Wasn't that a demo?
Sunday, July 15
So here I am and two entries within a few days.. wow! Well bring held captive on a train and a delayed train this time could have something to do with it. Or could it be the red wine I had to purchase when I heard there would be a two hour delay. Or perhaps it was the high I'm still on from the cooking demo at Harbourfront on Saturday afternoon as part of World Rhythms.
There was a lot of prep work in preparing the recipe, buying the ingredients and then carefully and with mindfulness prepping all the ingredients and rolling 100 Zen Wraps for the samples for the audience. Who says cooking is not a lot of work? Washing, separating, destemming, cutting and brushing each leaf with olive oil, prepping all the 17 ingredients that are either part of the nut butter mixture or in the wrap, and then the careful rolling of a totally raw meal, which has no dairy, animal products, wheat and has all natural ingredients. It must have taken two of us at least 6 hours of steady work.
Then we had to prep all the ingredients for the demo of the wrap during the cooking class, including measuring and marking everthing. Then, talking about who is to do what so we are not tripping over each other and can keep the audience engaged and informed. From my facilitation work I know this is the most important element in working with an audience... building rappore, being highly attuned to what they are feeling, which usually means yawns or eyes shutting, and trying to keep the audience interested and engaged so the neurons keep on firing in their brains and their lights are on, or their eyes are indeed open. I may not be a culinary master in the kitchen but I can relate well to people and I think I'm good at interacting with them and really enjoy it, which I think people can sense. In particular when I'm enthused about something or ranting and raving as I was doing during the demo about the crap that we're feeding our children and the determintal effects, I really feel that I'm in the flow and lose track of time and place or even what I've said and have to apologize when I come to. I'm usually watching carefully the audience at the same time and can feel the energy of the room collectively rise. I see why a passionate speaker or actor no matter what they are saying can bring out emotions, good and bad, from people.
We started the demo with a few people and I was worried that scenario #1 as I had mentioned before was becoming reality. Gregg's wife in the front row sypportive and attentive, and my cousin and her friend a few rows back, and that was about it except for several people peeking in. I went touring around after putting away our things and seeing the low attendance at the first cooking class and feeling a bit disappointed while anxious at the same time to get started. The day was overcast, gloomy and cool with the feeling that it was going to rain at any moment, which was not condusive to people hanging around the waterfront at an outdoor festival. I told my friend that we needed rain just before our demo so we could get people to come in out of the rain and inside to a cooking demo.
Well, before the class, guess what happened? Yep, a heavy rainfall, which was not good for the outdoor acts but good for the demo with people seeing this suddently as a good option vs getting soaked. I didn't mean to force people to the room but I asked in my intention for a good audience that was engaged and interested and that I would be charasmatic, fun, warm and entertaining. Oops, I forgot to put out an intention before to bring out the sunshine to attract the crowds to the festival. You just forget everything as you're skeptical on one hand that this intention work will indeed work and you have to be careful about going into vague generalities when you do ask for something. For example, if you said you wanted to be happy you could you get fired from a bad job so that you didn't have to go anymore, etc.
Well, with the rain and people handing out flyers to promote the demo, people started coming in and next thing I know the room of 100 seats looked quite full and then there were all these faces looking me. Wow? Now what? So I put on my microphone and I went into the demo kitchen with Gregg and we were off. A short intro by the host and then I knew it was my turn to entertain people who had invested some time, a moment in their lives, to spend with me... moi! I had some notes at hand but just tried to speak from the heart and with passion, knowing that people had come in so they were willing to listen for a bit and would decide quickly if I was interesting or boring or they were too sleepy to pay attention and stay there. So I tried to read the room and felt the energy as I started to speak and used this energy that was rising with my energy to build up the collective energy of the room. What trigger memories or words or facts would trigger the neurons? I tried to search quickly in my mind to find things that they could relate to. The more I did this, the more it just flowed and I felt like I was in a stream being carried away in the current. I would be doing some demoing but mostly explained to people what I was doing, why I was doing something and interesting facts. You just couldn't shut me up for better or worse, sometimes worse for Gregg who was on the stage with me and is quieter. But I think we worked well together in the demo and on the entertainment side. That's what I realized early on about cooking shows, it's the fun, the pizzaz, the interaction with the guests and the audience that really make a show. The cooking is secondary.
