A 12-WEEK PROGRAM FOR RISING RESTAURANT LEADERS

Great cooks get promoted. Leaders get taught.

The Pass Forward is a live, virtual cohort for sous chefs, chefs de cuisine and new managers, led by chef Dan Jacobs. Owners send their people. They come back ready to run the room.

Nominate a leader See the 12 weeks

AT A GLANCE

12 weeksOne skill a week, practiced on the job

12 to 15 leadersA small cohort from different restaurants

Live on videoEarly-week afternoons, before dinner service

One real projectFinished in their restaurant, shown to their owner

FOR LEADERS AND OWNERS

Two people sign up for every seat.

The rising leader

You were the best on the line or the floor, and now you run it. Nobody showed you how to lead people who were your peers last month.

Sous chefs and chefs de cuisine
Assistant and newly promoted general managers
Anyone about to take on their first team.

The owner who sends them

You need someone you can hand a kitchen or a dining room to. The Pass gives your next leader the skills, and gives you proof it worked.

A kickoff call with Dan to set one goal
A project that improves your restaurant
A leader ready for more responsibility.

HOW IT WORKS

A weekly rhythm that fits around service.

Live session

Seventy-five to ninety minutes with Dan or a guest chef or operator. Recorded if the line pulls you away.

Small group

Four or five leaders who hold each other to the week's work and compare notes from their own kitchens.

On-the-job assignment

One task a week done in your restaurant: lead a pre-shift, give direct feedback, read the P&L with your owner.

Final project

A real improvement in your restaurant, built over six weeks and presented to your owner and the cohort.

THE 12 WEEKS

From leading yourself to building the next leader.

Skills over theory. Each week covers one thing a new leader has to do, then asks them to do it.

Weeks 1 to 2, Becoming the boss

What the job is now, and how to lead the people you used to work beside.

Weeks 3 to 5, Leading the shift

Running a pre-shift, giving feedback that changes behavior, and having the hard conversation.

Weeks 6 to 7, Building the team

Training a station so it sticks, then hiring and onboarding the right people.

Weeks 8 to 10, Running the business

Reading a P&L, treating food and labor cost as daily decisions, and working with your owner.

Weeks 11 to 12, Staying and growing

Time, stress and stamina, building your own bench, and final presentations.

Your lead teacher

Dan Jacobs

Dan is the chef and co-owner of Dandan and EsterEv in Milwaukee, where he leads a team of about 70. He is a James Beard Award nominee, has competed on Top Chef and Tournament of Champions, and co-founded the Milwaukee Independent Restaurant Coalition.

He is making the same handoff he teaches: stepping back from the daily line so his own chefs can lead. The Pass Forward is what he has learned doing it.

Founding cohort

Put a leader on the list.

The first cohort is small and by invitation. Tell us who you have in mind and Dan will follow up with dates and details.