Spring Flurries

While this may sounds like a weather report, it is not, and Chicago often has snow in Spring. What I am referring to is the storm of change and work tied into our programming during the Spring sessions. The last month or more has been fantastically busy and rewarding. My last session ended near the end of May and due to all the extra work needed, it became difficult to make all of the appointments.

Scholarship competitions, fundraisers, meetings, professional development, interviews for Summer term, planning, syllabus modification, more meetings, doctor appointments, medical issues, orchestra and band concerts, field trips, and the closing of my own kids schooling for the year. Phew.

Now things can slow down a bit and leave me to do some catching up. The first thing on my list was to catch up on some missed sleep. Recharging is essential. These last weeks proved to be telling me that I am a bit more fragile than I'd like to admit.

Some hard work comes with the satisfaction of knowing that you didn't let it beat you in the end. Some hard work comes with little visible evidence of success. And some hard work doesn't pay off right away, they are the long-term gains that manifest over lots of years. I have been asked if I thought that teaching culinary at this level was harder than working in the industry, quick and without hesitation, my answer was yes.

There isn't a single parent that hasn't questioned their skill based upon the child's advancement or success despite the fact that a lot of things that happen along a child's life, especially in teenage years that may have nothing to do with parental input. Years and years later, most of the successful adults, will say that their parental influence was positive and necessary, even when the adult may have dropped out of school or had a teenage pregnancy, or any other negative impact on life that we can all agree makes life much harder to be successful.

I count it all profitable to gain even the smallest shift in a students opinion, taste, or concept of the world at large. I dance when a kid goes from "that's nasty" to "wow, I like that".  The work can take a long time, can be hard to do, requires that I trust my kids in class and that they trust me. I have to position myself somewhere between a parental role, a type of friendship, a teacher, and a wise elder in order to do what I do successfully. This work is also about how the student sees themselves and their future.

I have always began each term with asking the kids to write about their life goals. Those kids who have been in my class in multiple times, have had the answers on the page turn from "I don't know" to "I'd like to become _____". I have heard, and witnessed, kids begin to take small steps to change what they eat, how they project themselves, how they see themselves, how they expect certain reactions from me and how we interact. To have a student start off with no idea who they want to be and have no care about what they eat, change towards a new image and shoot for much higher goals, it is all worth the effort.

I have set a personal goal with this blog and related podcast, having a regular scheduled time table, so when I have to miss days, I get a bit hard on myself, but I am working on letting go of negative self-talk.

Spring is all about new growth and return of better weather, a renewal. Rebirth. Imagine, as we all post pictures about graduations, proms, and Spring weddings, that we are all just Spring flowers nestled under the cold blankets of winter, just aching for Spring rains to melt off our heaviness and allow us to bloom.

Bad Example

Okay, bad example... How many times have you heard this? Well, if I had a nickel for every time I have heard it, I would be sipping alcohol out of a pineapple on the beach for a living.

I teach kids about culinary. I often tell them that there will be times when a recipe doesn't come out right and when it happens, they remember that more often than the triumphs they get. Kids can be brutal with their teasing.

While a bad example is not the way we wish things to go, but they often teach us more than a good one.  If we never fall down, we will never learn to get up.  Never making a mistake will make it so that you will never know how to make correction or receive criticism.

Proper critique language can, at times, but difficult to grasp with the young ones. Lots of people are quick to respond negatively by use of hard language, but this leaves the recipient with little information, and often it can come off as rude.

In another aspect of life, we can use a bad example as motivation.  If you have grown up around the hustlers and criminal elements, their stories can propel you in the opposite direction, if you use it wisely.  You may not yet know what you want to become, but you have in front of you, an example of what not to develop into.

We all stumble and fall, but the best of us, get up and try again. You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.

Teaching at CPS

As you may know, I teach at a community center and a Chicago Public School. This year, the Chicago Teachers Union, have been working without a contract for a year and the possibility of a strike is very high. I am supportive of whatever decision they make and I will not be crossing the picket line, if it comes down to it.

