Day One

Class one kicks off in an hour.

Looking forward to being taught by chefs.  As I've counted down the days for culinary school to start, I've had a chance to think about teachers and how generally speaking I've hated all the ones I've ever had. 

The Accounting teacher from my MBA program, who would consistently give us 2/3 of the info in the case study, then drill us on the remaining 1/3, the part that used accounting terms we'd never heard of.

The Business Writing teacher who insisted on writing memos circa Coolidge era format.

Many/most have been nice people but horrible teachers.  The only good teacher I've ever had was Steve Jones from my 3D design class.  He let us build anything as long as we had a good case it.  He let me build a room-sized installation that involved lard, stinky stuff, darkness, static, and Crazy John the street poet's recorded poetry.  But he was also a cool guy who taught by action and state of being, not by title.  He concentrated with you and seldom knew the answer until we arrived at it together.  Steve was on some zen shit.  (And he knew Jim Carroll.)

But anyway I think of the chefs I've worked for - Barry, Robert, Paul - and others I've worked with in the food service industry over the years and that's where some real instruction has come from.  And they were some scumbags - Barry flat out lying to get his exec chef gig, saying he'd ran food service on some Brando/Depp movie, which worked for him until the restaurant owners watched the flick and checked the credits and no Barry.  But they could cook, and they would always wash a pan.

For me I think 99.9% of leadership is whether or not your boss is willing to wash a pan.