Food for Thought: Deploying kindness Pt 1. Patience
Before we dive too here I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero. Haters shall hate, but anyways, I share this because I want to preface this conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness.
Hi there,
Before we dive too deep I need to confess something - I have very little patience, myself. Some might say zero patience. Haters shall hate, but anyways….I share this to preface our conversation by saying being eternally patient is a lifelong practice and takes lots of time and self awareness. Self awareness comes with experiencing life so take it easy on yourself through this personal journey. If our “perfect self” is always a day ahead of us then we’ll never stop growing and that’s a beautiful thing.
Congrats on being a business owner. If your juggling that with being a mother, father, husband, or wife Mazel-freakin- tov to you. You are truly a miracle worker and might even have more to offer here than i do. For me, being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is truly a balancing act. You have a vision for your company. You know how you want to execute it. You hire a team of fine folks to help you execute it. And they’re doing a great job, by all means….BUT, they aren’t doing as good of a job as you could do, or as you envisioned it in your head. First of all Charlie, hold your bloody horses. You’re the head honcho. You’re the reason everyone is there. It’s YOUR visions and YOUR ideas. Of course no one is going to execute your ideas with the same level of passion as you would. The business isn’t their baby like it is yours. That leads us to our first tip in practicing patience.
Setting the Proper Expectations…
..or better yet, don’t set any at all. Human beings are not robots. They make mistakes and where there is margin for error, of any degree, ultimately and inevitably error will follow. You have two choices: to live in the reality being experienced and “react” instead of “predict”, or live in the altruistic place in your mind that rarely ever comes to fruition in real life. Either way, the burden of those thoughts will weigh only on your shoulders and responding poorly to employee error will only negatively affect how that employee interacts with customers throughout the day.
Accepting the “blame”
Wether you like it or not, everything that happens in your business is your fault. All of it. The employee that rang out a customer incorrectly. The customer that wrongfully yelled at one of your employees. It’s all your fault. Being comfortable in the present means being able to take ownership over every single thing that happens in your business, navigating tough decisions in real time, and being able to live with those decisions. If you made the right decision, great. If you made the wrong decision, adjust your plan and move forward. Once you’re able to accept blame you’ll be able to make decisions for your company much more efficiently and to the benefit of you and your employees.
The umbrella method
I’m quite honestly not sure if this concept has it’s own terminology attached to it, but what I call, “the umbrella method”, is a different way of conceptualizing your relationship with your employees. Instead of looking at a business job model as a hierarchy with the owner at the top, think of it as an umbrella. The owner is the little focal point at the top of the umbrella that supports the larger awning, which is ultimately the part that protects you from rain. Without your employees taking ownership of the brand and fully buying into the company, your umbrella has nothing holding it together and is ultimately useless. If a business owner can accept his/her role as a servant to the greater identity of the company - living to serve the employees that make the company operate - they’ll be much more gracious and selfless leaders and be able to respond and pivot with change more easily.
Hop you picked up some tidbits here! Thanks for tuning in. More to come soon!
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
D.B.
Working with Yeast Doughs - What to Look For
As someone that bakes bagels for a living, I’ve learned a thing or two about what you need to look for in a healthy yeast dough. Here are a few pointers and things to look out for when working with a yeast dough.
Hey Friends,
As someone that bakes bagels for a living, I’ve learned a thing or two about what you need to look for in a healthy yeast dough. After all, yeast is a living organism and you need to treat it as such! Here are a few pointers and things to look out for when working with a yeast dough.
#1) Use Instant Yeast, for your baking endeavors. It’s easy to work with, has a relatively long shelf life, and you don’t need to worry about keeping it alive. Besides, even most professional kitchens and bakeries use instant yeast for their dough.
#2) When hydrating the flour with water remember that cold water will slow down yeast activity ultimately giving the dough more time to develop its flavors. This also means it will take longer for your dough to rise and be ready to work with, however. Warm water will speed up the yeast activity meaning that it will rise much faster, but at the compromise of flavor.
#3) Oil is often called a “Shortener”. This is because when added to a flour that contains gluten, the oil will cause the gluten strands to shorten, making the dough less stretchy, which could ultimately affect the oven spring of your finished product. This could also be a desirable characteristic, depending on what type of final product you’re trying to make.
#4) Besides sweetening the dough, the presence of added sugar speeds up yeast activity and allows the dough to proof more quickly. Be careful of adding too much sugar, however. If the dough rises too quickly the gluten strands won’t have time to strengthen. This means as soon as you try to pick up the dough or work with it at all, it’ll deflate very quickly and most likely be sticky and hard to work with. Also be mindful of the affects of white vs. brown sugar. Brown sugar causes the end product to have a more firm and darker crumb.
#5) Salt is necessary in order to give the dough flavor. Be weary when mixing the salt with your other dry ingredients, though. Salt prohibits the development of yeast in the dough. To be safe, add salt to one side of your bowl and yeast to the other side of your bowl before adding your wet ingredients. This allows the yeast a chance to get hydrated by the dough before the salt comes into contact with it.
#6) Mixing the dough allows the gluten strains to strengthen and develop. In most dough applications, the dough is properly mixed when you can poke it with your finger and the exterior of the dough bounces back from the indentation left by your finger. Dough is slightly tacky but easily comes off fingers.
#7) A little baking soda when dissolved in water, can be brushed on to most dough products just before they are about to be baked to give your dough a “pretzel effect”.
#8) Baking with dough can be very challenging for cooks of any level. The moisture in the air can affect the way flour fills your measuring cups. When baking, it’s important to measure ingredients by weight. Using a scale will ensure consistent results and a better finished product!
I hope these tips helped you overcome whatever baking challenges your facing! If this blog didn’t answer your baking questions, reach out to us on chefjpexperience.com and we’d be happy to do our best to steer you right.
Keep spreading love, good people!
Best,
Chef Jake