FRIED COFFEE

Susan Holaday,  Editor & Publisher of Foodservice East,  the B2B Publication of the $ 80 Billion Northeast Foodservice Industry, interviewed TemporaryChef.com founder Paul W. Green CDC and published the following article in the Spring, 2009 issue.

Chef Paul Green meets a marketplace need with a website that places “temporary chefs”

TUFTONBORO, NH – A lifelong passion for food leads to a new business opportunity in ‘retirement.

No one was more surprised  than Chef Paul  Green when his idea  for a new business venture,  Temporary Chef™, serendipitously  turned out to meet  an unfilled need in the marketplace,  providing seasoned  chefs with an opportunity for  short-term employment.

Buying the domain name,  TemporaryChef.com, which  had expired, led him down a  new path of doing a service for  senior chefs who had the desire,  skills and talent to continue  working on temporary  assignments.

A venture begun as a  search for short-term gigs of  his own, Temporary Chef led  Green, a ‘retired’ chef  who remains  passionate about food  and cooking, into a whole new  realm.  “We are a Brigade De  Cuisine of highly experienced  career chefs with proven track records in all facets of culinary  operations and management,” he explains.  “Our menu of talents  includes HACCP, menu  development, budget / P&L  management, team building  and training, multi-kitchen  operations, product development  and much more.”

“When I launched TemporaryChef in March, 2008,  it was meant to be a vehicle  for myself and two other career  chefs to pursue our deep passion for the culinary arts.  Since then it has grown to  include many   other chefs in  various parts of the world who share our devotion, including  a group who specialize in private  yachts,” Green writes.

“The pursuit of a career  in kitchens is an affair of the heart and soul.  We strive for  perfection and endlessly seek knowledge and technique.  We  have honed our skills in many  disciplines including vegan,  macrobiotics, special needs,  and a world of ethnic cuisines.   Food is in our thoughts even  as we sleep or take our leisure,  waiting for that glimmer  of idea that will become our next entrée.”

“I tapped into something  unwittingly and I think it will grow.”   Kitchens require a “tremendous amount of energy and as chefs age, they often move out.  You don’t see  too many 50-year-old broiler cooks except in major urban areas.  It’s the demands of the job.”

Green, a former sociology  major in college with a minor in psychology, grew up  with a love of food  instilled  by a grandmother who made  her own noodles and baked  breads.  “She let me knead the bread,” he recalls, “and I fell in love with the smell of the  yeast and how it changed as the bread baked.”

Later, in college, he “discovered  the benefits of having a  date over for a well prepared  meal with nice  music playing  and a good bottle of wine.”    Meeting a French chef, he asked to work in his kitchen free and quickly got a taste  of what the industry was all about.  The experience led him to  Chicago, moving up the career  ladder and eventually becoming  executive sous chef at the  95th floor restaurant at the  John Hancock Tower. “It was a constant learning, growing experience. I love food, the  chemistry of it, and exploring  new flavor sensations that  make your mouth dance.”
Older chefs, he says, are  “looked at askance by the industry,  but operators need the expertise, maturity and talent they bring.  I’m having success  placing chefs with seasonal resorts,  or they can fill in while someone is looking for a new  full-time chef when someone leaves suddenly or is fired.”

Temporary situations can work well, Green points out, noting that his first client, a  high end restaurant at a resort,  could not find a chef in  the “limited labor pool” where  it was located.  “I sent a guy  who’d been an executive chef at a Northeast resort and they  almost immediately switched him to manage eight  operations and teach ServSafe to its entire staff, raised his weekly salary and gave him a stipend so his wife could visit.

I’m filling a need.”