It doesn’t take great powers of deduction to realize that every one of us is a person of interest. We all have a unique story to tell. The goal is to maximize that singularity and — as Martha Stewart would do — monetize it.

Here’s a baking and pastry student. A charming young woman. She’s missed several of my classes. (Am I being boring? Does she hate me?)

I worry about me. I should be worried about her.

She pulls up her pants leg to reveal a large, angry-looking bluish bruise on the front of her leg. “I’ve got Type One diabetes,” she explains. “It’s uncontrolled. I don’t know what to do. I won’t be able to get a job when I graduate. I can’t stand up for very long. No restaurant is going to hire me.”

She will soon be receiving her Bachelor of Professional Studies degree and she knows more about what was previously known as juvenile diabetes than many food professionals. And she’s lovely.

She comes from a large family and likes being around little children.

She Googled ‘Type One Diabetes Medical Centers.’ Immediately up popped the Mayo Clinic and several other medical centers located throughout the country. She applied for a job. Got it!

Now she teaches children how to cook and how to manage their insulin-dependence.

She is superbly qualified for her work. Has access to the best medical care for herself. And her days are filled with laughter.

Thomas Keller at the Culinary Institute of America

Hyde Park, NY, May 17, 2013 – Expecting a cooking demonstration from one of the world’s greatest chefs, students at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) instead were treated to something completely different from Thomas Keller on Monday, May 13.

The college hosted Thomas Keller Day at its Hyde Park campus with a keynote address from Chef Keller and breakout sessions covering various restaurant business topics. The day was scheduled to conclude with a “culinary presentation.”

Instead of a traditional demo, Chef Keller made his stage debut, leading top staff members from his celebrated restaurants including Eli Kaimeh ’00 of Per Se, purveyors, and celebrated protégés such as Grant Achatz ’94 and Jonathan Benno ’93 in a one-act play.

“You often hear it said that restaurants are like theater, with a front of the house, a behind-the-scenes crew, a colorful cast of characters, a creative script,” Chef Keller said. “Today we thought we’d take it literally.”

Sense of Urgency was the result—a performance developed by Keller’s team that portrays an evening of service at The French Laundry in Yountville, CA and named for the wording on a plaque that hangs under the kitchen clocks in all of Chef Keller’s restaurants.

The French Laundry is a Michelin Guide three-star restaurant that was honored as the World’s Best Restaurant by UK-based Restaurant magazine in 2003. “We observe the process of execution and the importance of relationships between the purveyors, farmers, and craftsmen of the products these chefs will use to serve their guests,” explains the Playbill.

Close to 1,000 CIA students attended the performance and hundreds more participated in the earlier presentation and breakout sessions, which were simulcast to the college’s campuses in Texas and California. Twenty lucky students were selected to have lunch with Chef Keller.

Barbara Walters

One of my “food jobs” was “consultant” to the venerable restaurateur, Joe Baum.

When he was CEO of The Rainbow Room, he created The Rockefeller Center Club where its members could, (as restaurant critic Gael Greene would say), “eat lunch in tax deductible splendor.”

At the time, it was considered a step up the evolutionary ladder to invite one’s friends to dine at an exclusive club whose main purpose was to exclude those less fortunate. The initiation and annual membership fees hovered in the realm of what could be considered grand larceny.

My task was to invite speakers to entertain the folks. Monstrously huge “honorariums” were paid to seduce to the podium such notables as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Tom Wolfe …. and Barbara Walters.

I got to do the (usually irreverent) introducing.

Barbara Walters arrived a little late. She surveyed the head table. Already seated were a very elderly gent, a very (very) large young man, a guy speaking loudly with a foreign accent, three others and — of no interest whatsoever — moi.

Ms. Walters took one look at the assemblage. A flicker of “not on your life” expressed her clear determination to make a fast get away. She spotted an acquaintance and seated herself at another table thus missing the opportunity to chat with the old guy, (David Rockefeller), the fat guy (who wrote the cover stories for Time Magazine — and the noisy fella, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I smiled.

