Power of Words

When you think of chefs you may not think about them as wordsmiths. Be sure that we are a group greatly entrenched in language.  We have a long history and our own lingo. This realm of terms, definitions, and understanding both describes and confines us. Chefs notoriously use language that some find offensive as a daily ritualistic release of tension.

The language of food is important and chefs rely upon it to convey clarity when speaking about a food request. Having said that, I am a chef who is rubbed the wrong way when people misuse a culinary term but expect to receive exactly what they have envisioned instead of what they have asked for to eat. If you asked for the Tomato Florentine soup, you can't be upset by the presence of spinach, for example, as Florentine means spinach in the kitchen.

Recently, I was on a mini-vacation and was looking for food fair. I called the near-by Cracker Barrel and asked if their were gluten-free options on the menu. They said yes, but when I arrived the menu did not have gluten-free pancakes or waffles nor biscuits, they brought an alternative menu that gave both nutritional information and pointed to some menu items as safe for my consumption. Offering me a bowl of oatmeal, fresh fruit, or steak and eggs, is not offering me options. I found it insulting that this was all that was offered and I didn't need them to tell me the fruit was gluten-free. By the way, the oatmeal was amazing and I had an order for dinner later on that weekend, but that is not the point. When I think of Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Original Pancake House, or any other breakfast spot it should not be difficult to make adjustment for alternative eaters, and shame on those who have the boldness to offer me fresh fruit as if I don't understand what gluten-free means.

Re-branding food items under new labeling is a funny thing these days. Every trip to the grocer has me laughing as the things that should be relied upon to be gluten-free have redesigned packaging to inform us of this new revelation of food category. I don't need anyone to tell me that unpopped whole popcorn is gluten-free, what's next, gluten-free water?

Language can bind us together with a common ground of understanding and communication but also can divide us with a loss of clarity or misunderstanding. For many consumers who purchase gluten-free items, not all of us must buy these items for health reasons like I do, but rather buy these items because the term is trendy and new-ish. I'd even bet there are some who couldn't accurately define the term but swears that it is bad for your health. No, no, no... It isn't good for my digestion, not everyone's. 

It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go on

In this industry, lots of us dream of having our own outlet, some place as unique as we are talented. What is seldom taught, is what an individual must do to make their business ownership dreams come true. Culinary school focuses you for production work, and sometimes for artistic work, with food. It can take you down the nutritional information highway, the chemical action, the application of different heat sources, all the applied science of food.

Colleges will teach accounting but not often teach entrepreneurship, how to get licensed, deal with inspections, picking a great location, managing all the in's and out's of a business, how to find startup funding, and the like. So many many times, there are business partners needed for a chef to have a good place to launch their restaurant. Often times, family members will steak their savings or collateral to have funding enough to open a business, and it doesn't always work out.
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No one person is a master of all the disciplines needed for a successful operation. It can take two, or three, or more to help steer the ship and avoid the icebergs. A startup business can take a lot of capitol to get started and with the 60% failure rate of all food related business within the first year, it can be very difficult to accrue capitol to work with when starting out. And besides, no chef really wants to be tied to a desk, dealing only with orders and payroll, and typically that is a waste of talent that could be working on the plates instead of the books.

If you grew up like I did, from a middle class working home, then you may have a similar experience of having few relatives that understand your goals of business ownership. It isn't that they don't want you to succeed, it often is just not a path they understand or they would rather see you on a 'safe' path to wealth. Unfortunately, there are no safe paths anymore. So I am of the mind that, if you are going to work, you can either work and make someone else rich or you can take the risk to make yourself rich.

Funding is a interesting topic that many people are nervous to speak about, I think it's because not enough of us understand it. Macro and micro economics can be hard to manage, and those who have figured out how to use it productively are not giving their secrets away. "Just buy my new book" or "Sign up for my new seminar". People are willing to pay for advise with money and can often take differing approaches much like a fad diet habit.

Here's the real scoop. Any successful organization is created by putting the best person in charge of one or more aspects of the business. Even the President of the U.S. has a trusted cabinet to support his efforts. A good chef should both know their strengths and weaknesses. Our industry is filled with managers who have never been a chef and chefs who have never run an office. If you don't fully understand what the people you are managing do, need to do, and what it takes to do what you are requesting, is a no-win situation. The reverse is also true, if a chef doesn't understand how to manage a kitchen, invoicing, purchasing, P&L, and human resources issues.

Dream big but understand even the best of us cannot go it alone. Knowing where in the organization you contribute the best can save you effort, time, and money. Find a great business partner before opening or even planning to open a food business. Team work, a realistic budget, designing phases of growth, adopting to the customer needs, i.e. sound business practices makes all the difference in the world.

Entrepreneurship Isn't for Everyone: Part #2

Not everyone is able to become their own boss. Not everyone has the skills needed to make your own company efforts successful. It dose take some fearlessness and definitely takes skills. I have always wanted to be an owner of my own business, not just a paid employee. Therefore, when I would be offered some new position or opportunity, I looked at it as a chance to learn more about the working positions that I hoped to one day hire and manage. Not understanding how a job works when you are managing the workers who hold that position can be very costly. Making demands of your workers needs to be done with knowledge of how the position works. If you are a manager and demand an item be prepared and restocked in a half hour, but what you are asking for takes an hour to bake, let alone prep and packaged, you will be disappointed and/or a conflict will arise between you and the employee because you are asking for the impossible.

