We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joseph Atwood. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joseph below.

Alright, Joseph thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?

As a chef, quality control is the forefront of my attention and the focus point of my position. It is all about building an atmosphere where the quality remains high and consistent. The challenge is consistency.
As a young chef i’ve always found my management style to be that of leading by example. if i keep my standards high and i keep my expectations for myself above all else’s, then i will inspire others to follow. this works temporarily. what about those employees who work this job because it’s all they got and they just need a paycheck? they may care and want to do well at their job, but this isn’t their life like it is mine and my other chef peers. my job is to inspire this person so their quality is consistent like mine.
To do this I break this down into short term goals and expectations: A line cook is to plan 3 days ahead. every day we are to write a prep list for the station with a 3 day lead time. this excludes fresh garnishes and knife work which is to be executed daily before dinner service. Looking ahead on “pars” for bulk prep items like sauce work, pastry, etc. and planning ahead for busy services builds an atmosphere of team work and assistance for moving forward. being ahead on the “big things” allows us that extra time to make the “little things” count like taking extra time to cut those chives perfectly, or fry the potato chips to a golden crisp. if we get behind, we rush. when we rush, we cut corners; the quality slips.
As a chef we look weeks, even months in advance. planning for events, writing menus for the new season, practicing recipes, and brainstorming game plans for the whole team to execute for collective success.
this planning ahead routine was hammered into my brain from a vigorous chef i worked for in portland oregon. his expectation of preparation was militant and it made me a better cook.
My management style has adapted to a more vocal work environment with precise communication. constant pressure to always get better. Every night we write our prep lists together, come up with a game plan for the next day and following days. along with our prep list we write goals on our white board to accomplish for the week. “focus on knife precision” “remember to drain ice bins under the fish” “clean out the cooler drawer on sautee station” things that we all share a responsibility to accomplish. along with short term goals, this year we wrote on our board “James Beard Semifinalist”. every day we look at our board and remind ourselves that what we do is bigger than a job and we set the tone for being one of the best french restaurants in michigan. that is our expectation and it all stems from quality control and freedom of creativity.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Today I am the Chef de Cuisine at french restaurant Bar Pigalle of Detroit, Michigan. I am 23 years old and the youngest of 7 children. My mother was a waitress, my brothers were cooks, my sisters followed and all did their time as hosts and servers. The food industry runs deep in my core. My first job was at 14 years old. I was washing dishes. After a couple weeks of busting suds, a fiery Saturday night caused a line cook to walk out on service and quit his job right on the spot. the Chef called my name and ordered me to start dropping fries and fish in the fryer. Cussing and slamming. 100 plus degrees. ticket machine screaming and receipt paper falling on the floor with orders from the countless guests waiting for their food. I was infatuated. “Don’t try and read tickets just fill the baskets and drop them!”
surrounded by grown men who were deep in the weeds of one of the busiest services they’ve experienced, I found a high. A place i belonged. Within minutes I was running circles around these guys and cooking and plating fish baskets and fry cups faster than anyone. We got through the rush and it was late. Chef pulls me into the walk in and thanks me for helping out. right there he offered me a full time position as his fry cook. Of course I will not release his name or the name of the restaurant, for this was illegal for me to be that young and working on a fryer. From that moment, I knew i wanted to see how far this thing could go. within 2 years i had climbed the ranks into grill cook position at 16 years old. Then the following summer, lead kitchen expediter. I parted ways to explore other restaurants and kitchens. I went on to leave Michigan and moved to Portland Oregon where I found a job as a garde manger cook at the famous Ringside Steakhouse. I climbed the ranks faster than anyone and was our lead grill cook within a year. at just 20 years old i was cooking steaks for star athletes and A list celebrities and politicians.
