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David Lefevre @ CCA!

Added Nov 14, 2013 •

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Vibes David a favor trust me all my wife then people pronouncing about my name and basically what I'm here today to do to to share is kind of my background What's led me to the career that I have today which is a I'm a shot and B I'm also so am I on business I own 2 businesses down so there is a point where I was sitting in a chair just like you are kind of wondering what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and explain a little bit how I got the soup from that point to where I am today okay so first of all I was raised by a single mother who went to school during the day work in the afternoon and then came home at night for majority of my childhood so everyday I'm out kind of a latchkey kid I come home after school and my sister and I took care of each other and then my mother would come home later and you was had to contribute to the night's meal weather is floor weather resetting the table or what weather is helping my mother cook I'm getting do something that revolved around the dinner table and so just in the beginning I really had a love of food I loved eating I was interested in cooking but I love people getting around the table and I actually really enjoyed that part of our day working brother and sister not being able to eat together realize that the time but my grandfather and my grandmother lived on Eastern Shore Virginia do you guys know where that is so if you look at the can I use of the Parker you look you look at the east coast and you have New York and everything you got for jigna here right then you got Maryland up here and then there's this little skinny Peninsula that comes down off of Maryland that's the exactly the eastern shore of Virginia so Virginia actually is this part here and it's this little Island peninsula here and what that makes up is this here here is called the Chesapeake Bay okay and it's one of the best  two environments in so I used to go out to my grandmother my grandfather's house in the summer in the kid from Wisconsin from the Midwest and not knowing anything about the ocean or Bowser me and my grandfather taught me how to fish for striped bass and blue-nose and all these different type of fish and he taught me how to crap there's a really traffic on the Chesapeake Bay that's called Blue Crab to make crab cakes out of it it's a very very popular product in that area but my grandfather gave me a crab trap and I used to pay throw it off the end of our Doc and I would sit there during the day and catch crab and have a pig's ear on the end of a string that crowd would come up and grab it and scoop them up with a with a neck so I can originally a grandfather to give me  doesn't sound like a lot for to give you a quarter for every crap that I thought so I had those two describe rolling up that really they really made a big impact on my life later on when I decided to become a chef I'm in high school I was really good at very good at art very good at music but I was also Lee exceptional of math and science and I think a lot of people here Math and Science arts and arts and music they're very very interconnected in order to be very good at music you actually have to have you have to be able to do fractions need to know math you need to be able to keep Temple and things like so when I decided to figure out what I was going to do in college which mainly revolves around what school I wanted to play soccer at the time my counts are said Nevada Math and Science Washington engineer and so I went to college I went to cause French and hearing and I hated it I likes math but I didn't enjoy learning something that I never really applied in school I like science but I didn't really enjoy it once it came to physics and chemistry so I decided to look into a culinary career you know I really took a leap and I looked at the culinary schools in the world and I found the coloring screwed America what's the number one culinary school basically in the world have two campuses one in the York and one in California but I decided to do that I spoke my parents about how we were going to be able to Ford it I got grants I did a lot of scholarships and and did what I could to go to culinary school and I left engineering I probably shouldn't say this CIA Culinary Institute America hey  so I made the sleep we figured out I was going to leave engineering school my fourth year in college guys Friday night up getting my bachelors in engineering and I decided to go to to something that are really passionate about something I really love how my friend said I was crazy you know set refers to this and as soon as I was doing something about interested in I got straight A's was easy I love reading I love doing studying I love the coursework I learned about wine I learned about baking I learned about Butchery I learned about fish cooking sauces stocks I mean everything it was to me it just opened up this whole new world of something being able to do something that I enjoyed that I was good at and that I can pay some career awful after culinary school  hi did a wreck my mother got my mother got very sick and in November 1st November for culinary school and I had to do an apprenticeship I had to leave school for six months to work at a restaurant as part of my schooling and call it a friendship for an internship and so I decided to find I need to find a restaurant that was very close to to my home, my mother was ill and that gave you two days off in a row every week so I could go visit him the restaurant that I ended up