I visited six Hospitality Management classes at JWU. Check out my classroom presentation to students:
We then attended the career fair and met over 120 students and signed more than 70 up for our S2L and A2L programs. The following day we interviewed 21 students for the program!
Chefs from Aramark Higher Education and Business & Industry, gathered at Boston University on January 23, 2017 to learn about Washoku, cooking traditional Japanese cuisine. The seminar was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. Chefs from Japan, including Chefs Makoto Takano, Takuya Sakamoto and Takayuki Moriya, shared their knowledge of Japanese cuisine and food culture and methods for using Japanese products in authenic cookery.
The fundamentals of traditional Japanese cuisine lie in meals that combine cooked rice, barley or grains as a main dish, then seafood, vegetables or seaweed with fermented seasoning, and side dishes that feature dashi. Side dishes are principally chosen for their richness in protein, so fish, meat, and tofu are common, and accompaniments primarily feature vegetables, potatoes and so on that are not present in the main dish, with a soup prepared to go with the main dish. Menus following this framework are called "Ichiju-sansai" - three dishes with one soup. The most distinctive feature of the Ichiju-sansai menu is that the soup and vegetables all exist to enable the rice to be eaten. Ichiju-sansai should be thought of as having rice as the main dish, with the other components as side dishes. These meals can be considered exceptionally healthy.
There are various cooking methods and techniques used in main or side dishes in Japanese cuisine such as simmering, grilling or frying, steaming, boiling, dressing and deep-frying. By mixing and matching these over many different ingredients such as seasonal vegetables or mountain vegetables, seafood or seaweed, a rich assortment of dishes can be chosen to create a lively table setting full of variety.
One method of food preparation that is quite particular to Japanese cookery is raw food and sashimi. Ingredients are sliced raw then arranged on a plate and garnished with Japanese seasonings, condiments, and accompaniments. Seafood is mainly used, and much care and attention are put into its selection, the manner of slicing, and the arrangements employed, even in this modern age. The techniques involved in keeping ingredients in their freshest state, coupled with the skill involved in arranging them, create dishes that can be considered true accomplishments. Sashimi is garnished with condiments such as wasabi or ginger, along with
accompaniments such as shredded daikon radish and perilla leaves that are called "tsuma" and "ken" respectively, but balancing all the elements including compatibility with the fish, the prevention of microbes, and simple beauty, is a labor of love.
Fish "shioyaki" is made following a traditional process of sprinkling salt on fish then carefully grilling it on an open flame.
This is a very popular method of food preparation worldwide, but in Japan, there are many soy-based fermented seasonings such as soy sauce or miso that are used to enhance the taste while making the most of the natural flavor of the ingredients.
Ingredients that are boiled and seasoned, such as greens with bonito, follow a process hereby they are boiled, then the froth is removed, and they are rinsed with water to preserve the texture.
Cooking with heat and oil is known as stir-frying. This technique is rarely seen in traditional dishes but is frequently used nowadays and is breadthening the scope of Japanese cuisine.
There are many staple foods that involve turning wheat, buckwheat or grain into flour then cooking it. Typical examples are noodles such as udon and soba.
Dashi, in Western food, would be "bouillon" - and in Chinese food, it is known as "soup." The fundamental difference to the sweetness, sourness bitterness and spiciness found in cookery, it is used to add the "fifth taste" - umami - that comes from ingredients such as meat and vegetables or mushrooms and seaweed. Dashi does not just add the umami component to dishes but also contains nutrients and delivers aroma. It has gained its place as a fundamental flavor of Japanese cuisine. Typical examples are katsuo (bonito) and konbu (kelp), but there are many types of dashi including ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, vegetables, fish bones or niboshi (dried sardines). The work involved in preparing dashi requires a great deal of time, care and attention, so even in Japan, a high percentage of dashi uses granulated dashi
(hondashi, etc) as a substitute.
Making traditional Dashi, with kombu & bonito
The primary Japanese seasonings include salt, sugar, miso, soy cause, vinegar, sake and mirin.
Soy sauce: Koji (malt) mold is added to steamed soya beans and toasted wheat and this is then mixed into a saline solution to produce "moromi" - the unrefined fermenting mash - and when
fermentation is complete, the liquid is filtered and pasteurized to produce the final product.
Miso: Steam soya beans, add salt to the mash, decompose with koji mold and allow to age. Miso is generally prepared from late spring to early summer and can be left to ferment throughout the summer.
Mirin: Using rice, malted rice, and shochu or cooking alcohol as the raw materials for fermentation, mirin is around 14% alcohol and has a sugar content of around 40-50%.
Vinegar: Acetic acid bacteria is added to a base of grain, such as wheat or corn, and the mixture is allowed to ferment. It has a characteristic clear, refined taste and is used in sushi, pickles, dressings and so on.® Shiokoji: Take koji mold and add salt and water then allow to ferment for around a week to create this traditional Japanese seasoning. Primarily used as a pickling bed for vegetables or fish, but since around 2011, more diverse uses have gained popularity.
