Calling all detractors . . .
Here's a thought for all of Mr.Charts' detractors.
Imagine, if you will, that you are an excellent chef. Gradually, as time goes by, other people who are interested in becoming chefs learn of your skills and ask you for help and advice. This you give freely and repeatedly. As your reputation grows, someone then asks you if they can spend a day with you 1-2-1 to learn how YOU cook. You agree and, not unreasonably, you charge a fee. After all, you cook professionally, and if you're not in your restaurant you're not earning money. The fee you charge is to compensate you for what you would have earned had you been cooking in your restaurant instead of coaching the student. The fee is high, but you are a top chef. After all, thats's why the student wants a 1-2-1 with you! You make it CRYSTAL clear that you will show the student how YOU make the recipe. Additionally, you make it equally clear that it's the student's own responsibility whether or not they choose to follow your recipes. He/ she might add a dash more seasoning if they want, but you will not be responsible for a dish tasting foul if they do. In the meantime, you continue to develop your own skills and recipes etc., and to help others for free. You post recipes on a BB, provide tips to prevent a white sauce from going lumpy etc., - all things that are of interest and benefit to the wider community of aspiring chefs. You do more and more coaching as your reputation grows until one day someone criticises you publicly on one of the bulletin boards because their Chicken Chasseur didn't turn out the way they thought it would. Now, the Chicken Chasseur is one of your specialities; something you're well known for and something that you explain in detail how YOU make. Understandably, the student is disappointed; you sympathise and offer advice. Then one or two more ex-students start to slag you off that their Chicken Chasseur didn't turn out very well either. In fact, in one case, all the dinner guests got food poisoning. However, other students make excellent Chicken Chasseur, so you know your recipe is good and besides, you wrote it and you regularly make the dish yourself just as you describe in the recipe. The disaffected students continue to moan and to mutter on about taking legal action and the like. In time, you get very bored of this and decide to focus on developing your own skills and spending time cooking in your restaurant. Your contributions to public forums for the benefit of the wider cooking community dwindle. Additionally, you make the decision to stop offering 1-2-1 tuition. Too much grief for too little reward. This is completely understandable, given the unreasonable abuse hurled at you, but a great shame for the many wannabe chefs who still respect you and benefit from your contributions.
Remember, you are this top chef. I have two questions for you:
1. Having shown your students how YOU make Chicken Chasseur and provided them with the recipe, is it your fault that some students failed to adhere to it and ended up with a foul tasting meal?
2. How would you feel about those students who, in spite of your best efforts to help them, slagged you off in public, insinuated that you're a fraud and threatened you with legal action?
I look forward to the answers.
Tim.
P.S. For the record, I too have made money using Mr. Charts' methodologies. Salty, Neil et al - spot on!
) that makes you so aggressive?