It is served warm, with a flourish of baby lettuces and rolled in fruitwood ash and floated upon sea-green virgin oil. It is sliced into medallions and garnished with nasturtium petals. It is topping fancy pizzas. It’s crumbled into pricey salads and mounded onto crisp baguette slices to accompany ultra-cool chardonnays and fumé blancs.

How odd it is that we swoon over this creamy, tangy cheese yet curl our lip at the notion of eating the meat of goat from whence it comes.

I’ve been wondering if the problem lies with the goat beards that are known as goatees?

We have always been suspicious of beards, on account of their connection with intellectuals and other dangerous left-wing subversives.

Another clue to our disdain may stem from saddling them with the name “Billy Goat” and calling their offspring “Billy the Kid.”

Billy – and Tom – as in Tom Cat, implies a tendency toward night prowling and the kind of lascivious behavior that leads to such wanton tendencies as begetting.

Naturally, thoughts about ‘right and wrong’ made me think the image problem might have something to do with goat’s hooves, which you will have noticed, are cloven. This anatomical anomaly, coupled with the dreaded horns mounted on their heads, leads to worrisome comparison with the Devil, the Greek goat god Pan, satyrs and yet other symbols of bawdy naughtiness, that have largely fallen from favor in the current climate if modified Puritanism.

And, of course, we all remember the Bible’s forecast of the Last Judgment, during which we will be separated into sheep and goats, and receive our long-term assignments accordingly.

The probable origin of the phrase, “getting our goat,” is the French expression prendre le chèvre, meaning, “to take the milch goat,” which could well be a poor person’s sole source of food or livelihood.

Today the goat association would prefer we cease to think of a goat as a disagreeable small, horned ruminant animal and instead come to regard it in astrological terms as it pertains to the constellation of Capricorn.

Even so, I am pretty much convinced that goat meat could provide us with another fabulous fad to distract us from the hard economic times that threaten to engulf us.

The young superstar chefs are rapidly approaching middle age and urgently need to come up with something fresh to capture our attention.  They could offer us roasted goat with octopus salad or maybe fricassee of stir-fried goat haunch with smoky chipotle and Armagnac-infused dried plums–formerly known as prunes–or even goat tortellini with lemon grass and rhubarb crumble.

The possibilities are infinite. Imagine if the nutritionists teemed up with the advertisers. Pretty soon we would be urged to have ‘an oat with our goat’! And there is plenty of work for farm-to-table birthers, rearers, milkers and artisanal goat cheese makers too.

As I was thinking about goats, I had quite forgotten that goats are also the source of MOhaiR and CASH$mere, our softest, costliest wools. We could consider combining the MO   R with the CASH. When this item appeared on the menu, we would cry out with one voice:

“What we want is MO—R  CASH!”

When my partner accepted a job in Australia, I barely hesitated to sell my car, leave my stable job as a recipe developer at America’s Test Kitchen in Boston, and head down under. Crazy? Not quite, just wanderlust.

I’ve been living in Sydney for two months now, and am happy to report that their advertising campaign is right: There really is nothing like Australia! In terms of the wide variety of food and wine, Australia goes way beyond the meat pie and the Vegemite. Take for instance the macadamia nuts that crunch and melt in your mouth, or the sensuous black truffles as big as your fist, or the rebel wine makers that are breaking all the stodgy ‘old world’ rules (and becoming wildly successful). There’s no way around it, Australia is primed to be the next destination on the bucket list of every food-loving traveler around the world.

At the moment, I’m in the running for an exciting food job in Australia that would allow me to stay for another six months. It is called, “One of the Best Jobs in the World” and is being promoted on by Tourism Australia.

When I heard of this opportunity, I had a gut feeling I should apply. I want to be a food writer and if I want to tell the story of a region through food, there is truly no better place to start than Australia because there is still so much to be discovered.

I put together a 30 second video highlighting my accomplishments and why I am qualified for the job of “Taste Master.” If hired, the job would involve going all over Western Australia (WA), eating, drinking, and foraging for the very best that their territory has to offer.

