The profession of feeding others comes with many responsibilities. My profession of teaching professional students how to feed others comes not only with responsibilities of action, but of thought and communication. As I get older I feel a much greater weight of responsibility than ever, especially with everything I say and represent, and in fact it often overwhelms me, I catch myself saying too much, holding on to ideas that don’t best serve the student. But I recognize that I at least do catch myself, reflect, and try to do something about it, a sign that I’m maturing as a teacher.
Responsibility is something we don’t, as a species, fess up to very well, and when it comes to food and health the average North American too often avoids personal responsibility with shameless excuses. We are quick to blame the big, faceless food and pharmaceutical industries, government policy, our culture, media, advertising, the status quo, short-lived trends, our education system, our parents, even the dimension of time. What we don’t do is take full responsibility for our bad eating habits we know full-well is jeopardizing our well-being. For the individual to move towards a healthy food diet, one that is simple, natural, easy to perform and comprehend, and yours – yes your very own, not some doctor’s, some super-star chef’s, out of LA, or from the New York Times Best Selling List – YOU need to first take full responsibility for what you buy, cook, put on a plate, and put into your mouth. YOU need to take action, take your dull knife out of your drawer, sharpen it, learn to use it, and get started. YOU need to learn how to cook those local, organic, seasonal farmer’s market vegetables. Knowing now that eating more whole grains is a key to a healthy diet, YOU need to seek out more about whole grains, more about balanced foods, how to cook them, flavour them, and combine them. YOU need to start depending, trusting, relying on YOU! Put away those granola bars, the most shameful copout since the back-to-baby-food-replacement-meal-in-a-can.
What I see and hear are adults not willing to accept their lack of fundamental skills. I see bad health choices and I hear lousy excuses. Step up! I’m glad my Foodie classes attract people who want to step up and take responsibility (I’ve designed it that way), otherwise I’d simply be doing a dog-and-pony show. And I’m thrilled that Northwest Academy attracts the kind of people who are not sucked into this industry to simply become rock/superstar chefs, but are bright and responsible individuals who want to make a difference in other people’s lives. It is the quality of my students, their desire to make a difference that makes me shoot out of bed in the morning and push myself to become better at my work.
Our problems with food need to be tackled with a sharp knife, not lame words. In this case, the knife IS mightier than the pen.
Tony Minichiello
Culinary Instructor, NWCAV
