The Pocket Green Guide

My sabbatical in 2008 was dedicated to doing research in Wales to look at how to gauge where the tourism industry was on sustainability practices and then guide them to be as sustainable as possible.  During that time I had the pleasure of reading hundreds of articles, books, websites, etc., on the topic of sustainability.  I did run across a condense pocket guide produced by World Wildlife Fund in Wales to educate people on being more sustainable.  The guide is a great resource for students and faculty interested in sustainability in hospitality. 

It can be downloaded at:
http://www.greenguide.co.uk/files/PGGWales2007.pdf

I Like Hell's Kitchen...Not!

There is a part of me that loves to watch Hell's Kitchen.  It reminds me of when I was a chef's apprentice under a European chef back in the 70's.  Now THAT was Hell's Kitchen!  I was yelled at daily and hit a time or two for being so stupid!  But since I was bound and determined to learn from my chef I took it all because there was no way I was going to leave that kitchen.  My unspoken mentality was "bring it on, bitch!"  I wanted to be a chef dammit and if that was the way of the chef then that was the way it was going to be.  I was going to take the bad with the good because my chef was a magician when it came to food; I wanted to learn how he made such amazing dishes from off the top of his head.  I imagine that many of you reading the blog today can attest to studying or apprenticing under such a chef.

BUT, that is NOT how it should be and the reason I do not like Hell's Kitchen anymore.  The first problem I have is that Hell's Kitchen is a made for tv chef's competition with Gordon Ramsay playing the role of ultimate asshole chef for the show.  Few people know Ramsay to be a very nice person in real life and doubt that they care.  What is troubling to me is that we all know far too many men and women in the white coat who are assholes for real and think that the role Ramsay is playing validates their bad behavior.  It does not and sadly perpetuates it

Worse still, is the way that the chefs talk to each other when they are in the red or blue kitchen.  They are not performing a role like Ramsay, they are behaving the way they think they need to behave to get food to the pass.  Take last night, both Nona and Russell were confrontational, both physically and verbally with members of their crew to get them to cook their dishes properly.  Russell even went chest to chest with one of his crew in front of the cameras.  THIS IS SENDING SUCH A BAD MESSAGE to those who are or one day dream of being a chef.  It may turn on those who are bullies and think that would be a great career.  It also must be a turn off to people like my wife who hates watching the show because she would not subject herself to that abuse. 

Finally, the cameras continue to roll after the battle that is waged in the kitchen.  Even in their downtime the chefs are shown to be petty and stupid.  And most if not all are chain smoking! 

So today I encourage all of you to pick any episode of Hell's Kitchen and show it to your class.  You can get them for free from Hulu.  Have them watch a show and then pick out behaviors of chefs that are exemplary and have them pick out behaviors that are verboten!  Then have them discuss how they would deal with those chefs who exhibit the verboten behaviors because you all know as well as I do that they are out there in kitchens and classrooms right now verbally if not physically abusing members of their crew.  In sum, the bad behavior of chefs must come to an end and we owe it to the profession to turn the tide in our classrooms and kitchens.

Finals Week

It has now come down to final exam week for the fall semester.  I do not know why, but I am always anxious at this time of year.  Perhaps it is because I was so anal about my grades when I was a student and would not settle for anything less than an A.  Perhaps it is because I have almost 400 grades to enter into the grading system this semester for the students taking the five classes I taught and am worried I will give one or more of them an incorrect final grade -- which then involves paperwork to correct it.  There may be more reasons for my anxiety that could be explained by Freud, Watson, or Jung but since our health care no longer covers counselling we will never know.

So to all of you, anxious or not, I hope you all had a successful quarter or semester.  I also hope you will join me in looking back upon your classes and use the necessary tools to diagnose whether or not the students got value for their tuition dollar.  It is not enough to just wrap up and move on to the next class of students; it is imperative that we look back and ask ourselves whether we did the best job possible so that our students learned all that they needed to learn from us to continue down the education path or did we let them down?  Were the exams fair?  Did we use the appropriate teaching methods to accomplish course objectives?  Were students allowed to stay in their comfort zone or did we press them to learn new and different things with fresh perspectives?  There are hundreds of other questions to be asked and answered but unless we attend to some of them we will not really know for sure whether teaching for learning has taken place under our watch.

