Chef/Jefe

Don’t know about you guys but, for me, the choice between books and the movies is the next thing to putting chocolate chip gelato up against home-made tiramisu. And sometimes it seems like what you’re looking for is also looking for you.

A book and a movie; neither one of ‘em blockbusters but in my mind, they were channeled directly to yours truly from the universe. Geez, and now I’m sounding like I’m having some kind of flower child flashback (but maybe not; after all, I do remember the 60’s.)

So I have some serious choices to make in the next few months and I have to admit, in those creepy early hours, I’m tempted to just take the easy, comfortable way out. I’ve practiced my profession for almost 40-freakin years and the thing is; I’ve never stopped learning. And I have a sneaking suspicion that learning just might be the very process and joy that keeps me young (at least, in my own mind.) And if I stop learning…what then?

A couple of weeks ago, I visited Atlanta and learned a few things about myself; even drew up a “selfie” timeline. The lesson learned probably applies to mostly everyone but in this particular exercise it had more to do with me as a leader. When you get to review your own history it can become very clear who you were being when you were really effective; when you were committed…when you were in a zone. I also saw up close and personal just what it’s like when you’re being your own worst enemy.

And while I love reading and going to the movies, I don’t miss watching the news. I really don’t need the negativity before I provide care and I certainly don’t need it before counting sheep. The Sports Page is my refuge…but not so much these days.

Seems like recently, almost every day I get to read about some physically gifted, extraordinarily well-paid athlete/jackass who can’t be a man. Real men don’t hit women and children and leaders/commissioners are accountable; they don’t take the easy way out. Geez, who needs to read books to know stuff like that?

It so happens that while I was killing time in my hotel back in Atlanta, I had the rare luxury of watching First Take on ESPN. Sadly maybe, for me, there’s nothing better than watching two smart guys argue about sports with a beautiful moderator separating the two. And when you can get Steven A. Smith and Skip Bayless to agree on anything, it’s newsworthy; they agreed Tim Grover’s Relentless: Good to Great to Unstoppable was a must read. Relentless is technically a sports book; Tim Grover’s first training job was being Michael Jordan’s first ever personal trainer. But the book’s really about being a leader, accepting risks, knowing who you really are, and committing to excellence…at the expense of just about everything else.

So yesterday I saw the film Chef, and why not sit back and savor the most beautifully prepared cinematic meals this side of my fave foodie movie, Big Night? And it doesn’t hurt when Scarlett Johansson is the restaurant hostess and the second hottest woman on the screen.

Jon Favreau’s film was just the positive dose of medicine this boy needed on a Saturday afternoon, one week removed from my beloved Trojans losing to over-achieving Boston College and only a few miles away from changing the course of a career of almost 40-years. And God, I’m a sucker for father and son flicks.

Turns out; Jon Favreau’s Chef Casper would have never made it as an athlete/executive/dentist in the world according to Tim Grover’s Relentless. Casper was far too human.

As the film opens, it’s obvious the creative passion is undoubtedly still there; it’s just that the chef is lost. And “chef” or its Spanish equivalent “jefe” are derived from the word, “chief.” And gradually, Casper has become far less than the chief of his kitchen and his life; he can cook up stuff you just wanna eat right off of the screen but he can’t be a leader or a husband or a father.

Don’t wanna ruin the plot, but Casper’s journey is really all about a guy desperate enough to really look in the mirror and take action. In this Hero’s Journey, the destination is a word. And being chef or jefe or chief is being something taken from the Latin word “caput” or head…as in head of a family (is there a more honorable title?) And we get to sit in on the scrumptious road trip to renewal that brings a tear, reflection, and the urge to start Googling “Cubano sandwich food truck” all at the same time.

Back in Atlanta, we all wrote down the things that stop us; we threw the folded evidence in the middle of the floor before walking out of the conference room and symbolically leaving, in my case, fear and doubt behind.

Reading a book and watching a movie: not a bad way to spend a weekend; especially when you get to take a good long look in the mirror at the same time.

And it’s never too late to be the real author or Jefe of your own road trip.

>