I don't teach in a effluent neighborhood or at a selective enrollment school. I attended a select enrollment school and the difference is striking. I find myself asking, in my mind, was I as bad or clueless as the kids I teach. I am still not sure of my answer, but I do know that my kids are experiencing things I did not when I was in high school.

The kids I teach are negatively impacted by drugs, both by using and viewing the effects, incarcerated loved ones,  gangs, and abuse. They don't have it easy. A lot of my students have deficits in math, reading, and logic. Following instructions can be difficult to almost impossible. I see anger issues, rebellion against authority, a lack of parental support, a hosts of mental illness. I tend to arrive early to my school so that I may get a glimpse of what is going on on campus and check on the kids I teach in the event that they have been disciplined since I saw them. I totally support any action that the staff feels the need to take and if any of my students are in trouble, I do not allow them to come to my class for the day.

So what's my point? I knew, but now I really know, what teachers are up against and how vital it is to receive a quality education. I have met a 6th grader who cannot read. I am heartbroken at least once a week and when I had an offer to work just for the center at a higher rated than I receive in my role for CPS, I couldn't feel right about leaving them with no class at all, as getting a replacement instructor would have been too hard, I stayed to help make the needed changes for that programs success.

I am in support of the teachers union, and the teacher's efforts to make a safe place for their students to learn. I will not cross the picket line nor will I just throw the baby out with the bathwater and adopt a negative thought about the teacher's being selfish, or however else that they get painted negatively.

  

Angry Mama Bear

Yesterday, I hear upsetting news about one of my high school students who was grievously attacked during the school day on campus. She will be missing a few days of school because of this. I will spare you the details other than she suffered a broken cheek bone.

At first, the story spurred me to be inquisitive but after hearing the details from a member of our security staff, I got upset as if the same injury had happened to my own birthed children. I can't even find the words that are adequate enough to express myself.

This population of kids already has a lot to deal with from the neighborhood, the schools, the politics of our city, the rampant stupidity and injustice that is pervasive in their lives. This incident is have a bit overwhelmed as she is a likable sort who really doesn't bother anyone. To have her face hurt like this is such a piss-off.

I am going to leave this here before I upset again.....  

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/

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

Michelin Star Rating System

Most people in the food business has at least heard of the Michelin star rating system, however, most probably don't know its purpose or history. From time to time, I will hear culinary students wish to make the attainment of owning a Michelin star rated restaurant one of their career goals, but often they don't fully understand what it is that they are setting their sites upon. To wit, I always ask them what it means and how they plan on achieving this goal.

I personally never set my sites on this benchmark. My career goals are smaller in scope but never too small to be significant. I have always thought of myself as a work in progress, I strive to achieve progress everyday, to be better tomorrow than today, while hoping to become a owner of a nice bakery. I love food exploration and education. I love to occasionally expand my talent and knowledge while keeping up to date on the industry and in touch with colleagues who have helped me along the way. I had to teach myself how to work with fondant as it was not a medium that was available while I was studying my craft. I took to television and online tutorials to figure out how the medium work and some tricks and tips.

Chicago is a very fabulous city to work in food as we mid-Westerners have always taken pride in our food scene. This city is among the most segregated cities in the world as most folks cluster up in neighborhoods by ethnicity, but at the same time we have such a wide list of diverse groups that you can find all sorts of food offerings to satisfy your cravings. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Chilean, Brazilian, Thai, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Chinese, Polish, Irish, Italian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Russian, Ethiopian, and I am sure I have not named them all. Chicago has its issues but we here often commune with each other plate by plate.

If you think you have heard the Michelin name before but it didn't have anything to do with food, you are right. Michelin stars rating system began with the Michelin tire company. The owners of the tire company wanted a way to encourage long road trips because the more worn out tires, the more sales the tire company could earn, makes sense. So they thought about what people would need in order to drive longer and longer distances. They concluded that a traveler would need to know two very important pieces of information, where they could sleep comfortably and where they could eat. So around 1900, they began issuing star ratings for restaurants to highlight excellent locations to visit.

