Hy-Vee Brings in Full-time Chef
America is in the middle of a cooking Renaissance.
People are rediscovering the art of home cooking and the advantage it has on their family - from saving money to healthier meals.
The Empire Hy-Vee, located at 4101 S. Louise Ave., has just made the family dinner a little more attainable. They hired a full-time chef to oversee food displays, conduct food preparation demonstrations, hold classes and act as a resource to shoppers.
"To have a chef is a great asset for the store and the customers," says Jenn Colgan, registered dietitian. "Having that culinary expert available to give people ideas on how to incorporate new things in their meals and recipes" is a valuable service.
Chef Scott Teal started in June.
He is planning to demonstrate new items, highlight food trends and will begin holding classes in August.
"Making your own food is enjoyable and economical. The goal is to push that forward," says Teal of Brandon.
He will incorporate fresh and new ingredients to inspire novice and experienced cooks. Originally from Brookings, Teal got his training at the Texas Culinary Academy and stayed in Austin, Texas, for 20 years. A cook for 25 years, he has worked in restaurants and long-term care facilities. He's happy to be back in South Dakota, where he still has family.
New produce will figure heavily into his demonstrations and his recipes. For example, there is a new chocolate grape tomato. "It has a more brownish color and is new to the market. We're able to bring that in and expose the item to Sioux Falls cooks."
There will be a dedicated space at the store for his cooking demonstrations. He will show how to make a dish from start to finish. "It will take the guessing out of cooking meals. And people can watch while they're shopping."
It's a natural fit, Colgan says. He's a good resource for shoppers craving contemporary meal ideas or those wanting to try a new food. He will use locally grown food and fresh herbs when possible.
Today's push is to make meals healthier, and Teal "will help us incorporate more variety into our diets," Colgan says. Teal will be creating his own recipes and showcasing the store's recipes.
Read the complete story here.
Showing posts with label careers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label careers. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Career Advice courtesy of Anthony Bourdain
As told to Ramin Setoodeh
I was lucky enough to go to the Culinary Institute of America in my 20s, and my big mistake was that I was offered a chef’s job very quickly after I graduated, and I took it. I did that rather than going to France—or even staying in New York, but taking a low-level position at a great restaurant and putting my nose to the grindstone. Once I started down that path, years later I was still working in a procession of not-good restaurants. The lowest of the lows is cooking food for people you hate in a restaurant you hate, with no pride.
I was about getting the biggest paycheck then, so I could see music, smoke expensive weed, do cocaine, that kind of life. It was less important to me that I would get good at my craft. I deluded myself into thinking I was good. And by the time it occurred to me that I’d never worked for a three-star chef, I didn’t have the skills. It was late in the day.
After I graduated, I was working with friends in a restaurant in SoHo called WPA. We helped bankrupt the place in short order. We thought we were creative geniuses, and created a very chef-centric menu that was not what the dining public wanted. We were cooking out of our league. It was not a professional operation. We behaved like a cult of maniacs. I liked the life that went with being a chef. I was getting laid, I was getting high, I was having fun. I had no self-control. I denied myself nothing. I had no moral compass. At age 44, I had never had health insurance. I hadn’t paid my rent on time. I was 10 years behind on my taxes. I owed AmEx for 10 years. I was still living like a college kid—worse even. I essentially partied my way out of a big-league career.
A lot of young cooks who have read Kitchen Confidential ask me for career advice. I tell them if you’re serious about cooking and your craft, do the opposite of what I did. I learned a lot of important skills from my mistake that served me well in both publishing and television. I think the skills I learned as a junkie are skills of determining if this person is full of shit or not. I’m never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person or has the red M&Ms weeded out of my bowl. You know what you see in the mirror when you’re waiting for the lady on the subway to fall asleep so you can take her purse? I’m a pretty good judge of human nature.
