves forsomething else.
(14:44):
Love that.
Simon Zatyrka (14:46):
I mean, I remember being in a kitchen in
Santa Barbara, california, andit was a four-seasons of all
things and the chef there was sorough on me, oh my God.
But he had this thing wherehe'd be like, if it's so slow
that you can do what you'redoing and stop, then you should
(15:07):
be learning what's happeningnext to you.
So there should never be amoment where you're not doing
something.
So if you're not doing yourlearning, he goes, because at
some point that guy is gonnascrew you and you're not gonna
know how to do it unless you'vefigured out.
Now you know, and you just soall of a sudden it's like, okay,
I've only got two steaks on thegrill.
(15:28):
What are you doing?
Oh, you're searing halibut.
Sweet, how do you do that?
Great, oh, not too much oil.
Oh, make sure you season it.
You know, and I was always theyounger guy for years.
Just, I was always the youngestin the kitchen.
I'm always trying.
So I'm working with these salty, salty cooks and sometimes they
teach me.
Sometimes they wouldn't, but Ilearned like pay attention to
(15:51):
what's next.
And so I instilled that in mycooks in as many kitchens as I
could.
It's like, hey, pay attentionto what's next to you, because
you never know what's gonnahappen and you don't wanna look
stupid right Like you have tofind their pride too.
Nobody wants to look stupid.
And guess what, if you can workevery station on the line, you
(16:16):
probably get to pick A, whatstation, b, what schedule, and
then, beyond that, like, who doyou?
I work best with that guy, soif you're the best, what am I
gonna do?
I'm gonna promote yourwellbeing over somebody else
who's not taking care of menearly as well, and it becomes
this meritocracy over and overand over, and so I just always
(16:40):
tried to like give peoplesomething to strive towards.
Christin Marvin (16:44):
Love it, I love it.
They could see what was infront of them.
That's great.
What was the highlight of yourcareer?
Simon Zatyrka (16:53):
Woo.
I mean, I think there was apoint in 2009 or 10, and I had
Devel, I had two Rockstar souschefs and then they took one
away and that AM sous chef sortof became just my sous chef,
(17:19):
like it was just to us, and wekept the same results, right,
profits were still going justthe way they had been.
Customer satisfaction was realhigh because it was a
corporation, so they weremeasuring all that stuff in
there, giving you that feedback.
So profits were good, peoplewere happy, guess, satisfaction
(17:39):
was happy.
It was only him and I and I'dhad two in the past and my team
sort of rallied to the cause anda couple of guys who were real
close.
They were just Rockstars butthey wanted to be lead.
They just did all the littlethings.
And then I got a knock on thedoor from one of the regional
(18:00):
directors and he said I'm takingyour sous chef because he's
ready to be a chef.
And I was like at first Ithought man, I thought okay, and
so we went on the hunt and theygave me a month or two to find
a new guy and I found a new guy,we got him in, we got him
trained and the results stayedthe same right, like the profit
(18:20):
was there, the guess,satisfaction was there.
I was super proud of the foodon a daily basis and I thought
to myself huh, I'm leading, Ican take out a big piece, and
I'm still leading and we'restill doing well, and my team is
supporting the new piece of theand I thought this is what
you're supposed to do.
(18:40):
This is like what it's supposedto be.
You're supposed to be able totake out a section of it or a
piece, and it still goes.
And within a few weeks I meanI'm not gonna say it was perfect
, but within a few weeks, fewmonths I was able to get back to
my sort of my regular scheduleand I go home and like place
(19:01):
didn't fall apart, didn't burndown, I felt like I was winning.
Christin Marvin (19:06):
Yeah, I mean, there's such an important lesson
here, right, as so manyrestaurants are still struggling
to get staffed, and I think theawesome thing about that story
is that you could have looked atthat as a low point and said
now I'm fucked, I'm shortstaffed, I've just lost one of
my managers.
What am I gonna do?
How are we going to both workall these hours and maintain
these standards?
(19:26):
And yet you saw it as anopportunity to rally your team
and to excel, and it sounds likethat's exactly what happened.
And then, of course, your souschef got promoted, which is the
goal right?
That's what every great leaderwants, even though that
transition is always a littlesticky.
Simon Zatyrka (19:45):
Because the new guy wasn't nearly as good as the
old guy and there was a reasonhe was getting promoted.
But he was good and he listenedand what was most important was
that he trusted me enough totrust my team.
Right, my team wouldn't let himdown because they weren't gonna
let me down.
They were pretty after.
At that point they'd been withme for probably four years and
(20:07):
it was one of those like okay,here we go, this is the next
thing.
