We recently connected with Keith Jones and have shared our conversation below.

Keith , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I was fortunate enough to get connected with my mentor Certified Master Chef (CMC) Edward Janos right out of high school. He took a genuine interest in me and taught me how to become a skilled culinarian. This was only the beginning and I was smart enough to stay with him for a number of years, continuing my growth until I ultimately earned the title of chef. There are so many disciplines to learn in this profession that there isn’t anything you can do to speed up the learning process. The best way to learn in my opinion is by doing and like with pretty much anything else in life, repetition is the key. The more you do something, the better you’ll become (hopefully). I took my time and spent years learning which helped me build a strong foundation so when I did strike out on my own, I was prepared for success.

There are so many skills and this is such a great question. If I were to narrow it down, you must be an effective motivator (master would be even better) because as a chef, you cannot do everything yourself. You can only be as good as the weakest link in your crew. You have to be good with math, great communicator, determined, disciplined, creative, patient and empathetic just to name a few.

The major obstacle that stood in my way of learning more was time. Just not enough hours in the day to learn all you can about the food and beverage industry. It’s never ending and I like to say I’m a student for life. I’ll NEVER learn all there is to know and won’t even try. I’ll just be content with being that prized student that will be “in class” for the rest of my life. The other major obstacle for me was prejudice. I’ve come across many prejudiced people who didn’t like me because of my skin color. They certainly didn’t want to share or teach me anything and they tried to do what they could to get me to quit. They had no idea of my make up and shame on them. Their hate was just motivation or more fuel to my fire to succeed!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Chef/Author/Brand Ambassador would serve as my title, name is Keith Jones and my brand is chefKDJ. I walked into the professional kitchen of now Certified Master Chef Edward Janos at the young age of seventeen and stayed with him until my mid-twenties, where he taught me how to be a chef. I was classically French trained, spending all those years rotating through several stations learning how to cook; becoming fast, efficient and a well skilled culinarian. I show up for work one day after about eight years into our being together, he called me into his office and sat me down and said “Keith, you don’t work for me anymore. Here’s a list of names, they’re expecting to hear from you. Good luck you’re done!” Needless to say that hit me like a ton of bricks but it was the ultimate boss move; proverbial kicking the bird out the nest so he can fly on his own. I LOVE THIS MAN! He came into my life just at the right time when I needed that positive male role model and he still mentors me to this very day. When all is said and done, he taught me how to be a skilled chef and an even better man. In my day job I serve as the Corporate Executive Chef for the Honey Smoked Fish Company(that’s right I work for a manufacturer) where we make the world’s finest hot smoked salmon www.honeysmokedfish.com. In my spare time I have an affinity for writing so I always spend a little time on the computer with my books, I’ve published two and am working on the next and I have bits for the one after that. I do a little consulting work, assisting clients in a multitude of culinary services and lastly I work as a brand ambassador where I assist companies in promoting their products to the end users. I excel with both food and equipment in the brand ambassador space of the culinary world. My culinary demos are very impactful(food or equipment), a true entertaining event and I’ve been very successful with helping food manufacturers build their brand through live sampling and event demos. It’s a well respected and accepted industry rule that culinary demos help sell products and my record with them is off the charts. I was directly responsible for helping one company increase sales from 1.25 million to over 32 million in a 5 year span. If you or your company have a culinary problem, I can help you solve it, None is too great or small! What sets me apart from any of my competitors is my passion which has been labeled as very infectious. I have a strong passion for life and it touches everything that I do….it’s who I am. I also made a commitment to myself early on in my professional life, that no one would ever out work me and I live by that standard to this very day. I’m most proud of my family(my wife and I raised some fantastic kids 3 ) and as far as my professional life, it would be the impact I have on people and the special way that I touch them. I was awarded a medal from a young serviceman on a tour I did over in Japan and you can read all about it under the Japan chapter(pg.77) in my latest Amazon best selling book Well Done. It’s definitely worth the read!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Very early on in my career, I was the only person of color that worked in the kitchen. I had several people who did things to make me quit, or hate on me because of my color. They wouldn’t spend any quality time with me or no more than they had to. My mentor chef Ed looked out for me and did his absolute best to make sure I made it but believe me I could feel the hate from many others. Ed was my direct supervisor and he was the only person that gave me instructions. First starting out I was 100% passion and 0% skills, so that translated to my showing up a couple hours early and staying a couple hours late just to make sure I had my station set to Ed’s standards. I wasn’t committed to the establishment but only to him. He was building his career so over the course of a six year period we moved about three times. During our absence from each other in the very first place we worked together is where my story starts. Ed left the restaurant to take on another job and he told me to be patient because it could take some time before he would bring me over if at all. I was terrified not having him there. I was like fresh bait in the water and the sharks were swimming, looking to eat! As soon as he left, my hour and responsibilities were drastically cut. They took my station away and had me strictly doing prep. They brought in new employees and at that time I had over a year’s worth of experience and they had me reporting to the new hires. They owner came to