I was lucky enough to go to the Culinary Institute of America in my 20s, and my big mistake was that I was offered a chef’s job very quickly after I graduated, and I took it. I did that rather than going to France—or even staying in New York, but taking a low-level position at a great restaurant and putting my nose to the grindstone. Once I started down that path, years later I was still working in a procession of not-good restaurants. The lowest of the lows is cooking food for people you hate in a restaurant you hate, with no pride.
I was about getting the biggest paycheck then, so I could see music, smoke expensive weed, do cocaine, that kind of life. It was less important to me that I would get good at my craft. I deluded myself into thinking I was good. And by the time it occurred to me that I’d never worked for a three-star chef, I didn’t have the skills. It was late in the day.
After I graduated, I was working with friends in a restaurant in SoHo called WPA. We helped bankrupt the place in short order. We thought we were creative geniuses, and created a very chef-centric menu that was not what the dining public wanted. We were cooking out of our league. It was not a professional operation. We behaved like a cult of maniacs. I liked the life that went with being a chef. I was getting laid, I was getting high, I was having fun. I had no self-control. I denied myself nothing. I had no moral compass. At age 44, I had never had health insurance. I hadn’t paid my rent on time. I was 10 years behind on my taxes. I owed AmEx for 10 years. I was still living like a college kid—worse even. I essentially partied my way out of a big-league career.
A lot of young cooks who have read Kitchen Confidential ask me for career advice. I tell them if you’re serious about cooking and your craft, do the opposite of what I did. I learned a lot of important skills from my mistake that served me well in both publishing and television. I think the skills I learned as a junkie are skills of determining if this person is full of shit or not. I’m never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person or has the red M&Ms weeded out of my bowl. You know what you see in the mirror when you’re waiting for the lady on the subway to fall asleep so you can take her purse? I’m a pretty good judge of human nature.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Career Options Expand for Culinarians
Into the frying pan
By DAN AVERY
Jerome Darby was a successful fashion designer whose clothing sold in
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. But he never gave up his dream of working in a restaurant.
So he enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in SoHo, and after graduating last June, he went to work as a pastry chef at Mario Batali’s trattoria Lupa.
So how does he feel about trading in a six-figure salary for toiling in a kitchen?
“It’s been awesome,” he says.
As America’s interest in food continues to rise like a well-timed soufflé, more and more people are setting their sights on culinary careers.
“There’s been a huge, huge interest in cooking schools,” says Irena Chalmers, an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in upstate Hyde Park, and author of “Food Jobs: 150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers.”
In the past six years, applications spiked nearly 50 percent at CIA, which added a satellite campus to cope with the demand. At the Institute for Culinary Education in Chelsea, the surge in interest has been “staggering,” says admissions director Brian Aronowitz. Meanwhile, after a decade when enrollment doubled, the French Culinary Institute just had “our best year ever,” says founder Dorothy Hamilton.
The weak economy has actually boosted interest, in part because people often return to school during slowdowns, and in part because food careers are popular with career changers — including those motivated by a layoff. And to some extent, the food business is recession-proof.
“There will always be jobs in the culinary field,” says Hamilton, who’s written a new book, “Love What You Do: Building a Career in the Culinary Industry.”
One big change, however, is the sheer range of jobs falling under that umbrella. That range has grown a lot wider in recent years, notes Chalmers, who was inspired to write her book by all her students who “had no idea there were so many jobs outside of working in a restaurant.”
From food historian to recipe tester, “There are so many things you can do,” she says.
With that in mind, here’s a look at a few of the food world’s growing niches.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
By DAN AVERY
Jerome Darby was a successful fashion designer whose clothing sold in
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. But he never gave up his dream of working in a restaurant.
So he enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in SoHo, and after graduating last June, he went to work as a pastry chef at Mario Batali’s trattoria Lupa.
So how does he feel about trading in a six-figure salary for toiling in a kitchen?
“It’s been awesome,” he says.
As America’s interest in food continues to rise like a well-timed soufflé, more and more people are setting their sights on culinary careers.
“There’s been a huge, huge interest in cooking schools,” says Irena Chalmers, an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in upstate Hyde Park, and author of “Food Jobs: 150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers.”