Christin Marvin (20:11):
What do you think was the key to retaining
your team for four years?
That's a long time, so I justwanted to tell this quick story
to our awesome guy.
Simon Zatyrka (20:17):
He did this month he told his team that he was
doing something.
I dumb luck.
Christin Marvin (20:23):
No.
Simon Zatyrka (20:25):
No, no, no, no.
I mean, you know, like I couldprobably tell you some stuff,
and some of it is just we pay.
We tried to pay a decent rateand I always tried to make it a
safe place to go and just rockout.
You know, I or somewhere alongthe way, somebody said to me,
(20:48):
you know, like, oh, leave yourbaggage at the door.
And I kind of didn't love that.
I was like that's implying somestuff and I don't need to imply
anything.
How about this?
When you walk into my kitchen,like everything that was
bothering you today doesn't haveto bother you because you don't
have to worry about that Likejust come in and this is a good,
safe place and we're just goingto like bang out some food
(21:10):
because this is a busyrestaurant.
I would say four, four, 50 wasan average Thursday evening and
it got a little bigger fromthere on the weekends, and so
the teams had to be, you know,they had to be locked in and
really ready to rock and roll,um and I.
So, I think, because we werebusy when other and, mind you,
this was like 2008, 2009, 2010when everybody in the country
(21:36):
was like there was redeverywhere red in profits, red
in customer counts and mycustomer counts stayed solid, my
profits stayed in the black andwe just we just kept crushing.
You know, um, and we were lucky.
I mean you just it felt.
It felt like a good mix of luckand just grit and determination
.
But keeping the people wasabout making sure that they had
(22:00):
what they needed right, and Ilearned to listen there.
When I first got there, I wasnothing short of an asshole on
certain days, you know, and Iand I and I it was my first real
executive chef job but I waslike, okay, I'm going to do this
.
And then I learned real fast.
If I just communicated more, ifI just used like some magic
(22:21):
words, just so you're aware, ifI did that, then people knew
what was going on and they knewwhat to expect and it worked.
So there's a little bit of luckin there.
It's like, okay, I think thisis what I've been, this is what
I've been training for years for.
I'm going to try a couple ofthings and a couple of things
didn't work.
(22:41):
And I think initially I was toofar in my own head and once I
got out of my head, um, and Ireally like I listened and and
people knew that, like if therewas a problem, they could come
to me and I I'd say, well, youbetter go deal with your family.
And they'd say, really, chef,and I'm like the guys and I will
, will, will, will close the gap, you know, and I'd go work the
(23:02):
line for an evening so thatsomebody could go take care of
his little brother, hisgirlfriend or whatever.
That would be Um and and I, andagain, I think we just we
created in that space and time agood, safe place to go and like
earn money and and rock out andnot have to worry about the
outside world.
Christin Marvin (23:22):
Yeah, I mean, I love it sounds like you were so
innovative in 2008, 2009.
And we talk about this a lot inin on the LinkedIn world, right
, and with our clients, but alot of the restaurants that are
seeing really high turnoverdon't had, they have not created
that safe environment like youdid, and they're not remembering
that they're hiring the wholehuman.
When they hire somebody, right,you can't but that old school
(23:46):
leave your shit at the door.
I was brought up in thatculture and it doesn't work.
It didn't work then and itdoesn't work now, and I think
you know people that areentering the workforce these
days don't want that.
They want to be able to show up.
However, they're showing up andknow that somebody's there to
listen to them.
And obviously you've alwaysthere's got to be a balance,
(24:09):
right, you've got to get thework done, but you humanized
everything about your team,which is just awesome, so kudos
to you.
Simon Zatyrka (24:21):
I, you know, call it being the product of hippie
parents, you know.
Christin Marvin (24:26):
I love it.
So let's talk a little bitabout where this idea for
culinary mechanic came from.
What was that transition foryou out of kitchens into being a
solopreneur?
Simon Zatyrka (24:40):
Holy cow, let's see.
Well, we had this little thinghappen in 2020.
And you know, to call it a testof metal would be like for me
an understatement.
2020 was okay, right, Like ohgosh, what do we do?
(25:02):
Like, I'm laid off, I'm back towork.
I'm furloughed, I'm back towork.
I think I had two layoffs thatyear, Going back to work in 2021
.
And I happened to be working fora company that had prepared,
that had been really ramping upthe to go mechanism, and back in
17, 18 and 19, we spentcountless hours refining all of
(25:26):
the systems that worked for theUber Eats and the Door Dashes
and the Grubhubs and all of thatstuff, and we got on with toast
and we got everythingconsolidated and integrated and
all those things.