Chefs then applied their knowledge of cuisine and seasoning to create the following dishes:
Shrimp & Scallop Teriyaki
Stirfried Miso Eggplant
Chawanmushi (Savory Soft Egg Custard)
Kakiage (Mixed Seafood & Vegetable Tempura) Served with Tare Sauce
Stirfired Shiokoki Pork & Vegetables
Vegetable Miso Soup
The following day, Chefs from Boston University partnered with the Japanese Chefs prepare a Japanese Food Fair featured at the GSU Dining location.
On November 10, 2016, Wheaton College held a student cooking competition of which I was asked to be a tasting judge. It was my pleasure to serve alongside Chef Anthony Tarro of Siena Restaurants.
Chef Anthony Tarro of Siena Restaurants
Chef Matthew Thompson, Aramark Regional Executive Chef
There were three teams made up of various Wheaton College students.
Team 1: Bipimbap
Team 2: Chicken Linguini
Team 3: Jollof Rice
Here were the rules from Chef Adam, Executive Chef, Wheaton College:
Iron Chef Comp
Each Group has 2 hours to prep and mise en place their dishes the day prior to service. This time will start after a quick tour and a safety brief as well as sanitation guidelines. Please be aware you will need to wear non-slip shoes (we can provide no slip covers). We will provide aprons, side towel and hats. All food will be ordered based on your recipe. You will also have access to a select amount of pantry items. The window for prep time will be from 12-5 pm. You are responsible for plates or platters (you will be able to choose from the selection we have…I would suggest gathering these items the day before and have a plan of how you are going to plate your dish
Prep day judging
One day one you will be judged on the following
Organization
Sanitation
Knife Skills
Proper cooking technique
Day Two
You will have 2 hours to complete your dish
Judging start at 5:30 sharp no exceptions
Each team will be given a number and that will determine the order in which you are judged.
For example team 1 will start at 3:30 and serve at 5:30
Team 2 will start at 3:45 and serve at 5:45
Day 2 you will be judged on
Organization
Sanitation
Knife Skill
Proper cooking technique
Flavor profile
Plate presentation
These were the final Dishes:
Bipimbap: A Korean dish. The word literally means "mixed rice". Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul and gochujang, soy sauce, or doenjang. A raw or fried egg and sliced meat are common additions
Fettuccine Pasta with Prosciutto, Chicken, Peas, and a Cream Sauce with Baked Rosemary Flatbread
Jollof Rice also called Benachin, is a one-pot rice dish popular in many West African countries. It is the progenitor of the Louisianian dish jambalaya. Jollof rice can be served with any kind of meat or chicken, this one served with chicken gizzards.
And the whole team
Congratulations to winning TEAM 2!! Chef Adam and I concluded that we would compete against each other next semester and invite these students to judge us. it was a pleasure to work with this great group of students!
Speech transcript from:
Tuesday, April 12, 2016: Tilles Center Atrium
Welcome again to our annual sustainability dinner. I've had the pleasure to be engaged with the LIU Post sustainability team furthering efforts here on campus. Thank you to the sustainability committee for providing me the opportunity to speak briefly to you.
Long Island University Post Campus, Local & Sustainable Food partnerships
Dr. Carlin mentioned earlier about many of the sustainability accomplishments and projects we have been engaged in over the past year. I am very happy to see the progress that LIU Post has had on campus in a short period of time. Aramark is enthusiastically looking forward to further partnerships with LIU to drive the culture of sustainability on campus that Dr. Carlin mentioned.
As the Regional Culinary and Sustainability director I am frequently asked to speak on a variety of topics. Most notably sustainable foods, environmental sustainability, industry trends in higher education dining, allergens, food safety and health and wellness. Over my past 19 years in the industry I have certainly seen many changes. Our responsibility as Chefs has changed significantly from that of provider to include things like educator, sustainability advocate and dietitian.
As someone who frequently has the opportunity such as this to engage with students, I recognize my responsibility to help form future eating habits. I've been striving lately to determine how to make better food choices myself. By "better" I mean, holistically: focused on health & wellness, reducing waste and carbon footprint, while procured responsibly.
It is necessary for us to consider the bigger picture of what impact sustainability will have -or more appropriately, will NEED to have on our global food culture. We do face some severe challenges particularly in the next 10-20 years when the needs of a growing global population will force an increasingly larger number of us to go hungry. Simply raising more cattle or growing more crops is not going to be enough to meet that need.
In the last 50 years global meat consumption has quadrupled to 300 million tons. As populations get richer, their consumption of meat, dairy and eggs also rises. The current rate of population growth is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. At this exponential rate, we will need at least 70% more meat protein than we already have. The anticipated world population by the end of the century will crest 11 billion. UN studies have estimated that unless our dietary choices change we could face a global collapse in as early as 30 years.
Facing this challenge, it is easy to look to the world's ocean for possible solutions. Covering the majority of our planet, there is more opportunity here than land-based food systems. However, our fisheries are 2.5 times larger than what our oceans can sustainably support. We take far more fish from the ocean than what it can naturally replace. Our global marine life has been slashed in half. Over 90% of world-wide swordfish and tuna populations have disappeared since 1950. We need to alleviate the pressure here by turning to aquaculture. Yet while aquaculture has made significant improvements and a noticeable impact on our global food supply continued advancements must be made on fish feed and habitat conservation.
