Here's a video of Chef Josh Wahler from 5300 Chophouse at The Blue in Doral. You may have seen him in our Behind The Line post about the Sunbox Winery Dinner he co-cheffed, you may have seen him as a contestant on Hell's Kitchen, or you may have seen him at 5300 Chophouse, where he runs the show. Chef Josh recently took the time to talk with Short Order about cooking in the International Business District and why he loves his staff. Here's what he had to say...
"Pretty much the deal right now is that me and my two sous chefs, Timothy Hughes and William Lopez-Guerrero, do everything. Between the three of us we do room service, fine dining, banquets, everything, 24 hours a day. We use humor to get through it, everything becomes a joke, like 'where's the duck leg? Oh it's here, no it's there,' and then it'll be right in front of you. The humor takes over, we don't get mad, we don't get sad, we just laugh.
We got a smoker recently so now it's like we're six years old having a cookout and all we're missing is marshmallows and we don't have them, but we should. Everything smells like smoke everywhere we go.
We create an environment that none of us have ever worked in before. We all come from super corporate backgrounds, so we created like a Utopia for chefs because it's just us 3 and so it's like comedy central all the time, and you can quote me on that. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I have the most amazing sous chefs anybody could ever ask for. When I'm not there I know everything is on point, and I work 15 hours a day. I've got a team that any chef would die for. I make sure my guys have lives, have their time with their families, at this point I'm willing to sacrifice mine for them to have theirs. We've all gone without in other schedules. I wanna run a different type of kitchen.
We're a fuckin' team and it's the little things in life that make all the difference and at the end of the day when you're sweaty, and greasy, and you gotta come back to work in a few hours, there's just two words that make it alright and that's "thank you." I say that everyday to every steward, dishwasher, cook, server, everybody. I walk up and shake their hand and say "thanks" cause when you're out here in Miami in the Summertime workin your balls off and you know you're not getting a raise til fall when the season starts then the appreciation for the job you do is all you got."