How One Chef Uses Japanese Principles of Mastery to Shape His Work
‘It’s just the care, even the idea of doing one thing your whole life’
Greg Proechel has a crazy big beard and a long octopus tattoo running up the length of his arm, but underneath his guise of being a wild artist, there’s a disciplined and meticulous man who is unafraid of hard and demanding work.
Graduating from Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s in economics, Proechel first went into finance before making the switch into professional kitchens. He’s worked at Eleven Madison Park, as well as at the Michelin-starred New York City restaurant Blanca as sous chef. He then moved on to work as executive chef at Le Turtle in NYC, and then opened his own restaurant, Ferris, in 2017. He currently runs his own hospitality consulting group, Pulpo Hospitality, which advises clients on restaurant building, branding, and construction.
As I meet and talk to more people, I find that there are those who stumble into their careers, those who grow into it, and then there are people like Proechel, who see it as their life’s calling — something they could never not do. When I got a chance to ask him some questions, the parallels he drew between his own desire for mastery and Japanese food made it clear to me why he loves it so much.