As a chef, I want someone to demo well something and explain it but keeping your interest peeked to keep on watching is another matter, and I'm going to be interested in the food aspect much more than the general audience. I said this when I first met with the Urban Element for cooking classes. What do people want out of a class the owner asked? I said they want something that is organized and well structured but they also just want to have fun while learning a few things and eating good food. That would be a nice evening after a hard day at work. The owner thought I was right on and hired me as an instructor, along with liking my background, philosophy and personality. You don't want the chef so focused on cooking that he/she is quiet and annoyed by interruptions and questions, or a chef so used to his/her militaristic training in kitchnes that he/she is so detailed and hard on clients if they can't do a perfect small dice or take too long to do it. That's the thing. Just because someone is a master chef, can they teach and work with people? It is a rare breed. Most chefs have been through an extremely tough militaristic system where they have learned to have thick skins and just keep their heads down and work hard to avoid any lines of fire or to just get through the long exhausting hours day after day spent in a windowless cramped environment with little or no times for breaks or idle time unless you smoke, and thus the correlation between smoking and chefs. It's the only time you can take time out of the kitchen with a good exuse, especially if the head chef smokes as well.
I'm a bit different in that my background has been all about communications, working with people, facilitating and the more I worked with people the more I realized I loved it and they could feel this. Also, I've done a lot of work on myself and have been meditating and doing yoga for years and this gives you constant lessons and reminders of staying grounded, being in the now, and being sensitive to people. For better or worse, I've always been sensitive to people and could sense what they're feeling but all this spiritual work makes you more and more sensitive about everything around you and within you so that they are one. Great if you're working from the heart in your path and not so good sometimes when you're in the corporate or bureaucratic world and are forced to fit into the corporate goals, which surprise, surprise usually have to do with hierarchal power systems and profit making as the key priorities over people. Well, this is how I discovered over time that I couldn't be a different person from the person I am - loving, generous, down to earth - without a lot of pain and heartache, and I needed to speak and act from the heart without restrictions in all aspects of my life. I felt disjointed and not whole. I had nagging doubts if I was on the right path and felt that another path or option where I would be happier and shine was so close within my grasp but I didn't know what it would be.
Back on the path of this story... we demoed the wraps, most people stayed to the end, there were several questions from the audience, and an anxous line-up for our wraps at the end of the session. We knew the wraps were a winner or a "converter" food as one of our teachers used to say. She said you need converters in your repertoire when you're trying to get people to eat more healthy and trying to show people that vegetarian/vegan food can be gourmet and delicious. This is definitely a converter.
Out of an audience of around 60-70 people, only one or two people put their hands up when I asked if there were vegetarians in the crowd. Perhaps they were shy because they are usually not given praise when they shout out that they are vegans or vegetarians in a usual audience setting. In any case, not many, and there were so many people that came up to us to say they loved the food and came for seconds as well. There were also a lot of people that came up to Gregg and I after the demo to thank us and tell us they found it very informative. And several people had questions for us that they were to shy to ask in class or hadn't thought of during the class... What kind of natural sweetners should they use? What is the name of the green (Collard) and where can they by this? What is the name of the food co-op we mentioned? What if you don't have a blender to make the sauce? Other questions that came up during the demo included... Where can you buy tamari and what does it taste like? I don&'t feel full when I have salads, what should I do? (Have more complete meals or graze more often... wveryone is unique and you need to become familiar with yourself and the way foods react with you or against you). Tell me about ZenKitchen (thanks Trisha)is)... and comments about salt when I started talking about the importance of using sea salt vs regular table salt. Great questions and I was thrilled that people were interested enough to ask them. Other people also came to introduce themselves and say thanks... a nice couple from Montreal, a father and daughter vegetarian team, my wonderful cousin and her friend, my friend's wonderful parent who were in the first row and so supportive and smiling. I am so blessed!