What do we do? We could all become vegan! While THAT would be incredibly difficult to regulate world-wide, there are certainly some valuable learnings we can all take from the vegan diet. Perhaps Michael Pollan said it best when he said that everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words:
"Eat Food, not too much, mostly plants." -Michael Pollan
Adopting this dietary choice means its likely you're eating caloric-light yet nutritionally dense foods. I recently traveled with some business colleagues to Portland, ME where we visited a popular tapas place. As the chef of the group I was nominated to order for the tables. Interestingly enough the unanimous vote was that the two best dishes of the night were the smoked carrots and ras-al-hanout spiced pan-roasted cauliflower -ironical the only two vegan dishes. As Chefs its not about making vegan food popular, it's about making great tasting food and sustainable ingredients just taste great -oh and it just happens to be vegan.
The focus on global sustainability will allow us to tackle the much larger issues like world hunger and innovative farming opportunities to feed our ever growing world population. Embracing the challenge of summarizing world-wide sustainability efforts our team was tasked with creating an entirely local and sustainable vegan meal taking full advantage of the great seasonable ingredients available here on Long Island.
Big Thank you to our catering director Greg & his team for waiting on us tonight and Chelsea our District Marketing manager for putting together the marketing materials to communicate where we sourced our ingredients. Lastly, Chef Justin and his team for creating this vegan dinner for us to enjoy. I'd now like to introduce Chef Justin Poly introduce you to tonight's menu you're about to enjoy.
Sustainable Pioneer award, April 2016
Last year Aramark piloted a program called the Uncomfortable Dinner Party at the National AASHE Conference. While our intention is certainly not to make everyone uncomfortable, when discussing sustainability there are many topics which are sensitive to speak about in mixed crowds. Certainly not everyone in the room today is vegan, yet we offered an entirely vegan menu. There will be many pounds of of food scraped from plates today and addressing food waste is a real issue. As I had mentioned earlier we are fortunate that today is a day we get to eat -and that cannot be said for everyone world-wide. Not only do we get to eat, but we will eat a meal prepared today by our own private chef, from the best organic farms available on Long Island. There are quite a few socioeconomic issues with even the types of food we consume.
The idea behind the uncomfortable dinner party is openly discussing these issues. Both the good and the ugly -and not for the purpose of causing guilt, but to clearly discuss opportunities for improving our world-wide food system. As we invite you to the buffet to enjoy tonight's dinner, we have placed on your table some discussions topics. These are questions designed to spur conversation about our own food culture.
I was invited several week ago as a guest speaker to Dr. Brown's environmental sustainability class. One of the topics for discussion is how students today can affect global change and make a real impact. As Dr. Carlin pointed out earlier, the secret is driving and expanding our on campus food culture. You as students can make a real and meaningful impact on sustainability on campus, across the state and globally as you enter the work place. Use these topics as a genesis to having the difficult conversations to help change the world.
Chef Justin Poly and Chef Matthew Thompson, Recipients of the Sustainable Pioneer Awards, April 2016
The vast majority of Americans embrace an omnivore diet consisting of animal, fish and plant protein sources. As someone who grew up this way myself, -and now am responsible for helping to form the future eating habits of many students today, I've been struggling lately to determine how to make better food choices. By "better" I mean, holistically: focused on health & wellness, least wasteful, conservative impact on our carbon footprint, overall sustainable, etc. Throughout the course of my regular day's work, and of course all the windshield time it takes to drive from one commitment to the next, I have spent lots of time thinking about these topics this week. It seems like all the media I consumed helped me embrace a new aspect of this growing personal philosophy.
I do not, by any means, intend to sound apocalyptic; it is necessary however, for us to consider the bigger picture of what impact sustainability will have -or more appropriately, will NEED to have on our global food culture. We do face some severe challenges particularly in the next 10-20 years when the needs of a growing global population will force an increasingly larger number of us to go hungry. Simply raising more cattle or growing more crops is not going to be enough to meet that need.
To a large degree, we as American consumers do not know enough about where our food comes from. The Gen-Z student as they are now called, are generally better informed then generations before, yet are nonetheless still overall very ignorant. Growing up in a society that predominately has (essentially) global access to grocery items simply by walking into their local market, leads to an almost entitled attitude toward both the accessibility and variety of food. Popular food television has aided in strengthening this sentiment. In one day we can eat foods from all over the world without much thought at all to what it takes to get that food into the nice package at our local Whole Foods Market.
Roy Choi, on The Moth, Listo? discusses an early experience he had with the true nature of what eating meat is really about. At a time in his career when he was just about to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America. He had worked at a number of notable New York City restaurants such as Le Bernardin. Graduating near the top of his class, he thought he knew everything about the food industry. -but don't all Chefs?
Upon graduating he got recruited for a job in California. It was here he met Salvador, his dishwasher. For those of us with work careers in the food industry you know, this is the position that keeps the whole machine moving. Like most of us in the kitchen you learn enough "kitchen Spanish" to get by. One day Salvador said his family wasn't able to help and could Chef Choi help him out? Without understanding or really knowing what he was supposed to help with Chef Choi agreed.
