Happy New Year!

It is now time to enjoy the waning days of 2008 with family and friends and partake in a well deserved rest to refresh and restore body, mind, and spirit to take on the spring semester.

We at FELC wish you a happy and prosperous New Year and look forward to growing our learning community in 2009.

The blog will resume with new posts on January 4, 2009. In the meantime, if you are a first time visitor to the blog please enjoy archived posts.

Visited by Three Ghosts!

Now that the semester has ended the time to reflect on my teaching comes to me whether I like it or not due to my inner desire to be the best teacher I can be, which is no doubt true of those of you reading the FELC blog. Since Christmas Day has come and gone a useful anaology on teaching comes to mind in the form of Dickens' A Christmas Carol because the ghost-like voices I hear in my head during this time of reflection are like the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

The voices of the past help and hurt me as a teacher. The voices of students past sustain my current teaching practices when former students contact me as alums in myriad ways to take the time to let me know that what I taught them helped them in their careers and in their lives (a bonus). One former student recently gave me feedback through Facebook about the book I use in my sales class by writing, "i can not tell you how much the "Platinum Rule" actually helped me when I was working my last sales job! one of the few textbooks from undergrad I am referencing..." One student told me that the successful management practices he uses today are those he learned in the management course he took from me.

Then there are those voices from the recent past known as "the last semester" that haunt me (and hurt me) as expressed in written form in the open-ended feedback section of the course evaluation that express sentiments such as: "You suck!", "This course sucked!", "I did not learn anything in your class!", and a personal favorite, "You should have never been given tenure!" These hateful sentiments hurt for two reasons. The first is that I try very hard to be a good teacher so those comments hurt. The second is that the hurtful sentiments are never accompanied with "because......" which would provide me with some constructive feedback to improve and not "suck so much" in the next class. I try to forget the hurtful comments, which is next to impossible, and soldier on believing that I am doing what I can to be the best teacher possible -- as I understand it in its present form.

The voices of students present are usually complaining in tone and intent and rise when they have made mistakes, that somehow turn out to be my fault, when telling me that: "The syllabus was not clear enough, The test was too hard, I did not understand the assignment, You did not clearly explain the assignment, I forgot the assignment was due, My boyfriend reset my alarm causing me to miss class, I assumed I could make it up, and on and on and on. No doubt those of you reading today's post have heard these same voices and many more. I often wish that students voices would be clarifying in nature and perhaps the complaining voices would diminish, and usually do for those students who ask, "The syllabus says..., could you explain that a bit more so I understand what you are asking me to do?, or "This is an example of a source I would reference in my paper, is that correct?"

All told, I think it is the voices of students present, whether complaining or clarifying, that make it most difficult to extract ways to improve my teaching because they are learning and not knowing machines so their limited understanding of the way I have designed my course to maximize their learning potential is lost on them as they are in the mode of completing this semester's list of classes in order to enroll in and complete the next batch with a singular focus of graduating on time -- whether they learned anything along the way or not, or so it seems!

The voices of students future are those I must ask for the next group of students that will enroll in the next set of classes I am called upon to teach. As in the Dickens' story, the future ghost shows Ebeneezer Scrooge scenes that may come true if his miserly ways persist, so I too must examine whether the courses I teach, and the way I teach them, will benefit students when they are alums. When it comes to the intro class I imagine them asking me, "How will this course help me pass the courses I will take as a sophomore?" or "Will I become more aware of the management jobs that will be available to me upon graduation in the hospitality industry?" Then there are those I ask before teaching the sales class, "How will taking this class help me be an effective salesperson someday selling for a full-service hotel?" or "How will this class help me manage the sales function as GM of a full-service hotel?" There are similar questions for other classes I teach as well. So far, the voices of students past fortunately suggest I am on the mark.

So I hope you all are visited by these same ghosts, too. They shape the courses I have been called upon to teach and the way I have taught them and lead to new teaching methods down the road. In doing so I hope I am better prepared to teach the next batch of aspiring hospitality professionals (who will change careers another 3 or 4 times after graduation) for the careers and courses that lie ahead in spite of that "look on their face" (you know the one) when I am attempting to teach them things, in ways foreign and novel, that will one day benefit them and our industry that have come from those helpful and hurful voices of students past, present, and future.

