Service-Learning Project for Culinary Arts

I just wrote an article for the Journal of Culinary Science and Technology entitled, "Service-Learning: Connecting the Classroom to the Community to Generate a Robust and Meaningful Learning Experience for Students, Faculty, and Community Partners."  It will be published in the next issue and encourage culinary educators to read it and learn what truly constitutes Service-Learning because it is not what many believe it to be -- it is much more than "community service."

To that end, there is a new Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge being signed by hospitals all across the United States, sponsored by the Health Care Without Harm coalition.  The essence of the program, according to the website is:

Healthy Food in Health Care (HFHC) is a national initiative of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), developed in conjunction with its member organizations. We work with hospitals across the country to help improve the sustainability of their food services. Founded in 2005, the program provides education, tools, resources, and support to health care facilities, making the connection between the health of patients, staff and community and the food they serve...The program aims to leverage the significant purchasing power and health expert status of hospitals to promote a healthier food system. By purchasing foods that are produced, processed and transported in ways that are protective of public and environmental health, hospitals can make a profound difference in the food system and in their own food environments.

To learn more about this program visit: http://www.healthyfoodinhealthcare.org/index.php

So when looking to do a true Service-Learning project and connect your classroom to the community to provide meaningful service that enhances student learning see if any of your local hospitals have signed the pledge and get in touch.  The patients, hospital administrators, students, and you will find this project very rewarding and educational indeed.

TeamLEAD at Duke Medical School

It is interesting to me that culinary program after culinary program has the same cookie cutter approach to preparing students (with slight variations) to be chefs and all claim to be the best -- whatever that means -- because there are no measurements other than accreditation to determine what consitutes "the best culinary program" at the end of the day.  When will someone take a bold new approach to educating chefs regardless of accreditation rules and regulations and make a change for the better?

For goodness sake, we are teaching kids to cook food so why can't we find new ways to teach culinary arts and hospitality management so that the way we teach is more interesting, engaging and effective for the students?  I can speak for myself on this, we are constantly reinventing our approach to teaching students in our foodservice lab and each new change brings about a better educated, invigorated and engaged student.  Excitement, energy and education abound in the lab because we ask ourselves every day how we can make the experience better and invite students in on the conversation because they have to spend their day learning in the environment we have created so why not let them have their say!

Compare what many are doing in culinary arts with TeamLEAD at Duke University which is teaching students to be doctor's!  Here is a blurb about what it is they say they are doing:
This is a video showcasing the TeamLEAD curriculum at Duke-NUS. We believe medical education is more than just memorizing facts; more importantly, it should critically examine facts and build creative thinking skills. To this end, we use an innovative yet rigorous team-based learning platform called TeamLEAD. TeamLEAD -- which stands for Learn, Engage and Develop -- describes how our students and faculty work and exemplifies the innovative spirit of our school.


Watch the video if you have 9 minutes and feel good about yourself if doing anything in your class or lab remotely close to what Duke is doing to produce doctors.  If not, perhaps it is time to reenginer the approach being taken to prepare the next generation of chefs who will need to log 10,000 hours to be truly great chefs (read Outliers) or have we forgotten to tell them that as we accept their tuition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlVPLYGdBLg&feature=youtu.be
When all is said and done, our limits are self imposed, so when is the time to make changes that will better prepare the next generation of chefs-in-wating.

I Am a Better Judge

Sorry for not posting for a week or so.  We were on break at Purdue so it was time to hang out at home and reflect on my life and career.  Upon reflection, it struck me that I am a better judge of student performance than I ever was before in my career.  Quite a revelation really because I see thinks differently now when reflecting on my teaching and its impact on student learning.  I see things that students do for what they are -- not what I had hoped or prayed they would be based on my teaching -- and judge accordingly with little or no emotion.  It does not mean I care less about the students or the quality of my teaching or my commitment to the craft, it just means I am becoming a seasoned teaching professional! 

I remember back in 1989 when first starting to evaluate student performance as a novice teacher.  I would anguish over each and every grade, given to each and every student, in each and every class, on each and every assignment especially when grades fell below a B.  One reason for my anguish was that I was an A student all through college -- well except that one accounting course -- and worked as hard as I could to set the curve or make an A in all my classes and wondered if my students had the same approach to their studies.  It would have been the "end of the world" for me to get a B when I was a student and would not want to have that impact on my students due perhaps to my bad teaching (although bad teachers never got in the way of me making the A).  I have since learned that not all students feel the same way.

