On this episode of Five Rules for the Good Life, I sit down with India Doris, the co-owner and executive chef of Markette and The Argyle in Manhattan, whose journey from 15-year-old line cook to celebrated NYC chef is nothing short of extraordinary. From the competitive kitchens of Europe to the high-wire hustle of New York, India shares her Five Rules for Working in a Kitchen—lessons forged in long hours, sharp knives, and a relentless drive to stay humble, stay learning, and cook food you actually believe in. These are service-tested rules from someone who’s earned every stripe and every scar. If you’ve ever stepped onto the line, led a team under pressure, or just wondered what it takes to survive and thrive in the culinary world, this episode’s for you.

But let’s be real—these rules aren’t just for chefs. Anyone working in a fast-paced, high-skill environment will find India’s advice spot on. Whether you’re pulling shots in a coffee shop, producing live TV, managing a startup team, or running a construction crew, the fundamentals are the same: show up prepared, focus on small daily wins, listen, and respect the people around you. Staying humble, staying kind, and staying curious is how you build trust, earn opportunities, and keep leveling up. This episode serves as a blueprint for growing without burning out, and for leading without losing sight of the goal.

Photo by Natalie Black

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Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Hello, and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life.I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz.

Today, I sit down with India Doris, the co-owner and executive chef at Markette and the Argyle in Manhattan.

As a longtime journey chef, she started cooking in kitchens at the age of 15, working her way across the UK, Europe, and eventually winding up in New York City. She shares her five rules for working in a kitchen. It talks about the importance of having manageable daily goals, how to stay humble, and that by cooking your own food, you will eventually find success.

So let’s get into the rules.

EARLY JOURNEY & TRAINING

India, so nice to meet you. Thank you for making the time, especially with the Argyle being open only a few weeks. I appreciate you sitting down for the show.Thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it. There’s always stuff to do. It’s nice to take a second actually to just talk about it.

So you’re originally from the UK and you wound up cooking through some legendary kitchens across Europe, which really harkens back to an older type of culinary training. How much of that old school mentality did you experience and what did you love about that time in your life?I feel like I experienced a lot of it. The first 10 years I experienced a lot. It was 17 hour shifts, 18 hour shifts, no breaks, not eating the amount I should be running around. But then it was very, it still is very competitive. But I think back then, because of the hours, because of the stress, because of all the pressure that gets put on an individual, you’re left with a really intense group of people.Yes. We’ve gotten better. We’re not working as many hours. It’s a lot more welcoming. But because of the hours and because of the demand, it definitely left a really intense group of people that you had to work against—or work with, sorry, not against.Wow.Depending on what kitchen you’re in and who’s leading it.It felt like that sometimes, yes. Sometimes it’s against on purpose.Yeah.

MOVING TO NEW YORK

You cook across Europe. You meet this incredible group of people. You could have planted a flag anywhere. What drew you to the kitchens of New York?New York is a special place.Yeah, you can say that again.I’m from London. I’m a city girl, born and bred in the city. Love it. I know what it’s like to run around in the city causing trouble and doing dumb teenage stuff. At a young age, I became a little bit of a nomad. I moved all over the place. I moved to France and Spain, and I came here. I was only supposed to be here for a year. I was going to go to Australia after. I was like, all right, let me start my visa for Australia while I was here, because I stayed here for a year. I was like, I want to stay longer, but it wasn’t working out that way. Let me go home first.I miss New York so much. I was like, wow, I haven’t had this feeling before because as a good nomad does, they travel all over the place. They want to see new places. But I was really drawn by it because I was getting a little bit older. To find a city that felt similar but different was something that drew me back.So I ended up coming back and I’ve been here for nine years now.

New York just gets in your blood. Once you’ve experienced the kitchens of New York and the food and the community here, it’s hard to walk away from it.

DECIDING TO OPEN HER OWN PLACE

What was the moment you realized that you wanted to open up your own spot and you were ready to run your own kitchen in New York City?After a couple of decades of working under people, seeing different parts of the world, the way they work, how they work for extensive amount of time. Then coming to New York, when I first came here, I worked under James Kent. I was with him for eight years. We opened up Crown Shy, we got one star in 10 months. We opened up Saga, we got two stars in six months.Incredible.All of the information that I gathered from traveling, from seeing different places, from meeting all these people. When you’re a really young chef, you cook people’s food, and I think it’s an important thing to cook people’s food because you really start to learn what your food is. When I was a young cook, I would go and work in these incredible Michelin-style places, and I learned how to be an adult in these kitchens. You know? I worked in kitchens from 15 years old. I know how to be an adult. That’s a bad thing and a good thing. I was living on my own at 16 paying rent. I was taught by these crazy people how to be, how to run my life.After working with James, he was probably the nicest, most calm, productive chef I’ve ever worked for. And after a few years of working with him, I’m like, yeah, I really just don’t want to work with anyone else.Totally.I did learn so much from that. I learned how to refine my own food. But however many years later, I’ve realized that I’ve got a good understanding of what my own food is. And I’ve only been able to do that from cooking from other people and learning from other people and doing all this. I was like, well, I got to do this on my own now.