Happy Holidays To All!

We at the FELC want to wish everyone in our learning community the happiest of holidays and a much improved economy in 2009! We look forward to meeting many of you at our innaugural Summit in Charleston, SC, February 26-28, 2009!

Sincerely,

Chef Michael Carmel, Dr. Mick La Lopa, Jami Yanoski

Green Gift Giving

Start a new gift giving tradition this year and be more eco-friendly or Green. There are plenty of ways to give great gifts and be sustainable, too.

The easiest way to accomplish the goal of Green gift giving is to give of yourself. There are plenty of charitable organizations in every community that need an extra pair of hands, an additional vehicle to transport people, etc. Instead of spending 6-8 hours driving around to the malls, finding parking spots, and searching for the perfect gift that same amount of time would truly make a difference in the lives of those in need, whose ranks are growing as the recession continues.

You could even drop a $20 in the Salvation Army kettle and make yours and the volunteer bell-ringer's day! Now that is what I call unconditional love.

Since most of you reading this blog are great cooks, consider giving the gift of food. In our house we have mixed up batches of hot cocoa, placed them in jars that once held peanut butter, decorated the jars with handmade labels, and given them to teachers, neighbors, and others. We are now baking and decorating cookies to handout, too.

If still feel the need to purchase something the TreeHugger website has some Green gifts that can be given to your favorite foodie, As stated on their website:
"Foodies are the easiest people to please on any holiday gift list. Who else would be happy with a block of cheese, a bag of local walnuts, or an envelope with a few seeds in it? Here's the key to giving the perfect present: green foodies like to feel connected to their food. If they know the farmer that grew it, if they can cook it for friends and family in their own kitchen, or if it came from their own backyard, they'll be content. And while imported foods from abroad were once de rigueur, today's emphasis on locally-grown food means the goodies that get the biggest smiles are the ones that also save you a bundle on shipping." Gift giving ideas for your favorite foodie can be found at:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/food-holiday-gift-guide.php

If you have Green gift-giving ideas to share with those reading the blog please add to this post.

Pop a Green Cork on New Year's

Since this is prime holiday season I thought I would dedicate this week's blog to celebrating with family, friends, and others in an ec0-friendly way.

To get a jump on New Year's for those of you who are decidely Green or working on it, there are eco-friendly pink champagne's available to drink in the New Year. The brands found at the link below have good information as to what makes them Green and range in prices so that they can be enjoyed by almost anyone regardless of the holiday budget. The link may also be a great tool for the beverage management classroom when discussing ways to satisfy the growing demand for those customers who are choosing Green hospitality businesses over those that are not.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/buying-guides/buy-green-pink-champagne.html

Global Hospitality Industry Going Green

Ernst & Young has released a report that looks at the efforts of hotel companies to become more eco-friendly in eight regions of the world. The Ernst & Young's 16-page report specifically looked at the lodging industry's environmental policies and practices in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania and the U.S. during 2008.

The report builds on the global environmental certification program that was developed for the travel and tourism industry in 1996 as a joint effort between three international organizations: the World Travel & Tourism Council, the World Tourism Organization and the Earth Council. Together they launched a plan familiar to many now teaching hospitality and tourism courses: Agenda 21 for the Travel & Tourism Industry: Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development.” Now named, “Green Globe.” With respect to the hospitality industry, hotels can receive “Green Globe” certification by addressing sustainability issues realted to: greenhouse emissions, energy efficiency, management of freshwater resources, ecosystem conservation, and waste water and solid waste management.

At the end of the report are 10 areas in which lodging and travel operations could take action to become more eco-friendly, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Green Globe and Agenda 21 programs:
* Waste minimization, reuse, recycling
* Transportation
* Energy efficiency, conservation, management
* Land-use planning and management
* Management of freshwater resources
* Involvement of staff, customers, communities in environmental issues
* Waste water management
* Design for sustainability
* Hazardous substances
* Partnerships for sustainable development

The report is a great educational or research tool for those teaching hospitality and tourism courses that focus or touch upon sustainability. I found it to have many practical examples of hotels around the world that have made the move to be more sustainable as well as some of the challenges that hold back well intended efforts to be more eco-friendly.

