Read/Response due 12 January 2016
The three readings had similar themes in common. Arguing that they focused on the concepts of identity and different people’s effect on culture would be an easy statement to make. “Captain America in a Turban” is a perfect example of the effect of a surprising take on a cliché and how the public reacted to it. The first surprising aspect of this story was not only the reaction to the public from the seemingly dissimilar association of an “American” hero, but the subjects own fears of being judged for his stature. This shows that prejudice is first and foremost judged by appearance. What surprised me, however, is the positive reaction the subject received for his gestures. This goes to show that we have a more accepting culture than we might make it out to be.
In the story “Faking It”, we learn about the easiness at which it is to create a false identity with the use of the internet. What amazed me about this story is the trust that people were willing to give this young law professional despite his age even after it was uncovered that he was well below having the qualifications needed to practice law. What this shows about identity and culture is that people are really able to be whoever they want with the right means. It was described well with the quote, “If they were using the Internet to experiment with their identities, it was probably because they found their old identities inadequate. If the Internet was giving the world a shove in a certain direction, it was probably because the world already felt inclined to move in that direction. The Internet was telling us what we wanted to become.”
In the third reading, the main takeaway is our stereotypical culture. The story revolves around a black man whose life is greatly affected by the color of his skin and the perception of who he is by others, even if that doesn’t reflect his personality at all. What this shows us is that we live in an inherently racist and stereotypical world. Conditions have been improving, but there is still a lot to be done.
Read Response Due 18 January 2016
These three pieces of literature covered a diverse set of problems. It’s difficult to find where the literature connects on the surface. On the surface we read literature about the importance of smiling, we watched a video about the differences between men and women and we watched a video about the idea of seeing the positive in day-to-day millings.
I’d like to ask the question of what brings us to think the way we do? How has the human race evolved such that women are societally expected to smile more than men? Why is it that women are supposed to hold their tongue more so than their male counterparts? Above all, why do people inherently behave like they are better than everyone else? I know I’m guilty of it.
I can offer one way that I have started to heal the last societal problem stated. I try to use yoga and meditation to center my focus on what’s important and only positive. Sometimes I catch myself doing the opposite, but I’m on the fast track to improving.
With regard to the other burning questions, our patriarchal society is crumbling before our eyes. What was once a social norm for the mother to raise children and tend to the home while her husband worked is no longer a reality. There are more young female professionals in the work force than ever before. I know these reforms are long over due. We’re starting to see a domino effect of change, though. In our lifetime, our society will develop faster and better than ever before, and I can’t wait to watch it happen and facilitate its success.
Week 3 Read Response & Interview questions
There were a few tips that I found useful in this article. Some seemed unnecessary, but I found that some drew good inspiration for me. My two favorite tips are tip five and tip ten. Tip five describes the importance of starting with basic questions, so the narrator becomes more comfortable answering deep questions later on. I remember Brandon from Humans of New York uses this to get an interviewee to open up to tell deep, pressing stories very quickly. He’s able to touch upon the most important stories in people’s lives and he does it by starting simply and gradually moving towards deeper questions. Another tip I liked was the tenth. It describes how talking about a person’s physical characteristics is a good way to get them to open up about their personality. Most people have a hard time describing other people without getting a head start in some way as it seems. I think this article has some useful information on interviewing and I’m sure I can use some of these tips in my interview as well.
Interview questions:
1. What defines you as a chef?
2. Tell me about the moment you realized this was the profession for you?
3. What doubts did you have about the profession? What did you outweigh those doubts with?
4. Tell me about the best day you had as a chef?
5. Conversely, tell me about your worst day as a chef?
6. Is there a single chef you look up to? If so who are they and why?
7. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
8. Has your culture influenced your cooking? If so, what aspect of it?
9. What has your profession taught you about life/people/culture/anything impactful?
10. Do you love what you do? Tell me what makes you feel this way in three words.
11. What is your greatest creation? Will it change the world?
I interviewed a chef I used to work for. He and I became close friends at the restaurant he ran while I worked as a busser there. I was more interested in the food he cooked than the job I was supposed to do.
1. What defines you as a chef?
a. Probably my culture and my specials. I like to mix ingredients from the different places I’ve been to and I think my customers like that too. I like to think I still have so much to learn. I discover something new every day and that defines me well.
2. Tell me about the moment you realized this was the profession for you?
a. I was 16 and I was asked by a chef in Singapore to come on as an apprentice. I was so overwhelmed by the opportunity to learn and make some quick cash. My family was so poor and I wanted to have some freedom. I learned so much from my first restaurant job. I think the first thing I fell in love with was the spices.
