If you were a chef looking for work, which of these three places would you choose to work at'
From the simple question, Justice launches into a discussion of why people choose to work where they do.
I would say that TG would fall into 'The Local' in his scheme. We don't have all of our shit together, but we're getting there.
In one section, he talks about how a mid-level chef may be tempted to leave The Hotness and go to The Local because they could be a lead chef there. He then mentions that this would be an unfortunate career choice because The Local would not be a good place to learn and grow.
I don't agree that this would be an unfortunate choice if the chef actually had some ambition in the first place. The Local usually has lots of freedom for the chef to try new things through trial and error. The clientele are more accepting of those dishes that don't work out because they're not paying the same prices that they would at The Hotness. The chef usually has smaller dishes to work with at The Local which allows him to focus on learning better methods rather than just cranking out dish after dish.
If the chef had little ambition or was not a self-starter, I agree with Justice that The Local would be a dead-end. The chef would most likely be satisfied with creating the same dish over and over again with little variation. They may occasionally try some new technique that they read about in the latest chef magazine, but will probably discard it if it doesn't work the first time.
Maybe it's because I'm currently the Head Chef, but I like The Local. I can certainly see that I'll eventually want to go to The Hotness in order to take my skills up another step, but The Local provides me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't get at The Hotness. Who knows ' if I can surround myself with the right type of sous-chefs, TG may become the next Hotness. :-)