Ami Cisneros is currently chef de cuisine at the newly opened Pacific Standard Coastal Kitchen in Little Italy, headed by Top Chef alum, Giselle Wellman. She’s worked with a number of San Diego food establishments, most recently The Hopping Pig Gastropub and JRDN at Tower 23.

Here are five things she keeps in mind when working on her craft.

1: “Mise en Place“

Translates to everything in its place. It’s a kitchen mantra that helps chefs keep control in an environment that is constantly moving. It creates order and peace of mind in order to be successful even if we are in the weeds. If you are prepared for the storm, it’s easier to navigate.

2: “Always say ‘Yes Chef’“

In restaurants the customer is always right in the front of the house and chef is always right in the back of the house. When you’re a cook, learning to swallow your pride is important because you don’t know it all. When you’re the chef, you need to be at a place where your cooks can trust you know best.

3: “Needs more salt“

Learning balance is the most important thing in life and in seasoning food. Too much kills your dish, too little gives it no soul.

4: “What can I do for you?“

Teamwork is everything in the kitchen. Components to dishes get spread along the stations, if one component isn’t ready, the dish isn’t ready. Everyone needs to help everyone.

5: “Stay hungry“

I’m constantly looking for more. Keeping the hunger alive to learn more, to do more, to be a better leader, is what is going to keep a chef going. I’m always looking around to see what can inspire new dishes; otherwise, I’ll just be bored and unfulfilled.

JUST FIVE THINGS: An ongoing LESS+MORE initiative designed to illuminate, in the simplest way possible, the five most important things to know about a particular art, craft, discipline or process.

Got your own Five Things to Share? Drop us a line at studio@dev.lessandmore.com

Brandon Solis is a Senior Digital Strategist at McCann New York. He works on L’ORÉAL Paris, General Mills, Lysol, Microsoft, and also spends time training the future of advertisers in all things digital strategy. He has paid dues at Lambesis, BBH, and Barton F. Graf.

Here are five quips I regularly use when I do what I do:

1: “You’re probably right…”

There’s so much information out there, I can support an argument or rationale for anything. Everything could be right with the right amount of data. That being said, really make sure what you’re saying is right for this particular need.

2: “Do real humans care?”

Some ideas are funny. Others are “creative” as hell. But, we’re in the world of applied arts so our duty is to help businesses relate to real people and solve real business problems. Do real people even care? Would your mom care? If not, scrap it and move on.

3: “That’s an idea.”

Gerry Graf, my old boss, would politely shut people down with that phrase. It’s a clever way to say, “your idea sucks” without disparaging the fact that you had the courage to step up and publicly exert yourself. You should definitely get credit for it… but, it’s still a bad idea.

4: “That’s not a thing.”

Digital seems to continuously be this bag of magic tricks or dark arts. It’s really not. There are set parameters and flexibilities that exist, all within a bound set of rules. But, for some reason, people who are intimidated by the space seem to go and make up things like it’s a blank canvas of exploration. No. It’s not. It’s really a paint by numbers thing… and that’s ok.

5: “I’m Great.”  

My favorite thing to say. The morning niceties or hallway passes usually are accompanied by, “how are you?” I always respond with the same thing, “I’m great,” though the punctuation often varies. Telling others you’re great is just as important as telling yourself that you are, too. Make it a daily habit.

JUST FIVE THINGS: An ongoing LESS+MORE initiative designed to illuminate, in the simplest way possible, the five most important things to know about a particular art, craft, discipline or process.

Got your own Five Things to Share? Drop us a line at studio@dev.lessandmore.com

Erik Enberg is a Copywriter and Creative Director based in Austin, Texas. We are constantly thrilled to work with him. He’s worked as Creative Director for agencies like Arnold Worldwide, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and Mother London. He recently shared five things with us that keep him creative.

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