22 JANUARY 2020
IT’S YOUR
BUSINESS
Every m
onth,
F&W
Pro
features great ideas and
business tips from
leaders in the
food and beverage industry.
RESTAURANT EMPIRES like Tom Colicchio’s
Crafted Hospitality, which stretches across New
York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, don’t
survive without a solid leadership strategy. For
Colicchio, it all boils down to self-care. He
believes that work-life balance is a prerequisite
for a successful career in the kitchen. (Case in
point: Colicchio doesn’t take meetings before
11 a.m.) And across his restaurant group’s
seven locations, the New York City–based chef
encourages senior leaders to have open
conversations about addiction, mental health,
and well-being—an ethos that trickles down
to the entire kitchen.
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The Craft of Leadership
For chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio,
self-care is the key to success. By Oset Babur
Tom Colicchio
(left) and Top
Chef finalist Eric
Adjepong at Craft
in New York City
ON BUILDING
CULTURE
“The best way to ensure
that your kitchen is a
safe place to work is
to make and stick to
a mission statement,
including nonnegotiables
about [acceptable] con-
duct. You have to follow
through, even if it’s one
of your best sous chefs
[who slips up].”
ON TEACHING
“Once you’re the chef,
the majority of your job
is teaching others. You
have to understand what
motivates people, and it’s
not fear. You have to meet
them where they are.”
ON HIRING STAFF
“When you hire someone,
say: ‘It’s great that you
want to cook, and yes,
we care about great food
and great service, but
here are our core values
and what we stand for.’
People like structure.”
ON AVOIDING
BURNOUT
“When you go to a food
festival, you’re not
making money, and
you’re also out of the res-
taurant. Pick four or five
events a year ... there’s
only one of you, and it’s a
marathon. If you want a
long career, you’ve got to
stay sane.”
TOM’S TIPS
Mastering the art of delegation, he says, has
proven to be one of the most critical lessons
in his career. “If I could give my younger self
one piece of advice, it would be to trust the
people around me,” he reflects. “I always felt
that I had to be there for the staff and that if I
wasn’t there, they wouldn’t work as hard. I
thought, ‘If I’m not working 12 hours a day,
how can I ask them to work 10 hours a day?’”
In time, Colicchio says he realized that
micromanaging and hovering in the kitchen
just to ensure everything was done right meant
he had less time for himself and his family,
which, in turn, meant he had less of himself
to give to his staff in terms of support and
training. “You don’t have to be a martyr for the
business,” he says. “Be there when it counts.
Show up when you’re needed. Don’t stay just
for the hell of it.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: KARSTEN MORAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