Not understanding the type of work and/or the skills needed for this or that position is very costly. Some find themselves hiring the wrong people over an over again because they don't fully understand what is needed. This effort to advertise and recruit staff can end up dragging your whole staff down, as they are working harder and harder to take up the slack left by being too short staffed. This effort to get new people takes manpower away from other activities, especially if you have to do it again and again. An employee that is underpaid, overworked, or see no chance at advancing, will eventually disappear and you will have to hire someone else to do the job.

It takes two to make a thing go right... Sometimes it takes a village. Opening your own food spot, from greasy spoon to fine dinning, takes not only culinary genius, it also take a vast amount of support. A good chef knows that they will need investors, workers, bookkeepers, lawyers, customers, market research, advertising, networking, licensing, insurance, and location support. Offering the wanted products in a area that is willing to buy from you regularly is key to your location efforts. If you are not at a good area for your business, your customers are less likely to go out of their way to give you their business.

On top of all that, there are no guarantee that success will come. You can offer the best products at reasonable pricing in a area that doesn't have a lot of food business and still fail. It's sad but true. Sometimes you capture lightening in a bottle, other times, closing your doors and perhaps trying again is the best solution.

O.A.N.: Let's discuss money, both inside and outside of your business. There are a couple of money issues faced by all companies, how much is this item worth, and what are my customers willing to pay for it? Both of these answers are quantifiable but the best of calculations can still end on a sour note. There will always be competition in the market place. For example, I create custom cakes and cookies, and sometimes potential customers get sticker shocked when they ask me for a quote. The most commonly heard complaint is "I can just buy a Walmart cake". Often this reaction comes from a customer who hasn't ever ordered a custom cake and does not understand the difference or the reason that the cost has been set. Many customers may wish to buy a cake that looks like it is right out of a magazine but don't have the budget to order such items. Therefore, a business that is concerned with longevity needs to take the temperature of the marketplace from time to time to see if they are pricing themselves out of the market or if they are not charging enough and losing potential profits.

Part #3 is upcoming..... stay tuned

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Entrepreneurship Isn't for Everyone: Part #1

I was born into two families, as we all are, my elders had long work records that highlighted a dedication to a blue collar workforce and style of life. Therefore, I was taught the ladder to success was in working for a company or the government for 40 plus years, put your kids in school, get the gold watch, and retire in peacefully.

Entrepreneurship wasn't what they understood or felt that it also could lead to success. Elders with that type of mindset cannot teach a child that starting their own business is a good thing. Most think it is too risky to attempt. They see that a stead job with benefits is the way up the ladder and business ownership is a ladder with missing rungs.

It takes a different mind to attempt such risk and you have to be somewhat fearless do to it. Business is always risky, no matter where you stand with the company, owner or employee.  The same company that pays you from payroll is taking a risk that the company will survive and taking you with them. It is just as easy to get laid off or fired from a company than it is to own a business and make it successful. So why don't you take a hold of the course your ship is headed?

With high risk comes high rewards, taking no risk leaves you with very little rewards and tied to other's fates. While you are working hard for another person or company, you are making them rich and taking a small percentage of the benefits. As an employee your labor belongs to another. Lots of people have used the innovation that employee #37 created while working for a company. Work in that mode is the "work product" of the company. If you invent the next big time comic book character, for example, while working for Marvel or D.C. the company owns it, not the one who created it. You have traded your rights to the innovation you created for a paycheck and nothing more than that. No royalties, no copyrights, nothing but a small check.

When you are working for yourself, it isn't easy, you must be knowledgeable, skilled, and dedicated to the company. But isn't that the same expectation that your boss has for you everyday? Owning a company means that it's your reputation on the line. You have to rely on your staff, manage your budgets, inventory, and everything else.

It takes much more than the efforts of one person to run a successful food business, it can take a whole village. Good chefs know their weaknesses and hire experts to lend a hand at those things they are not adapt with handling. Tons of people, every year, decide to try their hand at running a food outlet. They take their savings or take out a loan and jump into the deep end of food operations with little experience and training. The failure rate of independent food operations is very high, and opening can be very risky even when you have the skill and training needed. http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/03/infographic-failed-small-businesses.html

Business is much like the food chain, the big fish can swallow the little fish whole. Who is your big fish? Are you at the top of the food chain, swimming, and making decisions, or are you following the school of fish that you help to create? Have you researched the demographics of the area? Do you know what your customers want or are you selling what you like? Can you differentiate your business from all the others? Have you acquired the needed capitol, equipment, staff, and décor that drives customers to you or away from you?

There are so much to discuss on this topic that I am splitting it up over a few posts for ease of reading....

Quitting your boss

You may already know that 75% of workers who quit their jobs, voluntarily, said they decided to do so because of having a bad boss. Unfortunately, many of us are familiar with this bad trend. In food service, this still applies, as many of us don't walk in to the industry as seasoned chefs, food and beverage directors, management, and the like, a lot of us working in my industry have studied in other professions, worked unrelated positions, and came to us with some knowledge of order or management, but not of the style needed for my industry. We are all works-in-progress, but the learning curve is a lot steeper for those who have not been trained to our industry verses the ones that have had training.

No matter the industry, or company, you can find yourself working for a bad boss. I never wanted to be one of the bad bosses who, either feel that the title means that you can push your weight around, bugging everyone and ruling with an iron fist, or a boss who knew nothing about the work or workers they were in charge of managing. I have always wanted to own a company and therefore I took opportunities to learn different positions instead of just working as a chef in the back of the house.

I have worked for people in lots of different situations and not all of them were good or made any sense. I have been required to answer manager's requests from people who had very little knowledge of what I do or how long things take. This is critical, that you as a boss, or as a employee under a boss, work with a knowledge base as requests can be irrational or impossible to create. If you ask me for more cinnamon rolls be baked for the sales table, you need to know that it can not be done in less than an hour, for example.