3. What doubts did you have about the profession? What did you outweigh those doubts with?
a. My mom was always very supportive of my passion. I was worried about the long hours and high stress, but I was always good at managing that. This just came so naturally to me that I never really worried about it. Now I have a beautiful family and I have free time to spend with them so I think it all turned out pretty well.
4. Tell me about the best day you had as a chef?
a. The best day I had was the day Joe came to me. I had been working at Jean-Georges, a man you know quite well, and he and I talked about doing something on our own. I knew it was my chance at doing something great and I jumped at the opportunity.
5. Conversely, tell me about your worst day as a chef?
a. I try not to think about this one. For you, I will tell it. The [Village] Social was open for 2 weeks and we had a packed house. The line was packed and I went to the walk-in to grab some ingredients and every shelf fell in front of my face. At the same time, Allison (the manager) was looking for me to greet guests. I was covered in sauces and all of my ingredients were now useless. I was so close to breaking down. That’s only part of the story. I don’t even want to tell about that night because it brings back so many bad memories.
6. Is there a single chef you look up to? If so who are they and why?
a. I think Jean-Georges is amazing in my eyes. You could probably answer this question for me, Gabriel. Anyway, I’ve had the amazing pleasure of working closely with him at his most amazing venue. He and I are similar in background. He’s from France but uses Asian flavor a lot. I do the same, yet I am from Asia. I love how he mixes ingredients from different cultures like I do.
7. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
a. Where I come from and what I learned during my childhood mostly. I now create new dishes from my wife Seleste’s family. Her grandma makes the BEST bone broth. I’ve taken inspiration from that and I have a few books from Seleste’s home country where I try out new ingredients I find.
8. Has your culture influenced your cooking? If so what aspect of it?
a. My culture is probably the biggest influence of my cooking. I cooked with my mama early on. She would take me to the open-air markets and we would pick ingredients for dinner. I would walk around smelling all the spices. That was first exposure to food and it has grown from there.
9. What has your profession taught you about life/people/culture/anything impactful?
a. This industry is tough! If you’re not fast, dedicated, passionate and somewhat crazy don’t do it. I’ve seen people have mental breakdowns, scream at people until they can’t talk, suffer from addictions due to stress, all of it. I’ve also noticed over the years with many employees that you can usually judge if an employee will be a good fit on the first day they are on the floor. Some people are cut out for this work and some are not.
10. Do you love what you do?
a. I absolutely do. I couldn’t think of a better job to have. It’s fulfilling, rewarding and delicious.
I was so surprised by the thoughtful and well-developed response I received from my interviewee. He really went above and beyond to provide worthy responses. It took a long time for him to get back to me. I reached out to many people about it, but only one responded.
Read Response due 1 February 2016
The most difficult part of citing sources for me is remembering correct parenthetical citation for my sources. I also find difficulty in incorporating a quote so that it flows with my writing. A lot of the time the information I want to use is in a different tense or form of writing than I want. I think another area of difficulty as well is actually finding good information to cite. Not all information is useful and not all information is true. It’s sometimes difficult to find work that can be incorporated well into your writing.
I am for sure guilty of these citing practices. I think the most apparent that jumped out at me was not always giving a quote a proper introduction. I also was unaware that when you parenthetically cite a source you have to cite the source with the same first word as in the work cited page. That’s a good tip to know to ensure that my sources are useful to the reader.
Annotated Bibliography
Works Cited
Franklin, Sara B. "Manioc: A Brazilian Chef Claims Her Roots." Gastronomia.
University of California Press, Sept. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
This article explores the intersection of a gastronomic staple in Brazil and the discovery and resurrection of this staple through the work of a chef in Brazil. In the article, we discover the historical impact of the root “Manioc” and its discovery by chef Teresa Corção. Once Corção discovers the root, she becomes obsessed with its application in her food. The Article also explores her roots as a chef. She discusses how “she remembers the “Frenchified” food the employees of O Navegador would prepare for themselves at staff meals—rice, beans, and béar- naise, for example” (Franklin 42). She also discusses her upbringing as a child and its affect on her future profession, stating, “I was always watching and was fascinated at the gift and choreography of kitchen work. I remember sitting on a stool at a big table in the old house, looking at this lady with a headscarf killing a chicken in the back of the house, and she cooked with the blood. I was fascinated by the transformation of food.” (Franklin 41). This article is the perfect example of inspiration in the culinary world and how culture greatly influences creativity and passion.
Geshelin, Hanna Bandes. "Chefs: Cooking Up a Dream Career." Career World, a Weekly Reader Publication.
Scholastic, Nov. 2000. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.
