Mark Chou

You need to be in an environment where you feel comfortable enough to push the boundaries, which will naturally be a bit uncomfortable at times, to grow and reach your potential. Seek challenges and fail forward fast. You have a fresh opportunity to improve every day.

Don’t ask to move stations. Your chef will let you know when the time is right. Prioritize knowledge and your time will come.

You need to constantly reflect and find ways to improve yourself so that you may improve your environment as a whole. Everything is in the details and the constant desire to be better than your last will take you to new heights.

Those random acts of genuine hospitality are rare and deserve to be cherished. Appreciate those moments that remind you that all your hard work is nurturing an industry that creates experiences for people to be remembered.

Taste, touch, smell, hear, and see the stimuli that surrounds you. It makes our work incredibly challenging but in that fragility is the beauty to what we do every day. A lot of good cooking is simply about common sense and about being present. It takes a team to achieve the dream and accomplish the why.

The more you immerse yourself in this industry, the more you realize that we all come to the same conclusions, regardless of where we are in the world. There is something so beautiful in that, despite all the geographical barriers that place us in different parts of the world, that we are one. Take the time to learn from your peers and learn their stories. Travel when you can. May that every day camaraderie and rapport with your team help you branch out into the world.