In the past six years, applications spiked nearly 50 percent at CIA, which added a satellite campus to cope with the demand. At the Institute for Culinary Education in Chelsea, the surge in interest has been “staggering,” says admissions director Brian Aronowitz. Meanwhile, after a decade when enrollment doubled, the French Culinary Institute just had “our best year ever,” says founder Dorothy Hamilton.
The weak economy has actually boosted interest, in part because people often return to school during slowdowns, and in part because food careers are popular with career changers — including those motivated by a layoff. And to some extent, the food business is recession-proof.
“There will always be jobs in the culinary field,” says Hamilton, who’s written a new book, “Love What You Do: Building a Career in the Culinary Industry.”
One big change, however, is the sheer range of jobs falling under that umbrella. That range has grown a lot wider in recent years, notes Chalmers, who was inspired to write her book by all her students who “had no idea there were so many jobs outside of working in a restaurant.”
From food historian to recipe tester, “There are so many things you can do,” she says.
With that in mind, here’s a look at a few of the food world’s growing niches.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
Monday, October 12, 2009
"Digital Dirt" Can Haunt Your Job Search
Just like Vegas, what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. How that affects your job search is up to you.
Gone are the days when all you were concerned with was whether or not your résumé and cover letter were error-free.
Now, you've got bigger things to worry about -- like what kind of personal information is floating around online.
Job seekers should not only manage how they come across in person, but on the Web, too.
We often forget that everything you post online, from your Facebook profile to your Amazon book reviews, is out there for others to see and judge.
"Most employers nowadays hop on Google to search a name as a preliminary step, either before or right after the interview," says Monique Tatum, author of "Jumping Off the Curb and Into SEO Traffic." "A positive and strong online presence can play a tremendous part in the employer's first impression."
In 2009, 45 percent of employers used social networking sites to research candidates, according to a CareerBuilder survey, a 23 percent increase from last year.
Thirty-five percent of employers said that what they found caused them not to hire a candidate.
"Hiring someone is scary," says Zack Grossbart, a virtual team coach and author of "The One Minute Commute."
"You're paying them to represent your company, and your reputation affects theirs. No company wants a newspaper headline with their name in it because of an embarrassing employee."
Times have changed
Not only has the use of the Internet, social networking sites, blogs and other new media skyrocketed in recent years; all of these things have revolutionized the job search.
It used to be that if a hiring manager dug around online and couldn't find anything, it was a good thing. Today, however, if you have no online presence, it could be more of a career killer than if an employer found some digital dirt.
"If you have an established career and no online presence, it is a big red flag for employers," Grossbart says.
"Employers expect to find blogs, forum posts, LinkedIn profiles and many other sources of information about you. If you haven't been mentioned by other people in a professional context, employers will wonder why not."
Read the complete story here.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Why Don't Employers Call You Back?
(This is great advice, BUT, whatever you do, don't give up hope. I didn't get a call back the first time I applied for my job at Second Helpings.)
By Anthony Balderrama
CareerBuilder.com writer
Is there any worse confidence killer than rejection?
I think it goes back to childhood, when you want a new bike for your birthday but you end up getting a pack of tube socks instead. You immediately wonder if you did something wrong and that's why you didn't get what you wanted.
Go forward a few years when you end up taking your cousin to the prom because everyone else turned you down. And the college years? Basically a parade of rejection that feels like an endless line of Rockette kicks to your confidence.
Or maybe that was just my experience.
Still, that same game of "Is it me or them?" continues well into adulthood as you begin searching for a job. You make a list of your best qualities, send them to employers, get dressed up and try to woo them in an interview. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. The phone never rings.
Job seekers want to know why they can seemingly do everything right, and yet, still they don't hear back from employers. We're not talking about getting turned down for the job -- we're talking about not even hearing a "Sorry, but the position has been filled." So we went to the source to find out.
Submitting the application
For a job seeker, the application process is full of anxiety and excitement. When you're looking for a job, each available position represents a possible new beginning.