“Chefs: Cooking Up a Dream Career” discusses the experience young culinary professionals experience when going to culinary school. The article provides us with the admiration that the young professionals have for their newly-found career. One student explains her love for cooking as making her “feel fully alive, and [knowing] the tremendous satisfaction of making people happy." The article describes the love for cooking “like a bug that you catch… "Once it gets into your blood, you'll never be the same again”. The main study of this study is the discussion of how to prepare for a career in the culinary arts. It is often stated in the article that “cooking is not for everyone”. Unlike most careers, being a chef requires you to use all five senses. Quotes from this article will be useful when describing why people choose the profession of being a chef.
Mélogue, François De. "The Evolution of a Chef." Gastronomica.
University of California Press, June 2004. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.
In contrast to the other cited articles above, this article discusses how a chef evolves from his love of the kitchen to his eventual hatred of the kitchen because of the sacrifices he made for it. The author states, “Chefs…had the highest rates of divorce, suicide, and alcohol abuse. It was a hard life for a chosen few. Oddly enough, his words [his teacher, LeBorgne] excited me.” This love of the pressure of the kitchen developed as he spent six to seven day weeks in his kitchen and it eventually led to the divorce of his first wife. It didn’t seem to phase his love, though. The chef even wrote, “I wasn’t sad: I still had my kitchen, which was all I had ever wanted or needed.” However, he eventually realized his mistake of being married to his kitchen. Later in his career, he realized “It didn’t seem right. There had to be a way to balance work and family. I no longer wanted to sacrifice my life for the restaurant industry.” What is significant about this work is the eventual realization that the culinary arts is a profession that takes everything from you and gives little in return. Sometimes this reality is too much for some, and for others it is liberating.
Read Response due 15 February 2016
After looking at the 20 tabs of grammar mistakes, I found that there were only a few that I might be guilty of using in my work. The most apparent grammar mistake I use is the “vague pronoun reference”. I know that I have made this error before and I’m sure I still do. Another mistake I often make is the “misplaced/dangling modifier”. This grammar mistake I find to be tricky because it can be easy to start writing a sentence without a sense of direction and once the sentence is complete it may not be worded in the best way. I’m sure another grammar error I’m guilty of committing is an “unnecessary shift in tense”, and, in addition, an “unnecessary shift in pronoun”. Both of these occur when you are writing a sentence too fast.
After reading the first 3 paragraphs of my paper I found multiple grammar errors and I feel a bit disappointed in myself for doing that. I expect more out of work.
After reading Zadie Smith’s essay, I commend her for her effort in relating her personal experiences with logical thought. She makes the story seem compelling and better understood by using these two ways of thinking. The picture is vivid and well understood. I think in order for her to be able to convey her message, even more, she should talk more about the other side of her story. Exploring different points of view is a useful way to get a point across.
Read/Response 7.5
This essay gave me a lot of guidance on how to incorporate a personal narrative into my story. Sarah Smarsh used the example of bad teeth as a way to prove so much about society and its people. One specific way I enjoyed was the interweaving of Pennsatucky’s character in “Orange is the New Black”. What she accomplished here is more than just stating specific examples of why Pennsatucky has a harder life than that of her well-toothed compatriot. She described the place she came from and the way it affected her in such a way that it didn’t seem obvious or too direct even after stating it multiple times. She also interwove her narrative quite well. The way she described how fortunate she was for having good teeth, but that she grew up in a poor family showed a balance between her upbringing and, say, Pennsatucky’s.
I’d like to use the way she interwove her narrative in my essay. My work doesn’t have any of my voice in it. To me, its more of an argument as to where chefs draw inspiration from. It’s not supposed to be an argument in that way. My voice and connection to cooking needs to be heard. I think this was a great example of showing how to make that known.
Read/Response Due 29 February 2016
Karen Swallow Prior asserted the importance of reading to make us more moral in an effective, yet predictable way. The first thing she accomplished was to create an argument for reading to become more moral by citing multiple news outlets who originally brought the issue to light. She used other people’s ideas to illustrate her point. She then cited studies that furthered her point. She concluded that “spiritual reading” is what makes as more moral people. Her points are hard-hitting and well conceived. One of my favorite quotes is about the impact of good literature, “What good literature can do and does do -- far greater than any importation of morality -- is touch the human soul.” Prior introduces her sources well and ensures that his source’s opinions are important to furthering her thesis.
One thing I would have liked to see more of is her personality narrative. Yes, she talked about how certain texts impacted her, but if she had expanded upon just one that would have been even better.
The way this piece compares to Said’s is how she uses her sources. I think she introduces them better and they have more of a positive impact on her thesis. At times, it seems she lets her sources do the talking, but her point is still heard as well. I think Said used more difficult language due to his scholarly audience, whereas Prior ensured that her points were to the point and easily understood.
