If you're anything like us, you were following the trail of Ruth Reichl's career after her exit from Gourmet Magazine as closely as some of us (I'm not saying who) are following the TomKat divorce. When Ruth signed on as Editorial Advisor at Gilt Taste, we figured that the online food purveyor was worth taking a closer look at, and that's when we met Whitney, whose job is enviable for a vast number of reasons. We'd count them, if we weren't so busy reading the tabloids - I mean, news.
When did you know that you wanted to work in food?
When I was in middle school, I decided to spend my summer at a "camp" just outside of Chicago. It was held at Kendall College, Chicago's local culinary and hospitality school and every day promised cooking, baking and pastries galore. Even though we had to wake up at the crack of dawn every morning to start breads and clean kitchens late into the evening, I loved every second of it. After that summer I knew cooking would play a big role in my life. I wanted to go to culinary school after high school, but my parents encouraged me to pursue a 4-year degree instead, and I'm so glad I did. Having an engineering degree and work experience under my belt gave me a lot of confidence in quitting my consulting gig and pursuing culinary school a few years ago.
How did you get your current good food job?
A friend of a friend. My fiance's roommate thought I'd like to meet one of his food loving friends (who worked at Gilt Taste), so he connected us via email. She and I had dinner together at Buvette and hit it off. The next week I walked into the Gilt Taste offices and started writing. I have a journalism degree from NYC (that earned in the evenings when I was consulting), so that helped my cause!
How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?
My Industrial Engineering degree was invaluable in the kitchen. Compared to my colleagues on the line, I had minimal professional cooking experience, but having a strong sense of process improvement and efficiency studies (that's what Industrial Engineers do!) really helped me on the line. Also, I think working in corporate environment gave provided me a certain level of professionalism that other young cooks don't always bring into the kitchen at first, but eventually learn over time.
What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?
I had a really tough time adjusting to "life on the line." For the first few weeks of my internship (which eventually turned into a full-time job) at Restaurant Eve, I plopped into the driver's seat of my car at 2am, turned the car key, pulled out of the parking garage and cried the entire drive home. Everything in me hurt-from my back to my hands to my brain to my heart. I really thought I made a terrible mistake. I had to hang in to get the credit for school and before I knew it, I started falling in love with the kitchen. I got better at working my station, I loved the pace of service and I loved watching chefs who were better than I work. I eventually went on to work as a chef de partie at Per Se. In the end, I left the kitchen to film Food Network Star. It was hard to leave, but something that was probably inevitable. I'll never forget the conversation I had with a group of chefs about "big life goals." I mentioned that I'd love to have a family one day and every one of them told me to get out of the kitchen.
What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?
For me, food has morphed into the perfect opportunity for me to encourage people to live well-to discover heritage and culture, explore science, spend time with family, be creative, challenge yourself, do something for someone else?.there are infinite ways a single bite of food can change a life.
If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?
Weekend getaways.