Before you've submitted an application, you've already daydreamed about your first day on the job. The problem is that to some employers, you're just one in a dozen. Or in some cases, one in 500.
"In the current market, if you post a job, you will get buried with résumés," says Matthew McMahon, partner at staffing firm McMahon Partners LLC. "Maybe 5 percent are in the ballpark."
This means plenty of hiring managers spend their time reading irrelevant applications that don't help them find the right candidate. As a result, they have less time for you. "You simply don't have time to respond to [all applicants]."
To many job seekers this attitude may sound cold and impersonal. After all, behind each of these applications is a person waiting for a return call. McMahon cannot possibly respond to each one individually, but he does take the time to reach out to applicants who show promise.
"If somebody is close, but slightly off target, I will usually take the time to give them a call, learn about what they are looking for, tell them about the sort of roles I fill, and keep the notes for future use," he says.
How about the ones who miss the mark completely?
"If the person isn't even close (or has not read the description), I don't bother spending the time because they are obviously applying for everything," he says. Take that as further proof that throwing your application at every open position and hoping to have some success is not the way to conduct a job search.
Read the rest of the story here.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
"Food Jobs" Dishes on Career Options
Book explains jobs for food enthusiasts
Chewing-gum taster. Fortune cookie message writer. Spa chef.
These are just some of the jobs in the food industry author Irena Chalmers dishes about in her latest tome, "Food Jobs" (Beaufort Books, Sept. 1, 2008).
Author, publisher, producer and teacher at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, Chalmers offers advice for those looking to embark on a new career and those with a passion for the food industry who want to get started in the business.
The book offers details on choosing a professional school, the types of jobs available (vinegar taster, mushroom grower and caviar producer are just a few of the jobs out there) and where and how to find these jobs.
Chalmers shares her musings on the food industry and provides real-life wisdom from celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay, Todd English and Anthony Bourdain, among others.
The paperback, which sells for $19.95, is available from online booksellers and her Web site, www.foodjobsbook.com.
Chewing-gum taster. Fortune cookie message writer. Spa chef.
These are just some of the jobs in the food industry author Irena Chalmers dishes about in her latest tome, "Food Jobs" (Beaufort Books, Sept. 1, 2008).
Author, publisher, producer and teacher at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, Chalmers offers advice for those looking to embark on a new career and those with a passion for the food industry who want to get started in the business.
The book offers details on choosing a professional school, the types of jobs available (vinegar taster, mushroom grower and caviar producer are just a few of the jobs out there) and where and how to find these jobs.
Chalmers shares her musings on the food industry and provides real-life wisdom from celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay, Todd English and Anthony Bourdain, among others.
The paperback, which sells for $19.95, is available from online booksellers and her Web site, www.foodjobsbook.com.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The "Glamorous" Life - Reality Check
Don't Just Be A Chef, Be A Glamorous Chef!
(CBS) Dorothy Hamilton is used to fledgling chefs. In 1984 she founded the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. But even she has been astounded at what's happened in the past five years.
In that short time, she says enrollment has doubled in size. Today there are about 2,000 students taking six month immersion courses at the school.
The story is the same all over the country. Professional cooking schools are expanding and new ones are starting, in part as a tribute to Americans' increasing interest in fine food. But there's another factor, too. Hamilton says the 24-hour Food Network deserves some of the credit.
While early TV chef's like Julia Child helped convince Americans that they could create fine cuisine at home, a later generation of colorful characters such as Emeril Lagasse and the Barefoot Contessa has made cooking seem like a pathway to fun and stardom.
Now many culinary students have stars in their eyes, and who could blame them for dreaming when you watch Guy Fieri? He had worked in the food business for years, already owned four restaurants and then last season he triumphed on a TV competition show.
Now he hosts two Food Network shows himself and is launching a third, but Fieri worries that his success may give some people the wrong impression.
