Health & Wellness
Becoming A Chef: The Experience Thru the Eyes of a Real One By Chef Jason R. Greene
In light of National Culinary Arts Month, I would like to celebrate by providing my perspective on what it takes to become a true talented chef. Being a certified chef myself I believe I can provide a true account of what it's like. For starters, I believe that becoming a truly talented chef takes three main factors: love, understanding and faith. Loving what you do is first and foremost because any person that truly loves something will give it 100% no matter what and this is so vital and key to becoming a chef. Personally, I love what I do on a daily basis, and it's expressed in how I prepare, cook and plate food for consumption. Within my true love of cooking, I have come to realize that it gives me a clear perception creating a mindset full of opportunities instead of obligations.
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The next factor is understanding. You must have a total understanding of what it takes to become a chef. That includes training and certifications such as culinary school and becoming ServSafe certified. Attending culinary training will give you a foundation of knowledge that will, one, expose the natural talent that you possess and, two, create the proper structure around that talent that will encourage professionalism and organization. Becoming ServSafe certified will teach you food safety and give you a full and basic understanding of foodborne illnesses and the maintenance involved with hot and cold food storage. Becoming a chef is not for the weak minded; it requires passion, sacrifice and dedication in each one of the three factors mentioned above. If you believe you are passionate about providing a service, if you think about cooking (not eating) before you go to bed and when you wake up then that's a sign that you need to become a chef. I have seen and experienced highs and lows in this business, but it has made me who I am today. Becoming a chef is becoming an artist, and artists are supplied with a duty to make people feel good no matter what form of artistry it is. With any talented artist that demand creates opportunity as far as the eyes can see. Now remember the profit side of being in this business is cutthroat, and in any cutthroat business it will chew you up and spit you out. My advice is to remain humble, stay true to you and metaphorically: “never put too much lettuce on a sandwich” (a true chef will know exactly what that means).
Community News Flash
BIPOC Mental Health Month – YOU MATTER By Marjorie M. Middleton July is BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People and Other People of Color) mental health month. Every day is time to take time for self, but it is important to have the focus on this imperative topic, thankfully at least once during the year. Resources are readily available. Education is available. There are opportunities to hear the stories of others’ mental health struggles and share one’s own. BIPOC’s experience many hardships, which include discrimination, inequity and oppression. Trauma is real and present in our community and we must face the problems, while learning to alleviate them through acknowledgement and counseling. It’s about time to care for self and community. As a group of people, we suffer from the collective trauma of our brutal history, intergenerational trauma, and present ongoing inequalities.
Amongst these traumas, which affect our mental health, are unemployment, incarceration and health disparities. Continued police shootings of Black people and the pandemic add to the stress, also. These issues have certainly led to mental health issues. We must stand up for ourselves and take advantage of opportunities for support and counseling, as well as demand health care professionals utilize resources that will assist them in better serving our community. Multicultural competency is key. During this month, and every month, encourage friends and family to seek mental health support, even if they don’t believe they need it.
We can all use a little extra boost towards living our best lives. There are many support groups available to utilize for the BIPOC community. Staying safe and healthy includes education and support. This month, and each month after, take the time to join a group that supports your mental health. We can be stronger and happier in a topsy-turvy world. Peace! Below are a few you may want to look into:
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Arts and Media
100 Year Vibrations of Black Arts and Blanche Sumpter My grandmother, Blanche Sumpter, was born on August 22, 1922 in the Sea Island area of St. Helena Island, South Carolina as the only child to Grace Sumpter. As her children, family and friends prepare to celebrate her 100th birthday, I reflect on some themes within the arts that have accompanied her since the beginning of her life's journey.
By Seth Washington
In the same year of her birth, poet Langston Hughes wrote the words, "Hold fast to dreams", the opening line to his poem entitled, Dreams. No doubt that Grandma was a dreamer who seemingly, from day one, dreamed of something more. Somehow she knew that life offered more than the endless fields of crops that needed tending and the seafood factory that offered reliable work but not much in the way of a future. This was a tough time, in general, as the nation was recovering from the recession of 1921, the concepts of ease of use and user friendly applied to almost nothing and the term modern perhaps had yet to be birthed. As one can imagine, the odds were even steeper for a young African American woman attempting to navigate the southern region that was, at that time, quite proud of it's racially oppressive, Jim Crow policies and practices. The year before my grandmother was born, singer Ethel Waters permeated the atmosphere with the song entitled, "There'll Be Some Changes Made" and that same year, the musical, "Shuffle Along" forever changed the aesthetic landscape of Broadway theatre.
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Grandma believed in education. During her childhood, school was free up to the eighth grade. Beyond that year, high school required tuition, a fairly impossible feat for her single mother, Grace, during Great Depression era St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The black teachers in the segregated school system took enhanced pride in cultivating a sense of self worth in the their African American students, quite similar to the sense of value that undergrads experience today at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). As such, Grandma Sumpter appreciated the meaning of a high school education, though she did not attend, and years later as a parent she vowed that all of children would at least complete the twelfth grade. In so doing, she helped to change the trajectory of her family. Another significant change occurred in the 1950's when as a single mother herself, my grandmother moved her family from South Carolina to Stamford, Connecticut. It was a change of scenery, pace and culture, to say the least. Similarly, the jazz music of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake featured in Shuffle Along forever changed the rhythms of Broadway theatre, while the up-tempo dance routines of the same play set new standards for the way showgirls would move on stage. Likewise, opportunities for an improved life, even if slightly at first, was an investment in her family's future that Grandma Sumpter was willing to make. The racist minstrel themes within the narrative of Shuffle Along were and still are criticized. In a similar way, moving from south to north didn't fully elevate African Americans beyond the structure of oppression. Yet, Grandma Sumpter was undeterred. Inner toughness was a prerequisite during her youth and she would in later years remark that she feared no man, black or white. Grandma bought that same fire with her to the well to do white owned residences of Greenwich, Connecticut that she was hired to clean. She educated while cleaning and in one instance had to let the lady of the house know that she was not there to clean up behind dirty people. In that same way, she required her children to pick-up the litter near their apartment with the lesson being that you can make a change right were you are.
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