In American history there have been 173 stars awarded, a small number over the last 116 years, and in that list of American stars, Chicago has only been awarded 22. Earning a Michelin Star can dramatically change the way the world looks upon your restaurant and its chefs. These ratings can literally push your efforts into the stratosphere and adds your name to the list of the most accomplished in your craft.

Is having this as a goal as a student a good idea? I will never ever discourage anyone from striving to be their absolute best, however, I do tell students to get a plan in place to make this dream a reality. 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' Do your research, find out how the chefs before you have earned their stars, figure out where you should study to give you the best odds of earning one, find a great place to intern in order to get some hands on experience with a great chef, look into who invests in restaurants and may want to help you open your own doors after a long period of study, figure out new ways to reach the gourmet audience, understand your skills well, be honest with yourself about where you are is light of where the heavy hitters are, know your audience, seek answers about what your limitations are. Every chef must, not only figure out what others can teach them, also understand what tasks they do best and what work they should leave for other chefs to do as no one chef can do everything perfectly.

Just getting in to a culinary program and graduating can be hard to do for some students. I have seen some who were cocky going into a culinary training program and washed out before completion. I have also seen chefs graduate from a study course with enormous egos and confidence in their skills but got a wake up call at their first real job in the industry as others chefs ended up deflating that ego because they didn't know what they didn't know.

In the last few years, we have witnessed a enormous boon in the number of colleges that a chef can study. The popularization of food related television has made our jobs more attractive to the common watcher. And while thousands of kids, instead of a few hundred in years before, actively seek a place to start their food careers, not all programs of study are equal. Some interns that I have had the pleasure to work with don't all finish their education with the same amount of skill, ability, knowledge, and experience as all the others.  Hell, some do not possess the right personality traits to survive in a professional kitchen.

No matter if you want to swing your bat in the big leagues or if you want to be a small business owner, DO YOUR RESEARCH. These careers do not materialize over night nor are the dropped in your lap because you have a culinary education. The restaurant business is VERY competitive and the amount of time you need to put in at work to become the best chef you can be is HUGE. This industry seldom allows you to have a good work/life balance, especially in the beginning, and a chef never stops learning. Once a chef becomes proficient with producing the master sauces, they still don't have mastery of the yeast bread, for example. Customer demands change all the time and the food outlet that is the hottest ticket in town today can have a empty reservation book tomorrow because the food or diet fad has changed course.

Work hard, study hard, never stop learning, and dream big. BUT, do your research, write a plan, rewrite it often, make it plain, and plan, plan, plan. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. It is a fool that doesn't do their homework before jumping into the pool. Is it shallow or deep? Is it clean water or contaminated? Are there rocks at the bottom? Be deliberate and sure of what you are shaping before the sculpture collapses.

Here are some links that may help you investigate the Michelin star ratings: http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-the-michelin-guide-2014-10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Michelin_starred_restaurants#United_States

Food v "Food", Part 1

One of the major themes in my teaching to our young folks is that I constantly challenge their idea as to what is food and what is "food". I began this after watching them eat all sorts of garbage, listening to them talk about what they like to eat, and then seeing the deficits of understanding about nutrition. When you talk to kids that cannot identify that margarine is not butter, don't eat vegetables, drown their food in hot sauce, and never ever ask what is in this food... there is trouble brewing. A very large portion of the population that I teach just eat what they like and they never give a second thought to what they are consuming, while childhood obesity rates raise.

 

I teach them how to read a nutrition label, show them that vegetables aren't scary and can be very tasty depending on how it is prepared. I challenge their tastes by making them at minimum sample the dishes we prepare, make them look at what they are eating and why. It isn't easy work especially since the come to my class believing all that we are going to do is cook. If it were up to them, they would work in my class as if it was a cooking club, but its not, it's a culinary class. If it were up to them, we would only cook those things in which they are already eating regularly. The difference between a cooking class and a culinary class is very similar to the difference between food and "food".