The worst bosses that you can encounter are those who are promoted or became owners without understanding who and what management is all about. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and knowing which are yours will create the best environment possible. Too often people who are good cooks think that they can spend some money and open a food outlet and be successful. Food business is, without a doubt, a business first and foremost, but then you add food production, receiving, P&L, ROI, labor costs, personnel, shrinkage, edible portions versus actual portions, food safety, sanitation, injuries, liability, talent recruitment, menu and recipe development, marketing, cost controls, alcohol licenses, storage, payroll, and insurances. Many business do not have nearly as many perishable products nor the amount of personnel needed to run a successful operation in food.

I once met a bakery owner that left the confines of being a pastry chef in order to step into the ownership role. She is a horrible boss because she isn't good with customers or management of staff. The company did, of course, need a front of the house manager but she was not a good person to do this. I suspect that she has control issues and doesn't want a manager, someone that she could have hired with a good track record and a mind for innovation, but instead stopped doing the thing that she was excellent at in order to exhort control of the whole company. Too many people make this type of mistake when forming their businesses. She took her best cake designer, herself, out of the kitchen and made herself the management face without expertise in the customer service and/or management areas. In other words, if she was working for another organization as an employee, it is my opinion that, she would never have been promoted up the ladder to a management position due to her lack of expertise and poor disposition, but since she is the owner, few people can tell her what she should do to run her business efficiently.

I wish not to make mistakes like that, mainly because I fully understand what it feels like to be in that position, attempting to work underneath a bad boss. I know quite a bit about both the back of the house and front of the house. If I get blessed to own my own outlet, I will make the hard decisions needed to run the business smoothly instead of the choice to make myself some type of local celebrity. The front of the house and back of the house must depend upon each other for proper functioning but the work done between the two is vastly different skill types.

No matter the industry or line of work, a good boss is vital. What a lot of people do not understand about leadership is that it is not about being a bully, being in total control of operations, or not having anyone to answer to about your decisions, in fact a good leader must be cool and level headed knowing that the leader has more 'bosses' than they did as just a worker. A leader must respond to the demands of upper management, customers, AND the employees. A bad boss is one who doesn't take the needs of employees into consideration and feels autonomous to make unilateral decisions that effect everyone one involved without any giving anyone needs into account.

Check your ego at the door, and get to work. The culinary world isn't at all easy to be successful at what we do and no amount of kissing up will keep you employed when your work doesn't live up to expectations.  

Environmental Chef

Every body, and every chef, relies upon quality ingredients to make a meal go from hum drum to zing pop. Without honorable farming practices, from soup to nuts, the chef cannot do what we do best.

Organic, non GMO, pasteurized, and fortified, all influence what our plates contain. Should chefs have a voice in the movement away from Monsanto tainted food, processed and persevered, items with more chemicals than food? Yes. 2015 was the first year on record that Americans spent more money on restaurants then at the grocery store. One can extrapolate that chefs are having a greater and grater impact on the health of the American citizen. Will it be left up to the corporations or to the craftsmanship of skilled chefs?

How we grow and treat food, or manufacture it, should be very important to everyone, but especially to us chefs. Life happens, change is the only constant, but preservation of the food sources we rely upon, not only for our trade, but for our very lives, must be a concern.

There is a farm to table movement in the culinary scene. I am not directly apart of that movement per se, as pastry doesn't rely as heavily upon farmed items as does the savory chef. However, as a fibromyaliga patient, I am rewriting my common eating practice to be gluten-free because the ingestion of gluten reeks havoc on my system.

Gardening, farm to table, diets, vegetarian and vegan, no matter your eating style how your food is treated before you purchase it is a huge consideration to be mindful of when purchasing. Environmentalist point to climate changes that are signaling some drastic shifts to our planetary harvest of edible products. We need to listen and learn before it is too late. We must take some responsibility for feeding ourselves. We have hired corporations to provide our nutritional needs by way of prepacked and process foods. We are confusing good for you and good tasting, they are not mutually exclusive. Many things that are good for us nutrition-wise can be very good tasting as well, however, if you are accustom to eating process food almost exclusively then your have trained your tasting ability to like those types of things, and therefore, being unaccustomed to the flavors of this items.
macrobiotics

Lots of kids in this new generation are trained to eat so many processed food items, microwave entrees, microwave popcorn, chips, dips, salsa, and super sticky sweet pastries that are just spun sugars. Sugar is a very addictive item with levels of dependencies very similar to heroine addiction. Frequently this diet is tied to the income of the parents. The lower the annual income of the household has a direct connection to the types of foods consumed. Often the families chose food stuffs with the primary focus on getting the cheapest and the most abundant items. While this type of consideration can be understood, it is the worst reaction or action that the shopper can do. I once was listening to a radio show and the host hit the nail on the head. He stated many things about budgeting, the most import of them was 'It is most important to understand when to spend and where to save. You should save on items that depreciate over time, like a car or clothing, but you should never buy food totally based on saving money. You should spend on food with the mindset of health benefit. The quality food stuffs you buy today will help to prevent you from being sick tomorrow and spending a high percentage of your money on medical bills.' I totally agree.