My goal at first was to just make it to the top 25, as there were over 45,000 applicants from all over the world applying for the same position as I was. Well, what do you know? I made the cut, and am now charging full speed ahead for the shot at being an ambassador to all things tasty in WA.

My next challenge will be to gain support on my social media sites until they narrow it down to the final three contestants on May 15th. You can keep up to date on my application, and read about what I’ve been up to in Sydney, on my travel blog, lucky country diaries.

A Personal Note: Rebecca, I am happy to be among the many voices who are singing your praises and hoping, hoping, hoping you win…Oh, I forgot…You are already a winner in my book!

HERE ARE FIVE Reasons NOT to Enroll in a BPS Program

• It’s a waste of time: I already know everything.
• I already have a degree (though not in a hospitality-related field).
• It costs too much to get a BPS degree.
• I’ve been offered exactly the kind of job I would hope to get without having a BPS degree.
• A BPS from a culinary school is not as prestigious as a BA or BS from a “real” college or university.

AND FIVE (or More) Reasons to Continue My Education

Let me begin by saying that only one person knows everything and that person is your mother.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote:

“Today there is no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skill job.

Now, high-wages are paid only to those with high-skills and higher education.

Every middle-class job today is being rendered obsolete or replaced faster than ever. That is, it either requires greater technological skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being made obsolete faster than ever. Technology has replaced many jobs that will never come back.”

Have you ever seen how fast a robot can chop an onion or make sushi?

So, let me offer my observations to your continuing your education concerns:

• Yes you have gained experience but on a balance sheet, a tangible degree counts for more than experience even if you have worked for one of the Masters of the Culinary Universe.

• You say you already have a degree from another school. Great. Only 30% of the population has one degree: having two degrees makes you more marketable. The more skills, knowledge and experience you bring to the table, the more attractive you will be to a prospective employer.

•  You say a BPS degree costs too much. How much is too much? If you invest in the stock market, there may be a crash. If you invest in real estate, a hurricane can destroy your investment. If you invest in yourself, you keep the power in your own hands.
• A BPS degree will almost certainly guarantee you a higher entry-level salary. Over your working life, you will earn, on average, between four and five times more money as an employee without a graduate degree. However: It’s not just what you have learned but what you can do with your knowledge.
• IF you agree with the idea that knowledge is power, you may agree that the more knowledge you have, the greater will be your opportunities for success.

If you were your own best friend, (which I hope you are), would you advise you to make the decision to shut the door to your future?

All American Banana Split

Telling Tales: On the first day I came to America, I met Fred. He invited me to have lunch in a small restaurant in the Village (in NYC). I wanted to have a banana split as I had seen one on the movies.

When it came, I thought the waiter was just showing it to me and would take it in the back and serve a small portion. I gasped when I realized the whole thing was for me. I declared I could never eat such a huge thing.

And then I did.

I didn’t share but maybe I should have.

Food Job: Childhood Obesity Researcher

First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let’s Move! Initiative before a gathering of 800 invited chefs in the Rose Garden of the White House. She said, “This is an initiative to reverse the devastating long-term consequences of childhood obesity and to improve the quality of the food served in public schools.”

She encouraged all invited guests to join in the challenge by saying, “You are all at the heart of this initiative . . . You know more about food than almost anyone—other than grandmas—and you’ve got the visibility and the enthusiasm to match that knowledge.”

Erica Murphy, CIA Graduate & Culinary Adventurer

Here, below, is a message I received from one of my former (brilliant) students, who went on a culinary adventure as a way to find her food job. I am awed by her courage and initiative to grasp life in both hands.  Her name is Erica Murphy.

“I sold all of my belongings, rented my townhouse in Colorado, left my job at a resort where I was working and went to Italy to volunteer on organic farms and vineyards with the Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) organization. I spent 2011 and 2012 traveling and farming from the Alps to Sicily and everywhere in between.

Every three months I had to leave the country I was in as I had no visa. So I spent waiting time pulling pints of Guinness in Ireland, cooking in an organic cafe on the Beara Peninsula and then a few months in Turkey and the Balkan countries doing everything from holding conversational English classes to working at a hostel. It’s been quite the adventure!