 

I am fully aware that lots of food choices that are made in the households, in which my kids live, are done so with economy and convenience in mind. We Americans have totally bought into the idea that food must be cooked quickly and if you are in a lower economic rung the cheaper products tend to win the race to the shopping cart. Lots of our citizens are quick to spend a lot of money on clothes but not a lot on food. This is backward thinking, as clothes wear out quickly and go out of style, but your health is critical. I too have to consider my economy when purchasing, I buy some convenience foods, very few, mainly because I am not home for dinner 3 to 4 nights a week so the cooking duties fall upon my kids at least a couple nights a week. However, understanding what you are exposing your health to buy the constant consumption of these are risks most of us cannot afford. All of my children cook, nothing too fancy, for my middle school and high school kids, but my college kid does quite well, as she has had much more training.

 

Kids don't think about health and nutrition often as they have those perfect metabolisms and digestion that keeps up with the junk they consume. I often ask them what if the aging process begins to break down your body at a young age because of what they eat?

 

The populations that I teach are made up of inner city minority kids who's families are dealing with members that are impacted by cancer, hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma, drug abuse,  immobility, and early death. What they are more concerned with are the drug overdoses and deaths from gun violence that they face daily. I have talked to my kids and heard about the reasons they skipped attending class due to being in the hospital visiting their siblings and loved ones. They tell me of how many funerals they have had to attend and when asked questions about life longevity they tell me that they are not concerned with living to 100 because they are expecting to die before they are 30. It's easy to not think about your  health when you don't think you will survive very long, so why not eat and do whatever you enjoy today because tomorrow may never come.

 

So, there I go into the breach attempting to change their view of not only what is food and what really isn't food but also trying to change their world view through cooking and teaching. I speak to them about their life goals and dreams as well as their diet. I convey to them the impacts of poor diet don't just show up on the inside, but these things affect their appearance and their future. Basic nutritional information and health are done every week along with recipe comprehension. I am a firm believer that it isn't their fault that they don't know these things. I am a firm believer that you cannot give someone else something that you don't have. A great number of their parents either don't have time to teach them these things or don't know enough about the subject to teach them to their children. The notion of eating whatever is cheap and accessible is costly to your health. Anytime that you can go to the store and buy a 2-liter of soda pop for 99 cents but the same amount of juice or water is 4 to 5 times the price.... something is off.

 

I tell everyone if you cannot read all of the ingredients on the label then you might not want to eat that product. Whenever you leave control of your health and nutrition up to a corporation, you are already in trouble. The one and only purpose of a corporation is to make money. They make decisions not based upon what is best for the consumer, they make decisions based upon profit. If a natural item cost five cents per unit and a artificial substitute costs 3 cents per unit, the corporation will used the chemical substitute to gain a bigger profit margin.

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These artificial things do not create the same reactions in the body as real food does, and if you are around enough, you will see how the FDA and researchers will prove them to be harmful in the long run and it's use will then be stopped. But what about all the people that consumed these chemicals for years and are possibly suffering the after effects? Wouldn't be easier to select the natural food options and not suffer any side effects? I want to see my kids live long long lives full of joy and not short lives filled with discomfort and disease.

 

Any food that has multiple multi-syllables  chemical names and are high-up on the ingredient list should make you take pause. If you don't know what it is, then maybe you shouldn't be eating it. Can you find those items in your kitchen? Why are they in your food? Corporations make it difficult to make good choices. Their marketing campaigns, packaging, confusing labeling, hidden sugars, cheap ingredients, market saturation, are pervasive and target your kids.

 

A large percentage of your average citizens do not fully understand how to read nutrition labels.  The first thing that everyone should know is that the list of ingredients is listed in order of amount from the highest quantity to the least. In other words, if you are reading the label and the first ingredient listed is sugar then you know right away that is isn't a healthy item to eat. Secondly, look at the serving size on the package. This is one way the corporation tries to fool the consumer into believing that the item isn't too bad for you. A small package of potato chips is commonly consumed by one person, but the manufacturer may use the serving size as 4, for example, that way, if you aren't paying close attention you can believe that the bag is only 100 calories when it actually is 400 calories, deceiving. I also encourage folks to Google the chemical names listed to see their purpose, possible health issues, and perhaps why they are used. Knowledge is power.