So here I am and two entries within a few days.. wow! Well bring held captive on a train and a delayed train this time could have something to do with it. Or could it be the red wine I had to purchase when I heard there would be a two hour delay. Or perhaps it was the high I'm still on from the cooking demo at Harbourfront on Saturday afternoon as part of World Rhythms.
There was a lot of prep work in preparing the recipe, buying the ingredients and then carefully and with mindfulness prepping all the ingredients and rolling 100 Zen Wraps for the samples for the audience. Who says cooking is not a lot of work? Washing, separating, destemming, cutting and brushing each leaf with olive oil, prepping all the 17 ingredients that are either part of the nut butter mixture or in the wrap, and then the careful rolling of a totally raw meal, which has no dairy, animal products, wheat and has all natural ingredients. It must have taken two of us at least 6 hours of steady work.
Then we had to prep all the ingredients for the demo of the wrap during the cooking class, including measuring and marking everthing. Then, talking about who is to do what so we are not tripping over each other and can keep the audience engaged and informed. From my facilitation work I know this is the most important element in working with an audience... building rappore, being highly attuned to what they are feeling, which usually means yawns or eyes shutting, and trying to keep the audience interested and engaged so the neurons keep on firing in their brains and their lights are on, or their eyes are indeed open. I may not be a culinary master in the kitchen but I can relate well to people and I think I'm good at interacting with them and really enjoy it, which I think people can sense. In particular when I'm enthused about something or ranting and raving as I was doing during the demo about the crap that we're feeding our children and the determintal effects, I really feel that I'm in the flow and lose track of time and place or even what I've said and have to apologize when I come to. I'm usually watching carefully the audience at the same time and can feel the energy of the room collectively rise. I see why a passionate speaker or actor no matter what they are saying can bring out emotions, good and bad, from people.
We started the demo with a few people and I was worried that scenario #1 as I had mentioned before was becoming reality. Gregg's wife in the front row sypportive and attentive, and my cousin and her friend a few rows back, and that was about it except for several people peeking in. I went touring around after putting away our things and seeing the low attendance at the first cooking class and feeling a bit disappointed while anxious at the same time to get started. The day was overcast, gloomy and cool with the feeling that it was going to rain at any moment, which was not condusive to people hanging around the waterfront at an outdoor festival. I told my friend that we needed rain just before our demo so we could get people to come in out of the rain and inside to a cooking demo.
Well, before the class, guess what happened? Yep, a heavy rainfall, which was not good for the outdoor acts but good for the demo with people seeing this suddently as a good option vs getting soaked. I didn't mean to force people to the room but I asked in my intention for a good audience that was engaged and interested and that I would be charasmatic, fun, warm and entertaining. Oops, I forgot to put out an intention before to bring out the sunshine to attract the crowds to the festival. You just forget everything as you're skeptical on one hand that this intention work will indeed work and you have to be careful about going into vague generalities when you do ask for something. For example, if you said you wanted to be happy you could you get fired from a bad job so that you didn't have to go anymore, etc.
Well, with the rain and people handing out flyers to promote the demo, people started coming in and next thing I know the room of 100 seats looked quite full and then there were all these faces looking me. Wow? Now what? So I put on my microphone and I went into the demo kitchen with Gregg and we were off. A short intro by the host and then I knew it was my turn to entertain people who had invested some time, a moment in their lives, to spend with me... moi! I had some notes at hand but just tried to speak from the heart and with passion, knowing that people had come in so they were willing to listen for a bit and would decide quickly if I was interesting or boring or they were too sleepy to pay attention and stay there. So I tried to read the room and felt the energy as I started to speak and used this energy that was rising with my energy to build up the collective energy of the room. What trigger memories or words or facts would trigger the neurons? I tried to search quickly in my mind to find things that they could relate to. The more I did this, the more it just flowed and I felt like I was in a stream being carried away in the current. I would be doing some demoing but mostly explained to people what I was doing, why I was doing something and interesting facts. You just couldn't shut me up for better or worse, sometimes worse for Gregg who was on the stage with me and is quieter. But I think we worked well together in the demo and on the entertainment side. That's what I realized early on about cooking shows, it's the fun, the pizzaz, the interaction with the guests and the audience that really make a show. The cooking is secondary.
