I get asked a lot about how we do what we do. A lot of people wonder how a restaurant works, and there are always strange ideas floating around. When I was at Novo, we had an regular customer who thought one of our chefs, Duncan Palmer, did everything. “Tell Duncan the coffee is great today!” was a typical thought. While Duncan did a tremendous amount of work, Novo sat around 250 people, with 4 patios, a basement and indoor seating. Needless to say, a lot of people were working. At Luc, it still shocks a lot of people that I am our only cook. 5 days a week, everything is sourced, prepped, fired, and plated by yours truly. That is clearly not how many, if any, places do things. It’s a system that doesn’t allow for extra days off, sick days, or much free time. When my son was born, we joked that Kristina should try to go into labor on a Monday morning, and have him near Tuesday night, so I would only need to miss one day of work (Wednesday). Lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened. That’s serendipity. So I was thinking, I should put together a list of what it takes to do this job, most days.

The following is a humorous list that is not intended to imply that Ian hates his job. He loves it. Now on with the list.

1. Have a willful disregard for your personal health and well being. This means you should stop going to the gym, eat whatever is in front of you, and sit down as often as you can. Also, eat nothing be meat and few fruits and vegetables.

2. Sleep as little as possible. This is in part due to my son, who loves to rise around 5:30 am – 7:00 am. Since I get off of work most nights around 9pm-10pm, I have a hard time going straight to sleep. By which I mean, despite the fact that I’m exhausted, I have to see what’s happening on the internet or watch a movie until 1 am. Because that’s what normal people do. Sleep 5-6 hours a day.

3. Expect your family to understand that you won’t be around very much. This goes for my friends, too, who have been ok seeing me in sporadic bursts. I haven’t been to my hometown since 2006. I see my father about once every year or so. My mom maybe twice a year. Somehow, all these people still love me despite my constant inability to be anywhere near them. Vacation time for chefs is slim, and Luc does a better job than most of working in some R&R. But it’s still hard.

4. Expect your wife to put up with all this. For 2.5 YEARS. The long hours, the sore body, the burns and scars, the complaining. My wife puts up with me sighing like an 80 year old every time I get up. That’s because I’m pretty sure the cartilage is rapidly disappearing in my right knee, I tell her. You should probably get that looked at, right?

5. Be able to memorize tasks and organize them in your head. Planners get covered in sauce easily, and there’s no time to check a calendar most days.

6. Be ready to spend you “time off” running errands. A typical Wednesday involves a meeting, a trip to the market, a trip to two farms, a trip to the store for odds and ends, meeting vendors at the restaurant, and letting my son ride in the produce wagon. That last part is awesome though, he really enjoys it. Also, that’s all BEFORE work starts. By noon, I’m in the kitchen prepping.

7. You have to sadistically look forward to being busy. It’s going to be harder and mean more work…but it’s gonna be fun too. Whenever graduation would approach at Novo, we’d prep 250lbs of chicken satay. That’s one menu item. We would stare at what was 7 times the amount we’d normally go through in a weekend, thinking, “no F–ing way we go through that in a weekend.” It would last a night. That’s demoralizing, because your only option is prep more for tomorrow. But at the end of the day, those are the times I would get excited about, becuase you’re testing your limits.

8. Lastly, I just want to give you a taste of what it takes to get the food on the table at LUC. Here’s a list of what I made/prepped today: fresh pasta, creme brulee, blanched untold numbers of vegetables, gazpatcho, goat cheese Mac N Cheese, prepped and cleaned tenderloins, deboned 8 ducks, skinned and cured two pork bellies, cured duck confit, corn succotash, scaled, cleaned, deboned, and pinned a 13 lb king salmon, cleaned green beans, cleaned 15 lbs of albacore, made 4 sauces, chopped garlic and other stuff for my mise, and write the night’s menus. Not that that’s a ton to do, but that was all three and a half hours of work. (1-4:30)

It’s definitely not sustainable. I can’t tell you how much longer it will be just me in that kitchen. When I was in NYC, the other chefs looked at me like I was an alien. No one does it like this, and i’m starting to realize why. Physically and mental, it’s taxing. We all work hard in this business, and I’m not saying I work harder. I love what I do here in town, and I’m super appreciative that we’ve been supported to the point that LUC is rapidly approaching it’s 3rd birthday and getting BUSIER! I just wanted to give the casual observer a glimpse behind the green curtain at LUC.