choosing was called Charlie Trotter's in Chicago at the time Charlie Trotter Trotter burgeoning about to become it was starting to be involved in the conversations the United States of one of the best restaurants and I went there and I ended up working Charlie Trotter's for 10 years and it was one of the best culinary communities in the world at the time you know you guys might have heard of Thomas Keller how much laundry Charlie started doing tasting menus away before Thomas did Charlie became one of the best restaurants in the Country Fest in the country humanitarian everything and I was actually really fortunate to be involved in that restaurant during that time so I work my way up at rodders and then I ended up I ended up  when I turn 29 I decided I wanted to take some time I met all these different people from all the world around the world all these shafts from Lassen and everywhere and I decided to take two years and travel around the world and I did get shot promotions in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and Bali in Tokyo in Brisbane Sydney Reich of the Iceland literally all over Europe and Asia and I would work at a restaurant where I was promoted shop for 2 weeks I travel for two or three weeks around the area weather Vietnam  China Australia and then I would take 4 to 6 weeks and I work at another restaurant for free at a place that I really admire okay and those two things I went to two things in my life I think that I did that that really paid off okay I came from a very I mean a single mother very home upbringing my mother and like I said my parents were going through school my stepfather's going through school my mother going through school like her up so we don't worry wealthy family but buy Trotters I work for him for 6 months 6 days a week 16 to 18 hours a day and I did that for free okay I lot of people like oh my God work for free for 6 months in and yeah I did because I was working one of the best kitchens in the world and the experience that I learned there and experience that I got at that restaurant was more than the money that I would have ever earned in that place and I'm not saying that you got to do that but I'm saying that was a pivotal part of my career because I was able to learn just as much at during that externship that I did a culinary school and I learned about work I think I work learned about protocol I learned about how restaurants work I learned about the view I had to take with our guests in the restaurant I guess it's worth  when I got done I travel around the world and I start for all these different shots no different should like show me some shots all over the world the best chefs in the world I went I would work for them for six weeks for free and then I would go and work at a restaurant where I was promoting I was paid and then I take two or three weeks and I travel when I got done with that I got recruited to Los Angeles at the Water's Grill I knew after traveling at Trotters I learned about quality of product and technique but I learn how to operate a kitchen how to run it financially and manage it so I knew the next job that I have to take was going to be with a restaurant who could prove an operator someone who could teach me I own my own restaurant to teach me how to run my own kitchen because if you think of it I'll give you guys an example I shop is responsible for the labor cost in the Prada turn the restaurant with a lot of other things okay and that product cost so she ate for approximately 40% 40% of the total sales the rest chaos in Spanish  so it's a very something you need to know how to do well and something that you need to be able to do very efficiently or else you can lose my money in a lot of restaurants do so I took a job at Water Grill to learn that part of it and give my expertise and product and standards and quality and we ended up receiving to Mission years in a row michelin-star we ended up getting Michelin star is like the Emmys or the Oscars of my you can get a 1 * 2 * 3 * 3 stars the best 10 there's only I think there's 30 in the world  two stars there's about 65 I want Stars there's about I think I want to say a hundred seventy $180 Auto V all the restaurants in the world we got recognized with one Michelin star so we're in restaurants within the world in 2009 I started just kind of started my learning curve was really troweling out and I needed to expand that's why I decided to open up Manhattan Beach Post Manhattan Beach at that point I had to really had to come up with a concept I had to come up with business plan I had to come up with you no company culture that a come up with our values that we're going to happen to company I had to get in it was a huge undertaking and luckily my partners have done it before and they had help you with that but we open up Manhattan Beach post and it's been I really like talking about this but it's basically it's on like every list they have thank you  but you know so you have success with acknowledgement you know the process in the paper TV we've been on ****'s Kitchen you know six times are going to be on it 3 more times as a judge for the finalists a ton of different TV shows stuff like that that's really fun rightness Probably sounds really cool but really the coolest part of it all is you know I have two businesses that employ about a hundred 30 and really what it comes down to is if I'm doing my job correctly you know I'm making the lives of the people around me better okay and that's not something I really thought about until I was in my like thirties and forth while now in 40 but you know when I was at your age it was about what did I want