As a chef, I want someone to demo well something and explain it but keeping your interest peeked to keep on watching is another matter, and I'm going to be interested in the food aspect much more than the general audience. I said this when I first met with the Urban Element for cooking classes. What do people want out of a class the owner asked? I said they want something that is organized and well structured but they also just want to have fun while learning a few things and eating good food. That would be a nice evening after a hard day at work. The owner thought I was right on and hired me as an instructor, along with liking my background, philosophy and personality. You don't want the chef so focused on cooking that he/she is quiet and annoyed by interruptions and questions, or a chef so used to his/her militaristic training in kitchnes that he/she is so detailed and hard on clients if they can't do a perfect small dice or take too long to do it. That's the thing. Just because someone is a master chef, can they teach and work with people? It is a rare breed. Most chefs have been through an extremely tough militaristic system where they have learned to have thick skins and just keep their heads down and work hard to avoid any lines of fire or to just get through the long exhausting hours day after day spent in a windowless cramped environment with little or no times for breaks or idle time unless you smoke, and thus the correlation between smoking and chefs. It's the only time you can take time out of the kitchen with a good exuse, especially if the head chef smokes as well.
I'm a bit different in that my background has been all about communications, working with people, facilitating and the more I worked with people the more I realized I loved it and they could feel this. Also, I've done a lot of work on myself and have been meditating and doing yoga for years and this gives you constant lessons and reminders of staying grounded, being in the now, and being sensitive to people. For better or worse, I've always been sensitive to people and could sense what they're feeling but all this spiritual work makes you more and more sensitive about everything around you and within you so that they are one. Great if you're working from the heart in your path and not so good sometimes when you're in the corporate or bureaucratic world and are forced to fit into the corporate goals, which surprise, surprise usually have to do with hierarchal power systems and profit making as the key priorities over people. Well, this is how I discovered over time that I couldn't be a different person from the person I am - loving, generous, down to earth - without a lot of pain and heartache, and I needed to speak and act from the heart without restrictions in all aspects of my life. I felt disjointed and not whole. I had nagging doubts if I was on the right path and felt that another path or option where I would be happier and shine was so close within my grasp but I didn't know what it would be.
Back on the path of this story... we demoed the wraps, most people stayed to the end, there were several questions from the audience, and an anxous line-up for our wraps at the end of the session. We knew the wraps were a winner or a "converter" food as one of our teachers used to say. She said you need converters in your repertoire when you're trying to get people to eat more healthy and trying to show people that vegetarian/vegan food can be gourmet and delicious. This is definitely a converter.
Out of an audience of around 60-70 people, only one or two people put their hands up when I asked if there were vegetarians in the crowd. Perhaps they were shy because they are usually not given praise when they shout out that they are vegans or vegetarians in a usual audience setting. In any case, not many, and there were so many people that came up to us to say they loved the food and came for seconds as well. There were also a lot of people that came up to Gregg and I after the demo to thank us and tell us they found it very informative. And several people had questions for us that they were to shy to ask in class or hadn't thought of during the class... What kind of natural sweetners should they use? What is the name of the green (Collard) and where can they by this? What is the name of the food co-op we mentioned? What if you don't have a blender to make the sauce? Other questions that came up during the demo included... Where can you buy tamari and what does it taste like? I don&'t feel full when I have salads, what should I do? (Have more complete meals or graze more often... wveryone is unique and you need to become familiar with yourself and the way foods react with you or against you). Tell me about ZenKitchen (thanks Trisha)is)... and comments about salt when I started talking about the importance of using sea salt vs regular table salt. Great questions and I was thrilled that people were interested enough to ask them. Other people also came to introduce themselves and say thanks... a nice couple from Montreal, a father and daughter vegetarian team, my wonderful cousin and her friend, my friend's wonderful parent who were in the first row and so supportive and smiling. I am so blessed!
posted by Caroline at 10:22 AM
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