The standards, the culture, and the unglamorous decisions that separate a leader from a boss. Food cost, building a team, managing your own name, and what to do when it all goes sideways. Written for the chef who just got the keys and has nobody to ask.
Everything nobody teaches you on the line. How to set up a station, how to keep up when it gets loud, how to find a mentor worth having, and what it actually takes to move up to sous. The handbook I wish I had my first year.
Two chefs, one kitchen, and every bad habit you have seen on a line. A story, not a manual, though you will recognize yourself in it. Read it and decide which one you are.
Sun Tzu, applied to a kitchen. Concept, opening, service, and the politics that decide whether any of it survives. Strategy for chefs who are tired of reacting.
The chaos continues. In this sequel to Bad Sous, Good Chef, Alex goes deeper into the business and further from the exit. Humor, grit, and the lessons this industry only teaches the hard way.
Also available in: Español
Talent gets you hired; attitude gets you promoted. This is the missing manual on professional kitchen conduct. Learn the unwritten rules of behavior that separate the pros from the amateurs. Stop guessing what your chef wants and start acting like the leader they need to run the line.
Capture your genius before it fades. Designed for professional use, this 6×9 journal gives you the structure to track ingredients, methods, and flavor profiles on the fly. Whether you’re refining a nightly special or building a full menu, this is the essential tool to document your craft.
FREE KITCHEN TOOLS & RESOURCES
Every kitchen has a hierarchy. Adapted from Robert Greene’s classic and the podcast series it became, this manual covers the unspoken rules of power. How to earn influence, handle the politics, and move up without losing the room. Play the game, or the game plays you.
A compendium of kitchen wisdom. This concise guide collects the 50 most powerful lessons from the Chef’s PSA podcast into one essential handbook. From mindset to management, these are the “Golden Rules” that define successful chefs. Download it, read it, and keep your standards high.
Profitability is not luck. It is math. This guide strips food cost down to formulas you can actually run: where inventory leaks, where waste hides, and how to protect a margin. Sous chef or owner, the numbers are what keep the doors open.
Over 100 terms and pieces of jargon you will hear in a professional kitchen, defined in plain language. Mise en place, bain-marie, GBD, and the rest of the vocabulary nobody stops to explain.
We built it because those are the questions we get asked most. It is free.
These recipes were written using AI with my guidance. I wanted to give something back, so here are 100 basics most chefs and cooks need: stocks, sauces, pasta, meats, pastry.
Moving this industry forward takes open sharing of recipes. This is my attempt at starting that.
Warning: these were written with AI. The ingredients and methods are sound, but the quantities may have errors. Cook with your head up.
From idea to open doors, in order. Concept, financials, staffing, marketing, and the sequence that keeps a build from stalling out.
The path I would follow if I were opening tomorrow, drawn from the ones I have opened already.