As rain drizzled on the Boston waterfront area on this particular Saturday afternoon, the setting inside the restaurant Sel de la Terre — meaning “salt of the earth” — hinted at a different kind of weather.
Although the restaurant was still mostly empty, the sounds of chiming glass and whispered chatter blended smoothly with the light contemporary jazz music playing in the background. Waiters and staff busily moved about their work, preparing for what they knew would be a packed house during prime-time dinner hours.
In the corner, Geoff Gardner, dressed in an all-white uniform, intensely observed the harmonized buzz emanating from his employees. All he was missing now was his crisp, tall hat.
After a moment, Gardner stated quite simply his thoughts on the path his life has taken:
“I never would have predicted it to turn out this way in a million years,” he said. “No matter how much we plan or try to predict where our lives will go … you just have to roll with it.”
As executive chef and co-owner of Sel de la Terre — a French restaurant infused with hints of the Mediterranean — Gardner can boast his direct involvement in a successful business growing healthily since its opening in 2000. Overseeing the kitchen and managing a staff of 75, the 1994 graduate from Boston University’s School of Restaurant Management (now the School of Hospitality Administration) has made quite a name for himself through one secret ingredient: persistence.
KEEPING AN OPEN MIND
Gardner grew up enjoying what cooking had to offer, with his grandfather keeping him initially interested. He encouraged the young Gardner to always try different types of food by preparing him meals then refusing to reveal their ingredients until after he had eaten it.
“You sometimes hear the name of something, and you kind of make up your mind about whether you’re going to like it or not,” the slender Gardner said. “My grandfather took that away from me … he was a wonderful cook and took great pride in wanting to expose me to different foods.
“There’s just an endless variety in terms of food and cuisine,” he continued. “[My grandfather] kind of opened my eyes to that, planting the seeds in me then to keep open minded.”
Gardner began his undergraduate career at Connecticut College, where he tried various classes but nevertheless felt unsure about his career path. He decided to take a year off.
He soon found himself working in a riverboat on the Ohio River, than living in Nantucket and Cincinnati, spending a few summers at various cooking jobs. It was in Cincinnati that Gardner landed his first job as a cook.
“I was just looking for a job,” he said. “They were willing to train me, so I sorta just fell into cooking,” he said. “I loved it … it was very engaging.
“When you’re cooking in the kitchen, and things are happening so quickly, it’s just captivating,” he continued. “All of your senses are on full alert.”
PERSISTENCE
Gardner held a string of cooking jobs before landing a job that gave him direction.
“I know it sounds almost impossible,” he said, “but I worked seven days a week, as many as four jobs.”
Still, it was during his employment at a Nantucket breakfast café called Two Steps Up that the restaurant’s chef — after many discussions on how to run a successful restaurant business — encouraged Gardner to apply to BU.
“We would talk after work and I’d ask him about the business and what I could do to get better,” he said. “He really pointed me to Boston, BU and L’Espalier.”
L’Espalier, a French restaurant near Newbury Street, was at the time Gardner’s dream job.
“His advice to me was certainly great for my career,” Gardner said. “As soon as I got to Boston, I found L’Espalier’s address and just started knocking on their door.
“The chef told me, ‘keep knocking on their door … don’t be a pain, but be persistent,” he continued.
Although Gardner did not get an immediate job at L’Espalier, he did become employed at other restaurants, holding two part-time cooking jobs on top of being a full-time BU student. Despite the heavy load, Gardner said he was more efficient with his schedule.
“During my time in Connecticut, I’d have work-study and various other part time jobs, but there was still all this time,” he said. “Moving to Boston, being busy with work and classes and homework … there was no time to waste.”
By October, L’Espalier gave the 20-year-old Gardner a full-time cooking job, and he crafted his skills at the establishment for nine years, rising to the position of sous-chef before opening Sel de la Terre.
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
According to Gardner, cooking is a universal pastime.
“Everyone eats and everyone likes to eat,” he said. “Food is just a natural thread … we might have different interests, different hobbies, different careers … but we can at least have some common ground when it comes to food.”
From this common thread, Gardner feels he was able to combine the right elements to make his restaurant work.
“It’s inherent in the nature of food that it be a social thing,” he said. “Cooking very naturally brings people together.
“People go because they’re hungry and they want to be fed,” he continued. “But they also come because they want to be pampered and taken care of.”
And Gardner’s restaurant is the ultimate in pampering its diners. He goes to great lengths to ensure the right mood and ambiance are set, specifically emulating a “south of France” feel.
“We’re very much focused,” he said of his thematic restaurant. “You can see it in the décor, in the design, in our wine list and in the style of our cuisine.”
Nevertheless, competitiveness in the restaurant business is something he contends with every day.
“There have been a lot of fusion restaurants in the last couple of years, and it makes a lot of sense in this country because we’re such a melting pot of people,” he said. “I think it’s important as a business that you figure out who you’re going to be and to stick with it.”
Gardner said kitchen-themed reality TV shows such as the Bravo network’s Top Chef are a great complement to the business of cooking.
“I think it’s wonderful that it’s so popular,” he said. “It makes people excited and interested in food and restaurants … so it’s great for the industry.”
EXPERIENCE PAYS OFF
Looking back, Gardner said the most important part of being at BU was the opportunity to apply what he was learning in the classroom to what he was learning in the kitchen.
“I learned things in the classroom and then I’d go to work and actually see some of those things happening,” he said. “It sunk so much deeper.”
SHA Dean James Stamas said education — at least in the managerial field — plays a large role in career success when the right things are being taught in the classroom.
“Geoff’s success was not only work experience, but education,” he said. “The management skills that he learned through this school from our required and elective courses are partially a reason for his success.”
Still, some BU staff members stress the vast potential that comes when a student works in his or her intended career environments.
“Paid or unpaid is not the issue,” Director of Career Services Richard Leger said. “The issue is the experience.”
Stamas recommends students get work experience during their undergraduate tenure at the university, because it provides a career insight that might shed light on where they want to go next.
“It gives students a big leg up,” he said. “It allows them to get to know themselves and what they want to do with their lives.”
Leger believes not enough students take advantage of undergraduate internships and university career services.
“Students for some reason put off dealing with career issues until very late in their senior year or even after their graduation,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t recognize a resource until we have a real gut feeling to recognize it.
“And there’s a lot of students who don’t know what they want to do,” he continued. “That’s why experience is crucial … it provides a student with information about certain work environments that they may like or dislike. Negative information is just as important as the positive information.”
Leger recommends students participate in internships as early as their freshman year of college.
“They provide the kind of experience that future employers really like,” he said. “Plus it will certainly give students an advantage as well as a foot in the door.”
Gardner said if he could give current students any advice, it would be trying any form of work experience as soon as possible.
“In retrospect, sometimes I think it was just dumb luck,” he said. “I didn’t have a master plan and I didn’t know what I was going to learn … but I was fortunate.
“You can sit in class and memorize things without any frame of reference,” he continued, “or you can jump in and embrace the challenge.”