to what makes me feel good what am I good at and those are great things to do but you know ultimately in life you're going to find that if you can make the if you can make the lives of the people around ultimately your life is going to be better and you know it's one thing to get a Michelin star and be on TV in and get that that's another thing when someone comes up to you and says shut this my son is going to college this year and the job that I provided that guy's allowing this to go to college that means way more Michelin star or one of my Cooks one of my Sous chefs does of all the now he's going up to open up his own restaurant you know because of the working because the guy show me a murder those are the things that become really important to me you know and as a result of those large being better you're my life ends up being better you know not always the biz not only do I get to do what I want to do what I enjoy to do but you know the feeling of gratification that you haven't in impacting somebody else you know and their ability to have the things that they want to be the person they want her to profession that they want to leave the place they want or go to college or buy a home faster  turn itself you know you guys are going to go through everybody's probably telling you guys think about what you want to do with your life and all that but I think that if all of you what are what you eat  what you got to go to college to try that if you do something that's really going to be it's going to change your life and that's in the you guys are as adults and as young adults is really who you are to the people around you  Yahoo how do you make people around you feel you know how the success of the people around you  and that's not something really super easy to grasp at this point but when you get older and you around your group of friends probably gets a little bit smaller and your family gets play Closer and you're interacting with not a large not as many people as you used to it's really important  to me it's really important to make sure that you know that that your surrounding yourself that you know they're bringing you up in your bringing them up so that's my little $0.02 love cooking ultimately what I love is I love having a team around me I love having 15 to 20 cooks and being able to do something together that none of us could you know the sum of its parts are more you know the final products more than the sum of its parts it's like being on a football team I feel like I'm the owner of the NFL I got a head cold use my chef de cuisine I've got it you know general manager of the team which is my general manager of the restaurant we got an offense and defensive coach that are my sous-chef turn on special teams which is my brother house manager and then I've got all our players so we really try to have incredible performance for and create great products aren't Gasser or fans so how'd you guys do one more thing over here if you want to help me out over here we're going to open vejigante google.com Okay cool so next one of our it's not on the menu since we started at summer I confused couscous okay couscous couscous is a play the pasta but it's rolled into really tiny pieces okay it looks like rice and has to touch your price but it's actually a pasta and then we've added Artona special type of Amin from Spain feta cheese that's been marinade with Chilli Bridge grapefruit pomegranate there's puke how much are a cucamelons to mix between a melon and a cucumber there really tiny got a really nice kind of shark bite and then there's cilantro Austin in a red wine vinaigrette on top so once those guys are done with the vinaigrette you guys can stick spoons and usually cops I can start come out is there a guy's where you guys Blow Me Away what are the great questions that you guys have yes everybody listening over here do something you like is there something I don't like about my job yes myself I'm always like I can be honest with you guys you know there comes a point in your life where things are not going the way you want right maybe your you know there comes a point when your life when you start looking outside and that your surroundings and looking at what's going got to blaming an extra roundings and start looking at yourself a lot more and you start saying I can't change everybody around me but I can change myself and so usually a thing I get frustrated the most with is when someone's not doing something that I taught them okay now Kenny and Kenny myself we can say like we've talked guy certain things but and if you guys aren't absorbing it I got to take a look at myself and I got to see why why are you absorb again I need to teach another way I need to try different way of explaining this to try this person a little bit longer so so when you ask that question of the things I don't like usually a thing that I won't like it I'm not being as effective people that I'd like to be that's probably the most frustrating part for me and I'll sit there and I'll say how do I have to go do I have to do what do I have to change it you know I can walk in the restaurant I can see dust dust on one of the shelves okay and I can and I get frustrated that there's dust on the shelf or really I'm frustrated with his how come how come there's dust in the Shell because I have implemented a system to make sure that there is no  that makes sense anybody else have a quick question right here my job well get out you guys heard the career that I want myself through I started when I was 19 years old and I didn't become a chef a real Chef until what was 33  so it took me 14 years to hone my skills as