I recently went one-on-one with James Beard Award-winning chef Douglas Keane. Doug is the author of the new book Culinary Leverage.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. What would surprise people most about you?

Doug: I think there is a perception of chefs in society due to all of the TV shows and movies that give people a misperception about who I am. It's not a glamorous or fancy lifestyle unless you create those airs about yourself which I despise. I drive a truck, I like to hang out with dogs more than people and I love pepperoni pizza

Adam: What is the most surprising thing about life as a top chef? 

Doug: You cook a lot less than you'd like. After a certain point, you are a business person and an air traffic controller so to speak. When you actually get to handle a saute pan and butcher a striploin, those are the great days because it reconnects you to what you fell in love with.

Adam: What is the most surprising thing about the restaurant business? 

Doug: That overall it's not a healthy industry. Because of the traditional model and the staffing needs the profit margins are low and the dysfunction of the disparity in pay rates between the back and front of the house is a divider that does not need to happen if you think about things differently.

Adam: How did you get here? 

Doug: I loved digging ditches and mowing grass as a kid because the immediate gratification was very rewarding.  And that translated into the same reward in cooking.  Plus I had a great palette. 

Adam: What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Doug: Meeting my mentor, Stan Bromley, at a very young age and having him in my life to this day. And spending a month in Kyoto on a scholarship and seeing how the kitchens produced food as good as any in the world but did it without the chaos and testosterone of the kitchens I had trained in America.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Doug: Thinking analytically and able to listen to criticism.  And to ask the questions that aren’t being answered.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? 

Doug: Be obsessive and maniacal in defining and setting the culture from the beginning. Don’t sacrifice or compromise on the culture because it gets too hard.  Once you get buy-in it will continue to perpetuate itself through the team you manage. They will pass it on and keep it alive.

Adam: What do you hope readers take away from your new book? 

Doug: I hope they find resilience when they face adversity or bullies, I hope they think about “What if?” a lot.  What if they changed the model? What if they implemented a new idea? Don’t accept something as is just because it's been done for so long.  There most likely is a better way especially if the current model is unbelievably difficult.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one-on-one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and on LinkedIn and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.