FELC to Launch e-Journal for Members

The FELC is making plans to launch a peer reviewed electronic journal for members in spring 2009. The journal will be dedicated to publishing high quality essays on teaching submitted by members, called the e-Journal of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Education (e-JCAHE)

One of the key features of the journal is that it will not be published on a periodic basis, common to most journals, instead articles will be added as they are accepted by reviewers so that there is a continuous stream of essays for members to consult to enhance the quality of their teaching.

Look for updates in the members newsletter and the Members Area of http://www.fooded.org/ for updates on submission and review guidelines. Dr. Mick La Lopa and Chef Michael Carmel will serve as the first Co-Editors and will form an editorial advisory board to review submissions so if interested please send an e-mail to mlalopa@fooded.org. If you are also interested in submitting articles for the e-JCAHE in the spring please also send an e-mail to mlalopa@fooded.org to start working on your potential publication.

The Gift of Food for Christmas

For most of you the semester or term has wound down or about at the end. What lies ahead is a winter or holiday break. No doubt all of you are on the faculty of programs that have a foodservice or culinary component, which means you may have an abundance of inventory sitting in dry, frozen, or cold storage. At the same time, there are food banks and homeless shelters in your community that are finding it more and more difficult to provide food for the growing ranks of the hungry due to the recession.

I know that funds are limited to the point that many have been asked to cut next year's budget but this is the season of giving and I would ask that you look at your inventory and find foods that you can donate to the local food bank or homeless shelther. Perhaps you and your students could even take a hot meal that you have prepared together and serve it at the local shelter, teaching your students the value of civic engagement.

All I can say is that the messages from the little match girl, George Bailey, Ebeneezer Scrooge, and countless others were not lost on me and hope that they were not lost on you either so am asking this day that you and I do what can be done to give the gift of food to those who might otherwise go hungry this Christmas.

Handling Student Confrontations

I reviewed this resource and found it to be a great way to observe a typical confrontation between students and faculty and advice on what should be done based on the advice of a consultant (found at the bottom of the script that follows the video case). The original message that I was sent to learn of this resource was as follows:

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Teaching and Learning, for example, have a series of streaming videos at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/conflict/index.html that were produced to help faculty avoid difficult student confrontations before they happen by analyzing and responding to scenarios.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

I wanted to call your attention to the top left-hand column of this blog. The Extra! Extra! Read All About It! feature of the FELC blog allows you to one stop shop the news that effects all of us teaching culinary arts and hospitality. I wanted to put together something that I would use every day in the hopes that it would be of value to those following the blog, too. I find it a great resource to keep tabs on what is going on in academia and in the industry to keep pace with trends that may effect my students, my teaching, and my program. I hope it will serve you well as a quick way to find the news that matters to each and every one of you, too. To find current news stories just click on the title, such as "Culinary News" and the current stories in that category will appear below with a synopsis of the article that you can then click on to read the full story.

Bookmark This Online Journal

I belong to a great listserv and a post concerning the Mountain Rise journal came through a couple of days ago. I encourage you to visit it and review some of the excellent articles on teaching that may benefit your efforts to be a quality teacher:

The latest issue of MountainRise, the international e-journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, is available at http://facctr.wcu.edu/mountainrise/issue.html. This issue covers topics such as: student feedback and critical thinking, cooperative service projects, electronic portfolios, and getting to know the millennial generation.

All the best!

My Beloved Industry Makes Me Crazy!!!!!!

In my sales class the students do a hands-on selling assignment to learn sales; a skill that cannot be learned from reading a book on sales. To simulate the sales function, the students sell merchandise as part of a student association fundraiser (Hospitality Sales and Marketing) to earn the right to go on the incentive trip that is established at the beginning of the semester. They are the ones who also choose the details of the incentive trip, which is usually a dine around to two or three restaurants by stretch limo, so it will be something they want to do and motivate them to sell their products (which they also choose) during the semester. It also allows me to teach them to do budgets on a small scale.

