The Chicago Sheraton is a big hotel with the largest ballroom in the Midwest Keegan applied for the assistant pastry chef position He was an experienced savory chef, and despite his lack of experience in pastry he had all the other qualities a chef must have—selfmotivation, commitment to quality, and a great attitude I always tell my students that I can teach them all the pastry techniques in the world but I cannot teach them to have a great attitude That has to come from them Great attitude can help people lift mountains, and for Keegan it helped him get his break in pastry He had just been hired, and on his second day of work he was touring the hotel with eight other newly hired employees as part of their orientation I pulled him out of the tour and asked him, “Keegan, you are part German, right? Have you ever made a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte?”—the German name for Black Forest cake He answered, “Yes, Chef, when I was a kid I made one once with my Oma [grandmother].” “Great!” I said “We need 368 nine-inch Black Forest cakes for the day after tomorrow.” His jaw dropped, but he said, “Yes, Chef.” That is all I wanted to hear I knew then and there that he was the right person for the job The wrong person would have come up with all sorts of excuses, not realizing that I was testing him We already had the Black Forest cake production laid out, but we integrated Keegan into it; it was his boot camp His first cakes looked very rustic, but by the end they looked stellar; repetition and practice is everything in our business ... get his break in pastry He had just been hired, and on his second day of work he was touring the hotel with eight other newly hired employees as part of their orientation I pulled him out of the tour and asked... I always tell my students that I can teach them all the pastry techniques in the world but I cannot teach them to have a great attitude That has to come from them Great attitude can help people lift mountains, and... 368 nine-inch Black Forest cakes for the day after tomorrow.” His jaw dropped, but he said, “Yes, Chef.” That is all I wanted to hear I knew then and there that he was the right person for the job The wrong person would have