I was unsure of myself when first teaching and wondered how anything and everyting I did impacted student performance. I wondered if the grades earned by students were a reflection of the quality of my teaching and not that of the student's desire to learn the materials.  I also wondered if I had picked the right text to help students learn the course materials?  Did I say the right thing, at the right time to explain the course materials so the students would comprehend the day's lesson?  Was I giving good feedback?  Was it timely?  Was I too abstract or too concrete?  Should I wear a tie or dress casually?  Should I show up early to class or get there just in time to commence teaching.  Did I tell too many jokes or anecdotes or not enough?  Did I need office hours?  Was I approachable?  Was I too casual or too strict?  I wondered about these things and many, many more over the years as to their impact on student peformance.

But not now!

I am a better judge of student peformance today.  In fact, I know it without even being conscious of how I know it, which must have evolved gradually over time while assessing and evaluating the performance of literally thousands of students over the past 20 years.  I have indeed learned how to behave as a professor for the students that attend our program at Purdue.  I am more aware then ever before about the way to plan, direct, organize and control a given class based on the description and objectives of the course.  Hands down, I am a better judge of student performance today than at any time in my career.  It is a part of me and I am a part of it with little or no need to second guess myself on the effect my teaching may or may not have on student performance.  I know it.

So today, if you are able, reach out to a novice teacher in your program.  Invite them to coffee and empathize with them a little bit and see if you can assist them on their journey to find their comfort and competency as a quality teacher and judge of student performance.  I am sure they have their misgivings about their teaching and its impact on student peformance -- if they give a damn -- and could use a bit of mentoring and assurance that their day will come when they can separate who they are from what they do and assess or evaluate student peformance for what it is and then help get it to where it needs to be before the class comes to a close -- if that is indeed the desire of the student(s), too. 

See you next week in Charlotte at the FELC Summit!

Professor Dancealot

Sometimes it is good to observe the teaching style of others to determine if what we are doing is better or worse by comparison.  The video shown below is a clip of how one professor teaches a class on dancing and then evaluates student learning.  As you watch it, ask yourself if you are guilty of some of the mistakes being made by this teacher in ways big and small to inhibit student learning of culinary arts and sciences in the lab and classroom.  In other words, do the teaching methods you select match up with the methods you use to assess or evaluate student learning? And if your students are not measuring up to what it is they are supposed to learn in your classroom or lab -- given their  performance on the assessment or evaluation methods you have selected -- then who is to blame?  The student?  Give it more thought!

So sit back and take note:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8aeDUC9XQ

Happy Teaching!

Fat Chef

Are you kidding me?  Fat Chef!?  Not the kind of show that speaks kindly of culinary arts from the education or commercial side of the equation. 

I watched an episode tonight of an obese male chef and a female chef.  The obese female chef teaches healthy eating!

Once again I call out to those of us who teach and earn a living in food service to educate ourselves and our clientele on healthy living which involves their relationship with food, front and center.

When will we be able to reach the parents of the 9-year old boy I watched at my son's wrestling match this past weekend eat a huge portion of nacho chips with cheese and pulled pork.  Then one hour later he waddled, and I am not kidding when I say "waddled", past us with a giant pretzel and nacho cheese for dipping sauce?  How can this be?  I then looked around the arena where the wrestling match was being held and the reality of a statistic that almost 70% of Indianans are overweight or obese -- they were all around us.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that we are part of the problem and must become part of the solution.  I am working to make the menu in our food service industry both trendy, healthy, contemporary, local, and sustainable by having 30% of the menu be vegetarian, 86 the french fried starchy potatoes and in with the sweet potato fries (which are a huge hit), tofu in lieu of animal proteins (also a big hit on the B'ahn Mi) small desserts, and more.

Please for goodness sake let us teach our students how to create taste sensations in moderate portions that support a healthy lifestyle. Indeed we could do our part to reduce health care costs in this nation by reducing demand which results from those who are eating the food our students and our colleagues crank out on a daily basis that IS TASTY BUT NO DAMN GOOD FOR THEM TO EAT ON A REGULAR BASIS.  I am doing my part and hope you will join me!

Never trust a thin chef, my ass!