Last night was the big night. The students raised $18,000 from the sale of glassware with Purdue logos and met their sales targets for the dine around. Four stretch limos showed up outside our building to provide transportation to the first stop on the tour for the 46 students who earned the right to go on the dine around (actually the whole class earned the right but some opted out). The kids joyously jumped into their limos and headed out for their dine around. So far, so good!

The first stop on the tour went off without a hitch. We had pre-ordered the starters and they were ready when the students got there in the limos. I stopped in to pay the bill toward the end; I do not ride in the limos to "cramp their style."

The second stop would provide a sharp detour on what had been good food and service established at the previous restaurant. The limos pulled up as scheduled. I arrived a bit earlier to make sure they were ready for our party. When I went in some of my students were there working reception (hard not to find hospitality kids working in local restaurants and bars with 700 kids in the program) and showed me where they would be seated. To my surprise, smack in the middle of the tables that were set aside for our party was a four top that was finishing up. We had to wait for them but after 15 minutes I asked to start seating the students who were waiting outside in the limos, which interrupted what had no doubt been a quiet dinner for the four top up to that time.

The next snafu was when the kids called me over to point out the prices on the menu. Since the kids set the budget for the dine around we had done a pre-order using the online menu for the restaurant to help guide their choices and meet the budget. It turned out the actual prices were, on average, $10 higher than advertised on their website, which was disappointing to those who had pre-ordered as many as two entrees. I told them I was disappointed as well but the budget was still $45 for that stop on the dine around and to do their best ordering things they would like.

The next snafu hit. We sent in the pre-order yet I was watching the servers and noticed them taking orders. I approached one of the servers and asked why he was taking orders. Well, he said, he was allowing students to change their minds and was not not sure what became of the pre-order. He assured me it would not take interrupt the speed of service so I reluctantly allowed it to continue.

Okay, the salads and bread came up rather quickly. BUT 1.5 HOURS LATER THE ENTREES BEGAN TO ARRIVE even though I kept insisting they get them out sooner. I even had them take the orders for dessert or entree takeaways while we were sitting on our thumbs. Had I known that would have been the case I would have sent the kids back to their limos to drive around until the entrees were done.

Then the NEXT snafu hit. I had billed the place as being the best fine dining restaurant in town, which helped the students make their decision and choose it over another. So, I wanted to check with the students to see how they liked the food. Sadly, there were disappointed faces on many of the students faces. I asked what was wrong. Some had filet's and NY strips that were tasteless, one could not even eat the chicken parm because they apparently fried the breaded chicken breast until it was leather. I asked them what I could do to make it better, such as get a new entree, take it off the check, or get a voucher. I got the owner/manager, told him of the situation, and he went to retrieve one of the parms that was sitting in front of a student with a few bites taken out of it. He came back from the kitchen and said it was not too bad, "although the chicken was a bit overcooked."

Hello! That was what my students were complaining about! He said he did not want to argue, he wanted to make it right -- which was a very GOOD response indeed. I told him there were 12 students that would accept a voucher for any entree on their next visit because I really wanted them to see the place at its best.

But all was still not right with the world. I knew the students ordered desserts to go but the servers started to bring out trays stacked with small clam shells. INSIDE WERE THE SIDES THEY DID NOT BRING WITH THE ENTREES!

To compensate the time the students sat in the restaurant I asked them if they wanted to extend the limos another hour so they could drive around and enjoy them as planned and of course they thought that was a good thing to do, even though it added $400 to the pricetag of the dine around (which I had anticipated when setting the budget).

A longer story short, the students DROPPED $3,000 ON AN AVERAGE MEAL in the restaurant last night on the night dedicated to reward them and their sales prowess. The servers repeatedly apologized to the students for the poor service and average food but that only fell on deaf ears -- nobody who dines out wants apologies, they want great food and service. Besides, our students are trained to produce hospitality and they knew the details of the service shortcomings they experienced first hand.