The environmental impacts of toxic waste, oil spills, water contamination, polluted air, are easy to understand in terms of their effects upon food resources. The global warming issues of storm changes, floods, drought, shifts in tides, changes in streams and rivers, will devastate our farming lands and methods. These issues are looming on the horizon but the current threats to our food supply are in the methodology of how we currently grow our food. The debates are all over the place, and the two loudest sides of the discussion are the organic food movement against the Goliath chemical companies, like Monsanto, who produce pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics for livestock. Add to that the factory farming practices that have changed how our dairy, eggs, and meat production/slaughter. The corporations like Monsanto, have always contended that the use of their products has increased yields and improved quality, and they maybe right, however, anyone that has ever had a garden of their own can tell you, the taste, variety, quality, of their harvest far exceeds anything offered in the grocery store.

Many chefs have established relationships with local farmers and livestock growers. This way the chef has the opportunity to understand, share, and ask for items that they would love to buy. Farm to table is more than a catchphrase, it is becoming a movement. Factory farming kills any uniqueness in preference of the most shelf stable and consistent items. We have breed, cross pollinated, and forced ripened foods to the point that they have the highest profit margins and ability to transport these items long distances. I find it to be much like corporate cooking. The corporate chef is often forced to produce the highest amount of items as quickly and consistently as possible which erodes the creative artistic aspects of the chef. Cookie cutter concepts in grocery stores, kitchens, and manufacturing, stomp out the uniqueness that happens when a chef is able to use their imagination. Can a chef create and repeat highly crafted items? Of course, we can, but when the total issue is all about designing in the most cost effective methods, the major ways to achieve this is with lesser quality items, machines, and factory items instead of handmade items. Kill the chef?

Revolutions have been fought over food issues over and over again. "Let them eat cake!" When the body of citizens examine their nutrition substandard, it becomes a big part of how they view their poverty or wealth. Can you afford to eat or feed your family? Can you afford to have quality foods on your table? Are you needlessly suffering from malnutrition and diseases? And what are you able to about it?

Elemental Fire

The campfire, the barbecue, the fireplace, the hearth, a tandoori oven, the wood burning stove, the gas light, all of which use the first gift from the gods, fire. The heaven rocked when the news got back that man knew fire. The chef, the pit master, the smokehouse, the luau, are all fire.

There is nothing more primal than fire. A gift and a curse, and a blessing and destroying all consuming elemental thing. Fire has a life of its own and the mastery of fire is a essential bit of what it is to be human. The link between food and nature, nutrition and humanity, simple yet powerful, basic and complex all at the same time.

Fire is transformitive, changing a raw meat into a new thing, charred and sweetened, concentrated rich and flavorful. The fire is the element that created cuisine out of simple items combining with the magic of flame and power. In this age of microwave options we are moving further and further away from nature. We are not spending time in the wilderness exploring, sleeping in tents, finding the unknown stream, hunting and gathering, or even studying about food. Americans spent more money in restaurants last year than in the grocery stores. What is amazing is that, for one thing, that has never happened before, and two it is putting even more distance between the diner and their food source.

As a chef instructor, I spend a good portion of my time familiarizing my students with information about nature and nutrition because they simply don't have any idea where the food comes from other than the grocery store. They are often amazed to learn where on a hog is the ham, that carrots are a root vegetable, that cheese is a fermented milk product, heck I am sure they couldn't tell me where the garbage dump is in their community.

I learned to cook, initially, in my grandmothers kitchen. I come from a long line of great female cooks in the family, both for the families needs and to serve others for a wage. A few of the men in the family could cook as well, but generally it was the mothers that did the majority of the chore. Unlike our white counterparts in America, the women in my family were working outside of the house well before the 1950's and 1960's so the revolution of the working woman was already our reality. Yet, the women in our lineage were cooking at home as well and maintaining the household chores. Food culture and recipe development has been co-opted by corporations.

World War II was the first time large numbers of women worked in factories to supply goods and munitions to our men overseas fighting. Once the men came home, a large number of women did not return to working just in home for the benefit of their families alone. My grandmother worked a full-time job at a discount department store less than 5 miles from our house. She would come home everyday for lunch and either start working on our dinner for the evening or check on what she had begun cooking that morning. She did all the grocery shopping and nearly all the house cleaning as well. She always had a backyard garden much like our neighbors and the family just to the West of our place would plan their garden with her so that we would plant some items and they planted other things so we could trade across the fence.

If you have ever planted vegetables you will find that in a good summer's growth, you will end up growing more than your family can consume so trading harvests was to the benefit of both our families. We probably were the only yard in our area that had corn and strawberries growing.

Weather or not you even roast something on a barbecue grill yourself, once the fire is lit, your nose instantly tells you that something special is happening. We first dine with our nose, then with our eyes and ears, then with our mouth, then lastly with our brain. Fire is the beginning of all of that. A grill, a stove, a smoker, a dehydrator, all started with fire.

Microwaving is something very different. Microwaves excite the molecules within the food starting at the middle of the item whereas fire begins to change the outer layers of the food then the heat is transformed toward the inner parts of the item, so in many ways microwaves are the exact opposite of the natural cooking experience of fire cooking. Microwaving food is creating yet another bit of distance between the food and the cook and dinner.

Food is life. Food gathering and hunting takes a life from an animal or plant that then gives life sustaining essence to those who eat it. It is the food chain, it is primal and essential. When you create barriers between yourself and your food, you leave yourself very vulnerable to a host of problems of health and spirit. Food is ritualistic. It has a rhythm, a constant, a variable, a language that is universally understood beyond any barrier of culture and geography. Welcoming guests into your home always has an offering of food from the host, this is a gift of life, a wish that you strive beyond the visit, an honoring the guest, and this is why it is often considered very rude to refuse the gift of food. The gift of food or drink has the element of careful preparation, expense, and culture transmission.