me and told me I was holding my paring knife wrong and I needed to hold it the way she showed me. She was very intimidating and abusive(even though that wasn’t a real thing way back when.) They didn’t like me because I was black and young and with Ed gone they weren’t shy about trying to get me to quit. Have your ever tried to work in that environment? It took about five weeks until they pushed me past my breaking point and that came when the owner came to me and said, “I thought I told you to hold the paring knife the other way and slice the strawberries like this!” and then she slapped me in the back of my head/neck. I just stood there and took it while the staff that was around all laughed and furthered the humiliation. I finished out my shift and called Ed when I got home and asked him if he could please bring me over and he said, “Hey man, I got a spot for you but it’s not an increase in pay or responsibilities.” I happily said, “I don’t care about any of that I only want to work with you or I’m quitting this industry all together.” He told me to turn in a two week notice and I could start right after and I replied, “I’ll see you tomorrow or the first day I can start. They don’t care anything about me or my notice!” At the time I had no idea it could be that bad and then I had a very clear understanding how good I had it under his wing. That locked in my devotion to him and I still hold it in the highest regard to this very day.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Earlier in my career I had a fantastic learning experience related to this. I was heavy into the process of building my name in highly respected circles in the culinary world. I was once told that when you’re really good, you don’t have to apply for jobs but the companies come and search you out! That’s exactly what happened to me. I took on the Executive Chef position at one of only three jobs in my area that I knew could afford to pay me what I felt I was worth. It was a beautiful transition going from where I was to where I thought I wanted to be. Let’s just say the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. This was the true definition of that statement. My new company hid their negative culture really well and upon taking the position I walked into a sh**storm of disfunction. It took me a little longer than I anticipated to clean it up and get things running like how I wanted(that was one of my true strengths to build a team and develop a positive, inclusive and successful work environment) Management cared NOTHING about this and they had enough money and clout(it was a private membership club) to make ANYTHING go away. About three weeks in, I started asking myself am I living in the twilight zone? None of the managers operated like normal managers meaning that anytime there was a clear cut right answer or decision to be made, they went to what was best for the company. They walked around like zombies or in a trance! I couldn’t believe it and was always scared that I would get infected. Can the company be right in everything they do? Absolutely not(in my opinion.) Here’s a quick example of an incident that happened which shocked me and let me know my time here would be short. I had an employee who had an financial emergency and he came and asked for an advance or could he receive his check early. I told him let me go to management and see what I can do. They shut me down even before I could get the words out of my mouth. Being management I can kinda understand this but the employee was ALWAYS willing and did in several occasions cover a shift when someone called in sick or no showed. He had an excellent record and history of stepping up to help out. Now, when he needs a favor we shut him down. I did not like this at all and it pissed me off. My incident or pivot came when they tried to make a move on me. Looking back now I know that the assistant manager was tasked with getting rid of me(in the proper way that wouldn’t lead to a lawsuit) and he just sneakily followed me around waiting for me to make a mistake and turn it into a fireable offense. By this time I knew what was going on and I didn’t want to be in zombieland any longer but they paid me really well and I had my lifestyle set to the money I was making. My wife worked and we had our three school aged kids but I was the primary breadwinner by far. My thought was to calm down and maybe time could help me figure things out. NOT!!! One day the manager came to me out of the blue and said he didn’t like the way I talked to an employee. One of my kitchen guys showed up on his off day to pick up his check and he was dressed in western gear; boots, hat, bolo tie, tight jeans and a huge western motif belt buckle. I said, “holy smokes Jeff I didn’t know you were a cowboy!” The assistant manager comes out of nowhere and says, “You can’t talk to him like that. It makes it like you got something against cowboys!” Flimsy I know right. So I shot back to him, “What are you talking about? I don’t have anything against anybody. I just never seen him in his regular clothes(I came in later in the mornings and he was the first to open the kitchen, so every time I saw him he was dressed in his uniform. He actually wore it in.) It took me a quick second to think about it and then I said to him, “You can’t tell me how I can talk to my staff, I didn’t say or mean any harm.” He replied, “You work for me and I absolutely can tell you what you can and cannot do!” Here’s the pivot. I go right back to him and say, “What did you just say to me? You can’t tell me how I can talk to people, I don’t need that kinda help. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I want to work for you! How much time do you need?” I was beyond incensed at this point. He replied, “There’s the door, you can leave any time you want!” I said, “Cool.” Went and said something to my sous-chef, grabbed a few things and bounced. I felt amazingly good on the long walk to my car but once I got in the reality hit me and all I thought was how much of a huge mistake I made because I just put my family in a pretty significant financial bind. He talked to and treated me like he “owned” me, ohh I hated that feeling! I made a vow to myself on the ride home, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN will I stay for whatever amount of money and sacrifice my dignity. I’m not the one! This happened in early November which at the time was holiday mode for all culinary establishments, so I made a few calls to friends and got busy catering and because GOD is GOOD, my phone kept ringing and I didn’t look back! This was a pretty significant pivot and man did I learn a lot in the process.

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