I am still sad today as I write this blog and have called the owner/manager to request he call me so we can discuss the problems I encountered at dinner. I owe that to my students. I will walk him through the steps that led to the snafu last night, starting with the bad decision to allow the students to order anything they wanted off the online menu. They should, as we all know, have given the kids a limited menu to choose from to serve such a large party. There will be more to discuss NO DOUBT!

I guess the takeaway is that what would we expect our graduates to do if that was happening under their watch? Is it the responsibility of the customer to bring the manager over and express dissatisfaction with the food or service or do we teach our students to be proactive and go to the customer to find out? And if we are teaching them to do it, are they? Our industry is suffering right now due to the recession and if there were ever a time for our students and graduates to hang on to every customer that walks through the door -- and admonish those they work for for and/or those working for them that do not get this simple fact -- now is the time to do so. If not, McDonald's and Walmart will continue to eat away at daily stomach share because the price point is reasonable and the service sufferable (plus you get what you pay for when you have low expectations from the start)! It also means that those we are preparing for hospitality and culinary careers will find their career choices limited which may ultimately lead to steadily declining enrollments at our respective programs.

E-zine A Free Resource for Learning Community

There is an interesting online magazine that came to my attention today, called EzineArticles.com. It is a web-based platform that allows almost anyone to submit an article for publication. The Ezine can be accessed by visiting: http://www.ezinearticles.com/

From what I can gather this is no lightweight site for reading articles that are available to casual visitors and members due to submission guidelines. The detailed editorial guidelines can be reviewed by visiting the following website: http://www.ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

There is a section on Food and Drink, which has articles in the following categories: Food and Drink, Chocolate, Coffee, Cooking Tips, Crockpot Recipes, Desserts, Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta Dishes, Recipes, Restaurant Reviews, Salads, Soups, Tea, and Wine Spirits. Those with expertise in these areas could certainly contribute great articles.

This may prove to be a great resource for those who need to get published at community colleges and four-year universities, providing your campus has not gone the snobbish route of ranking journals as top tier, second tier, etc. It may also be a resource that students can be sent to and find articles to help write papers, find new recipes, plan an event, and so forth, to support their studies. The possible utilities of the site are endless so worth checking out.

Listen to the Old Chefs

Our Chef Emeritus here in my department is Hubert Schmieder. Chef Schmieder is one of the last remaining old world chefs who has seen it all; and cannot believe much of what he sees today in the culinary world.

The one thing Chef sees that he cannot believe these days is the amount of food that is wasted in production whether it be underutilizing the product used to prepare meals, or the quantity of food prepared that well exceeded demand (meaning too much food was used in the first place), and the food that finds its way into the garbage. I loved it when he told me that he turned off the garbage disposal when he first came to Purdue because he wanted to know everthing that was being wasted so that he could adjust the production process to eliminate it.

The other recent comment he made is the current trend in cooking competitions and restaurants is the miniscule portion that is being served up. To his way of thinking, that is a tremendous amount of waste of labor and enegry to create something that nobody can identify what was used to prepare it in the first place. That is why he was delighted that cooking competitions are being won more often than not these days by chefs that are plating items that look like the food when presented to consumers or judges. In other words, when something is made from pork the customer can tell it right away instead of playing a guessing game of, "Is it..?"

I guess the message of today's post is that the culinary and hospitality world and those who are affiliated with it need to return to the roots established by the old world chefs and hoteliers. These are the people who epitomize what has become a throwaway line to many today, "Waste not, want not!" To them, being sustainable or "Green" is not something that should be in vogue, it should have been something that was the way of doing business all along. So tap into the memory bank of these "old chefs" who are "past their prime" and get them in touch with your program as much as possible because they know what it would take to use food to be more Green, end world hunger, and so much more.

End of Semester Rant

Oh, it is that time of the year!!! The time of the year when students turn into lawyers and lobbyists to have me bend and twist the rules to make up for their fact that THEY ARE NOT GOOD STUDENTS!

Case in point, I just had an exam that could be taken online. The exam date is noted in the agenda, the exam parameters are outlined in the syllabus, the students were asked if they had any questions the class period before the examination period, and the exam dates and times were posted on the class website. The students THEN HAD A 30 HOUR WINDOW to take the exam anywhere they liked with assistance from their notes. I honestly do not see how I could have given a more fair exam.