Fire can be essential to survival in the wilderness, it can warm you in times of cold weather, it can transform foods into cuisine, it's were we began to transmit history through storytelling, and it's where we gathered for safety. All of society began around a fire and continued to grow with cooking. Cooking is as human as language and protection of offspring. Without the skill of creating fires there would not be society, we would still be nomadic, we still be small groups of people, hunting and gathering. It is through fire and agriculture that society is formed. We are no longer a herd of humans but a society with universal truths, no matter the language spoken, mathematics and food need not be explained in order to be understood. Food can be simply about satisfying a need or it can be the catalysis for communion with others or elevated into art.

Food is medicine, food is art, food is humanity, food is society, and food is life giving need. I tell my students all the time that whenever you begin to rely upon a corporation to feed you, you are in trouble. The corporation is a faceless entity that haves laws that treat it like a type of person, but this pseudo 'person' only has one propose, to gain profit. Real people produce food for sustaining life, nourishing the body, transmitting emotions, warding off illness, creating links between generations, a ritual, a communion between people, a humility as all people need to eat, from kings to peasants, it levels all of us to the same place as we all eat.

Enjoy your meals instead of just consuming. Begin to gain understanding of what food really is to us humans and seek out how it can be transformed, into art, or into profit. When profit is the only purpose, when a corporation begins its life, the art isn't for the goodness of the corporation, it is solely for the benefit of humanity, therefore, I contend, that the corporations of food kill the art that is at the heart of the chef, turning them into scientists and machines of profit. Corporations have continuously made food changes to create more an more profit, more and more consumers, more and more addictive people hooked on their products, depended people upon purchasing their products, instead of creators of quality products. Industrialization of food has created many societal problems, illness, addiction. Like any created factory, once turned on, it wants to continue its work. A machine, when it stops, essentially dies once it is turned off, and death isn't preferred, by anyone or anything. Stop bowing to the gods of profit and seek the nutrients that will sustain and enrich your life.    

What the F&*%....

Some people believe that the use of expletives means that the users have small vocabularies or lack imagination. Chefs disagree, well all the chefs that I have known must disagree, as the use of these "taboo" words is commonplace in the chef world. I know I disagree that it is about a lack of vocabulary or imagination as I have a large amount of word tools at my disposal and my imagination is vast.

The use of colorful language in a professional kitchen is used to vent off steam. We are in a high pressure environment where anything can go wrong and wrong in a big way. Customer demands can push a kitchen off course, absenteeism can make the production pace harder to maintain, personnel clashes can make for hostile attitudes, and long hours can make the best of us cranky and hard to deal with at anytime.

Is this language appropriate in all situations? No. Do we use this language in front of customers? No. Can things spin out of control and prompt you to shout a 'dirty word'? YES. The use of these words is a way to express a feeling with impact and speed like no other words can do.

Some people see these words as offensive and crude, and I won't attempt to change their minds, even if I don't agree. Some believe the use of this type of language is an affront to God, you are entitled to see it that way. I just think that an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, spirit could not be offended because he/she/they, already know what it is you are going to do and say before you do it or say it. I also think that there must be a sense of humor present in the spirit realm otherwise we couldn't have a sense of humor either.

Often chefs use this language to discover things about new co-workers, especially the women chefs new to an organization. The guys will start telling dirty jokes to gauge how newcomers react. This gives them a lot of information about new people very quickly. Are you easily offended? Are you prudish? Are you scared by what you heard? Are you very religious? Are you timid? Will you give back as hard as you were pushed? Do you see life the same way that the rest of the crew does? How will you react when you are offended? Are you a tattle tail?  Do they need to be super careful around you? Do you lack a sense of humor? Are you a stiff? Can they trust you?

Most of the time, colorful language is used in the professional kitchen, like it or not. Someone gets under your skin, you drop something important, you get a injury, you are mad about how a customer spoke to you or demanded the impossible, you witness something foul, or whatever you need to express a big emotion. If you are not one that has a habit if using this type of speaking, that's fine with the rest of us, however you will probably need to try to not be offended when you hear it in a kitchen. I have worked with many who did not use the words for many different reasons but almost of them have seen it as a personal choice, to use or not to use, and we can respect that as long as you respect the choice to use them as well.

We all are adults, and we don't all agree all the time, and none of us feel that it is acceptable to use our word spice in front of customers or when speaking to a customer, but please know that once the customer is gone, and out of ear shoot, and the customer has made us very mad, the retelling of what occurred is related to others, there is plenty of  colors used to paint the picture.

Like it or not, adults make choices, and some don't make the decisions that suit others all the time. Forgive those of us who do it behind closed doors and understand that if you speak to a chef in a colorful way, be prepared to hear a chef used them as well because you have sanctioned their use in the conversation.

We chefs must be passionate about our work, driven to excellence, and use passion to drive our growth and company excellent. Therefore, sometimes our language is just as passionate and colorful as it can get.

International Home and Housewares Show

Hey everybody.  This weekend was very busy and rewarding, and I hope that the days that I didn't post will be forgiven.  In conjunction with Harold Import Company (HIC), a major supporter of our Careers though Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), we have been working very hard. The convention opened Saturday and runs until Tuesday. 

C-CAP staff, students, and alumni manned the HIC booth and provided food to all the visitors conducting business with HIC. The mornings, offered omelets, sweet treats, and coffee. In the afternoon, our stations offered up made-to-order stir-fry.

Friday night there was a great event of drinks and dinner at Bin 36 wine bar. Sunday night was the C-CAP fundraiser where we broke our previous record collecting nearly $42,000! The proceeds go to support our culinary student scholarship program. Super exciting.

