Owning Up | A Modern Curriculum for the Next Generation of Culinary Professionals
Culinary education has not changed since the days of L’Escoffier. Curriculum are largely based on traditional methods of French cooking, and bear no mind to the food systems and hospitality issues that are important to modern aspiring chefs and food service workers. Despite a growing national consciousness around these issues, the largest culinary schools like the Institute of Culinary Education and the Culinary Institute of America remain firmly dedicated to the old paradigm of education. Yet there is a movement to address these topical issues: A handful of smaller schools that implement new courses do so with limited resources. Courses like “Sustainability and Food Ethics” and “Health and Wellness” are starting to pop up at places like the Culinary Institute of America, however they are just that, one course.
At the same time, turnover in the hospitality industry remains high, as aspiring chefs join the line and are disappointed and disillusioned when their experience does not mimic that of what happens on televised food shows. The rise of celebrity chef-dom has made working in a kitchen seem easy and glamorous. It has encouraged young people to enter the hospitality industry with little understanding of how it works, how to succeed, or how difficult it can be. In order to create a sea change in the hospitality industry, and tackle the discontent and unpreparedness of cooks entering this realm, we need to close the gap between expectation and reality while broadening the scope of culinary education. Culinary schools and culinary education programs are a practical place to start.
My many conversations, in my capacity as a James Beard employee, with the culinary education community revealed how outdated culinary school education had become. Through my professional work, I wondered: what would a culinary education look like if it solved the problems of the modern hospitality landscape? Through interviews with those in the restaurant industry, I identified a key problem: the lack of leadership skills of new employees. To solve this problem I developed “Owning Up,” a one-day leadership-training workshop aimed at giving educators the tools they need to better prepare their students for the realities of the culinary industry.
Methodology
My research consisted of two phases: collecting information from those in the industry, which was then used to shape a Leadership Workshop targeting culinary educators. To guide the first phase, I developed a series of interview questions that I asked to chefs, restaurant owners, human resources employees, and other experts to find out what was missing from culinary education. I focused on those in leadership positions, as they have a complete picture of what the overall landscape is, from culinary education, to hiring, to what happens once a cook is hired. I spoke with 15individuals, in conversations that ranged from ten to forty-five minutes. The questions covered topics such as hiring processes, qualifications of new employees, the influence of culinary education on hiring preferences, what food systems issues they cared about, what elements of culinary education they would like to change, and what elements of hospitality they would like to change.
Those interviewed expressed a universal desire to have leadership skills training available to young hopefuls in culinary schools. My final project aims to fill the void in culinary education. By offering this program as a continuing education resource, I am able to avoid the red tape and bureaucracy that goes along with introducing a completely new course to a culinary school, but also reach other restaurant owners and hospitality professionals that are not involved with culinary education. It also provides valuable training for the educators themselves. Using a train-the-trainer model makes it possible to reach more students than by simply going to the students themselves.
Owning Up: The Leadership Workshop
The leadership training workshop consists of five modules, listed below, with each consisting of a hands-on activity that makes up the bulk of the workshop, and includes additional resources for the educators to bring back to their classroom. In these modules, role-playing and kitchen-specific examples is critical.
Module 1: Articulates why there is a need for this course and why it matters, outlines the current issues within the culinary education and hospitality industry, to introduce basic themes around leadership, and to provide a leadership assessment. I’ve included five additional resources, including a video from Jim Rohn called “How to Take Charge of your Life,” and a book by Charles Carroll titled “Leadership Lessons from a Chef: Finding Time to be Great.”
Module two: Identifies common points of conflict in kitchen environments, show users how to navigate those conflicts, introduce key tools for problem solving, and provide additional resources on mediation and conflict management. There are several resources on these topics, including a TED Talk by Margaret Heffernan, “Dare to Disagree,” and a paper by Phys.org titled, “Research Examines Conflicts within Professional Kitchens.”
Module three: Examines mentorship, which is a topic that many of those interviewed expressed an interest in. Mentorship can be difficult to codify since those relationships tend to occur naturally. In spite of that, I’ve tried to break it down so that participants in the workshop know what to look for when looking for a mentor. This module will aim to show users how to find a mentor, show them how to become a mentor, identify some of the key aspects of a mentorship relationship, and create a framework for a useful mentorship relationship.
Module four:Focuses on leadership skills for women. Kitchens have historically been seen as a “boys club,” and as hostile as the environment is to begin with, it can be much worse for women. One approach to combatting sexual harassment is by increasing the number of head female chefs and female restaurant owners. To do that, leadership training for women in culinary will be essential, especially at the early stages before they enter professional kitchens. This module aims to identify some of the common challenges for women in the culinary industry, empower women to take on leadership roles in kitchens, show attendees how to implement sexual assault and harassment training, and introduce resources focused on mentorship, leadership, and empowerment for women.
Conclusion
This project and the development of the workshop is the culmination of work experience at the James Beard Foundation and my course of study in the Food Studies Master’s program. This workshop combines my passion for education, my expertise in curriculum development and in-person facilitation, and harnesses the power of a community that is often overlooked. I look forward to bringing this workshop to life at culinary schools across the country.