Mark Linden, CEC AAC MAY 2012 Greetings Fellow Culinarians and Associates Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, considered by many to be one of the greatest German writers stated, "What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together". One may ask how is this accomplished? In a book entitled "Encouraging the Heart" by Kouze and Posner, how you relate to those you have chosen makes all the difference. The authors go on to show that by taking the time to personally get to know those you work with is many times the glue which holds all things together. Taking the time to understand what makes our fellow team members "tick" may be the best investment you make. How often do we go unrecognized for things we do, more so how often when recognition comes is totally irrelevant and impersonal! What is the point of giving a Starbucks Gift card to one who does not like coffee. Or a plaque when one has many anyway? Why not take the time to learn about those we work with, connect on their interests and use this information to bond with, get difficult tasks accomplished through analogies related to their interests. I found that in dealing with my children it was far easier to get a point across when I put it in the language in which they spoke, whether it was in football terms, food related subjects or other interests they had. In our work environment we are constantly faced with decisions that need to be made often affecting those who work with us. The more we know about them, the greater the success to hold on to them because we have taken a personal interest in them as individuals as well as their families. When you then have the opportunity to reward them for great work, the reward takes on such greater meaning because of the thought put into it.
April Meeting
A great time was had by over 100 people as we participated in the annual "Bite of the Apprentice" fundraiser event. The food presented by the students was fabulous and well thought out. Thanks to the many people who assisted in this endeavor. Chef Fisher as always the gracious host for this event, and to Chef Blaylock for putting it all together. The following Schools participated, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Bates College, Renton Technical College, Puget Sound Tech, Bellingham Technical College, Olympic College and RTC Bakery. We had our apprentices from Joey's Restaurants, No Junk Inc. and from Earls also in place. The Peoples Choice Award went to Renton Technical College, the students, Chris Mullins, John Burch, Jessica Young, Jacqueline Keeys, and Mark Barker produced a variety of foods, including Gumbo, Trout Almandine, Chocolate Mascarpone Cups and Petite Chocolate Bouches. The Best Apprentice went to Travis Hime for his Pulled Pork Sliders and Slaw. Lake Washington Institute of Technology garnered the Best School Award. Featuring Cinnamon Smoked Pork Belly, Curried Chicken and Goat Cheese and caramelized Cipollini Onion Barquette. These students included Meg Venama, Randall Poole, Holly Hewitt, Gabe Fulwinder, Sarajean Hansen, Be Hartmean, Jeremy Kelly, Roman Lavrentyev, Rodney Leach, Miranda Myers, Lorena Santos- Barrera and Coach Chef Stockmann. The award selection was very close and all deserve a great amount of accolades for very good food and presentations, much of which was produced in the meeting venue providing for lots of action and aroma's. The Chaine des Rotisseurs donated $5000.00 to the apprentice foundation. For this we are very grateful to Barbara Walker, who is a devoted admirer of the efforts we are doing to promote education in the culinary arts. Also the third of our annual scholarship checks for $1000.00 was presented to Shalbe Welsh. Our monthly board meeting was held also on this day. We are discussing ways in which we can credit those chefs who put in many long hours with their competition teams and are in the process of drafting a proposal to address this at the national level. We continue to look at ways to further develop the apprenticeship program.
Volunteer Opportunities
The annual Special Olympics Fundraiser is upon us. Chef Parker oversees this and is a great way for us to network and fund the many projects that we are involved in. Volunteers are needed for the days of May 24th and 25th . We will be preparing 6,000 box lunches for this event. Many hands are needed. Stay tuned for the time. Primarily it is in the afternoon of each day at the Renton Technical College. Our apprenticeship students would value greatly from exposure to other chefs. Many of us chefs would not be where we are today had it not been for the gracious time given to us by our mentors. The apprenticeship classes are held on Thursday at Renton Technical College at 6:00 PM. If you would like to share your experience in sauces and stocks Chef Duncan would highly appreciate your time. Please contact myself or Chef Fisher if you could spare an evening.
May Meeting Our meeting for May 14th is scheduled to be in Bellingham which requires some considerable traveling (approximately 2 hours). It will be a great evening as Chef Baldwin will have a chance to show off his state of the art kitchens and present some great food. He is presenting a wonderful four course menu for a great price. I did not receive much response on the offer to provide transportation. If you are going and would like transportation please email me at mlinden@exeterhouse.org no later than May 4th indicating you would like a ride. There will be a small donation for gas. We will leave the Exeter House at 1:30pm in order to beat the Boeing traffic in Everett. That should have us arriving at 3-3:30pm. It will be early for some but the opportunity to enjoy the trip without driving may make it all the worth while. The meeting time for this will change so that all may return back home not too late. The board meeting will begin at 3:30. Tour and dinner will begin at 5:00 PM. The cost is $20.00 for students, $25.00 for members and $30.00 for guests. Click here to visit the meetings page to register online and get directions... Join us on WE ARE CHEFS and FACEBOOK Gouter a la Cuisine
Mark Linden CEC ACE AAC Washington State Chefs Association Website | 
