Project Foodie - Chatting with Chef Aaron Wright

Chatting with Chef Aaron Wright - Canlis Restaurant

Chef Aaron Wright, Canlis Restaurant (Seattle, WA), originally pursued a career in graphic design, but it was the call of the kitchen that eventually shaped his destiny. He started washing dishes and quickly climbed the kitchen ladder earning his culinary training through the kitchens he worked in. Looking back on this time, Chef Wright says he was "supercharged in the kitchen and very ambitious - ready for the next thing, ready for new responsibilities, ready for the next challenge". And challenges there were...

Just imagine - within the course of a year's time, with no formal training, moving from dishwasher, to buser, to line cook in a fast paced restaurant kitchen; practically everyday was something new. Chef Wright says "chef was mentoring me and gave me my first chef knife" but one day he became "kind of a deer caught in the headlights". During lunch rush when Chef Wright says they "should have had six people on the line and we had 2 or 3… I was working the pantry station and was buried beyond belief". The ticket machine which spewed out the orders that Chef Wright was to prepare had "tickets that were on the ticket machine, all way to the ground, and then back up to the ticket machine - it was like seven feet of tickets". At one point, the stress overtook him and as he says "I froze up and couldn't do it". While this may have been the end for some, Chef Wright took this as a challenge and learning tool, saying it was "real telling to get my mind in check and get my stress level under control to be where I could manage that process". Surviving that particular day meant having help, as Chef Wright says "the Sous Chef came and bailed me out". But the bigger process, the part that built Chef Wright into a true chef, was the ultimate consequence of the day - it was when Chef Wright decided "I'm never going to let that happen to me again".

Getting Out of the Headlights

Managing seven feet of tickets isn't merely a mental process and Chef Wright set out to, as he says "change everything I could…making sure everything was set-up, talking to other cooks about technique, and just everything I could do to improve my performance and make sure I would be able to manage it…. Whether that's running or ridding a bike after a shift to relieve that stress or to find ways at work to be able to communicate and overcome such difficulties". That process has not only worked for him but he's also taken variations of that process and applied it to his management of the people in the Canlis kitchen.

Managing stress in the kitchen is difficult but Chef Wright accomplishes this by ensuring his staff knows how to handle pressure and can communicate their needs. Chef Wright asks everyone he hires "How do you deal with stress?". He says "this is a pretty key thing to ask in a kitchen since often times you are under quite a bit of pressure. How you perform during that says a lot about who you are". Chef Wright also asks new hires "Do you recognize the point at which you need somebody to help you out?", because "It's hard for people to be able to ask for help". For Chef Wright and the Canlis kitchen, ensuring everyone can answer these questions keeps everyone on track and prevents anyone from getting "caught in the headlights". Chef Wright says it is important to realize "You are not alone in the kitchen" and that this is one of his passions "The overwhelming sense of teamwork" in the kitchen.

Managing Life in the Kitchen - Food is King

We asked Chef Wright how he deals with conflicts between his team members in the kitchen. Laughing he says "cooking is the easiest thing I do!" Not surprisingly Chef Wright says "The more you are in the industry, it seems that often times, the less and less you deal with food… a lot of my day revolves around making sure the lines are drawn in sand and everyone is getting along". To do this, he tells his cooks "there is a hierarchy in the kitchen and I'm not at the top - it's food". Chef Wright is very clear on this, in his kitchen food is king and he tells his staff "deal with problems after shift. Buckle down and keep working on the food because that's your job". This straightforward approach, Chef Wright says "helps keep conflicts down in the kitchen" which is not surprising since it's hard to argue with food.

Chef-Farmer Connection

Chef Wright enjoys working with the local farmers in what he calls the Chef-Farmer connection. He speaks of one farmer from Eastern Washington that he says he connected with five years ago at Pike's Peak market and who has been delivering them potatoes ever since - "We talk about the different types of potatoes he has and what mix we would like for the restaurant". The result of these conversations is that the farmer "blends ten different types of potatoes together" specifically for the Canlis menu. As Chef Wright says "these are the types of connections that you hunger for".

Chef Wright says the Chef-Farmer connection wasn't always this strong, "There was a strong disconnect 10-15 years ago in the food world where chefs never talked to the farmer. The farmer never talked to the Chef. The farmer never knew what was happening to the product." Fortunately today, things are different. For example, Chef Wright says one of his farmers gives him a list of some 200 different varieties of vegetables and asks "What do you want us to grow this year?". As Chef Wright says, that is "really fun"!

Sadly the farmers rarely get to taste what their products are converted into. As Chef Wright says "the unromantic side of working with farmers is that we're both extraordinarily busy… there is not much Chef-Farmer connection in summer since were both really busy with what we're doing". In years past, Canlis has hosted a "Producers Dinner" where they invited local farmers to a dinner designed for them. Chef Wright says "that was fun - a chance for the farmer to come into the restaurant and have a meal prepared by us because the farmer doesn't really get to sit around the dinner table where their product is served".

In addition to all of his day-to-day activities in the kitchen, Chef Wright occasionally gets to step out for events such as tasting new varietals of strawberry at the University of Washington. But at the end of the day, Chef Wright says "knowing that you've affected people in a good way - is the best feeling in the world... to bring high quality food to the table is a wonderful honor".

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