Leadership Lessons from a Chef: Finding Time to Be Great » (1st Edition)

Charles M. Carroll, CEC, AAC, is the Executive Chef at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, which is among the top country clubs in the United States. He has received over seventy national and international awards, including three Presidential Medallions from the American Culinary Federation. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Carroll was the manager of the 2004 United States Regional Culinary Olympic Team, which won three gold medals and was ranked third internationally. Before joining River Oaks, Carroll held executive chef positions at Rochester, New York's Oak Hill Country Club and The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in New Hampshire.

"Chef Charles Carroll has answered our prayers and delivered a book, a bible, a life's journal shared by a real chef in today's modern kitchen."
Chef John Folse, CEC, AAC

"From time to time, I buy motivational books for my managing partners and chefs, and this book is my all-time favorite gift. What Chef Carroll has to say is the real thing."
Johnny Carrabba, founder, Carrabba's Restaurant

A unique guide to leadership in the culinary arena, by a chef for chefs

Leadership Lessons from a Chef is about creating excellence in the professional kitchen. Here the difference between good and great comes down to the details, and attention to these details comes from the right attitude reaching across all staff. A good culinary manager, according to author and award-winning Certified Executive Chef Charles Carroll, skillfully cultivates this attitude for success, and so leads the way toward kitchen excellence.

Using stories and examples drawn from his many years' experience, Chef Carroll gives you a leader's tour through the working kitchen. Offering proven wisdom in plainspoken terms instead of abstract management theories, the practical tools and ideas found in this groundbreaking book can be used immediately to motivate and develop an effective team environment among kitchen staffs.

Leadership Lessons from a Chef features:

• Chef Carroll's formula for managing kitchen staffsSEF: Scheduling, Empowering, and Follow upand how the formula works in practice
• Take-away boxes that reinforce key points
• Chapters that progress logically, helping you evaluate and refine your goals, develop a mission and principles, andimplement these in a motivational and positive way
• Helpful forms for both greater efficiency and esprit de corps
• Inspiring quotations, as well as life and work tips from Chef Carroll

Whether you're a student just starting your culinary education, or an executive chef seeking to take your operation to a whole new level of excellence, Leadership Lessons from a Chef is an indispensable resource for all stages of your culinary career.

Foreword.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

About the Author.

Chapter 1: What Makes You Tick?

Chapter 2: Testing the Kitchen Atmosphere.

Chapter 3: How Is Your Attitude?

Chapter 4: Build Your Leadership Team First.

Chapter 5: What Is Your Mission?

Chapter 6: The Principles That Guide Us.

Chapter 7: Program Survival: Living It!

Chapter 8: Educational Environment.

Chapter 9: Fostering Success.

Chapter 10: How to Get People to Want to Work for You.

Chapter 11: Hire Right the First Time.

Chapter 12: Incentive Programs.

Chapter 13: Discipline and Competition.

Chapter 14: Did You Listen Well the First Time?

Chapter 15: Forms to Help You.

Chapter 16: Why Do It?

Appendix A: Certificates and Forms.

Appendix B: Life and Work Tips from Chef Carroll.

Appendix C: A Collection of Quotations.

Glossary.

Index.