Sunday's Weekly Wrap Up

I am determined to do a weekly review on a consistent basis there on this blog, kind of reminds me of the Sunday dinner ritual that my family once kept. I am thinking that it's purpose is to clear away the mental clutter of the week and start renewed for the next week.

This week has not be as routine as expected and I am not yet sure if that is a good thing or not. The work I do at the youth center has changed and it is expected to continue to change for the next couple of months. As my time spent at that location is just a few hours a week, I am finding it difficult to understand the whole dynamic of the organization, despite having been there for a few months now.

Yesterday was an extended session for the Act-so scholarship program. It went very well. We had guest speakers come and talk to our high school students about college selection, student loans, scholarships, and applications. We began the work to pair our competitors up with mentors and a few of the judges came and spoke.

You must crawl before you can walk....
So, a large amount of time was spent with one of our new teens to the Act-so program. Chef Y and myself have gotten to know this young man over the last few months, and while some of his accomplishments have been good, his drive and passion about culinary is excellent, however, he is fixated upon the big picture of winning international acclaim for his future restaurant, instead of researching all the steps to get to this dream goal. I admire his drive and his ability to dream big however it is the one bit at a time that will get your path going. An elephant can only be eaten one bit at a time. Along with his mother, Chef Y and I, talked to him trying to get him a clearer picture of what it is that he wants to embark upon. We served him the sugar and the salt of the chef life hoping to assist him. I laid out a generalized picture of what his next 6 months needs to look like in order to begin to leap over the hurdles; get the academic grades up, buckle down and prepare for our culinary competition, and we two chefs said we would assist him in finding a industry summer job.

Make your vision plain. I love the dreamers and the artists but we all must ground ourselves in order to gain traction in this long race. Pie in the sky, doesn't always pay the bills and I am a strong believer that it is the journey that's important, not the end goal. I have spent over 20 years honing my craft, seeking my goals, and being open to accept opportunities that have been given, even when I was not fully sure that it was directly upon my dedicated path as the road less traveled can gain more than expected.

Hopefully, our student chef, has heard a fraction of what he laid before him and wants to return for seconds and thirds.  When I was in his position, I had the opposite issue, I had little in way of mentoring resulting in me having to try and position myself with uncertainty as to if the next move was wise. In either case, nerves and second guessing decisions is commonplace. This kid is both a participant at the youth center that I work at and in our scholarship competition giving him and I ample opportunities to be guided and consulted.

My 10-day smoothie fast is going well and is on day 6. I have had some solid foods, once because I had been gone longer than expected and I was getting that hunger headache, but it was just a bit to keep me going. I think I will have to continue starting my day with a smoothie forever as it is a way to combat some of the effects of my medicines and my condition. Consuming a kale, spinach, fruit, flax seed, and protein powdered breakfast that is easy to take on the go, has been having a great shift in the positive direction.

Now that the holidays are completed, I am experiencing the typical first of the year slump in business, which is okay as I can focus on other efforts for a while. My other class, for my high school audience, doesn't start back up until the end of February. I have to set a new syllabus and start planning for that soon, while my time is somewhat open.

I will be beginning the companion podcast for this blog today. I have sorted out a few technical issues and they will be available to hear this week sometime. Giant Fork & Spoon podcast: Conversations about Food. I will post that information as soon as I can, stay tuned.