They traveled in an old pickup truck to a farm where Salvador purchased a goat. A beautiful animal with silky white coat, little spots of brown, and small little horns. Chef Choi had no idea why the goat was being purchased. He was simply along for the ride. He thought they were picking up a pet. Driving back home, the then let the goat out. Chef Choi began to look around the yard and slowly started piecing together the clues. Salvador began filling empty Corona bottles with salt and water. It was pretty early in the morning. Chef Choi saw a table with knives on it. A rope hanging with a hangman's noose. Salvador said "Listo?" and so it began.
The pursuit was on. They started running after the goat. Finally, jumping onto the goat Salvador put it in a headlock. He began to rapidly feed the solution of salt water to the goat. After drinking, things changed very rapidly. He wrapped the rope around the goat's legs, and pulled the goat up. While the goat stared Chef Choi in the eye, Salvador slit the neck. Blood poured out, and the animal was bled out. It was then split down the middle, gutted and its hide removed. Salvador reminded Chef about the bottle of water. The purpose of the salt solution eliminated the smell of the guts as the animal was gutted. They quietly broke the goat into primals and subprimals, packaged it on ice, and drove south and hour to Salvador's mother's restaurant. In the traditional way, she taught Chef how to make goat stew. Chef Choi recounted the feeling as he drove home; he felt like a different man.
How many of us have had a personal experience like this to truly understand where that nice piece of meat on the foam tray in the supermarket really came from? What type of appreciation do we have for respecting the whole animal -the one who's life was sacrificed to nourish ours? All too often do I see people turn up their nose at chicken thighs, THEY "only eat breast meat." I'm flooded with thoughts of Chefs who actually would fight over the thigh opposed to the breast for it's flavor and culinary value. Not to mention all the other "bits" like beaks and feet, or snouts and tails, which impoverished countries frequently have as part of their staple diets. Lastly, I think of the hungry who simply have nothing. Makes me pretty quickly want to choose fish over meat.
In a Ted Talk, Mike Velings addresses this transition in his talk: The Case for Fish Farming. In the last 50 years global meat consumption has quadrupled to 300 million tons. As populations get richer, their consumption of meat, dairy and eggs also rises. The rate of population growth I mentioned earlier is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. At this exponential rate, we will need at least 70% more meat protein than we already have. The anticipated world population by the end of the century will crest 11 billion. UN studies have estimated that unless our dietary choices change we could face a global collapse in as early as 30 years.
Facing this challenge, it is easy to look to the world's ocean for possible solutions. Covering the majority of our planet, there is more opportunity here than land-based food systems. However, our fisheries are 2.5 times larger than what our oceans can sustainably support. We take far more fish from the ocean than what it can naturally replace. Our global marine life has been slashed in half. Over 90% of world-wide swordfish and tuna populations have disappeared since 1950. We need to alleviate the pressure here by turning to aquaculture.
"We must start using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about -farming replacing hunting." -Jacques Cousteau
Why fish? Fish is healthy, prevents heart disease, provides key amino acids, key fatty acids like omega 3 -it's also a lot more diverse. Land based farming is simply classified: beef, pig and poultry makes up the vast majority of what's served in our restaurants and markets. There are over 500 species of fish being farmed currently. Try to get that variety in your local supermarket. Not only is there greater benefits but the key takeaway is that fish is good for us, good for the planet and good for the fish. Only recently has farmed fish yields exceeded wild-caught fish yields.
Paul Greenberg suggests that turning to fish is not the only answer, we also must ask: Which fish? The Four Fish We're Overeating -- and What to Eat Instead helps us understand this. WWII technology enabled the fishing industry to boom with development of things like light-weight polymers and sonar. Let's look at the fish choices we are making now.
#1 Shrimp: It is the most consumed fish in America and Asia. Wild caught shrimp is terribly unsustainable; 5-15# of wild fish are killed to bring 1# of wild shrimp to market. Shrimp trolling is also extremely carbon-intensive due to fuel inefficiencies. Shrimp can be farmed, but the environment best for this is mangrove forests. Unfortunately we have lost miles of this habitat, and while the rate has slowed it does not provide a long-term sustainable solution for farming.
#2 Tuna: Tuna is a global fish. Huge management areas need to be observed due to this being a predatory fish. Unfortunately tuna has been vastly over fished. It is uncommonly known that tuna is warm-blooded and can swim at over 40 MPH. It's these characteristics that make it an incredibly bad candidate for farming.
#3 Salmon: The salmon population has taken a significant population hit recently but not by that you think: It wasn't over fished, but rather had it's natural habitat destroyed by changes to the environment such as the construction of dams and changes to our nation's waterways. This prevents the salmon from reaching their breeding ground. The good news is that salmon is an ideal fish for aquaculture farming. Aquaculture is the fastest growing food system on the planet, estimated at a growth of 7% per year. The challenge the industry faces here is feed. Early on the industry turned to things like pellets made from grains such as corn and chicken bi-products like feathers, bone and blood. So? Fish eating chickens, chickens eating fish. I for one have never seen a chicken on the bottom of the sea. Has there ever been a fish who ate a chicken who ate a fish? Clearly we have some alignment to do here on how to sustainably balance this process.
