Anne-Sophie Pic grew up at her family’s restaurant, Maison Pic.
In 1992, aged 23, she returned to Maison Pic to train under her father, Jacques Pic, to become a chef.
Sadly, he died three months later, and Anne-Sophie decided to leave the kitchen to focus on the business aspect of Maison Pic.
Three years later, Maison Pic lost its third Michelin star.
Anne-Sophie felt she had lost “her father’s star,” and she returned to the kitchen like her father and grandfather before her…
A Counter-Intuitive Truth
A counter-intuitive truth jeopardizes the chance of thousands of candidates every year to land an offer at the company of their dreams.
Largely invisible, this truth remains forever a mystery to the broad majority of candidates.
But when we recognize this truth and understand its dynamics, our approach to solving problems changes and begins to precisely match the requirements of the MBB selective recruitment process.
I’ll explain this truth by way of an analogy – chefs versus cooks – then tie the idea back to case interviews and how it affects how problem-solving should be learned.
The Metaphor
When you go to a restaurant, there are two types of people who cook the food.
One type typically works in Michelin star establishments, like Le Louis XV in Monaco, Quince in San Francisco, and Le Clos des Sens in Annecy, France.
… or Momofuku, a culinary brand run by chef-owner David Chang:
“…when the customer is not just satisfied, but they’re ecstatic, dazed, and confused by what they’ve just tasted. You don’t want people to talk; it’s not good enough. After they’ve eaten something, you want them to be: ‘oh my god, what the fuck just happened?!’ Those types of dishes don’t come easily; they often have to be built up and torn down dozens and dozens of times, and even when there is a chance, they won’t connect with the audience. But that connection between the chef and the diner gives the restaurant vitality; this trust, this give and take.”
The chef understands the interactions between ingredients and flavors at such a deep first principles level; that he or she can reassemble them into a piece of art…
Food that tastes out of this world, a culinary experience that lodges in one’s permanent memory, that diners will book a year in advance to experience. Sometimes even longer in the case of elBulli in Catalonia, Spain, run by chef Ferran Adrià.
These creators are called chefs.
The other type is cooks. The difference between the two is vast.
You’ll find cooks in places like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Chili’s Grill & Bar. Even your local “pretty good” restaurant.
The cook, in contrast, can only see the culinary world as recipes — creations and ideas from others. The cook starts and ends with a recipe, occasionally tweaking and fiddling from there.
The world needs both types of people.
Someone new, young, and hungry, seeking to (one day) become a Michelin star chef, perhaps open their own restaurant one day, doesn’t cut their teeth in a McDonald’s or a Chili’s Grill & Bar where recipes are already prescribed, no thinking required. Just follow the damn recipe; that’s the job.
Chefs-in-waiting start washing dishes in the restaurant they one day seek to emulate, watching their mentor operate, soaking up the experience like a sponge, tasting, asking questions, thinking deeply about why some ingredients sing together, and others don’t, taking notes along the way.
A person who sees themselves as a chef-in-waiting does it for the calling, a purpose that pulls and tugs at them because they have a need to create world-class food one day and serve it to people who care about the experience.
Chefs don’t do it because it’s just a job.
A cook, in contrast, rarely follows this path. Their starting point is working in ordinary restaurants and learning from ordinary cooks following uninspired, good enough recipes.
The Chef & Cook Problem-Solver
Many candidates, sometimes without knowing it, are on a Cook’s journey through their mindset and actions.
Other candidates – and there are a lot fewer of these – seek to be Chefs.
Their worldview, beliefs, and actions are very different from that of Cook candidates.
The cook candidate seeks out “recipes” to copy and clone…
The shiny objects…
The silver bullets…
Because why reinvent the wheel, right?
These recipes (the follow-my-system frameworks and templates) can be easily found online.
Every cook candidate wants a piece of the action.
Any cook candidate is looking for another list of issues and questions to add to their (mostly worthless) collection.
The FOMO is irresistible. Heroin straight to the veins.
The chef-candidate, however, starts with first principles — foundational truths that inform better decision-making and problem-solving.
Chef-candidates pay attention to how ingredients combine and interact, from which extraordinary flavors and experiences emerge.
Chef-candidates don’t rely on recipes; they create their own in service of their ultimate goal.
They know they are playing the long game on a learning journey with no endpoint.
Their goal isn’t to “hack” a job interview but to keep learning, improving daily over a lifetime.
In 1997, Anne-Sophie Pic took control of Maison Pic. She had no formal training in cooking, but in 2007, she regained her father’s third Michelin star.
That was the fourth time that a female chef had achieved three Michelin stars.
That same year, Pic was the only woman on French newspaper Le Figaro’s list of France’s top twenty richest chefs.
In 2011 Anne-Sophie was named the Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Her customers queue up to pay $360 for a full food experience. Or $120 for lunch.
In 2021, in the middle of a global pandemic, 51-year-old Anne-Sophie Pic took the no. 1 spot on People With Money’s top 10 highest-paid chefs, with an estimated net worth of $245 million.
Think about that…
MBB’s clients, MBB, Candidates
Think a minute of what the clients of MBB want.
A Maison Pic customer will never dine in a McDonald’s. Not in a million years.
In the same way, a corporate (or public organization) seeking solutions to its most significant problems or opportunities will be drawn to consultancies that meet its expectations.
And consultancies are no different.
They want to attract talents who are seeking fine-dining experiences run by chefs, not cooks.
… Candidates who are blind to cook-style problem-solving.
The Take-Away
At first, learning a list of frameworks (I prefer to call them templates) and questions to prepare for case interviews seems easier.
But interviewers will move on the instant they discover a candidate is in the wrong place.
Thinking and behaving like a metaphorical “chef” is not for everyone.
It is for those who care about learning and pushing themselves outside their comfort zone.
If you are after shortcuts, don’t target top-tier consulting firms.
That won’t work. It can’t.
If you seek to serve McKinsey-style customers, learn to think and behave like a chef from the get-go.
There’s no shortcut.
No loopholes.
No secret backdoor you can buy your way through.
Thousands of candidates have tried using “template” recipes.
Then months later, they look back at the wreckage and wonder what went so wrong and how they missed a job opportunity of a lifetime.
The shortcut is to learn to solve problems using first principles.
It’s counter-intuitive. Because it takes time.
When I created careerinconsulting.com, I knew the types of candidates I wanted to help with my coaching services. I wanted to create my little fine-dining restaurant here on the Internet.
I created careerinconsulting.com for candidates who want to be “chefs.”
The whole idea behind our flagship coaching program is to empower chef-style candidates.
People who care about learning how to fish.
People who are driven to overcome obstacles.
People who have high expectations for themselves and others.
If you’ve read all the way to the end, there’s a pretty good chance that’s you.
To your success,
Sébastien
Credits: this article has been inspired by André Chapiron, a brilliant marketer.
Get 4 Complete Case Interview Courses For Free
You need 4 skills to be successful in all case interviews: Case Structuring, Case Leadership, Case Analytics, and Communication. Join this free training and learn how to ace ANY case questions.
Awesome.. I want to be Master Chef
haha, nice! Go to this page and book a call with us and we will teach you how to become a chef.
https://careerinconsulting.com/solutions/