I attempted to conduct two live broadcasts on my blogtalk radio channel but apparently doing it from my phone and maintaining a signal did not work out.   Both times I tried it sounded like we were good to go but it ended abruptly without me hearing it stop. Oh well, I deleted the messed up broadcasts.

The show was jammed packed with all the china, glass, knives, cutting boards, small appliances, laundry aids, baking and decorating products available. I love this show. I also try and get out each year to the National Restaurant Association show to see and sample all the newest innovations.

Working a convention is some of the hardest work I have done, and I have worked many. It's full of tons of moving parts, long hours, guest needs, being the most bright and shinny you can be, all the while standing on the concrete floors.  Phew. This show had me sporting my newest item from the Forrest Gump collection of knee braces. I was super styling and preventing some of the damage that the long hours on my feet could create.

Yesterday we wrapped up the event and packed everything away. Many of the vendors at the show often donate their goods to our staff and students along with other organizations within the city. We are always grateful for the shinny new tools. 

http://www.hickitchen.com/

http://www.ccapinc.org/

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search?q=giant+fork+spoon
http://www.housewares.org/show/

How I got my life back....

When I began working in the industry I was 18 years old, in the age of dinosaurs, and I committed to working hard, working long hours, and never turning down an opportunity to learn. I was successful in my pursuits as the hospitality work is never ending.

I was lucky that one day one of my professors at Roosevelt University took me by the hand to the Palmer House Hotel where he was the Food and Beverage Director. He set a meeting for me to get introduced to how that organization operated and I was quickly hired by the Exec. Chef. I was placed in the party department and began to expand my craft. I failed to realize the good fortune in its fullness, at the time, as that department allowed all the team members to work a steady shift 90% of the time. We were on the 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. shift. Employees could use the hotel gym that included a sauna. There was an employee cafeteria where we could eat for free.

With the goal in mind, to never turn down an opportunity to learn, I soon found myself also working as cocktail waitress, a couple nights a week, in the hotel bar. This gave me some very nice additional income and taught me more about good customer service. When I would work a shift in the bar, I would get off work at 4:30, grab some food, maybe even hit the gym, and then change from one uniform to another, starting a shift starting about 7 p.m., and work until the bar was dead quite or ready to close at 3 a.m. Afterwards, I would take a cab home, nap, and come back to work at 8 a.m.

This hamster wheel kept on turning for about a year and a half. I enjoyed it. I like talking with customers, I especially liked the extra cash, and I was single and living alone with my cat, so I didn't need a good work/life balance. I needed the money and I was, and probably still is, a adrenaline junkie. I was young and able bodied so the industry opened up for me and gave me as much as I thought I could handle.

With age comes wisdom, and aches and pains. I got married at 27 years old and was immediately pregnant with my eldest daughter. At that time, I was working in the social service arena, and that job was rewarding and wonderful, as I could adjust my schedule for the needs of the pregnancy. I had PTO hours and a standard 40 week, so I often worked 10 hour days so that I could have a 3 day weekend often, giving me some needed downtime. The pregnancy changed a lot of my career habits. Being a parent made me make different choices about how, when, and where I worked. I love being a chef but the 80 hour work weeks were too difficult to maintain while parenting small children. I wanted to parent them myself, we didn't have the aid of extended family members, as some do, for childcare. I was the mommy and the wife. I wanted to be these things so I had to make changes in the way I worked to do it.

I think it is sad that I had to find alternative places to work ,and use my skills, so that I could take care of my life and those people in it. So I worked for a homeless shelter, then a church organization, then as a grocery store bakery department manager, a teaching and demonstration chef, a pastry cook at a university, and lake dinner cruise company, all so I could have an adequate family life, and even so I was sacrificing more than mothers that had a standard work week. My career as a chef was diminished, slowed down, and almost derailed. I lost my connections, I had to use differing skills because working in a production kitchen requires too much time and physical endurance. If I hadn't make the choices that I did, I would have kids that I hardly ever spent time with when they needed me the most.

Some male chefs do not put their careers on the back burner like I did, and some would say it is easier for the guys to do this than us ladies. I have never been a guy but it does seem likely. Chefs do often get divorced and are all work and all play. The habit of chefs to unwind after a huge long day is to go to a bar and unwind. There is usually a spot where the whole crew goes and shut down the bar. Heavy drinking, smoking, and some drug abuse are all present in this lifestyle. In order to handle the stress and chaos, in order to keep going for 18 hours or more, in order to get up and do it all again the next day, in order to handle the chauvinism, the racism, the misogyny, the demanding customers, and all the big egos, many of us turn to chemical assistance to get them through it all. Some who do this can find it ruling them instead of them controlling their life.  

I love my career, I love what I do, I love serving my customers, and I love teaching these skills to others. Now that I am a lot older, as my eldest is now in college, and my health is a super bumpy road, I once again found a need to move away from the love of my life, a professional commercial kitchen. When I began I wanted a great big career, and company ownership, but also wanting a family meant something had to be sacrificed because the industry didn't have the ability for me to do both.

The chef life is as complex as some of the finest meals and most people have never seen what is happening on the other side of the kitchen doors. I have had relatives shame me that I couldn't attend this or that event because I was working. I have been accused of lying about my need for their help because there is no way that I needed to work a 18 hour shift. I have had the argument with an upset child about the recital I missed because I didn't get off work until 8 p.m. I now teach kids after school and therefore I don't finish up until 7 p.m.