No Line Out the Door

So far so good.  In one of my earliest blogs I bemoaned the fact that I dreaded the line of students who line up at my door at the end of each semester looking to lobby for individualized extra credit, take an assignment that was missed at the beginning of the semester, and all sorts of other concessions to improve their grade once they realize that the end is near and not happy about their final grade.  I then decided to do something to end the line and that was to add a policy in my syllabus that stated that students had one week following any assignment missed or not graded to their liking and approach me about it.  Once the week has passed there is no going back.

I put the policy in my spring 2010 syllabus for all the courses I taught that semester and had perhaps one or two students who wanted to try their luck and win special favors to improve their grade.  I simply referred them to the syllabus and that ended the conversation.  Besides it would be unethical of me to give special consideration to improve a grade to one or two students without offering to all students so had no problem enforcing the policy.

I am now in the middle of dead week and happy to report that no line has yet to have formed with even a single student in it outside my door to lobby for special favors. Those who have stopped by are doing so for happy reasons like saying good bye as December grads, thanking me for a good class, wishing me well over break and many other pleasantries.  But there are no students lobbying me for special consideration to change their grade.

I encourage you all to put this policy in your syllabus and let the semester wind down in a peaceful manner as mine is at Purdue and speeding to a blissful winter break.

Resource for Students

Many of us teach classes that require students to come up with a menu for one meal function or another.  Some are fortunate to have a library stocked with cookbooks for students to use when researching their menu.  Those that do not have a library can turn the students loose on the world wide web to find recipes -- which is good and bad news because students do not know if recipes they find online are tested or not (which can cost them the A they may desire).

The Pork Board has a good resource for students online when searching for recipes that have been tested.  The site is easy to navigate and has lots of interesting categories, especially what to do with leftovers.  Check it out and pass it along to students, they will thank you:  http://www.theotherwhitemeat.com/Recipes.aspx

Learning Communities Journal

Gregg W. Wentzell, Ph.D., Assistant to the University Director, Center for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching, & University Assessment at Miami University has announced the second issue of the Learning Communities Journal is now available at http://www.muohio.edu/lcj/

Volume 2, number 1 (2010) of the Learning Communities Journal focuses on: "Exploring Opportunities for Research on Learning Communities."  Since FELC is its own learning community you might find this journal informative.

Both print and electronic subscriptions are available. An institutional site license gives your entire campus access to all issues and is a phenomenal value. The first issues (Volume 1) of both journals are also still available for purchase.  For information about subscribing, submitting manuscripts, or other inquiries, visit the Journal websites or contact Gregg Wentzell at wentzegw@muohio.edu.

The Green Future is Now at Cracker Barrel

I read todayin Smart Briefs that Cracker Barrel "has launched a test of electric-vehicle chargers at 24 of its Tennessee stores, part of a larger effort by ECOtality Inc. to install charging stations across the country. The chain's restaurants are typically located close to highway exits, making them ideal for travelers looking to charge up and quickly get back on the highway."

In case anyone is wondering, the green future is now.  Sustainable business practices are no longer something businesses are planning to do, THEY ARE DOING IT NOW and one has to wonder what we are doing to support the industry in response?  Especially since the foodservice industry has suddenly stopped dragging its archaic feet and embraced sustainability since they have ahve learned that they can SAVE MONEY without compromising CUSTOMER SERVICE QUALITY.

What does this have to do with culinary education?  Everything!  For starters, are sustainable / green initiatives being led by those who adminstrate your program?  Is the department chair showing leadership in this area by walking the tallk and pushing the faculty to do the same?  Are faculty pushing from the grass roots to do right by our students and equip them for the green movement?  Are students demanding it?

Cuz guess what!  Foodservice businesses are demanding more of our students.  The kid who can cook a steak to the right temperature and plate it properly is going to lose out to the one who can do that and tell the manager how to buy local, reduce engergy costs in the operation, prepare to serve the growing green demands of customers, and more.

To that end, the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management will be launching a report card on sustainability initiatives for culinary arts programs after the first of the year so we will know where we are on the road to being green and preparing graduates to benefit employers in a likewise manner.  When it hits your mailbox please take the time to fill it out so that we can all work together to better prepare our students and move the industry forward.  In other words, simply teacing "farm to fork" is not going to get it done -- there is so much more to it than that and we need to act now.  We have a golden opportunity to  get ahead of the industry and show them the way to a sustanable future instead of the other way around, as is the case with Cracker Barrel and countless others.