Director of Operations for Aramark

I always tell my sous chefs that you’re only as good as your team. When you’re young and early on in your career, you feel like you could do it all, like you’re invincible. You must take time to develop your team because you’re only going to be as good as them. If you lead your people properly, everything else will fall in line – capturing costs, productivity, and delivering on financial commitments – because your people are going to take care of all of that.

I knew this profession was right for me and continues to be when I see reactions from guests and consumers. When you have a passion for something and then see the end result of people truly enjoying what you create and appreciating it, it’s satisfying. The second part of knowing this field is right for me is that I’m able to train and develop younger culinarians and their career growth.

I look for passion. You must have passion, because if you don’t have passion for this industry and the grit that goes along with it, you’re not going to make it. You can learn about cooking and come out knowing everything, but if you don’t have passion, you’re not going to be teachable. At the end of the day, it’s a rough business, so you have to have passion for it. If you don’t, it’s not going to work for you.

There has to be consistency in leadership no matter what, and that relates to everything, even parenting. If you’re not going to be consistent, you’re not going to have the result you need.