 

Last year was the first year in American history that consumers spent more money in restaurants than in grocery stores. That is huge news to both the culinary industry, retail food store, and the medical community. Our families are not growing, harvesting, cooking, hunting, or controlling the most important aspect of their health, food!

 

Debate, Competition, Adversaries, and Allies

The topic of competition often comes up in dialogues about the food industry, any line of work actually, and more times than not, the dialogues can get heated. The art of debate seems to be fading away like a dream of an infant, quickly forgotten and hardly ever understood. I blame the years we, as a nation, spent under "mission accomplished" Bush as President, as he created the whole binary speak about patriotism. He helped the nation buy-in to the idea of "you are either with us or against us" type of confrontational speak that lead to this type of rational in many other areas.

Debate has a purpose that is not adversarial but rather designed to explore the topic at hand, amicably. A proper debate leaves the participating parties and the audience with a greater understanding of the subject explored. Nothing is black or white, all good or all evil, the world is a wash in tons of shades and colors. We more often learn more from our mistakes than our successes and allowing your opinions to change with additional information is an invaluable situation be to placed.

Sometimes this type of scenario can be present in personal relationships. I have witnessed groups of ladies where one member feels the need to compete with her peers, often to the destruction of the friendships, but the reality is the only competition that one truly has is against themselves. I strive to be better today than I was yesterday. I am one that will uplift my peers instead of tear them down. I have been known to go out of my way to lend a helping hand and would like to think that others who can will do the same for me when needed.

Within the food industry you may find yourself in the employ of owners that are overly protective of their customers, contacts, marketing schemes, or recipes, as if an employee is seeking out to steal them. This type of thinking is not healthy. It takes nothing to give others information or answers that will set them up to succeed even after they have exhausted the relationship with you or your organization. Instead we see the crabs in the barrel mentality when the reality is that there is more work out here in the marketplace that no one will ever be out of work for long if they have the skills. I can tell you how to to something or point you in the right direction but that doesn't guarantee that you will be able to get the same results that I have gotten.

Everything is situational....   (yes, I do know that this isn't really a word). I don't mind sharing recipes with people online or in person because many people that request the information will not make the efforts to produce the item, and they usually ask me to make it for them. I mentor and teach kids who like to cook and perhaps I will be able to start the next successful chef-in-training on the right path to excellence.

I have worked for folks who were victims of this mentality and they are usually toxic to everyone around them. It's easy to spot them in a employment situation as they are constantly seeking to horde all the information and control everything the employees do. This type of person tries to never fully explain the situation or decisions and is always very guarded. The rationale behind this behavior is to make themselves feel important by force, so to speak. No one can do any work unless they go through so-and-so, can't make a single decision, can't move on to the next thing, or use their own ideas, unless you get approval.  Too often this creates a false dependence upon another person and can be a fear reaction of the person who is exhorting control, afraid that the employee will run away with their business, do a better job than they could do, or get promoted ahead of them.

Most people can mistake their allies as adversaries due to a lack of vision. It's like the cheating spouse who constantly knows they are being cheated on, even without evidence, because they believe everyone is just as dishonest as their actions. I'm not one who adopts this thinking. If we are colleagues or friends, I am sure that there is something that makes you special and usually it is different than what makes me special.

Allies share, trade, and support each others efforts especially when the goals of both are the same. Two nations will become allies because they have mutual needs. They trade materials such as nation 1 is a great producer of wheat but nation 2 doesn't have the land type to grow wheat, so a pact is made to trade the wheat for nation 2's spices. The same can happen between to companies, two people, or two families. As a pastry chef, I have a few caterers that will call me to produce the sweets the client is asking to be made for their event, for example. The caterer has an expanded list of options that the client can chose from, the client doesn't have to search for these options with an additional company, and both the caterer and I will profit from the clients order, mutually beneficial.