RULE 1: KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN AND YOUR KNIFE SHARP

Being able to work in all these kitchens at such a relatively young age, it’s really amazing for you to be able to have distilled all that knowledge, which is why I’m so excited for you to share your five rules for working in a kitchen.

Your first rule deals with something that I learned with working on the other side, which was when I had to shoot with chefs and come into their kitchen, being prepared both mentally and physically. What’s your rule number one?Rule number one, and this is something that I learned from when I was very, very young. I was working in kitchens full time from 15. I was doing a ridiculous amount of hours. You know, the road is very long. You have a long way to go and you have a lot of people to learn from to get to the goal that you want to get to.Someone said to me one day, keep your head down and your knife sharp.They said it in a lot of different ways than I’m saying it now.It was not as kind.You need to learn from as many people as possible. And to be honest, you need to want people to want to teach you how to do stuff. If you’re running around blabbing your mouth and doing all this and that, no one’s going to want to teach you. The one thing that you need to do as a young cook who doesn’t know anything is keep your head down and your knife sharp and just watch what everyone else is doing.

RULE 2: HAVE DAILY MANAGEABLE GOALS

That dovetails really nicely into your second rule because it’s easy to be in a kitchen, to be talking about all these big plans and these big pictures and what you’re going to do, but that’s not the task at hand of how to survive and succeed working in a kitchen. What’s your second rule?My second rule is have daily manageable goals. That’s important. We all have these goals. I had this dream when I was 15. I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that. That’s all great. I think that’s an important thing to have. But you need to have daily manageable goals in order to get to this bigger beyond.If you cut chives by 2:40 today, then by 2:35 tomorrow, you’re going to cut the chives. They’re going to be done. They’re going to be put away.I love that.And then the next day it’s going to be 2:32 and 2:30. And then you slowly start pulling back and pulling back and you hone in the area that you’re at, the things that you’re doing. They’re getting better. They’re getting stronger. You’re getting stronger. And this is how you get to that bigger goal.

RULE 3: STAY HUMBLE, STAY LEARNINGI also love that your third rule touches on something that is important in kitchens but often forgotten—humility. What’s your third rule?Stay humble, stay learning. You have to stay humble. You always need to be learning. That’s something that I’ve realized has helped me develop so much as a chef. I’ve worked with all these people and I’ve seen all these places, and I know what’s good and I know what’s bad, but I’m not done yet. I want to learn more. I want to see more. And I think the more you stay humble, the more you stay learning. The moment you think you know everything, you’re going to fall. You’re going to fall hard. You’re going to fall real hard.It’s the truth.So just keep your ears open. And you might learn from a 15-year-old line cook. You might learn from a server who’s just joined. You might learn from a dishwasher who’s been doing this longer than you have.Absolutely.Everyone around you has something to teach you. Stay humble and stay learning.

RULE 4: COOK YOUR OWN FOODNow your fourth rule is something I’ve heard chefs struggle with, especially when they move from being part of someone else’s team to leading their own kitchen. What’s your fourth rule?Cook your own food. That’s my fourth rule. When you’re young, you want to emulate everyone that you admire, which is great. But at a certain point, you have to stop mimicking and start creating.You’ve got to figure out what your food is.It might take you 10 years. It might take you 20. You’re not going to get it right every time. But the more you cook your own food—flavors that resonate with you, ideas that inspire you—the closer you’ll get to being a great chef. That’s when people will take notice. That’s when you’ll really start to feel confident. And that’s when your guests will connect with what you’re doing.

RULE 5: STAY CONSISTENT, STAY KINDYour fifth rule is a great one because it combines two things that matter in every part of life, not just in the kitchen. What’s your fifth rule?Stay consistent, stay kind. You’ve got to be consistent in your actions, in your dishes, in how you treat people. But more importantly, you’ve got to be kind. Kind to your team, kind to your vendors, kind to the dishwashers, to the people who come through the door. Because when you’re kind, people remember. People want to work with you.Absolutely.And in this industry, where burnout is real and egos can run high, kindness stands out. It really does. It’s powerful.

CLOSINGIndia, thank you so much for sharing your five rules. If people want to come check out your food, where can they go?Come to Markette or The Argyle in Manhattan. We’re doing something really special here. And we’d love to cook for you.Amazing. Thank you again for being on the show.Thanks for having me.

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