September 3, 2003
CULN 270
Weekly Reflection 2


One thing that I was reminded of at the end of this week was the Chinese character 危機 (weiji). Wei means danger and ji means opportunity. There’s a lot of translations and understanding of this word and its translations, but I was reminded of this because of it’s general understanding (or misunderstanding) of the word. When I think weiji, the combination of danger and opportunity, I believe there’s always opportunities where ever there are challenging times – even times where there could be actual danger involved.

Competition is obviously challenging in many ways. Personally, I see it as more than a competition between two or more parties; competing to see who’s smarter, faster, and stronger. Neither do I see it as an avenue to fuel an adrenaline rush, gain notoriety, or even a gold medal. Given, that all exixts in there, but more importantly I see competition as an opportunity – an opportunity to expose weakness’, to bring out the better in others, and most importantly for me, to honor God. It’s my belief that real opportunities aren’t just handed to you – you walk through some of the greatest challenges before they present themselves.

This week presented a few opportunities to specifically gain knowledge and skill as the future 2011 competition team develops – whom ever they may be. A few things that came to me as a challenge this week was dealing with the different personalities, different skills, different knowledge, and temperaments. Whew! I tend to take things as they come, try to flow with it, and maintain the peace – that’s my personality. One person is more verbal and directive, one person is sensitive, and one person is seemingly non-directive. None of these alone are particularly better than another, they’re just what people are made of, and I think that it’s what a team will be made of to create some kind of balance – as unbalanced as it sounds. And truly in a real work place there’s going to have a mix of personalities, and everyone can either learn to deal with it appropriately, or quit and learn absolutely nothing in life. In our Escoffier dish team those personalities and reactions where definitely present and healthfully flowing. Most times we disagreed; sometimes we just had to agree to disagree. In the end, however, when our dish was on the plate, it was a pretty good accomplishment considering the challenges including the team, time, and our resources. More importantly, the class as a whole brought together all of their own teams frustrations, whatever they might have been, and we brought together a greater accomplishment of creating a team oriented dish. Although, I’ve still got my own personal preferences on the dish, it’s still awesome to think that the knowledge and experiences of twelve individuals helped create the dish that will go to nationals. That dish I hope will continue to evolve and become perfection, but again, I know that will not be achieved without conscious effort and the inevitable challenges along the way.

But, sometimes God just blesses you with a great day! A day such as when we figured out the daunting task of removing the tendons of the chicken leg! For me, this was a reminder that humility and patience will be rewarded. That particular day was exciting for me because of the fact that we’d be deconstructing chicken. Ever since taking Chef Dale Thomas’ butchery class last fall I always get excited when I have the opportunity to butcher any meat whether it be chicken, fish, pig, beef – whatever. But, chickens the cheapest to play with and the most available, so I’m always trying to get better at cutting chicken. At work I deconstruct chickens when I can a case at a time, so I may have a little more experience than most of my peers, but each time I’m trying to understand my way around the chicken with my knife.

When I first picked up my chicken I was eager to put my training to the test. I thought it would be an easy task – despite the issue with removing the tendons. But, whenever you think you know something, you quickly find out you don’t know as much as you think you know. The tendon situation brought my momentum to a halt. It was frustrating to say the least, so all I could do was take my time. But, as I worked on that chicken leg that was turning warm in my hands, I just stopped to think it through. I knew the tendons moved up through the leg, it started at one end, and ended at another. I just had to figure out how to get to it. And eventually I did! I was able to share the information with the class, and ultimately assisted in figuring out that darn chicken leg for the 2011 KCC competition team!