Confidence in one's ability, self-confidence, honesty about you own knowledge and skills, understanding the limit of your own ability and where it can be improved, and having a centered humble spirit can be more valuable than all the money or influence in the world. It takes a certain type of humility that allows you to be in a position to both help others and be helped at the same time. No matter how much I learn or how advanced my skills become I remain humble because I have worked with and met some giants in my industry and I fully understand that there are some with skills that make mine look like a crayon coloring book drawings next to a museum quality painting.

In my opinion, seeing everyone else as your competition or adversary is a big red flag that this person is struggling with some deep identity issues. The need to always be in the spotlight, to control every thing and everyone, to dismiss people willing to help you or support you because you can't imagine that they are being honestly genuine, and always thinking of your needs as more important than anyone else's, are personality flaws that are not uncommon within the chef world. I also believe that the idea of celebrity chef is drawing more and more of people with these personas, who feel the need to prove their self-importance plate by plate.

The chef personality type is large and crazy but the real stars are those among us that are firmly rooted in reality while constantly reaching skyward to shine among the stars. You can shine as bright as the sun without trying to diminish someone else's light, in fact, lending your light to others doesn't reduce yours but in fact increases the light from you both.  

NAACP ACT-SO

Today is the day of our NAACP ACT-SO Image Awards Viewing party. This is a new fundraiser for the branch. We decided to host this viewing party after the lack of African Americans nominated for the Oscar's this year. The racial divide doesn't appear to be closing. 

As the board Secretary, for the Chicago South side branch, I have been lending a hand, preparing and grooming our competitors for regional and national competition. Our esteemed journalist, Vernon Jarrett presented his concept for an Olympics of the mind in 1976 and in 1977 the NAACP Board of Directors adopted his resolution and became the national sponsor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_Jarrett 

ACT-SO sustains approximately 200 programs nationally. Over the past thirty years, over 300,000 have participated in the program. Our mission is to reward and recognize African American young men and woman for their scholastic and artistic excellence. We strive to honor, prepare, recognize, and develop the talents in our under-served community. http://www.naacpconnect.org/pages/act-so-history

Every year we do a lot of fundraising because this is a golden opportunity for our young people that they may never get to experience otherwise and we do not charge the participants, or their families, the expense of travel and accommodations to compete nationally. All of our efforts throughout the year is focused upon getting our kids ready to win prizes and scholarships and usher them into a illustrious college career. Thirty two categories covering categories of STEM, Business, Visual Arts, Humanities, Performing arts, Dance, and my personal favorite, Culinary Arts.

I began my involvement two years ago when my oldest child, Jacqueline Alexander, competed in the photography category. She worked during her Junior and Senior years in high school and went to national competition both years. The work we did with her did prepare her very well, not only for ACT-SO but for the other work she did in school and for the other avenues she explored for scholarships. This year my other daughter, Victoria Alexander, is competing in a music performance category, a visual arts category and a short story category.

Eligible students are 9th - 12th grade, they can compete in up to 3 categories and can compete every year until they have graduated high school. Jacqueline is still involved with the program as an alumni, mentor, and youth ambassador in her Freshman year of college. 

I am proud to sit on the board, and I am a proud parent as well. If you are interested in supporting our good cause, our young upcoming leaders, please come join us tonight and/or send a donation by way of purchasing a ticket to our event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/naacp-chicago-southside-act-so-presentsimage-awards-viewing-party-tickets-20877805077

We do lots of events, both online and in real life, to raise the funding needed to take our gold medalists on the South side of Chicago, to our national conference. We hope to send a larger contingency this year than last year, we hope to recruit more and more of our young people into competition, and we hope to be the lightening rod that electrifies their futures.

