Motivational Theory in Hospitality Management

Motivational Theory in Hospitality Management

Critical Book Review: Hospitality Industry

Psaltis, Doug. (2005). The Seasoning of a Chef. With Michael Psaltis. New York:

Broadway Books.

Synthesis

Doug Psaltis' book the Seasoning of a Chef is a memoir and an insider's account of working in almost every type of restaurant kitchen imaginable. It details the joys and also the difficulties of working in the restaurant industry. Even as a ten-year-old boy carrying heavy bags of potatoes in his grandfather's diner, Psaltis early on learned the importance of value, good service, and the frantic pace of the restaurant industry. Also Psaltis had ambitions to become a great chef, and possessed a passionate interest in food. He has worked in many restaurants, from diners to the finest establishments in his career.

Although the book is a chronological memoir, Psaltis also provides advice for budding chefs and restaurateurs, such as the need to sample a wide variety of types of foods, to understand the complexities of different flavor palates, and above all that people in the hospitality industry must go abroad at some point to sample how different cuisines and restaurants function around the world. To further his own education, he worked in the French kitchen of Alain Ducasse, located in the palatial Hotel de Paris, which he describes as a place that worked seamlessly, where everyone was in constant motion, but never rushed because they all know their assigned tasks, from runners to cooks.

Psaltis went on to work for Ducasse in New York, as a grunt worker in Alain Ducasse New York, and then head chef of Mix. He remained impressed by Ducasse's attention to detail and rigid chain of command, in the traditional French manner. When Psaltis ran a station for Ducasse, he had to accept responsibility for everything went wrong, whether it was his fault or not.

Psaltis also worked at Bouely Bakery, which was similarly run in a very precise and rigid fashion. He said he was frustrated at times that he could not be a chef, but felt more like just a cook, because everything was so precisely regimented to make things efficient and to keep down costs. Then Psaltis describes his experiences working at the esteemed French Laundry under the hand of Thomas Keller as a dream job gone horribly wrong, because of the disorganization in setting up a new system at the restaurant. This experience was very different from his earlier work at restaurants that had more standardized procedures already in place, but helped him appreciate the need to make a restaurant kitchen work as smoothly as clockwork

Position Statement