Building Skills Beyond the Kitchen With Justin Khanna, Chef Content Creator

Anything can be turned into content these days. And anyone can become a content creator. But for chefs (and other restaurant professionals), stepping out from behind the line and into the spotlight can feel like uncharted territory.

That’s why in this episode of The Pre-Shift Podcast, we sat down with Justin Khanna, Chef Content Creator and Founder of Repertoire, to talk about building skills beyond the kitchen—also known as content creation.

Listen to the episode

Meet Justin Khanna

After attending culinary school in New York, Justin was hungry to break into the world of Michelin kitchens. “ That was the type of food that got me excited. Those were the kind of environments that I knew would kind of push me because I didn’t come from a restaurant family. I didn’t have extensive training.”

 ”Where that first kind of manifested for me was staging. And so I would take the train down to the city, and send emails out to restaurants that I was very unqualified to spend time in—but they took me in.” He eventually landed an externship at Per Se, joined the opening team at Grace (a Chicago-based restaurant that went on to earn three Michelin stars), and continued his journey at The French Laundry.

He then moved to Scandinavia, becoming Sous Chef of Lysverkeyt on the west coast of Norway. This is also when he started to dip his toe in content creation. After three years, Justin decided to move back to the States, choosing Seattle as his home base, where he started a pop-up business and continued making content simultaneously.

After COVID hit, Justin decided to go all-in on content creation. “ What I spend my time doing is making frameworks, making tools, making resources that can ultimately help the industry to level up and provide better experiences across whatever it is that they do—whether that’s a restaurant, a private chef business, or even being a cooking content creator.”

Today, Justin runs his own content business, Repertoire, a modern hospitality education company that teaches industry professionals skills that go beyond a traditional culinary school education. You may also recognize him from his YouTube channel (which has over 45,000 subscribers), where he breaks down industry tips, product reviews, and your favorite scenes from The Bear—all from the lens of a professional chef.

Restaurant concepts > individual chefs

Justin believes that chefs should bring their ideas to life through powerful restaurant concepts, rather than making every dish a personal signature. He explains that when an establishment is built entirely around a chef’s presence, and they’re not in the kitchen that night, guests might wonder—is this the same experience?

“And so it turns into this interesting dilemma, where I think chefs would be better off being able to have their ideas come to fruition via the concept as opposed to having it be like, ‘This is me on a plate.’”

Citing Thomas Keller as an example, Justin explains how cuisine innovation aside, he became a phenomenal operator: “[He has] the ability to just hire people better than him and put infrastructure in place where the menu can change everyday and have consistency across multiple locations—and not just his three-star places but the other restaurants he owns.”

“ How much of a testament is it that people still want to go even though he’s not there? I think that’s super interesting. This is no knock to him, but it’s almost like the organization got better when he took a step back.” He explains that one problem he sees with a lot of chefs is the belief that everything will go to kaput if they aren’t on the premises. And this also plays into the issue of work-life balance, which many chefs face.

He adds, “ Going macro, how much would that inspire more people to join the industry if they knew that that was the escape velocity that you could reach in your career? Because I think a lot of people get hesitant about running the restaurant.” Instead of defining success as standing at the pass with tweezers, making sure every plate looks like you on a dish, Justin believes it’s time to reframe the narrative.

Opportunities in restaurant content creation

When it comes to content creation in the restaurant industry, Justin sees two angles of opportunity: education and problem-solving. 

1. Educational content – He explains that as a chef, there are a lot of unspoken rules that are learned the hard way. “What is something that would help a budding, young beginner? A set of lessons and knowledge pieces that we all know—things like cutting the tape, how to brunoise, butchering a chicken, or how to set up your station—all  of those insights are just now being able to be discovered on the internet because people are putting out individual pieces of content.” When Justin began creating content, he structured it based on what would have been helpful for his past self.
2. Problem-solving content – Justin adds, “Then, there’s the other side: what is still an outstanding problem that has yet to be solved? That’s where a person like me comes in because I love figuring out the rules. I love figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Where’s the feedback? What could potentially be changed?” He explains that people who have a mind for this can use content as a mechanism to make the whole industry better—while he may not be able to make entire problems go away, he strives to help others mitigate downsides, avoid pitfalls, and make better decisions. 

Justin also sees content as a way to connect with potential customers: “ What’s a really hard part about running a business is getting new customers in, and if you can form a relationship with people before they even get that butt in the seat, it’s just a totally different experience for people.” While some may argue that content has tainted the industry, Justin believes it’s ultimately a positive shift for the long run.

Bridging educational gaps in culinary school with Repertoire

Justin explains that there’s a lot more learning required, beyond the setting of a culinary classroom: “ It’s not that none of it served me—it just wasn’t enough. So I got into some of these kitchens, and it was how you thought about station construction, how you thought about how you move—your sense of urgency was just not enough.”

These gaps inspired Justin to address his own needs, circling back to the idea of creating educational content he wished he had access to earlier on in his career. He started Repertoire  with questions in mind like, “Is your ability to make hollandaise sauce the thing that’s gonna make you excel on the station, or is it the first module of Total Station Domination, instruction following?”

“Because you might not even get a recipe on your first day in a fine-dining kitchen. You might basically get like a case of parsley, and you might just get told, I need it picked like this, and I need it washed like this, and I need it put away like this. There’s no recipe here.” While many interesting, valuable things are taught in traditional culinary school, it might not be the best place to start. 

Justin also points out that traditional education tends to be based on a set of qualifying factors—a measurable checklist to simply move down. For example, did you learn how to brunoise? Did you learn the mother sauces? What’s interesting about his program is that he actually talks about other soft skills like attitude, communication, and organization—all things chefs care about.

Justin also says, “ The onus on education has often been on the individual because of how institutionalized college education has been in the U.S.” He explains that he’s found more success going directly to businesses and offering his programs for the entire staff. He sees it as a win-win-win: he makes a sale, businesses get a return on their investment, and staff receive funded education. “It’s just a fundamentally different way to approach education and how it gets infused into the industry.”

Advice for aspiring restaurant content creators

As for his advice to aspiring content creators in the restaurant industry, Justin quotes Gary V: “Document, don’t create.” He explains that just documenting what you’re doing in your everyday role is a solid place to be when thinking about content.

He offers the example of an aspiring creator, working the vegetable station at a Michelin-starred restaurant: “It’s very difficult to come at content creation from a place of authority because you’re going to get those comments like, ‘You don’t have a restaurant yet. Why should I listen to you?’ And so if you’re basically saying, this is just how my life is as a person running a station at a one-Michelin-star restaurant, nobody can argue with that.”

He also quotes Alex Hormozi, with another key insight: “Don’t say ‘How to’, say ‘How I.’” So instead of saying, “How to set up your station,” say “This is how I set up my station.” And if you don’t have a naturally mic’d-up, charismatic personality, there are many other ways to approach creating content—like simply documenting your day-to-day and adding a voiceover later.

He adds that even if you aren’t actively producing content at the moment, capture it now. Justin explains that he wishes he had content from his past experiences, such as shingling rose petals at Noma and making juice at his Per Se externship. “ I don’t have any of that content. And so now all of this stuff that I’m sharing is basically just stories that I have to try to animate and tell because I don’t have any sort of visual backup. […] Kudos to the people who do have that foresight now.”

And six years later, when you finally get around to putting out that video, you’ll have the receipts. 

Resources

• Connect with Justin Khanna on LinkedIn and TikTok ????
• Visit: Repertoire ????
• Watch: Justin’s YouTube Channel ????
• 7shifts Restaurant Management Training Guide ????