  

Roots and Wings - Mentoring the new generation

For about a year or so now, I have began teaching kids culinary skills at a high school and at a youth center. The age groups are 5-8th graders and 9-12th at a CPS high school. Along with that work, I have been working with the NAACP ACT-SO South side of Chicago Scholarship program for the last two years and I now sit on that volunteer board as the Secretary after helping out when my eldest child was a competitor.

While I had anticipated doing some mentoring, and hoped to build into my business plans to find a way to develop an internship, I did not think that I would be, at this point of my life, doing as much as I am for and with kids. I have not yet finished raising my own children and now I am mentoring many more.

After a loss of position and a downward turn in my health, I was grateful for the needed time to investigate my medical problems. A return to working near 20 hour days for a business that was simply providing a hourly wage, making others much richer, and me only slightly better off, didn't seem possible or practical. I am not the same hardworking chick I once was and when the opportunity came to try my hand at teaching culinary, instead of only producing large quantities for service while my health worsened from the stress of the job, I accepted.

Both populations of kids have their associated issues of behavior, which is different for each group, but they have never done anything outside of the typical actions of their age groups. Pre-teens and teens have the prerequisites of talking too much, listening too little, short attention spans, easily distracted, thinking only about a response to questions instead of listening to the information given, and let us not forget the attention-seeking actions that express need for attention and acceptance from peers, adults, and members of the opposite sex. All that aside, let's talk to their needs for stability and the need for dreaming big.

The kids in my classes, and others to whom I speak to often, either have big dreams of their futures or none at all, it seems. Leaving them to either desire to do the impossible or misunderstanding that nothing is possible. I haven't seen much of a middle ground with these kids. While some wish to fly on wax wings too close to the sun, others are too scared to make attempts.

Every dreamer needs a good dose sense and solid foundation and every bird scared to leave the nest needs a firm push outward to test their wings. My high school kids are learning much more that culinary skill, if they attempt to pay attention to lecture and conversations, as I spend time teaching life skills, nutrition, household management, diets, social commentary, current affairs, and what else seems important at the time. Food involves aspects of culture, socialization, economy, mathematics, applied chemistry, art, tempting of all our senses, and transmitting care, love, and survival.

No matter what a young ones' desires to do with their years, grounding them in understandings, wisdom, and careful practices is doing them the service of your knowledge about life in our society. But be careful not to plunge their path into utter darkness and fear, so that they never attempt flight for in doing so, you steal the life blood from the innocent. It is not easy to strike a balance, give wise council, and fair warnings to individuals that think they know everything, hard headed, and stubborn. But to fail, or refuse to try, lending your experience to them so they may avoid the potholes and pitfalls is a sin. Failing to do your duty to inform the next generation leaves them to reinvent the wheel again without diagram or Allen wrench to assemble that which they bought at Ikea. Sad.

Too many wish only to complain and too few are willing to help; which camp is your tent pitched in?

Mise En Place

Mise en place (French pronunciation: ​[mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces,par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift.^[1]

On my mind today is the constant search for the correct place, the true home of a chef, in this huge universe of food. A chef's skills move with the chef and the life of many a restaurant has been made or broken by the chef or lack thereof.  Finding the right place to work and thrive is very often hard to do these days.  The downturn in the economy was a big moment for the whole industry as belt tightening was required of every citizen and often we see that dining out and tourism are quickly reduced and seen as a luxury.

Not every kitchen and restaurant is well suited for every chef. The size, pace, menu, audience, and management all factor into how successful a chef can be under the specific environment. Chefs are like police in that we are often from a certain personality type and have loads in common but the differences between us can be very large. Some are much more the corporate chef or the rigid fine dining chef then there are ones like me of the more artist explorer type.

I am oh so familiar with the search for my place in this world in almost every way. I have had jobs both in the front of the house and back of the house. I have taken many opportunities that were not keeping me on a true chef path, however, since I have always wanted to be an owner and not just a worker, taking these chances to learn all that I could about my industry was a must for me. I have practiced excellent customer service for years, and have been called upon to use it in some of the most difficult of situations.

