Andre Natera – The Culinary Yoda

I think what I'm most proud of as a chef is the people that I've worked under me. The different people that I've seen come up from a cook right out of culinary school or maybe even a cook with no culinary school that maybe grows into a sous chef position or an executive chef position or a chef de cuisine position. I would say that the investment in the people and mentoring people and seeing them grow is probably what I'm most proud of. I’m most proud of the people that I've worked with. There's no personal accomplishment that I have that I would say is greater than the accomplishment in investing in people. It's probably been the greatest reward in my career. Andre Natera What we covered in this episode He wanted to be a professional fighter when he was younger.He was offered at the same time to turn pro or get his first Head Chef position.As he "needed to be a responsible adult" and had to feed his family, he decided to pass on the professional fighter career and he became a Chef.There was a similar social hierarchy in the locker rooms and the kitchen back then when he started. He fit right in.Chef Natera went to culinary school in 1995.The Fairmont Hotel in Austin as several food and beverage concepts which keep him engaged and creative."Revue" has an Italian kitchen, an Asian kitchen, a raw bar, and a dessert station. "Garrison" is the fine dining restaurant. The concept is built around fire. Everything has an element of smoke or char."Fulton" is the lobby bar, focusing on small bites and craft cocktails."Good Things" is a grab-and-go coffee shop."In-room dining"."Rules and Regs" is the 7th-floor bar focusing on Mexican flavors. Chef Andre Natera describes some of the main differences that exist between being a Chef at a restaurant and a Chef at a hotel.Back in the 80's the popular cooking show on TV was "Great Chefs of the World" that inspired a generation of people in culinary school to become Chefs at hotels and country clubs because these Chefs on TV were Chefs at famous hotels around the world. Then the shift happened with restaurant Chefs on Food Network. No one wanted to work at hotels any longer and you saw an end of an era.Today, because of the economics it takes to run a restaurant things are changing a bit.Chef Andre Natera gives advice to young people who want to become a Chef.For him, a lot of his creative process comes from isolation and then the collaborative process starts.He is a member of the MENT'OR  BKB organization.The Chefs that Chef Andre Natera looks up to are Chef Thomas Keller, Chef René Redzepi, and Chef Dean Fearing.His leadership style evolved over time and depends on the level of the person in the kitchen.Discipline is critical in the kitchen. Discipline is the means to deliver a result by doing the right things and not the punishment.Chef Andre Natera talks about the great aspects of being a Chef (creativity, leadership, mentorship) and open the veil as well on some of the dark sides of being a Chef.5 rapid-fire questions Links to other episodes in Austin Conversation with 3 Chefs in Austin (Chef Andre Natera, Chef Kevin Fink, and Chef Fiore Tedesco) - Vol 1Conversation with 3 Chefs in Austin (Chef Andre Natera, Chef Kevin Fink, and Chef Fiore Tedesco) - Vol 2 Chef Michael Fojtasek from Olamaie If you are interested in discovering more about the Austin restaurant scene, check out these two additional episodes by clicking on the respective pictures:   Chef Michael Fojtasek from Olamaie and Chef Fiore Tedesco from L'Oca d'Oro.  Chef Fiore Tedesco from L'Oca d'Oro Chef Andre Natera's recipes with eggplants. The way we prepare our eggplants here is we confit them in some oil and then we grill them. I really like the technique of keeping them in some sort of fat. Now this is where you can get creative so if you have the technique of confit the eggplant in fat. Well then you can change your medium up so you can use olive oil or you could use a neutral oil but you could also use duck fat. You could use tallow beef tallow you could maybe use chicken schmaltz to confit your eggplant so you could impart some of that meaty flavor. And then after it's confit you can add your aromatics in there so you know bay leaves or citrus or whatever the case may be.And then we have a wood burning grill so I take the eggplants and I put it on the grill. During the summer spring great for barbecuing. But if you don't have a grill maybe you could put that in a cast iron pan and get some caramelization on them and then just serving it with a beautiful sauce in our case here we we do a romesco sauce but you know a salsa verde or something like that or chimichuri would lend itself very well to that grilled smoky charred eggplant and really creamy on the inside with you know because it's been confit in some fat. #gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Caviar Chips at Garrison Austin Octopus Garrison Fairmont Austin Wagyu Garrison Restaurant Fairmont Austin Fairmont hotel outside Austin Garrison entrance Fairmont Hotel Austin Chef Andre Natera and @flavorsunknown Fairmont bar Austin Poached Atlantic Cod At Garrison Austin. Click to tweet The hierarchy kind of works the same in professional fighting. [At the training room] you only give crap down. You're not allowed to speak negatively up. There was a lot of that same mentality in kitchens when I started. Click To Tweet For me, the creative process is often done in isolation. But a lot the ideas that spring forth from isolation comes from collaborative discussions. Click To Tweet There's no personal accomplishment that I have that I would say is greater than the accomplishment in investing in people. Click To Tweet In order for me to get better results, I had to look back on my career and realized that there was a direct correlation with my attitude and my leadership style to the results that had nothing to do with my culinary ability. Click To Tweet There's a lot of pressure on a chef to perform. And I'm not sure people recognize that. Click To Tweet Social media Chef Andre Natera Twitter Instagram Linkedin Social media Fairmont Hotel Austin Instagram Links mentioned in this episode Fairmont Hotel AustinGarrison restaurant at the FairmontRevue restaurant at the FairmontThomas KellerRené Redzepi Dean FearingRamen Tatsu-yaOlamaieEmmer & RyeJuniper