YET, starting two days after the exam period had closed the e-mails started to find their way to my inbox from students who missed the exam for countless reasons to justify the opportunity to make it up. I also was paid a personal visit by a student who now is claiming a disability in the 14th WEEK OF THE SEMESTER as the reason for causing the missed exam. Yikes!!!!!!!!!

The syllabus clearly states that if a student cannot complete an assignment, like the exam, they are to bring it to my attention BEFORE the assignment comes due and that once the due date passes the grade earned will be a zero. I am also happy to accommodate any and all students who have a learning disability prior to the due date of the assignment and do so happily to level the playing field for all students. That, of course, has fallen on deaf ears because it was of course NOT THE STUDENT'S FAULT they missed the exam; it was everyone and everything else in the world that was to blame. Heaven forbid the students owned up to their error, took the zero, learned not to do that again, and move on making them a better student when all said and done, which I hope will happen but will have to wait and see.

So now some of the "aggrieved students" -- who in FACT BLEW THE ASSIGNMENT ARE NOW LOOKING FOR SALVATION -- are climbing the chain of command to tell my department head , dean, and the office of the Dean of Students how "unfair" I am not to let them take the exam. Indeed I may even be pressed to not do what is right in this situation and be forced to reward irresponsible students with a mulligan to take the exam which goes against every ethical fiber in my body. It also cheapens the efforts, in my book, of all those students who simply took the exam as expected and is the BIGGEST SIN OF ALL.

I am ranting about this today because I think it is yet another "brick in the wall" of what is wrong with the American Society today. Each class of students I see entering college has the attitude of being entitled to a degree instead of making the grade and earning it the old fashioned way -- through hard work and dedication to ones' studies -- and we have got to do our level best to establish standards and stick to them for THEIR SAKE because the world does not give mulligans to those who screw up -- unless of course you are a Wall Street bank and got some of that government bailout money, which is another story -- and we do them no favors by continually cutting them slack.

So to all those of you out there who have standards of excellence and not willing to compromise on them to accommodate those who do NOT DESERVE such accommodation I applaud you today and want you to know you are not the one with the problem. It is those who do not play by the rules yet want to be treated like those that did who are the problem.

So I would like to end this post with one of my favorite lines from the movie Brubaker, starring Robert Redford, which tells the true story of a man who took over a prison and the obstacles he ran into by those managing the prison system when he tried to run the prison according to the law: "You can compromise on strategy but not on priniple." So my hat is off to all of you out there who took a principled stand and did the right thing and not bowing to the dark forces of entitlement!

So for those of you who need to rant about a same or similar situation please add to today's post.

Green Schools Inititative

I love the Internet. It is a marvelous way to find great information on accident when looking for something else. I found the website when looking for one a colleague was telling me about, which is a multi-layer marketing business (yes, like Amway or Mary Kay) that could be a great investment opporunity (http://ilearningglobal.biz/product.html) that sells online content for businesses and business people. I typed in the wrong URL and instead got an Internet site that should be of keen interest to our learning community because it has to do with greening schools and campuses.

The URL I ran across happily by accident was for Global Learning (http://www.globallearningnj.org/), which belongs to the New Jersey Sustainable Schools Network, defined as, "a new partnership of individual schools, professional associations, higher education groups, state agencies, state-based, regional and national nonprofit organizations, and corporations. Our long range goal is to promote education for a sustainable future -- local as well as global -- in all schools in New Jersey, working through existing educational organizations and agencies in a consortial approach." I found the website to be a very useful tool for those looking for ideas on making their school more sustainable.

As it turns out, the initiative in New Jersey is affiliated with the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE)(http://www.ase.org/section/_audience/educators/). According to the home page on the educators tab for the site: "Schools spend more on energy than on computers and textbooks combined. Reducing energy use is an effective way to help cash-strapped schools funnel more money into the classroom instead of the local utility. Just as important, the concept of energy efficiency provides multidisciplinary learning opportunities in math, science, and language arts. The Alliance to Save Energy offers educators a wide range of tools and resources to bring energy efficiency into the classroom to save energy while helping students build vital real-world skills."