For the last year, perhaps a bit more, I have been trying my hand with teaching kids culinary skills at a couple of different locations, and with a group of high school teenagers and a group of 5-8th graders. Each group has their set of challenges and differing impacts to behavior. I have been enjoying teaching and now that I am a bit older and not in the best of health, I might have to teach nearly exclusively.

Every interview any chef goes to will have elements of a rose colored picture painted to entice the chef to accept an employment offer, that is if the interviewer wishes to hire said chef. Every chef needs to weigh what they have heard during the interview, what they have learned researching the company, and what their personal needs are in making a decision to accept or reject an offer. Lots of times, both parties, employer and employee, both walk away from the negotiating table with no offer due to a sense that their isn't a match being made. Sometimes, a one-night stand happens, i.e. chef only works at said place for a few weeks and either walks away or it is deemed that they aren't a good fit for that particular situation.

When I exited culinary school, I had already worked for a while with a couple of outlets, this had given me my early sea legs, so to speak. I worked for a wise chef that pointed me in the direction of the pastry department. I didn't have an interest in pastry, at the time, and thought of its' additional need for precision as something that I didn't want to embark upon. Needless to say, someone was right and I was wrong for once. My big moment that convinced me that I needed to be in a bakery was at one banquet I was cooking for, the time came to cut the wedding cake, I was disappointed by the bakery that the cake came from, and was not about to leave customers with such poor options for their big day.

The cake that day was following a very nice meal and good service. The fact that the cake was sub-par made me all the madder since it was to be the last thing they would eat. A cake is supposed to be that sweet high note of the evening not a major disappointment. This cake was cute but the cake didn't taste good and the way it was assembled made cutting it and platting it nicely nearly impossible. I was clear, right then and there, that I could do better an offer a product to people that tasted great and looked great. I had found my place in the spot light.

Hopefully, everyone can find their place on the wheel of life, in and out of the industry. Many people that I know are great in the kitchen but not always are they willing to work in the industry, not everyone in the industry want to be owners, or even have customer contact, and not every chef can bake or teach. We all have things we can naturally do and those things we can learn to do well, but nothing is more important than finding where you belong. Doing so will prove to be the most beneficial to your own sense of self worth.

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.

Competition is how you see it.....

I am the secretarial chairperson for the NAACP Act-so scholarship program South-side branch and I have been working with our young people in this program and others. My eldest child, Jacqueline, competed two years and went to nationals. In this role, we do a lot to prepare them for competition and I keep finding myself talk to them about their nerves and who they are competing against.

It's natural to feel some trepidation about presenting a project or performance that you have pour time, energy, and bit of your soul into foe others to review, however, often times their focus is pointing in the wrong direction. I find that most kids fixate upon the other competitors instead of competing against who they were yesterday.

No matter what the activity or project, the only true way to measure your progress is compete against yourself. Steel hones steel and while you are counting the number of steps your colleagues, you miss count your own. This should be the foundation of your education, getting better and better piece by piece. Framing your picture in another's framework will not work. My favorite saying about this is "If I am busy being like my sister, then who will be busy being me?"

Young people have so much to consider, take on, overcome, decide, and to become. It is not a small thing for a teenager to decide to go to law school and make steps in that direction. With those words, you are trying to determine what the next 40 years or more of your life will become, having only lived just a few. Missteps and uneasiness are always apart of the learning process but can often deter a young person.

I have no magic wand to make everything okay, however, when I changed my focus from other's progress onto my own it helped me tremendously. It allowed me to be honest with myself about where I was on my journey and how much further I wanted to go. As a chef, the next chef on my team is not going to be happy if I can't hold up my end, or will be unwilling to pick up my slack, whereas when I am on top of my skills and work outputs, other's can then rely on my work and seek me out for advice or leadership beyond my work requirements which can make my participation a blessing instead of a curse. Hold up a mirror to yourself, not to groom your appearance, but instead to groom your ability. Life is not just about the destinations, it's about the journey. I don't expect perfection from others or myself, I expect progress.