#4 White-Fish: The amorphous filet of fish; halibut, cod, pollock all were early species classified here. In fact, the Alaskan pollock farming operation remains the largest aquaculture operation in America. After these fish, we turn to tilapia. It's a highly efficient transformer of plant based food to fish based protein. This has been a Godsend to Asia, feeding many of it's population. It is an incredibly sustainable fish for farming. It goes from egg to adult in 9 months. Tilapia farming was expanded to other species such as basa and pangasius. It's biggest disadvantage is while popular in Asia, it lacks the oily-fish qualities the West demands. Where's my omega 3?
What do we do? We could all become vegan... but then THAT would be incredibly difficult to regulate world-wide. Honestly, that would lead to a whole host of other problems. As comedian Ron White once remarked, what are you doing about cow flatulence and ozone affecting global warming? "I'm eating the cow."
All jokes aside, there are certainly some valuable learnings we can all take from the vegan diet. Perhaps Michael Pollan said it best when he said that everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat Food, not too much, mostly plants." It starts with the first two words: eat food. For most of us, we need to start there. When does food stop being food and start being overly-processed chemicals? If the majority of your diet is comprised of foods with extensive ingredient lists, primarily of things you can't even pronounce, time to rethink.
Everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." -Michael Pollan
This post talked mostly about transparency of ingredient. Knowing WHAT you're eating is as important as knowing WHY you should be eating it. Eating on the run has been a challenge for me based on my work travel schedule. I have fewer and fewer opportunities to truly cook for myself. -this is the making of a whole different blog post on diets and navigating restaurant menus to achieve healthy eating for holistic health. The bigger message is cook for yourself as often as you can and when you do, cook with raw ingredients.
The later two parts of his recommendation really go hand-in-hand. If you eat mostly plants, its likely you're eating caloric-light yet nutritionally dense foods. Simply put, you'll feel satiated eating much fewer calories while concurrently packing those calories with valuable key nutrients. Therein lies, I believe, the key to the whole outline presented here. We as omnivores have choice: meat, fish or plant? I'm not at all advocating becoming pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan, but I am advocating for a delicate balance.
As Americans we have significant opportunity to learn -not only about our food system, but its impact on the global food system. Through this learning I believe we will develop a deeper appreciation of where our food comes from, and with luck, lead ultimately for a deeper respect for ingredients. This focus on global sustainability will allow us to tackle the much larger issues like world hunger and innovative farming opportunities to feed our ever growing world population.
Stephen Covey's popular 7-Habits of Highly Effective People is a book I re-read several times a year. The purpose for this repeat read is to remind myself of priorities and goals in my life. Also, this is one of those books that has different meaning in your life based on the time in which you read it. Different circumstances require you to reflect differently on the messages Covey conveys. For a long time, I merely thought that what I was seeing out in the industry -and the world for that matter, what simply a result of lack of accessibility to the material. As I grew in my career I embraced these habits not only in my own life, but sought to encourage those I led to follow a similar path.
In recent years my professional career has demanded that I function in a greater leadership capacity and less of a management capacity. I have personally found this transition to be both welcomed and challenging. I knew based on previous experience building teams, that success would be built on inspiring and energizing members of the team and less on managing their day-to-day responsibilities. I have found that my daily responsibilities have increasingly involved much more of the latter than the former. In Covey's terminology, too much habit 3, not enough habit 2.
I am an enthusiastic consumer of what could be classified as "self-help" books and leadership development materials. The more and more I read and the more often I spend in the field, the greater the divide seems to become between contextual industry materials and actual operational execution. It was time to get back to basics, and re-read the first and most often revisited book, The 7-Habits.
Covey classifies his system by indicating that this is not a quick fix program but rather function of our development of individualized character. Embracing these habits is a realization that we will not allow ourselves to be a victim of circumstances; we are in control. Internalizing these principles is a road map of enablement, allowing us the ability to gain that control. Moreover, this will significantly improve the quality of our interpersonal relationships whether they be social, family or professional. Our capacity to influence others will be enhanced through motivation and encouragement. This fosters an increase the spirit of growth and learning by innovating every day experiences. At this point, I pause to ask myself, is our ability to recognize this opportunity unique to our individual character, or something we can actively pursue?
Taking a bigger picture approach, if we zoom out from the individual and look at group behavior, what impact do these character habits have on larger groups? Call the group families. Call the group business. Call the group organizations. These internalized principles will have a dramatic effect on all groups. The higher the adoption rate, the more positive the influence. The lower the adoption, the bigger negative progress we see. Therefore my struggle with our failure of wide-spread adoption of these habits is baffling from a personal improvement perspective but more so a lack of personal responsibly in the groups we participate.
If you want to significantly change people's behavior, you must change their perception of their role. Covey, ultimately speaks to the term paradigm -or the way you see your role in perceived reality. It's the way YOU see the world. Understanding the concept of paradigm allows us the opportunity to both examine our our placement in society, or in a group. More importantly, it allows us the opportunity for empathy in understanding those around us. Life is rarely about what actually is, and more often about what it is perceived to be.
Managing others isn't always about getting the job done. Certainly that's the tangible result, but I would argue that getting the job done is only part of the challenge of leadership. The more difficult and less commonly achieved outcome is getting the job done with a team that passionately wants to do it. There is no secret that of the three forms of resources, financial, physical and human -it's the human resources that are the most difficult to manage.
