LEADERSHIP PROFILE: Dominique Crenn has been called the best female chef in the world. Her story and approach to leadership and success provide an interesting menu of learnings. Grab a spoon!
“It’s not about you, it’s never about you,”
So says Chef Dominque Crenn talking about her team, when asked about her enormous success in the ultra-competitive and male dominated culinary world.
She was the first women chef in the U.S. to receive the prestigious two-stars from Michelin. Ms. Crenn provides a unique and occasionally irreverent view of leadership and success.
Here’s a taste.
But First A Word From Our Sponsor…
Relevant leadership lessons are present in all kinds of settings. I’m determined to pull them out and forward as part of this blog.
First up – the world of food. I’m part of a family and network of friends that love food – eating, cooking, baking, watching and talking about it and traveling to get it.
We’re in if it’s got a food, coffee or wine bent.
I’ve long thought a busy restaurant kitchen quite a dynamic sandbox to observe leadership. Putting out great food, night after night in a brutally competitive and demanding environment demands quality leadership.
Enter, Dominique Crenn as a teacher for us all.
So Who Is She?
Born in Brittany, France Dominique Crenn was adopted at 18 months. While she doesn’t remember life as an orphan, she has a strong sense of being picked and felt deeply loved by her parents.
Her father was a famous French politician and exposed her to different walks of life. He instilled in her a notion of success defined by how you feel and what you can give to people rather than how much you make.
She wanted to be a chef but also that France in the 1980’s wouldn’t allow her to do at the level she desired. She went to college, not culinary school. After that, she moved to the United States.
She began her career working in kitchens after cold calling a leading French chef in San Francisco. He gave her a job, and the journey began.
Just The World’s Best Female Chef
In 2011, after years of working in kitchens in the US and around the world, she opened her restaurant Atelier Crenn (named after her father) in San Francisco. Food writers describe it as a modern French restaurant.
She surprised and delighted the culinary world. The accolades followed in short order:
- 2013 & 2014 – Two stars from the Michelin Guide, making Ms. Crenn the highest-ranked female chef in the United States
- 2016 – Named the World’s Best Female Chef by the World’s 50 Best
- 2017 – One of TIME magazine’s Women Leaders Who Are Changing The World
People describe Dominique as smart, poised, a chef’s chef. Her approach to leading people, connection to the world around her and what success means offer a set of leadership lessons sure to translate outside the culinary world.
Starter Course: Self
Dominique has a strong sense of self. She is grounded and knows where she is going. The takeaways and observations:
Be in the weeds as a leader and business owner.
She is a working chef. In a field of celebrity chefs who are off everywhere but in a kitchen, she is happily in one of her restaurants every night either on the line with her team or out with her guests. It is what she loves and how she leads and learns.
Calm, confident leadership
Despite the reputation of kitchen’s being loud, aggressive and chaotic. Her restaurants exhibit none of these. While she is exacting, she doesn’t yell and denies that chaos is part of a kitchen. She sees those environments as stifling creativity and passion.
A clear purpose
She didn’t open a restaurant for the sake of it. It was about doing something that matters. The intent was to create a “workshop” to create with the people she wanted to be around you. She doesn’t “waste time” worrying about critiques from people who don’t understand the purpose.
Full responsibility and humility
Chef Crenn displays an incredible connectedness, humility, and responsibility from start to finish – of what allows her to be where she is and who she serves. She connects every single day with “producers” (farmers) of the incredible products she brings to the restaurant by being in the field, tasting, etc. She insists the producers are the rock stars, not the chefs!
Lifelong Learner
Even at her level of achievement, Dominique works hard to evolve and learn. “When you realize a dream, it’s time to look at other possibilities.” She is also acutely aware of what she is learning and how to carry it forward.
Professional and private personality shine through
Dominique is described as professional, serious, capable and also whimsical and free-spirited. She is not afraid of her team and her customers seeing both.
Main Course: It’s Never About You – Others
She repeats these words in nearly every interview – “it’s never about you!” She manages people in quite a selfless way. Lessons include:
Give away control
She was taught early on as a chef to “give away” responsibility to a team and to take the risk of letting them own it and create. Dominique speaks in glowing terms about how inspired she is by her people.
