Death by Power Point

Today is website Monday.  In keeping with that it is worth the five minutes it will take to watch a great presentation on Death By Power Point.  Perhaps show these in a facutly-staff meeting and see who gets defensive.  Or just look and see if you are a good presenter or perhaps not so good.  So check out some of these:

Humorous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5dbUCu2Ug&feature=related
Serious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFfFQ9XU7Jw
Comedian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tGq3tH4qSw&feature=related

Dishwasher -- One Great Read

I am home with the flu bug courtesy of my children.  They spread their bugs everywhere and sooner or later one of them takes me down.  Oh well, perhaps time to read the Christmas present my oldest daughter gave me (who doubles as the leading suspect for making me sick).  The book she bought me was written by Pete Jordan entitled,  Dishwasher:  One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States.

I must confess that it is very well written and an interesting story to boot.  It provides insights to all of us who teach or are managing foodservice operations today from the perspective of the dishwasher.  One of my favorite passages early on is when Jordan cites commentary from a master dishwasher who states, "Dishwashers are the least-respected restaurant workers...yet the most important."  And according to the master dishwasher, "...cooking was too much responsibility.  But as employees with massive egos, cooks needed constant flattery.  Anytime a cook offered him something to eat or taste, Jeff always gave the food the highest of marks -- regardless of what he really thought.  A rave review boosted the egos and kept the eats coming."

There are more gems throughout but the author and his book are an authentic depiction of life lived in the dishroom.  Right down to when the author is told at one restaurant that "You gotta love your baby...You gotta keep her shiny and happy...Ya gotta caress Baby and give her a kiss."  And then he was asked to "Go on, kiss Baby."  Of course, the author thought his new boss and trainer were nuts for asking him to love the Hobart.  That was until the Hobart went down during lunch and backed him up on dishes for hours.  Soon thereafter he had a newfound respect for Baby and kept her shiny and clean!  I am sure that any of you reading this work back of the house you can relate.

I cannot recommend this book higher than those before it for students to read and discuss at school.  It is a refreshing perspective and a great read as I indicated earlier.  Check it out for yourself; if you are a true foodie you will find it difficult to stop turning the pages.  Check out a YouTube video of the author's hilarious interview on the Letterman Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N1O-GH4-4A

Website Monday -- Kahn Academy

My friend, George Glazer, at the Education Institute of AHLA shared a great resource with me at the end of last week.  It is the Kahn Academy and all materials are online and open to anyone to review.  As their website says, "The Kahn Academy is a not-for-profit with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere.  To see the plethora of classes that are online visit

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The cool thing about the website is that all the lessons are posted on YouTube.  All you need to do is click on a lesson and it will pop up for you to review.  It uses a technology that appears as a blackboard that has information posted to it -- depending on the lesson  -- and you can hear Kahn's voice as he talks and writes on the blackboard.  Pretty cool stuff so check it out.  You can also check them out on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/khanacademy?v=photos

I can only imagine how cool a resource such as this would be to teach culinary arts to students.  Imagine if your lectures could be put online for students to review BEFORE they got to class and the work that could be done applying the information using such pedagogies as cooperative or case based learning and working with the materials to make the kids better chefs and/or foodservice ops managers.

Call for Papers, Hosteur Webzine+

HOSTEUR Webzine, Vol.20 No.1; Spring Summer 2011

The next issue is dedicated to "Competencies in the Hospitality & Tourism Industry."  The Editors encourage especially submissions of student authored papers about this topic. Papers with other topics are also considered.

For those who do not know, HOSTEUR™ is the only internationally distributed career and self-development magazine for future hospitality and tourism professionals. It aims to prepare the more than 60,000 students enrolled in hospitality and tourism education programs at International CHRIE member schools for careers in the industry. The objective of HOSTEUR™ is to ease student transition from undergraduate education to graduate- or study-abroad programs, professional life with restaurants and foodservice management, hotels and lodging; travel-related businesses; food & beverage suppliers; equipment manufacturers; trade and professional associations; and commodity groups.  Learn more by visiting: http://www.chrie.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3391

To answer this call, please send your mansucript by March 15, 2011 to either:
Dr. Ali Cetinkaya -- alisukru@selcuk.edu.tr or
Dr. Michael Vieregge -- michael_vieregge@hotmail.com

Great Quote

I have a day calendar on my desk that has a Green theme.  You know the kind, you tear off each day to get to the next news or information tidbit.  And yes, I am using the back of each day as a note pad to recycle my Green day calendar :)

There was a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt for yesterday, 1/18.  She said, "What you don't do can be a destructive force."  When I first read it I thought that it was nice.  And then I noodled it for time to let it marinate in my brain.  Then it really started to take its affect/effect.  I wondered what I do not yet know about the best ways to educate the students that are before me at the moment in all my classes and what I am not doing to adequately prepare them for the future.

