'Put a new pan down. Season the bass. Always from a height. The bass goes in. A monk looks done. Give it the cake tester. It's barely warm. Another minute. To the pass with it. A pan is too hot. The oil smells scorched. Start again....

Michael Gibney began working in restaurants at the age of sixteen and assumed his first Sous Chef position at twenty-two. He moved up to Executive Sous Chef while at Tavern on the Green in New York, where he managed an eighty-person...