I started a blog (www.ericasitalianadventure.blogspot.com). The goal of all of this travel, besides a wonderful experience, was to have a chance to really develop myself and learn the authentic regional culinary specialties of Italy while living with local families, and–to find my way into the culinary tourism industry in Italy.

The day I left (Nov 2, 2012), I was offered a position with a company in Puglia.”

His son, Alexander “Lex”, Associate Professor of Music Theory, teaches at West Chester University School of Music.

Both are distinguished scholars. Both have earned Ph.Ds.

Both are dazzlingly brilliant and deliciously entertaining speakers.

At a recent talk, together at The Culinary Institute of America, they explored Informative Parallels Between Music & Food.

They asked a series of provocative questions:

• Why do we eat what we eat?
• What music should be played in a restaurant?
• How do we view art?
• How do we view the plate?

Alex Rozin then offered a unique perspective;

“In music there is a triangle with Composer. Performer. Listener.”

Paul Rozin responded: “In a restaurant there is also a triangle:

Farmer. Chef. Diner.”

A composer does not allow the performer to change his composition.

A farmer, by contrast, anticipates the chef will change his product — except if the chef is Thomas Keller, (and others in his culinary stratosphere). The exalted chef do not permit the staff to tinker with their ideas.

Furthermore, a music and a culinary composition follow patterns:

Overture.

Theme.

Conclusion.

Musicians use the same chords over and over again whether they are playing classical music–Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony or Hip Hop or Pop.

Chefs use the same foundation ingredients: onions, celery and carrots….

Chef Anne Rosenzweig

Chefs also play themes on variations i.e. four mini versions of crème caramel on the same plate at Le Bernardin.

This line of creative thinking can lead to another symmetry with a difference…for example. a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich) could be bacon and lobster baked in a popover or as Chef Anne Rosenzweig interpreted it: lobster and sundried tomatoes enclosed in a brioche.

As the Rozins wryly observed: “It’s not what you steal (everyone steals) but what you steal and how you use what you stole.”

Exploring a different topic, Prof. Paul Rozin commented: “There are seven billion eaters but relatively few chefs. They aim to provide the best possible experience or best memory. It is interesting though, that the memory of the dinner may have little (or nothing) to do with the food.  Many say the best meal they ever had was…. an occasion or a place or shared with another person. The occasion is vividly recalled, but in the telling of it, there may be not a word about the food. It is the setting, the sounds, the light and other sensory feelings that continue to burn in the remembrance.”

Prof. Paul Rozin’s other remarkable discoveries are:

•  The most memorable meals are those eaten at home.
• Nutrition is rarely a factor in describing pleasure.
• If the food IS mentioned, it is the entrée, not the dessert.  And the most frequently named food is steak.

So some people may return to a restaurant, eager to eat their favorite food again…and hope it will be the same every time while in contrast, others go to be surprised and delighted by something new.

The ultimate test is what was the eating experience — not what’s for dinner but  what will the diner remember?

When I was a little girl growing up in England during the war (WWII), I had a pet chicken named Lucy. I would take her for rides in a pram (baby carriage for you Americans). She’d look around in all directions from her captive spot, like a tourist, not wanting to miss anything. Perhaps, she welcomed the distraction from her most important task–to lay an egg.

Remarkably when we mention that another has laid an egg, we titter and snicker and think Thank God, Not I! Yet, a well-laid egg cannot be matched. Its shape, its flavor… My favorite breakfast is a soft-boiled egg, toast and tea.

There has arisen a recent urban craze to raise chickens for eggs. A chicken farmer is one food job that one cannot sleep through.

Here are a few words to live by when it comes to thinking about eggs–the very symbol of fertility.

“Love and eggs are best then they are fresh.” –Russian Proverb

“An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different.” — Oscar Wilde

“Eggs are very much like small boys. If you overheat them or over beat them, they will turn on you, and no amount of future love will right the wrong.”  — Anonymous.