"People that get into it thinking that they're gonna bet all their chips on, on this happening," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver. "That's just kind of a long shot."
And it's not just being a TV star that's an enticing long shot, there's also the allure of your own restaurant. Cathal Armstrong is one of those people. He owns Restaurant Eve, one of the top-rated restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area with a six-week wait for Saturday night reservations. He loves his work, but believes there's far too much focus on the glamour of his industry.
"An awful lot of what we do is the same thing all day every day, peeling potatoes and peeling more carrots and cutting more celery, and it's mundane and repetitive," he said. "The kitchen staff arrive between 10:30 and 11 and then they work lunch and dinner service. So they're here until about midnight."
That's more than 12 hours a day, five days a week, at the going rate of about $30,000 a year. So it's no wonder that even as more people want to become chefs, it's harder to recruit good kitchen staffers.
Armstrong says some of the cooking school grads he hired just couldn't keep going. "And have actually dropped out of the restaurant business entirely because of their realization that this isn't the glamorous thing that they expected it would be," he said.
After attending culinary school, Edric Har thought he'd work his way up in the kitchen of a great restaurant, but the pay was too low, the hours too demanding. He now works as a caterer. "While I did love food, and I wanted to be a cook, and that was part of who I was, it wasn't all of who I was," he said.
At the French Culinary Institute, Dorothy Hamilton says that makes perfect sense. Not every one can become a famous chef. "The great thing about our profession is there are hundreds of thousands of jobs every year for cooks," she said. "What you have to have is the right path."
(CBS) Dorothy Hamilton is used to fledgling chefs. In 1984 she founded the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. But even she has been astounded at what's happened in the past five years.
In that short time, she says enrollment has doubled in size. Today there are about 2,000 students taking six month immersion courses at the school.
The story is the same all over the country. Professional cooking schools are expanding and new ones are starting, in part as a tribute to Americans' increasing interest in fine food. But there's another factor, too. Hamilton says the 24-hour Food Network deserves some of the credit.
While early TV chef's like Julia Child helped convince Americans that they could create fine cuisine at home, a later generation of colorful characters such as Emeril Lagasse and the Barefoot Contessa has made cooking seem like a pathway to fun and stardom.
Now many culinary students have stars in their eyes, and who could blame them for dreaming when you watch Guy Fieri? He had worked in the food business for years, already owned four restaurants and then last season he triumphed on a TV competition show.
Now he hosts two Food Network shows himself and is launching a third, but Fieri worries that his success may give some people the wrong impression.
"People that get into it thinking that they're gonna bet all their chips on, on this happening," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver. "That's just kind of a long shot."
And it's not just being a TV star that's an enticing long shot, there's also the allure of your own restaurant. Cathal Armstrong is one of those people. He owns Restaurant Eve, one of the top-rated restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area with a six-week wait for Saturday night reservations. He loves his work, but believes there's far too much focus on the glamour of his industry.
"An awful lot of what we do is the same thing all day every day, peeling potatoes and peeling more carrots and cutting more celery, and it's mundane and repetitive," he said. "The kitchen staff arrive between 10:30 and 11 and then they work lunch and dinner service. So they're here until about midnight."
That's more than 12 hours a day, five days a week, at the going rate of about $30,000 a year. So it's no wonder that even as more people want to become chefs, it's harder to recruit good kitchen staffers.
Armstrong says some of the cooking school grads he hired just couldn't keep going. "And have actually dropped out of the restaurant business entirely because of their realization that this isn't the glamorous thing that they expected it would be," he said.
After attending culinary school, Edric Har thought he'd work his way up in the kitchen of a great restaurant, but the pay was too low, the hours too demanding. He now works as a caterer. "While I did love food, and I wanted to be a cook, and that was part of who I was, it wasn't all of who I was," he said.
At the French Culinary Institute, Dorothy Hamilton says that makes perfect sense. Not every one can become a famous chef. "The great thing about our profession is there are hundreds of thousands of jobs every year for cooks," she said. "What you have to have is the right path."
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