And we I mean the company evenhad a and I'm getting off track,
but I promise I'll get backthey custom coded a printer that
(25:51):
would give you little stickylittle things.
That went on every single itemand it was the system that
you're now seeing itcommercially available.
But back then it was like wayahead of its time and so when we
came out of the pandemic orcame through it in 2021, we were
(26:12):
so busy, but we've lost six orseven chefs out of the total 21.
We had seven restaurants, soevery restaurant had a chef and
two sous chefs, and we were downseven by the end of 2021,.
I had trained nine new souschefs, trained or promoted, and
I was running at like theproverbial chicken with my head
(26:34):
cut off.
My it, just it taxed everythingI had physically and mentally.
You know I had I've had lessthan great knees for 30 years
because of youth, and they werejust hitting this point where my
wife was like really you're,you're really going to keep
(26:55):
doing this, and so I kind of hadher behind me poking me a
little bit going.
You know there's, there's gotto be a better way for you to
make a living.
There's got to be a way for youto make a living without being
gone from the house for 50, 60,70 hours a week.
There's got to be a way for youto like make a living and not
(27:15):
be so depleted, Right.
And so you know that, coupledwith some some sort of high
level staffing changes withinthe company I was working, I
just started seeing that like,okay, I'm heading towards 50.
The body is not loving thecurrent state of the Ram and Jam
(27:36):
sort of thing.
Uh it's, I'm not having, I'mnot having fun.
And this is where it really.
That's where it really stuck,Because my wife was saying, yeah
, you're less than fun to hangaround, I'm not having fun at
work, and that was alwayssomething that was important to
me.
For at that point, 32 years, youknow like no, I have fun at
(27:58):
work, People have fun workingfor me, this isn't fun.
I'm not seeing smiling faces,I'm grinding people.
I'm going to make a change andso, finally, I think I just hit
a real spot of burnout and I Iknew it was there, but I didn't
know how, like how many layersof skin I'd burnt Right.
(28:18):
So I figured it out, at mywife's urging, but also knowing
that it was the right thing forme, and so I took what was it
initially going to be?
I'll take a month off and thenI'll start looking for a job.
And then my wife looked at meand said how about if you take
two and if that's working andeverything's okay with the
(28:42):
wallet and the pocketbook?
Christin Marvin (28:43):
then maybe you take a little more.
Everybody's jealous of yourwife right now.
Simon Zatyrka (28:52):
And so and it's important to note, she was
working from home and so tooksome time off hired a.
I actually hired a careertransition coach I'll give a
shout out to Happy Spectacularand their whole thing is happy
at work, spectacular life.
And I had a coach and he justhelped me kind of like sift
(29:15):
through the rubble that was mybrain at the time and we talked
about what my purpose is and wasand how that may have changed
over the years and the valuesthat were important to me and I
kind of got clear about what Iwanted and I started looking for
a job and I was aiming towards,like tech Right, I was aiming
(29:36):
towards doing some customersuccess work for a tech company
that was parallel orperpendicular to restaurant
operations I think restaurant365, even toast I was looking at
.
And then, I don't know, theuniverse just kind of opened up
and said here, try this.
(29:56):
And I got a phone call from alady who said I've been talking
to her for a couple months.
She was actually working fortoast but she had a friend and
that friend was a consultant andhe was looking for somebody to
cost a menu.
And I got on the phone with himand he's like you come talk to
(30:16):
me and maybe we can just getthis project taken care of.
He goes I'm better with thehigh level stuff.
I don't really.
I'm not in the kitchen.
He goes.
What I hear is you're real goodwith this stuff.
And I said well, I really likethe numbers.
Let's do a thing.
Got going, started askingquestions, you know, looking at
the operation, just trying tounderstand what they were doing
(30:41):
and trying to get all theinformation I needed to cost
that menu.
And in the process of askingquestions, the owner of this
company, who it happens to havefour units, says you know,
you've really hit on some thingsthat are not good about our
operation and I really like towork on them.
Would you want to be willing tocome do some more work with us?
(31:03):
And I was like sure, why not?
And got going a month or two inAgain, universe tapped me on
the forehead and said here andit was honest dumb luck Like a
guy I know that was a CFO,somebody called him for some
advice around you know inventorymanagement systems.
(31:28):
And he said you know I don'thave any bandwidth to help you
right now, but I know a guy whodoes.
So I talked to this guy.
Next thing I know I'm workingon the guy's POS system because
he needed somebody to do thatand he had me.