Think about this: whenever you want to party, whenever you want to eat, whenever you need to celebrate, that's when chefs need to work. We work weekends, holidays, late days and early mornings. We are not the bank teller type of folks and working an 8 hour shift leaves us feeling like we are forgetting to do something more. Work/life balance in our world is a quick way to stunt your career unless you do something other than production work.

I am not the only writer talking about this subject, check out this article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2016/02/29/why-working-restaurant-industry-can-hard-your-mental-health/NaqWdSHvKJtZQCoberbLjP/story.html

Leadership without Loyalty

Can you be a leader without inspiring loyalty in others? A chef is much more than most people know, not only must a chef be a great cook, they also must be an artist, understand some engineering, run a business with P&L and ROI responsibilities, order supplies, and handle the HR issues. It is the chef that can make or break a food business.

Many executive chefs do very little cooking due to all the additional responsibilities that comes with running a kitchen or a business. It is a bad day for the whole crew of chefs when the head man in charge must come out of the office and get on the line, as it signals that the symphony is out of tune. The executive chef is the conductor of the orchestra, and must also be able to play, write, and read music.

Leading a kitchen brigade into culinary battle isn't easily done. There's a lot of trust that needs to be built up before you will be a strong leader. All chefs have strong personalities, and some even are egomaniacs, and yielding to another chef can be hard-fought. The best of us know their strength and their weaknesses. Some chefs are fabulous on a bench but are not well suited for paperwork and running the business. Some chefs are not adapt at customer service and should limit their customer contact. No matter what gifts you have been given, do not abandon them for the sake of something else.

I have met chefs who could make the most incredible artistic works but as their business grew, they got a bit of a limelight and stopped working as a chef in order to bask in the glory of ownership. These ill-equip people stop doing what gave them notoriety. They take on the role as the face of the business and end up doing customer service and paperwork without a skilled hand.

The question still remains as to loyalty. Teamwork begins with skill and strength but can end rapidly with over-inflated egos and lack of communication. To get other chefs to follow your lead isn't easy because it isn't easy to get them to trust you. They must know you, and know you well, and understand that you will not walk away when everyone is in the weeds. Leave no man behind. And somehow along the way, you have to show them that your decision making is sound. Every order must be understood and wise because even a slight misstep will have the brigade lose faith in your leadership.

Skilled chefs can be a hard bunch to tangle with and if you are taking too much time to enforce the rules, expectations, and goals to a chef, you will not have any time left to answer customers requests. Understanding yourself, were you work best, how to make the biggest positive impact for the organization, can change your life and your career.

Kitchen leadership comes from a magical place where your skills, personality, authority, confidence, respect for your co-workers, knowledge, and respect for teamwork, all comes together. As a team leader, often times you have to protect the team from the obstacles in their path. If a customer needs something from the chefs and you are the leader, it is your job to keep the customer out of the team's hair, and handle the customers needs, which makes the day run smoother for everybody. If the product order comes in, it is your job to make sure that the team has everything that is needed to perform. If someone takes a sick day, as a leader, you will be expected to put the team in the best possible place by calling in a replacement or by filling in yourself. The leader has to wear all the hats they can and make the day run smoothly for everyone involved. Without this type of effort, the team will run you down and take total control away from you because it will be declared that you can't handle the responsibility. If you become sick and don't show respect to your crew by way of calling ahead, asking someone to cover for you, or leave them with an impossibly hard day, you maybe forgiven once or twice, but they will stop trusting you if this becomes a pattern with you.

There are so many variables involved that I am having a hard time trying to define what is leadership in a professional kitchen. It is something that naturally surfaces with unanimous physic vote of the whole. I have been a crew member, but not a leader, and something would happen and the whole crew will turn and look to me to solve it all of a sudden. Can you take information and discern how to assign work to the best team member possible to get the job done? Can you jump in and help in every position there? Can you brake down a job into smaller pieces so the burden is shared by the team instead of leaving the whole weight on one or two team members? Can you communicate with customers and put them at ease that their issues will be handled correctly? Can you communicate with the waitstaff or beverage department or any other department within the organization successfully? Does your presence bring with it a sigh of relief from your team instead of negative feelings and them wishing it was your day off?

Loyalty is something given, and not given easily. You can give someone or something your loyalty but you cannot demand it from others and most of the time expecting it from others can leave you disappointed. Loyalty cannot be built up without honesty and responsibility.


Saluti

A Sweet Finish

Ending your dining experience on a high note is the best way and us pastry chefs strive hard to make that happen. Therefore, I never understood some that are willing to create a five star meal and end it with a Walmart cake. I have worked for a couple of major grocery store chains, and I can tell you from first hand experience, that those cakes are chocked full of preservatives and the icing is just wet sugar. I am convinced that the sale of this type of product has gotten a lot of consumers believing that they don't like buttercream, when in fact, most of them have not tasted real buttercream.

Even for those among us that don't much care for sweets, having a wonderful ending to highlight a memorable dinning experience is vital. I'd rather not have a dessert if the dessert can't hold a candle to the meal. For me, it is the equivalent of wearing a designer dress with Payless shoes. I am not advocating for any significant change to your everyday meal time routine, but when you are celebrating the happiest of days in your life, don't skimp.

Most of my pastry clients do not hesitate to order a custom cake for a kid's birthday but don't treasure the special moments for the adults that make living memorable. Eat dessert everyday? Probably not. But when something special is on the horizon, do yourself the honor of something extra special.

Is it important to eat a dessert made from quality ingredients? Of course it is, but many have a attitude that says 'its dessert and it isn't healthy so why worry about it'? But healthy eating is about all the foods consumed, not just the meals and snacks, but ALL of the food calories and nutrition. Making cakes and desserts from real food, quality chocolate, the best butters and flour, makes for the most delicious products and much easier on your digestion and overall health.  