The ASE has programs for K-12 (http://www.ase.org/section/program/greenschl/) and college campuses (http://www.ase.org/section/program/greencampus) which covers all of us in the learning community. After checking out these websites, if you are doing something at your school or campus along these lines, and/or affiliated with the Energy Saving Alliance please add to this post.

The Reality of the Recession

Wow, what a difference a year makes. It is one thing to read about the recession but it is another matter to witness it first hand. I am in Louisville, KY, getting ready for my son to compete in a regional gymnastics competition tomorrow. We are staying in the same hotel we stayed in last year and ate at the same Cracker Barrel that is located next door.

The first sign of a downturn is the parking lot. It was next to impossible to find a space near the hotel when we stayed here last year. This time, even though we checked in at 7 pm, we parked two spaces down from the front door. And when we went to eat at the Cracker Barrel we were immediately seated compared to the 20 minute wait we had last year.

As I look around to the parking lots of nearby hotels and restaurants I see the same thing. I see that this recession is a reality and our beloved industry is suffering along with the rest of retail.

What this means to me is that all of those students graduating from my program who were used to having 3 and 4 job offers at December and May graduation may not be so fortunate this year, which is why we should prepare our students for the limited job prospects they are about to discover. Perhaps we suggest they take more courses and postpone graduation. Perhaps we tell them to take any offer they can get, even if it is an hourly position, to at least get their foot in the door and in position for the opportunities that are sure to present themselves in six to 12 months. Perhaps you have other ideas in mind.

In any event, a discussion may well be in order to help our graduates prepare for the inevitable and show them that we do have their best interests in mind and prepared to do what we can to make a successful transition to their chosen careers. If any of you have any other ideas as to what we can do to prepare our students for limited job prospects please respond to this post and share with our community.

e-Journal with Great Teaching Tips

This resource hit my e-mail inbox today. The e-mail announced the fifth issue of Kwantlen Polytechnic University's eJournal -Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal. ISSN 1918-0853. I have given it a quick review and found the issue to contain lots of articles that had information that would apply to any culinary arts or hospitality classroom or laboratory.

The Volume 2, Issue 2, November 2008 is entitled, My Classroom: Reflection on Practise and Practices, Personal SoTL about Real Learning by Current Educators. This issue can be read for free by visting: http://kwantlen.ca/TD/Current_Issue.html

The home page for the e-journal can be found by visiting: http://kwantlen.ca/TD

Students Lie, Cheat, Steal...but no Big Deal!

I am alarmed at the results from the recent survey of close to 30,000 students by the Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, which can be read by visiting:
http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/index.html.

The basic findings found that, on average, 30% of students acknowledged stealing from a store in the past year, with boys more likely than girls to do it. There were 1/5th who indicated they stole something from a friend. The study also found that cheating is rampant with 64% indicating they cheated on a test in the past year. Another 36% indicated they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment.

…..Yet, 93% of those surveyed said they were SATISFIED with their personal ethics and character.

The study findings suggest dire implications for those of us who are getting ready to accept the next generation of high school students on to our respective campuses? Talk about Gen-Disconnect?!

Yikes! How will we handle students who do things that are at odds with true ethical behavior? What is it about the way we will teach them that will enable them to find it easy to cheat? Will large classes make it easier to cheat than in small ones? Does more online learning make it easier to cheat than sitting in a classroom? Will this phenomena be tied to one discipline or all of them on a college campus? What does it suggest they are capable of doing once they are out of school and owning/managing foodservice or lodging businesses? The prospects are frightening indeed!

In any event, the facts of the survey (especially its generalizablity) suggest that we are going to have to be more vigilant as to whether or not students are doing their own work less we be fooled that they are “learning” from us in our classrooms and laboratories?

Perhaps we can have a roundtable discussion based on this study at the upcoming Summit in Charleston. If interested send an e-mail to Mick La Lopa at mlalopa@fooded.org.