Therein lies the challenge: How do you create a culture that has both the ability to achieve a desired result and achieve that through the enthusiastic willingness of the participants? The dynamic outlined here is what Covey calls the maturity continuum. On the low-end of the scale is dependency and on the high end, interdependence.
The dependency attitude is one of "YOU." YOU take care of me. YOU decide for me. YOU provide for me. YOU tell me what to do. The attitude of independence is "I." I will do. I have the ability. I will take responsibility. Interdependency is centered around "WE." We will do. WE can accomplish it together.
I have always used a very subtle interview technique to help me understand Chefs and what environment they are truly accustomed to working within. Next time you watch a cooking program on Food Network or some other television programming listen to the language used by the Chef as they present a dish. I created vs. WE created tells this story.
It doesn't take much to understand what the mature thought pattern is around interdependence. It also doesn't take a lot of thought to understand:
In order to be effectively interdependent, we must first be responsibly independent.
Covey's habits 1-3 are habits that allow us as individuals to transition from a state of dependency to one of interdependence.
Habit #1: Be Proactive. Take responsibility for yourself. An individual's behavior is a product of their own decisions based on their experience. It didn't take me long to understand if I did not mise en place my station properly, during the rush I would drown. The opposite of proactive people are reactive people. Any service I have ever worked, I needed to make that very conscious decision: (1) I could hustle at the beginning of my shift and be well prepared for a busy night or (2) I could slack off and live a nightmare in the weeds when my mise ran out.
The reactive person is constantly in a state of being the victim. The reason we're in the weeds is because the restaurant was flat-seated. The front of the house server was sandbagging orders. We left the hostess up to determining the flow of customers. Never will they blame themselves for having been ill-prepared. In reality, the line cook has the ability to choose their response. If they are proactive and always prepared for a busy night, it doesn't matter which circumstances happen, they will be prepared.
Habit #2: Begin with the end in mind. Have a blueprint and follow it. This is the habit of planning. In my mind this incorporates quite a few aspects of the culinary world. If you do not plan correctly you do not have the right amount of food in house. If you do not schedule a dishwasher you will have a mess on your hands. If you do not adequately train your staff by showing the proper plating of the special, you will have to continually be adjusting that throughout service. Decide your own philosophy -your own mission statement. I will not serve a dish that does not meet my standards. What is your standard? This can be as simple as hot food hot cold food cold or a could be his complex as serving a dish consistent with the identity of your restaurant.
Habit two is the leadership habit and has to do with direction
Habit #3, Put first things first. While habit 2 is the habit of leadership, or direction, habit 3 is the habit of management. It's taking all of the priorities and vision established in habit two and making it a reality. In the culinary world it is managing the service. Putting first things first is literally about understanding that one table comes before another or one dish that takes longer to cook must be started before the reheating of a garnish or sauce.
If you are the Chef for your operation and you find yourself to be deeply involved with management and not leadership then you are focused in the wrong area. Management is a function of your sous chefs and production team to execute the culinary vision of leadership that you provide.
With all that said, and reviewed, I guess I always walk away from that material thinking, DUH, everyone WANTS this, right? I had always assumed that this was a common goal that everyone was striving to reach. If you can control life around you, why in the world would you allow yourself to be victim of the circumstances around you? Conceptually it's very easy to explain. I have found myself saying more and more frequently:
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I've always perhaps assumed that the pursuit of these goals was naturally in everyone's best interest and a common goal. If only everyone had access to this information, this knowledge. I am beginning now to understand that the character qualities pursued here is not necessarily inherent in all people. The choice must actively be made and habits adopted. The sad, unfortunately truth seems to be that many choose NOT to adopt these habits.
In the culinary world I've always questioned whether or not we we want to have the ability to choose control or reaction. I've seen countless line cooks choose to squeak by doing the bare minimum. Sometimes they got lucky, but mostly it came back to bite them later on. This is not isolated to the kitchen. This behavior seems to permeate our culture. I frequently see people choose to allow outside circumstances to dramatically influence their lives, rather than proactively controlling factors to allow them to maximize the positive influence of life.
It's simply not enough to consume this material and understand it but what's most important is that we internalize these processes and live it on a daily basis. We must be, the quintessential embodiment of these habits or principles. I am extremely enthusiastic about building teams and highly functional groups. The reality is that groups cannot be built until trust is earned. The trust that a group's members are first responsibly independent before the pursuit of a mutual sense of interdependence. This is the true embodiment of the cliche term -a team is only as strong as its weakest link.
At the beginning of this post I indicated that I frequently revisit this material. Understanding your placement in the team or the degree of independence you exhibit in your interpersonal relationships needs to be examined on a regular basis. The paradigm discussed earlier changes frequently and we should embrace the regular opportunity to self-examine our degree of success at being responsibly independent. Integrity is the value we place upon ourselves to be truthful and self-disciplined to bring value to our relationships. Once again, I find myself asking: am I responsibly independent?
Early in my career I clearly remember one of the largest challenges was keeping a very small yet very vocal subset of the community at bay: vegetarians. I held this group of what I perceived to be simply a group of picky eaters in such distain as they repeatedly lectured me about why eating meat was bad. The air or arrogance they seemed to have toward us carnivores somehow elevated them to an elitist status.
