Russell Jackson

I went to the stove with a stool, turned the gas on (by lighting it with a match, yes at 3), dumped applesauce into a pot on the stove (which happened to a pressure cooker). My mom tells me she woke up to the explosion with me sitting in the corner of the room with my eyes wide in shock. Flash forward 60 years, not much has changed.

When I went to college, a professor pulled me aside and told me not to waste my time and think about what I really wanted my life to be. After that, I decided I was going to dedicate my life to cooking and shifted to working full-time at Straton's, a burger joint in Westwood. I went on to working ALL the time, bouncing around to work day shifts at one place, somewhere else for dinner shifts and then work a door or bar at a nightclub — six or seven nights a week.

At one time I worked at 40 of the top restaurants in Southern California. I was a true journeyman and for the most part the only African American in the kitchen. For me, that meant I always had to better, faster, smarter and cleaner. I did it and it fed my ego with a massive chip on my shoulder. They were character building days where I couldn’t walk around being soft.

This approach fed fear in my teams. It wasn't until the ‘90s that I came to terms with how I wanted to lead and make good food. At this pivotal time and being a true California, I worked with a shaman regularly to do sound baths and help realign me, because I felt like a mess.

When you get to a shamanic temple, who do you think is cleaning, prepping and cooking the food? After thinking about it, I said it would have to be the plebe — the newcomers who were coming in to the support the high priest. The actual answer was the highest priest. He was the only person who was allowed to touch the food, because energy is passed from the hands into the food people are ingesting. And from that point on, my leadership style completely shifted and changed the trajectory of my career.

One of my best friends, Dominique Crenn, reminds me to always stay true to what my heart really says and get out of my own way, in order to express my authentic self — and also, to keep it simple, don’t over complicate things.

When I started, jumps that took several hundred jumps to understand how to teach your body to move, I was exponentially able to learn in ten, twenty jumps because the learning curve had shortened and the craft had evolved in such a way that allowed me the luxury and opportunity to learn the skills quicker. It’s the same thing in food and cooking. The learning curve is now exponentially shorter. But the only way you are capable of doing that is by being humble, shut up, listen and follow proper training. You can become a really accomplished chef in 5-6 years and a business owner in 10, but you do have to put in the work, but you don’t have to burn yourself out to get there.

Realize that no matter where you’re at in your process and achievements, you don’t know shit. I know that because after 40 plus years of being in this business and opening eight different restaurants personally, I don’t know shit! I am willing and humble enough to know and understand that for myself. I also know that I have paid my dues. I have a valuable opinion in food, dining and hospitality that I am comfortable to stand behind and push forward to the public. Beyond that, try to keep it simple, keep your head down and work.

Look to all kinds of leaders who are often understated, not just the big marquee chef names to learn from.

If you go into to it with the mindset that you are a Roman, an athlete or a samurai with the ability to go out and learn a skillset — one that can’t be learned through books, classrooms or Instagram — you have to be on your feet and do it through repetition for years. After 40 years, there are still things I work on a daily basis to get better at (e.g., baking, cutting fish, making terrines) to refine my work and get better and better at.

Even pre-opening we had a physical trainer to do drills with our team. As we have both restaurants up and running, I’m looking forward to more team days for exercise.

If you have a day off, take time off. Play video games or whatever, because if you keep burning and burning and burning, you’re going to end up wearing out.

It changed me, it changed the restaurant and what our goals are. Trying to see the better angels in all of it, it open my eyes.

Originally when we opened, I wanted to provide a living wage so that my team could have two days off and not have to work another job to make ends meet and have real downtime.