Green Vodka

I thought I would continue to speak to beverage service topics that I started on yesterday's post.

If you talk to managers in hospitality businesses today, they will tell you that more and more individuals and groups are asking them "how green" the restaurant or hotel is before choosing to do business with it. If our graduates are not able to field that question in an intelligent manner they will continue to lose business to those that have plenty to say about their ongoing efforts and NOT their plans to do so.

To help along those lines is the emerging Green vodka product line. Vodka is a popular spirit among customers so it may be one of the safest bets to start stocking behind the bar. Especially when there are a large selection of domestic and imported vodkas that range in price to accommodate those who are buying Green.

A selection of Green vodkas can be found by visiting:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/buying-guides/buy-green-vodka.html.
In the event that the link goes away one day, you can directly access various vodka purveyors by visiting the following websites:
Prairie Organic Vodka (Minnesota) has a very cool site: http://www.prairievodka.com/
Reya Vodka (Iceland) another cool site: http://www.reykavodka.com/
Square One Vokda (California): http://www.squareonevodka.com/

Beverage Service Insights

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! The time spent with the family in Florida has even more appeal to immediately return as snow now blankets central Indiana.

I wanted to touch on the importance of beverage management today after sitting in a sports bar yesterday watching football. During the course of the game I observed so many bad behaviors being exhibited on the part of the bartender, of which some could have cost people their lives. I think it is important that we not only teach kids how alcoholic beverages are produced and how they fit into the scheme of a single meal or event, but responsible service on part of the staff.

Case in point. While sitting at the bar there was a group of "spirited" individuals who were very much enjoying themselves. One member of the party came to the bar, there were no servers, to pay the tab for the table. The bartender ran the credit card and had the man sign for it. During this transaction another member of the party came to the bar to see what he owed, if anything. The first gentleman responded that he had taken care of it. That was when the bartender indicated that the second gentleman indeed did owe for his drinks. The first gentleman asked how that could be when he asked to pick up the check for the table. The bartender indicated that he had not added it to the first charge, so the first gentlemen asked that he do so. Moments later it turned out that other drinks had not been paid for either. While the bartender kept going back to the register the patrons became increasingly frustrated with the fact that something so simple had all of a sudden become terribly complicated. They were not speaking to highly of the business at that point and talked amongst themselves as to whether or not they would leave any kind of a tip, especially when they had initially intended to leave a most geneous tip based on service provided up to the point of paying for the check. Finally, the first customer asked the bartender once more if he was heard when he had asked to pick up the tab for the table. The bartender indicated that he did not hear the man say that, which was easily construed as a lie. Needless to say, the party left the establishment in disgust over something that should have been so simple.

Another critical incident that caught my attention was irresponsible service on the part of the bartender. Across the bar from me were four men enjoying the Colts game. They were also "spirited." The bartender honored the request to serve up four generous Bull Blasters (Jagermeister & Red Bull). About 15 minutes later, the same request was honored by the bartender. The request to fill their basic drink orders in the meantime were also granted. In the span of one hour the four patrons were well above the blood alcohol limit to be charged with a DUI. No mention of this was made to the patrons by the bartender and am sure service continued after I left. In other words, the bartender was participating in a chain of events that could have provent to have had lethal consequences for those four patrons as well as those whom they may have encountered while driving home, or at home. I am also positive that this is not an isolated incident and the scenario plays itself out in countless restaurants and bars across the US every day in lieu of the fact that more efforts are being made on the part of law enforcement to curb drunken driving, groups like MADD, and others.

I guess the message today is that responsible beverage service is something that we must continually remind our students to practice when out there cooking and/or manging hospitality businesses. Yes, the bar business can be profitable but it can also put people in an early grave if not managed properly. One of the things I recommend we do as educators is to take students into the bar and sit at a corner table and have them observe the interaction between servers, bartenders and patrons to see if beverages are being served in a responsible manner. In this way it is possible to openly discuss the observations made -- and missed -- by the students to help them learn practical ways to manage responsible beverage service. Most important of all, students engage in a dialogue with each other and the teacher on how to balance the interests of the business with those of the customer so that both remain viable.