a shop  right before I actually took the position of one okay so the skills that I had to have her perseverance consistency patients you know I had to have a cry to train my palate to give Allah taste things make sure you mixed that thing up just just mix it all up until it's one big together though so on one big skill that I have is leadership and one of the that you're not going to really take a course on when you're at culinary school or take a course on when you're starting engineering for taking course on when you want to study cosmetology whatever it is you guys want to do doctor is no one's nowhere in college are you going to take a course on leadership so that's something that I have to do outside of that's something that I have to do firework reading through hiring people that are good at it and training me and teach me how to do it you're going to seminars you know understanding how to teach I have to learn in my in stream you never take a class on teaching Cooks how to cook but that's really one of my biggest responsibilities is teach  so what I have to do is I have to talk to friends of mine that are teachers play how to teach and I have to ask the opportunities are there for student that wants like The Culinary feel like I think you know the tough part about students at your age that are looking so don't work restaurants talking about students that are looking to go go and become chefs at your age is that a lot of restaurants don't won't even hire people until they're 18 okay so I know that there's some culinary you know in the summer especially there's some coloring Camp Source cooking classes you can take that are you know that are for adults and I definitely would cook at home as much as I could I would give the CIA The Culinary Institute of America has a book that that is their main is their main teaching guide at the school she's great teachout and sauces and so forth and then once you get to the age when you're able to work on definitely get a job in a restaurant before you decide to go to culinary school  culinary school for me was a $45,000 investment dial I got scholarships when I got grants you know unfortunately no the government came for a good amount of my schooling you need to know if this is really what you want to do before you  okay because culinary school the environment at culinary school is you're different than the environment in a restaurant environment of Collier schools to teach and for to be a comfortable teaching area I want you to do a kitchen is to produce okay so you want to be able to get into a kitchen at least as a dishwasher prep cook or a busser or run or something some job within the restaurant so you can Stan the pace the standard the work hours the work ethic the environment that you're going to be in before you decide to become a shop because you going to become a shot you know you going starting to video shopping calling your school you get out and then you get into restaurant if you don't like it you waste a lot of money we're stationary is know how to cook but that's a lot of turn on the learning how to cook okay  yeah question is that tofu or cheese cheese in Spanish cheese any other yeah yeah the most significant thing about my okay well yeah there's like I said there's good money in that account all that stuff but the coolest thing is I get to do what I like when you guys get to do that not very often right and then you guys you guys think like I can't wait till I move out but I can go do what leaving that you'll get to do what you want cuz there's always barriers you have in your life whether it's you know education or money or job or family or where you live or what you know or you know for me I'm really trying hard if there's one thing I want you guys understand is like I didn't graduate from high school go to school and open up a business  okay that's not the way it works 14 years training at my craft and training on how to work with people in training how to have a great holiday and training how to understand how the kitchen works with all that 14 years at other restaurants in learn how to do it at other people's restaurants before I thought I was good enough to do it on my own  questions the next thing tomato and cucumber hybrid I mean I get to meet a ton of people you know food is a really Common Ground between every so you know on Tuesday last Tuesday night ice after I got the cops plates Kershaw about his game he pitched you don't even know where that is right Jason quick  restaurants offer you guys to hang out with  I get to actually meet hang out with some pretty fun interesting people that's a really good one of my jaw Jimmy Kimmel text like that are really cool right and I got to work 16 or 17 hours a day do that  Skype and the reverse of that is I'm always working guys are almost there so just just give me a little bit more okay we're almost there you know the other thing is that when everybody else is out enjoying their time off of work 90% of the world we're working gag when you have off Mondays and Tuesdays everybody else to work it feels very relationships very difficult family golf time time depending on who you're with and the environment that you have  right 1000 Tahoe oil in the house probably like obsessed question one last question guys anybody right that's why you have to take time to do it like don't you just know that  tell me some change a lot of things like why do I know that the bigs maybe go well together tell all that sweet corn and peaches go well together or how you come up with why did you take  who's right North African Black Ops 3

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