It seemed at times that the only thing that could keep this group in check was an even more elusive group: vegans. The only levity in the kitchen when discussing these customers was in the still popular industry joke: "How do you know if someone is a vegan?" to which only the newest kitchen rookie would need to respond "how?" In unison the seasoned staff would respond "Don't worry, they'll tell you!"
I'd often find ways to test vegans like asking if they liked honey or what their feeling were on blue dye 1&2 (or red 40, yellow 5&6, green 3 for that matter!) It was my secret affirmation that veggies (and I use that term endearingly!) were all closet bacon-eaters.
By this point I have no doubt bored the carnivores and ostracized the veggies. Breathe easy, my tone is about to shift.
I tell you that story because for the early half of my career I had spent my days playcating their every request constantly thinking that this trend too will die. Annoyed all the way that special menus need be created, alternates for every "normal" meal included and segregated equipment and facilities maintained. As you know the "vegetarian trend" never died, in fact is now mainstream. So much so that the number of those who self-identify as vegetarian is actually increasing.
What gives?
I attribute this simply to evolution. Trust me, as I've alluded, I began my career as anything but an advocate. Not long after the popularization of the veggie diets, the local and sustainable foods movement really began to gain traction. Just as in the veggie movement this too began in isolated geographic areas and both signature chefs and specialty farm-to-table venues began to pop up. True to form, I too briefly regarded this as another trend to come and go. As before, I was wrong again.
Several years back, I was assigned the formal job duties of supporting the local and sustainable initiative for the company I was working for. As I began to grow in knowledge and understanding of the local movement, so grew my appreciation for the general wholesomeness of the plant-based diet. Growing up in a generically affluent society like we have in the US, we have unfettered access to a vast variety of ingredients from all corners of the world. At any moment in time we can travel to our local market and gather an abundance of fresh ingredients. Access to an opportunity like this is sadly unavailable universally on a global scale.
More importantly, when we stop to consider the pervasive impact of hunger caused by world poverty, it should cause us all to pause and consider how desperate our need is for a swift solution. What will feed our world population in the coming decades? Certainly the already over-fished oceans, disproportionate carbon-footprint in cattle farming, inhumane treatment of poultry, pandemic diseases like swine and avian flu, all suggest that increasing our production of animal protein is not the solution. Turns out, maybe our veggie friends were onto something all along.
For all my chef friends and colleagues breaking out in a cold sweat right now, relax. I'm not calling for a complete world-wide transformation to vegetarianism. As a human species, we are in fact genetically engineered to be omnivores. What I AM calling for is for our soda guzzling, chicken nugget popping, genetically modified corn syrup craving society, to slow down and consider some balance. Why is our US society sky-rocketing to the top of the obesity charts? Certainly mobility and exercise play a part, but can by no means justify a bad diet.
Earlier I used the word evolution. We have evolved our food habits to what we have today: fast-food centric, over portioned, heavily based in animal-protein, and flavored primarily with fat, salt and sugar. Dichotomies have emerged within the American demographic segregating our population into almost a class system. The elite echelon of society enjoys an all-natural, whole food, organic, gluten-free lifestyle. Nonetheless, we have come no closer to agreeing on a definition of these terms, let alone acknowledgeing it's been nearly impossible for anyone to provide concrete data to support this as the preferred nutritional high road. Those without silver lined pockets are catered to by our fast-food industry pushing highly processed edible product, wherein certain stages of production would hardly be recognizable as nourishing.
The delivery of a solution comes with as much trepidation as the feeble attempt I've tried to make in explaining the problem. What I believe necessary is not an evolution, but a revolution -of the culinary sense. A change in our constitution, our paradigm. The barriers of accessibility and affordability of local and sustainable food will certainly help to shrink the divide in our "nutritional society." Transparently however, that only gets us to the trail. The path must ultimately be choosen, not predetermined. Throughout my career I have seen our abundance mentality enable poor choices despite positive encouragement. Like a child, we choose ice cream over vegetables.
I too have evolved, like the evolution of our national eating habits. My early frustration and impatience for what I believed were temporary industry trends led to the realization and development of what I like to think of as a more refined culinary philosophy. Fresh seasonal ingredients, simply prepared, makes great tasting food. Begin with an emphasis on fresh local or sustainable ingredients, procured responsibly. Secondly, prepare these ingredients with respect; find a use for each scrap. If an animal gave its life to sustain ours, treat that sacrifice with humility and utilize it fully. During preparation embrace the whole foods mentality. If your list of ingredients is something you cant pronounce it's likely you shouldn't consume it. Keep it clean. Lastly, make it taste great. They key to enabling good dietary choice is making food that's nutritious, simply taste good.
It is with that philosophy in mind that I've embraced a new culinary paradigm; one that encompasses not only my own dietary choices but is representative of my professional culinary identity. With that so begins new opportunitities for culinary experimentation and education ultimately leading to additional innovation and new evolution.
Take it from this chef: coming out as not only an advocate, but an aspiring member of the vegetarian community, proves food choices are not always easy. For you out there still insisting that if locked in a room alone with a plate of warm bacon you wouldn't scooby a slice, it's ok, I don't judge ...anymore. For the rest of you, go ahead: embrace your inner-veggie.