It’s not about you
About her sous chef’s ability to create and grow as a chef – “watching him has made me happy every day.”
It’s never about you
Her sous chef tells the story of when Altiere Crenn received the 2 Michelin stars. He was the first person she called. She told him:
We got it. Thank you so much. This is yours as much as mine!
He admitted he cried.
Hire with the team in mind
She doesn’t care about resumes. Who they are is what matters. She explains that while passion is useful, pairing with determination is a must. The combination means excellent ideas will flow and brought to life.
As for the team, she will not hire someone “great” who will be bad for the whole. “If you have an ego you are out,” she says with a wink. An ironic line for a leading chef.
Power of male mentors
In a field dominated by men, it was inevitable she would have male mentors. Her most significant mentor though, her father. She sees something hugely valuable in women also having male mentors.
Related: The Special Gift Of Leaders Who Know What Is Most Important
Dessert: Experience And The World At Large
The way she experiences the world is unique. She is a student and a teacher:
It’s What You Do With Recognition That Matters
Restauranteurs would almost kill to get 2 Michelin stars. For Chef Crenn it’s not about the recognition itself but what you do with the platform. She is truly grateful to be acknowledged but asserts that having 2 Michelin stars doesn’t define her. It allows her to continue to create, evolve and have a louder voice on important issues.
There are many paths – make one your own
Her journey proves there is no one formula or roadmap to attain the highest level of recognition. While she learned from some of the best chefs, she became utterly her own person as a professional. In a field littered with talent, she is considered unique in approach. One example, there are no traditional menus at her restaurant. When you sit down at a table, you receive a poem. The courses derive from words and phrases of the poem. At first, there was criticism; it became a signature element of her restaurant.
Take risks
She did not go to cooking school. Instead, she went to one of the best chefs in San Francisco, Jeremiah Tower and asked for a job. From there she went to a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia to run a women-only kitchen. Her career moves were calculated and at the same time unexpected. For her, the risk of not taking a chance is most significant of all.
Don’t look for someone to give you the recipe
She received tremendous freedom and responsibility in her first job working for the San Francisco chef. He told Dominique what he wanted the outcome to be but not how to do it or what recipe to use. She knew she had to produce something fabulous. It was a powerful lesson of how to inspire excellence, creativity, and accountability – don’t tell people the how.
Past and present as inspiration
Dominique balances a sincere appreciation for traditions and her upbringing with creativity to put forth something modern and fresh. One is not subservient to the other. Both come through in her offerings.
A Special Offering From The Chef
And finally, straight from the chef herself on the example she hopes to set:
My daughters love to cook, but more than that I hope I provide them an example of how to be a badass — and how to be kind, to be respectful, to ask questions and be curious, to understand there are others in this world, to be a good listener and to be a good leader.
You Order Please?
So there you have the entire menu of leadership insights.
My favorite morsels, her:
- Determined push into a male-dominated, culinary world with no formal training. Undeterred she pushed in with despite no visible door to enter.
- Reverence for the producers/farmers and sense of where she fits in the chain. She is part of but not the center of it all.
- Pure joy at sharing the industry’s top achievement with her sous chef and team. That sharing engenders incredible loyalty.
As with any proper menu, this one is intended to have something for everyone. I hope you find something of interest.
Please pick something you’ve never tried or one you know well and carry back into your work and your world.
Bon Appetit!
Question: What lesson hits home most for you and why?
Still Hungry For More
If you are interested in more or to hear directly from Dominque Crenn, here goes:
Netflix’s – Chef’s Table – Volume 2 – Wonderful expose about her as a person and as a chef. Spectacular cinematography. Side note, if you’ve never watched Chef’s Table, do. You see the pursuit of excellence like no other!
TED Talk Defining Success With Dominique Crenn
NY Times Does Fame Have A Recipe? Dominque Crenn’s Fast Rise
TIME Firsts: Women Who Are Changing The World