Geeked Podcaster

It has been about a month since I launched this blog project and it's companion podcast http://www.blogtalkradio.com/giantforkandspoon  and I'm loving it. Today's broadcast was made extra special since we had our first live caller!

Speaking with all of these food lovers can reinvigorate my spirit and ignite a new spark because sometimes chefs can get a bit burned out and needing something to get you motivated. Educating the kids that I serve gives me much more than I give out and in many ways they have all become my kids from other mothers.

With today's guest, Chef Teoskii Washington, I am proud to see him utilize some of the advice he sought from me in the past and how well it is being put to use. I am also glad that I was careful when I did give other's advice because positive results are not guaranteed.

Our caller asked for advice about entering the industry and we suggested a couple of books to read in preparation:

The Mind of a Chef, by Breville, there is a video series as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Breville-presents-Inside-Minds-Behind-ebook/dp/B00IN36GEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456601844&sr=8-1&keywords=mind+of+a+chef+book

Professional Cooking by W. Gisslen
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Cooking-College-Version-Gisslen/dp/0471663743/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456601929&sr=1-5&keywords=professional+cooking+book

There are many more offerings that can point young aspiring chefs in the right direction. So glad we could help.

I don't IHop

Okay, I have had to go gluten-free in order to reduce my allergic reactions. This is connected to my fibromyalgia and the consumption of gluten makes my symptoms much worse. I am not happy about this for several reasons, gluten-free can be rather expensive, sometimes finding gluten-free items isn't always easy, but it is getting better, and my favorite thing to not be happy about is the taste of many offerings in this category. YUCKY.

I have been dreaming of eating toast with jam, or my favorite crackers, but the gluten-free bread that I have tried are not pleasing and 5 times the price of the regular bread. I keep thinking about bread making, cupcakes, and other such things that I enjoy in the original recipes. I have successfully converted several cookie recipes to gluten-free and I have tired a few times to make gluten-free bread and cornbread but haven't liked any of them yet.

I was recently pissed off when I had lunch at the local IHOP because this major chain has no gluten-free option on their menu. I am not understanding why not, as many of the smaller breakfast places have included my specialized foods already. This is a national chain of restaurants and I am sure introduction of this line of products can be done rather easily and without a lot of issues. I am also sure that I have not been the only one to have asked for this option in the last few years.

While I didn't mind eating steak and eggs, I was looking forward to a short stack only to be disappointed. Just this week, I ventured to a nice breakfast joint not far from the house, and there it was, a gluten-free option for pancakes and waffles. I ordered a gluten-free waffle topped with mango and quickly inhaled my meal with glee and didn't mind the extra $2 charged for the waffle.

There are so many things that I now have to be careful of eating in order to lesson my inflammation, hives, stomach aches, headaches, and muscle aches. I am not, not that I ever was, a big consumer of street foods and drive-ins, but now being forced to completely go without forever more, has me not so happy. My biggest heartache is that I can't eat burgers. A burger isn't a burger unless you have a nice bun. I don't like to pick my burger apart to avoid eating the bun. It isn't pleasurable and messy. Booooooo!

So IHOP corporate, please understand our gluten-free necessity. I shouldn't have to avoid your outlets because there is very little I can eat there and I don't want to sit across the table from someone only to watch them eat what I can't while my plate is empty, sipping on tea.

Thank you

Food Deserts

In recent years, the term 'food desert' has come into our consciousness. For those of you who have not heard of this concept, it was brought to light after a academic study was conducted that looked into a possible connection between unhealthy eating habits and poverty. It was discovered that, in some of the poor inner-city neighborhoods in America, a consumer would have to travel 5-10 miles, or more, from home to find a fresh carrot, for example.  At the same time, middle-class residents and higher, has many more options and considerable shorter distances to travel for the same carrot.

Lower economic status brings with it a reduction in household amenities, such as limited refrigeration, and a greater chance that you will have to rely upon public transportation. Having to travel on to purchase groceries out side of your local area can be extra taxing on any consumer but needing to do that on a city bus can make someone give in and just buy what is nearby.

What does this mean? If you are a member of our society that have less economic strength and/or are receiving nutritional supplements, such as WIC or Link, you are far less able to purchase quality food products and whatever you purchase may have to drug home on the bus. This is a real problem health-wise and may have contributed to the high rates of obesity and other related health issues.

For some in this city, buying cheaper food products is the first reaction to a lower food budget but doing so can cause diseases down the line and essentially be extremely expensive and life shortening.

 

In Illinois, the maximum amount a household can be given through food subsidy is $3 per person per meal. Compare this to a trip through a drive-in, people are spending about $8 for a lunch or $5 for a specialty coffee drink. This can be helpful to a family but it isn't a whole lot and therefore I have never understood some who would begrudge a family who qualifies for assistance.

Living in a food desert can also mean you are living below the poverty line and in a higher crime area. It is a struggle but having a set mind to eat better can be accomplished. If you make efforts to not purchase pre-packaged and processed foods, your over all health will be much better. Even on a limited budget, I can't find a good reason to ever eat a hunny bun and a soda for breakfast. Buying fresh foods only can create a bit more work in the kitchen but it can be planned out properly and the extra effort pays off in greater health. Of all the things you can skim on, food should not be one. Buy less expensive clothes, for example, because its better to be healthy than sick and well dressed.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/24/1396100/-Think-Whole-Foods-is-a-ripoff-It-s-worse-than-you-thought?detail=emailclassic