In effect, I am in the soul searching mode to think through my approach to teaching to see what I may be missing that is doing a disservice to my students when they are out there in the trenches as hospitality professionals.  Happy soul searching to you today, too, perhaps.

For all you boomers out there, take a trip down memory lane and listen to McGuire's Eve of Destruction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLsElbW9Xo (recent video made from song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwYNWYaS3bI (remember when he sang it on Hullabaloo?)

Good Reason to be Great Teacher

So we were hungry on Sunday and did not feel like cooking especially with all the great football and basketball to watch on tv.  I called my favorite pizzeria to place the order for two large pizzas -- a veggie and a three cheses white pizza -- and then the person on the other end of the phone asked for the name, as they always do to know who's pizza belongs to whom.  I said La Lopa and she repeated it. 

In the background I hear, "Is that Professor La Lopa on the phone?"  The girl taking my phone order said that it was and then she asked me to hold on a minute.  She then got back on the phone and I heard students talking about "Professor La Lopa" in the background.  It was also when my first total of $35 was now $27 courtesy of my students.  My daughter then picked up the pizzas and brought them home and they were AMAZING!  I then thought how cool it was that my students thought to take the time to give me a discount and better than usual pizzas.

And that was when it him me.  What if I was a douche bag as a teacher!?  I wondered how many of my ingredients might have made it to the floor before they were put on the pie!  I wondered if there would have been fewer toppings.  I wondered if the students would have taken turns to spit on the pizzas before baking and boxing.  Indeed many terrible scenarios ran through my mind.  Especially when I stopped to realize that with over 500 students in a university town it is difficult not to find them working the front desk of hotels, waiting tables, cooking, and so forth.  One can only imagine what happens to those faculty who turn up to a hotel or restaurant that are known douche bags and the level of quality they get as a result.

So today's message for quality teaching.  Don't be a douche bag -- your students are cooking your food and they might choose to pay you back for your misdeeds!  I can't blame them either.

Eat Wild

As the 2011 survey of ACF Chefs will attest, eating hyper local sustainable foods is hot in dining trends these days.  The main reason is that the American consumer is making healthier choices when it comes to eating at home and away.  As such our students need to be up on how to cater to the needs of changing consumer tastes and provide a menu to meet it. 

To that end, I discovered http://www.eatwild.com/ which is a website to find local purveryors of grass-fed meat, eggs, and dairy in all 50 states.  In other words, those who are not into CAFO's and the inhumane treatment their animals endure and the pollution that results so we can keep meat and egg prices artificially low.  So check it out and share with students if you like or perhaps even move to change purchasing practices for labs and public dining outlets, if your school runs one.

The Wisdom of Dumbledor

And so we begin anew.  The fall semester is a recent memory and the spring is upon us all albeit at various stages depending on your class schedules.  One of the things that I like to do on the first day of class is share a Professor Dumbledor quote, the professor in the Harry Potter Series, that suggests “It isn’t your abilities that make you great, Harry, it is the choices you make.”…..


I then speak to the students about whether they will choose to focus on being a student during the coming semester or give in to the distractions that are sure to come their way from fraternities, parties, friends, parents and all the rest.  We then talk about which is the safest choice to make when it comes to preparing themselves for the career path they currently have in mind.

The quote is also the last slide in my classes.  We discuss whether the choices they made were those that enabled them to perform as they had hoped in their classes or if there were decisions along the way that should have been made differently to avoid the troubles they put upon themself.  We also discuss how making smart choices now will increase the probability of a successful career later.  More importantly, have they learned from either choice to continue to be successful while in school.

It is a great discussion to have with students.  It orients them to the reason they are sitting in your class and helps guide them the rest of the way.

Recovery of Gulf Seafood Industry

Although the national media attention has shifted from the oil spill in the gulf there are still concerns that the seafood that comes from that area is unsafe to eat.  As it turns out, those concerns are without merit as the government has reopened the area to commercial fishing. 

The following video is narrated at the beginning by FELC member Randy Cheramie and starts with a brief summary of the oil spill and how the ecosystem has had a remarkable recovery.  There are also chefs talking about how they use gulf seafood in their restaurants and the Dine America 2010 program to promote the industry.  This video would make a great case study for students to debate in a purchasing class -- to purchase or not to purchase gulf seafood!

Check it out at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJLWoHqis3g