He wanted me to look around athis purchasing and look around
(31:49):
at some of the other fundamentalsystems of his organization.
And so I did and gave him someanswers and asked some questions
and kept going.
And then another person calledand said hey, would you be
willing to come and talk to mychef and sous chef?
They need some leadership.
And I hear you're the guy to doit.
(32:09):
And it was just anotherreferral.
And right about that time we'renow crossing like December 2022.
So I go okay, we're getting tothe end, I've collected some
money.
I'm going to have to figure outa thing Like okay.
So I, you know again, it's like, what do I call it?
Oh, all right, we're going tocall it a culinary mechanic.
And so, magically, I entered2023.
(32:33):
And here I am, I've got threeclients and I've got a company,
and it's a company of one, butit's company nevertheless.
Right, I feel official.
It says LLC at the end yeah,and you are, yeah.
Christin Marvin (32:51):
I mean, and you are posting incredible,
incredible tips and are reallyjust a thought leader in your
field.
Love what you're posting onLinkedIn.
You just launched your podcast.
Will you tell us a little bitabout that?
Simon Zatyrka (33:04):
Yeah.
So when I quit work, I was like, oh, I'm going to do a podcast.
One big problem.
I know nothing about them.
So I started down the road,like you know, and I was like
I'm going to be, I'm going to doa podcast.
I've listened to maybe twopodcasts in my life but it
sounds like a good idea.
Right, like okay, I got stuffto say you know I'm a chatty guy
(33:26):
, so you know, fast forward to Idon't know nine months down the
road oh, farther I guess and Iwas like I'm going to be, like I
think we're in a great positionto be talking about your year,
year plus um to just the lastcouple months where I'm just
like, hmm, I was thinking I,maybe, maybe I should pick up
(33:49):
that podcast idea.
And I was talking with a guy whoI was helping um, just through
networking, meeting people,because he's an IT tech guy and
he wants to kind of understandhow to position himself, and so
I feel like I'm getting good atthat, having done it right, and
so I'm talking about it and ithelps, helping him helps me, and
(34:12):
he stops me in the middle ofthis and his name is Joe and Joe
says have you ever thoughtabout doing a podcast and I was
like, no, why, like whoa, wheredid that come from?
We were just talking aboutpositioning and marketing and
he's like you just took this bigball of a problem and a concept
and I felt like within secondswe were on the floor building
(34:34):
simple blocks.
He goes.
That was amazing.
He goes and the sound you'relike you just, and you made it
compelling and I wanted to learnhow to build blocks with what
you had and sit on the floor, hegoes.
You got to do a podcast and Iwas like huh, huh, recurring
themes, okay, and so I juststarted to think about it and I
(34:54):
started to think about whatmattered to me and by this point
now I listened probably three,four podcasts a week and I try
to just grab as much as I canand I love hearing A, I love a
story.
B, I love chefs.
It is the culture that I'm infor a reason, at 30 something
(35:15):
years in the business, I lovewhat we stand for, I love the
way our brains work becausewe're different, and I realized
I wanted to tell stories or havepeople tell me stories of a
combination of that around whatchefs do.
But we're not gonna.
I didn't wanna just like, allright, let's just go to the top
(35:37):
of the list and find the JamesBeard Award winners and find all
those guys, cause I think thatthat's whatever.
There's people doing that,right?
So what is the next thing?
Well, I wanna find chefs thatare doing different things.
I wanna find chefs that spent 20years in the business and then
went off and became a recruiterand like how does the mentality
of a chef, how does the ethos ofa chef, how does all of that
(36:02):
stuff translate into great workethic in other places?
How does being starting as acook and moving along the line
and then becoming a private chefor a country club chef cause
don't talk about country clubchefs, right?
So we used to talk aboutcountry club chefs.
Is that's how you go to retire?
(36:22):
But I know a guy who's down inSouth Carolina and he's running
two of the most like progressive, innovative restaurants where
they're doing current, up todate food, because the folks are
young enough to appreciate it,right, because it's a younger
community, and so that privateclub thing is evolving, and so
there's just all these differentlike chef journeys and that's
(36:44):
what it's called.
It's chef journeys and thatwe're gonna highlight and talk
about and help.
Maybe it helps other cooks,other chefs, understand what's
possible.
Maybe it takes the civilians inthe world that have never been
in a restaurant and helps themunderstand that there's more to
(37:06):
life than just food, where it'sput together with tweezers and
microgreens and fancy cool stuff, but like that there's chefs
that are doing all sorts ofthings out there.
And I think that that's what'sthat show.
Dirty jobs, right.