I missed my home in michigan and wanted to live near my closest sister in age. I liked the potential in detroit. i made my move. At 22 i got my first sous chef position working under a culinary professor at Bar Pigalle. He appreciated my young age and determination. he gave me a chance and became my mentor. After a year of service and weeks on weeks of 60 plus hours, I was granted the opportunity as chef de cuisine. with a new location to open in late summer, i am being trusted to run one of the hottest restaurants in the city. I have progressed very fast in my field and have been blessed with opportunities to grow as a chef. There’s nothing like seeing your first dish go in the chef’s pass, garnished, and ran to a table just to see a guest take their phone out, with a huge smile, and take a photo. This is what drives people in my industry. we are all broken in our own unique ways. addictions here, mental illness there. Rough up-bringings and self loathing. At the end of the day, what brings us joy and brings us together, is creating food that makes people happy. Our job is to make people happy.
A good friend of mine who is a server at Bar Pigalle, brings two plates back to the dish pit, both empty and scraped clean. “chef call” he says. “My guests are on their 40th anniversary dinner and wanted me to let you know they just had the best meal of their lives together. they are too full for dessert but would love to meet you”
with tears in my eyes i plate together a special dessert of chocolate: a hazelnut tartlette, dark chocolate cremoux, lace cookie, and espresso ice cream. I clean my apron down and deliver the dish myself. We shook hands and i thanked them over and over for coming in to the restaurant. no feeling will ever compare to the feeling of being remembered for excellence. those guests and myself will never forget that experience.
I return to the kitchen, teary eyed and smiling just to find out that my dishwasher had walked out on service and left us a massive mess in the dish tank. My job for the remaining evening: busting suds. just as i did at 14 years old at the restaurant that got it all started for me.
in that moment washing dishes, i realized that i had a full circle moment. I was upset and slamming the dishwasher doors closed, cursing under my breath visibly throwing a fit. i think to myself about the moods i had just experienced. From the best moment of my life, to letting a dish pit get the absolute best of me. I calmed down, and took a deep breath and realized that this is the shit i love almost just as much as those sweet compliments from table 6. I work in an industry where all emotions are at play. all of my senses, but all quiet in my brain. it’s like therapy. hard, long, and sweaty therapy.
that night i locked the restaurant doors at 1:30am after my 14 hour shift. I go home, make dinner, watch a movie, and go unlock restaurant doors at noon. Not every day is the same, but i approach with the same rituals. I walk in, set my knifes out, and fold towels. blue stripe facing me. two stacks. perfect squares. i pour a coffee, chug it. put away orders and organize walkin, dry storage and shelves. then it’s time to cook. sauces first. Red wine demi glace, sauce supreme, sauce charcuterie, mussel jus. As those reduce on burners, i start dessert and pastry. i make cremoux, spin ice creams, bake cookies, make tart pastry, creme patisserie etc. I finish with knife work as the rest of the line cooks come in and start their shift. Every day we do line up and talk about our goals, shift flow, and reservations. We all need to be prepared and communicate with each other like every service is a basketball game or a theater act. With the approach of believing we are the best restaurant, and acting as such in every moment, we trust that it is only a matter of time before we are recognized as a contender for best restaurant midwest. If achieved, i will be one of the youngest Chef de cuisines to receive the award.
As i look ahead at my career and ask myself what i really want, i only ever come up with one answer. Own my own restaurant with my brother. He is 15 years older than me and is a far more experienced, successful, and talented chef. My life goal has been work along side of him and put our skills together in one brick and mortar. I feel the time is nearing, and my next chapter in my culinary journey is around the corner with people i love most in this world, my family.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The other day one of my line cooks told me about the night he had before. he told me he got home and was telling his fiancé he couldn’t understand why is jaw hurt so bad. After he thought about it for a minute, he realized that his jaw was hurting from laughing all day at work. This made me so happy to hear. That even after all the stressful moments of crazy saturday rushes, and constant critiques and pressure, we all take time to make sure everyone feels welcome and feels like a family. It is easy to take your job so seriously that maybe people might fear you or feel nervous around you, but I cannot stress enough the importance of camaraderie and teamwork in the workplace.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of my job and my life, is knowing that i provide people with nourishment and with memories. creating someone’s best meal or best dining experience is powerful and something to be proud and grateful for. Food culture has always been a pivotal factor in culture and community, and being on the creative end of it feels incredibly rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barpigalle.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/champagne_vin_?igsh=NTBka3Q4amRtcWFr&utm_source=qr

Image Credits

shelby monnette