I believe in the world there are three types of chefs. The popular Food Network television program Chopped recently had an episode featuring teen chefs. The program included 13-year-old barely teenagers cooking in the usual format. This, in my mind, is not very different from the scores of applications I get from recent culinary school graduates for Executive Chef positions. In both cases it causes me to scratch my head and wonder why I've spent the better half of my career developing my craft and earning my title. -but enough of that for now, the entitlement of unqualified cooks calling themselves chefs is another blog post entirely. Case in point, these two categories of "chef" embody the realization that there is a subset of our craft in the industry who are just names on a jacket, or simply filling an open role.
In fairness however, many who are successful in the industry today cut their teeth in such a way, myself included. My first Executive Chef role was at a time in my career in which I was neither prepared -for from a culinary standpoint, or have had the experience -from a leadership standpoint, yet nonetheless I was handed the jacket. Still, the pomp and circumstance of having the title doesn't necessarily guarantee that the person filling the role is equipped with the skills necessary to be a true Chef. Words on a jacket does not a Chef make.
That brings me to the second category of "chef." This is the person whom we've all worked for in the industry; the person where all we can say is "OUI CHEF!" -a phrase that can be taken one of two ways, however in my experience more often than not it's with a sarcastic disrespect for the person who it is directed toward. As if to say you're wrong and we have no idea what you're talking about, but my job is to follow you nonetheless. There is perhaps no truer a representation of lack of confidence in their leader or worse, a complete disrespect. It behooves a chef to move through this stage of his career as quickly as possible. Frankly some never leave it. I know I've worked for them. Others quickly understand that leading by example is the quickest way to gain the confidence in the team they lead.
Now our last category. The category which I will call the professional chef. This is the person who, in all respects, has reached the true nature of what it means to be a chef. It is necessary for this person to demonstrate not only the technique and confidence in cooking ability but also in display a steady composure in the kitchen with their ability to energetically lead and direct their kitchen brigade. It is in my humble opinion that it is the necessity of these two qualities combined in a single person, which makes the pursuit of this particular caliber of chef, increasingly difficult to find in our culture today.
I've recently had the opportunity to coach and train four chefs for the completion of their CIA ProChef Certification. This is an opportunity for chefs to attend an exam session lasting a week to demonstrate their abilities and techniques of professional cooking. Completion of this exam, by no means is an easy task in itself. However, I would be remiss in saying that once the exam is complete the chef truly embodies ALL the qualities. There is no question that aptitude has been tested and skills verified, but the true color of the chef is taking those skills and abilities back to the teams that they lead. The completion of the exam, followed by the commencement ceremony signifies truly that -the beginning.
In a recent interview author Tim Ferriss interviewed four-star general Stanley McChrystal. In this interview the General indicated that for any professional you must keep always three people in your sights at all times. This leads to the ultimate professional development and trains leaders to remain objective. Here is a paraphrase of the three individuals he suggests:
#1: A subordinate who is previously doing a job that you once had, and more importantly, doing that job better than you did when you had the job. It's important to have someone like this in mind to ensure that we as individuals have both the humility and the objectivity to recognize greatness around us. More importantly is the understanding that key to a truly successful team is building strength at all levels, it is not successful as a result of the talents of the leader. If this particular person is a subordinate then it is indeed our responsibility to develop that person. We should be striving for that mentality of "the student exceeds the teacher." This and only this will help strengthen and make your team better than it has ever been before.
#2: A peer in your industry that's doing the current job that you currently occupy, either in another facility or for another company. What makes that person more successful than you are in your present capacity. What learnings can you derive from that person's success and how can you implement them in meeting or developing your own team and personal brand? It is in our nature as humans to want to be the best at anything. I think all of us are competitive to some degree. In other words if you're not already exceeding your peer group then to some degree you're competing against them.
#3: A superior you admire as a mentor or role model who exhibits the qualities of leadership or management that you hope to proficiently emulate someday. For the first half of my career this was always something very easy for me to do. When I worked in the pantry making salads and desserts I always carefully watched the fry station, once promoted to fry station I always wanted to sauté, on the sauté station I wanted to broil, on the broiler I wanted to expedite. Just as important as it is to identify people do you want to emulate, it's also important to identify people you do NOT want to emulate. This was also clear and evident in my early career. Nothing makes these two groups of people more distinct then when the entire team is in the weeds. The only way out is by working together. Half the team is bitching and whining and throwing their tongs about the line, the other half of the team is yelling ticket numbers and calling fires. If someday you want to be the chef which side of the pass are you on?
Only a few talented chefs reach this pinnacle of their careers and have both the culinary technical aptitude and accreditation as well as -when looking down at their jacket, the letters of Executive Chef. At this point you should realize that now YOU have become the leader and role model. The prerequisites have been met, the table has metaphorically been set, the expectation now is to execute on that vision we spoke about. Leadership in this industry is not an easy thing to get your arms around. The dynamic and personalities of many culinary workers is very unique.
A message to those chefs who became certified today -heed the call, that this is just the beginning. This is NOW the time for YOU to take the responsibility, indeed the DUTY to give back more to the industry, more than it has given you.
Chef Matthew Thompson Leads Maine Chefs for Aramark