Like I wanna be a mixture ofdirty jobs and telling a chef
(37:29):
story, Like just sort of there'smore to it than celebrity chefs
.
There's like the anti-glamorousthing.
Christin Marvin (37:36):
Yeah, I love it .
So the podcast is called Chef'sJourney, and where can
listeners find your podcast?
Simon Zatyrka (37:44):
All right, just this past week I got it all, so
we're on Apple Podcasts andGoogle Podcasts and Spotify and
Amazon.
Wait, the way they say it, theway I always hear it, is
wherever you find podcasts.
Christin Marvin (37:58):
Yes, that's what I said.
I love it I love it.
Simon Zatyrka (38:04):
So it's there.
But I'm also starting to take.
I'm also recording everythingin video and I'm dropping the
interview episodes on YouTube soyou can find my first couple
episodes both on YouTube underCulinary Mechanic is what you
need to search for, but they'rethere.
(38:25):
I intend to do a little bit.
I think that my journey willget thrown in there in solo
episodes.
I also have this concept forthe occasional episode of Uncle
Simon's storytelling time,Because there's just a ton of
good stories about chefs andkitchens and the culture, for
(38:49):
better or for worse.
Christin Marvin (38:50):
Absolutely so.
Will you talk a little bit moreabout who again for listeners
listening to this, who's theideal client for Culinary
Mechanic?
Who do you want to help?
Simon Zatyrka (39:03):
Wow, that is such a good question.
I really want to help therestaurant owner, the restaurant
company proprietor.
It's got a couple ofrestaurants, Maybe it's two
restaurants, three restaurants.
Likely they don't have acorporate chef, but they maybe
(39:26):
need somebody to guide theirchefs along.
I think it's really easy tohave a couple of restaurants and
get things going and well, noteasy, but you got to get things
going.
All of a sudden you're notseeing necessarily the best
results, whether they befinancial or for whatever reason
.
You hire the sous chef thatwasn't 100% ready to lead.
(39:48):
Now they're the chef and theyneed a little help with their
leadership.
Perhaps they need just a littlebit of coaching around like,
hey, let's help you manage yourtime so that you have time to
manage your people, so that youcan create a culture that keeps
(40:09):
people around.
I'm trying to work withrestaurant companies small to
mediums and restaurant companiessmall to medium hotel companies
that have chefs that need alittle pull along.
Maybe you need a mentor figureto just make sure that they've
got what they need to succeed.
(40:30):
I think that almost anybody canrun a restaurant when it's
running well.
Running it when it starts tosputter or do some weird things
is altogether different.
I've got a wealth of experiencewhere I've seen small ones and
big ones and purple ones andfunny ones and sad ones.
(40:52):
I've seen some great operationsand I've also seen some really
troubled operations.
So I think what I can bring topeople is the ability to
troubleshoot and help people geton the right track, Whether
that's inventory management,writing a good recipe or just
like, hey, be nice to people.
Christin Marvin (41:13):
Yeah, we need more of that in the world, don't
we?
Simon Zatyrka (41:17):
Yeah.
Christin Marvin (41:17):
Well, simon, can't thank you enough for
coming on the show, reallyreally appreciate it and would
love to have you back at anypoint.
Thank you.
We can dive deeper into culture, into how systems create
culture, impact culture.
I mean gosh, there's so manytopics we could talk about for
sure.
Absolutely.
Would you tell listeners howthey can?
Where can they find you?
(41:37):
How can they get ahold of you?
Simon Zatyrka (41:40):
The easiest way is culinarymechaniccom.
I'm on LinkedIn every day whatseems like all day, but it isn't
really so.
If you want to find me onLinkedIn, that's really easy.
You can go to my website andkind of check out the fun stuff
(42:00):
we're doing there.
There's links to the podcastfrom there.
I need to do one quick plug orunmasked capitalism, and that is
.
I've just started a merch storeso you can get things that say
culinary mechanic on them andget things I'm in love with
bacon, so you can get shirts andhats.
Christin Marvin (42:20):
You've got an awesome.
That's the one that say bacon.
You're wearing one right nowfor people that can't see.
It's a pretty awesome shirt.
Simon Zatyrka (42:27):
The letters are four inches tall, because what
else do you want but baconacross your chest?
And so that's.
The easiest way to find me isculinarymechaniccom or on
LinkedIn.
Christin Marvin (42:40):
Awesome.
All right, simon.
Thank you so much.
Okay, everybody subscribe andlisten each week.
Like Simon said, wherever youfind your podcasts, and be sure
to follow me on LinkedIn atKristen dash Marvin.
We will see you next week.
Thanks, everybody.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.