Les Dames d' Escoffier DC

LDEI Conference Roundtable Offers Local Solutions to Global Questions

By Lori Willis (St. Louis)

 

According to CNN projections, by 2011 the world population is estimated to reach seven billion people with the largest growth centered in poorer and developing countries. The question is, “How can food supplies be stretched in order to feed them?” Or, better yet, “How can we teach people to make a living growing food for themselves and their families?”

 

These answers and many more can be found in the menu of solutions forwarded by women of the Les Dames D’Escoffier’s (LDEI) Global Culinary and Education Initiatives, particularly those participating at a conference roundtable led by former LDEI president Suzanne Brown (Atlanta).

 

Roberta Duyff (St. Louis), Mireya Asturias Jones (Los Angeles), and CiCi Williamson (Washington, D.C.) are all global trailblazers who have first-hand experience in the value of mentoring and education and share a common interest in setting the world’s “table” with knowledge to sustain generations to come.

 

Roberta Duyff (St. Louis)

 

Noted author and nutritionist, Robert Duyff (St. Louis) has traveled the world in an effort to break bread with people in a variety of cultures, facing specific economic, environmental and weather-related challenges in feeding their families.

 

Her next stop, is weather-ravaged Indonesia in November 2010 where, as a recently appointed member of the U. S. State Department’s team, she will study and share knowledge under the heading “Food, Culture and Family.”

 

Roberta understands that where you live dictates what’s for dinner. She explains, “Some say, ‘you are, what you eat.’ I say, you eat what you are.’” Meaning that we are all products of our environment and the food we eat. She continued, “Habits are formed and distinguished by the daily culture of how food is grown, gathered, purchased, stored, cooked and served around the table.”

 

Roberta’s experiences have taught her that sharing food and cultural knowledge can be as easy as passing the bread at the dinner table, “We are all sitting at different points along the world’s ‘Green Table,’” she explained evoking a visual of smiling faces and hands reaching out for information. “We must pass the knowledge.”

 

“Globalization has significantly shorted that trip around the table and the time it takes for food and information to be shared,” she said. “No culture is superior; only different. There is a rich table of learning and food is a comfortable way in which to enter a culture.”

 

“Music, food, clothes are the top of the ladder in a cultural context and learning occurs in many dimensions, including observing the gender roles in children, the time it takes to gather (food), how long you sit with people, the formality and informality of dinner.”

 

Roberta, active in the Foreign Exchange Program in the states, recalled the time she walked into her own kitchen and found her young charge from Jocarta, Indonesia preparing food on the floor! “That is how food is prepared in Indonesia. It’s also where kooee (guinea pig-like animals), have free run of the home much like pets, until it’s time to grab them up and grill them up for dinner!”

 

In another kitchen of the world, she remembered, “…the beauty of the act of preparing hand made ravioli with a family while opera music played.” She said, “Cooking together filled us with so much more than food.”

 

Roberta saw many opportunities across all chapters when members embrace mentoring others including women chefs and sharing experiences. She offered a four-tiered approach for changing the world through food education which included; advocacy; philanthropy and working together in strengthening the food culture.”

 

“We start here, at this conference,” she said. “All Dames have knowledge, skills and abilities needed to shorten the distance between cultures.” She suggested an ethnic garden and launching traveling tables to showcase ethnicity and encouraged, “Show, don’t tell” in neighborhoods in your community. “Know your sister cities – there are 11 in St. Louis and and 13 for Kansas City. Look back to immigrant cultures that founded those communities and develop fundraising events around holidays, ethnic foods and more.”

 

“It’s important for all of us to do what we can to make sure that the kitchens of the world are filled with important nutrition information and knowledge of planting, growing, harvesting and serving. A world divided by culture understands food is a great place to start. Mentoring is a chance to keep knowledge global and pass it around the tables of the world.”

 

Mireya Asturias Jones (Los Angeles/Orange County)

 

Coffee expert and self-professed foodie, Mireja’s love of coffee and the system that produces it, is only rivaled by her love of people which she is able to share with other members of the Internal Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA). Just as a spoon sends ripples through coffee, the IWCA’s education programs are teaching women to make a living through coffee send ripples across the globe.

 

Mireja, and her husband, Larry, co-own Jones Coffee Roasters, a Pasadena, California -based company. Jones Coffee Roasters has a reputation for product quality and a willingness to help the system that supports more than 75 million people (including women) who make their living at some point along the coffee production cycle.

 

Jones said that in studying the process she has, “…learned the nuances of different flavors, textures and quality in cupping new coffees to add to our menu.” She added, “I have had the unique fortune to live the seed-to-cup experience and I truly enjoy sharing this; whether it be at a setting like this event or at origin, romancing the bean.” Eventually, she would share this experience with other women in coffee producing and consuming countries.

 

Although a longtime foodie, Jones says her first foray into the culinary world, was following a visit to customers at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury, Vermont. That trip led to the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier and later to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York where her coffee had been selected to be served. It was in New York that they developed a training program that explored various aspects of coffee production. She has continued that work through affiliation with the International Women in Coffee Aliance (IWCA).

 

The IWCA, she says, has “great parallels” to Les Dames. Mireya explained, “In 2003, a group of women coffee professionals came together to found what is now known as the International Women in Coffee for the purpose of sharing achievements in the coffee industry through all links of the chain. It has taken amazing legs, supporting women in coffee around the world; those in both consuming countries and producing countries alike.”

 

According to Mireya, IWCA members govern themselves according to a set of core values that are the organization’s guiding principals; respect, sustainability, abundance (equitable allocation of resources), integrity, collaboration (“because communities hold the solutions to their own problems”) and making a difference. Mireya explained, “We believe that all women can make a difference while earning a living.”

 

In 2005, Jones traveled with the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), visiting Central America, the Dominican Republic and North America to form ongoing relationships of strength and empowerment. Designed to develop diverse talents of women at work in the industry in Central American Countries, strengthening leadership and technical skills so that they to be stronger more effective leaders in their home countries and to take on broader roles in the global coffee community.

 

According to Jones, the program started with four seminars, the first of which was in Incai, Costa Rica. “Twelve women from seven different coffee producing countries representing all facets of the industry had been selected to participate,” said Mireya. Each fellow was partnered with a mentor where strong coaching relationships formed and the end result was a trip to the mentor’s place of business.

 

Each mentor volunteered 200 hours over the 12-month period and worked with a curriculum developed by CQI in partnership with the Aspen Institute and Incai. The program yielded, “beautifully educated mentees with equally wonderful sets of resources.” She added, “It’s a small world when you realize the universal need for education training and cultural exchange in everything we do.” The ripple effect, Mireya said, was the formation of new ICWA chapters in several Central American companies.

Another IWCA project focused on the Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua where the team mentored women representing coops and farms. “They were widows or otherwise inherited responsibility for land without the technical expertise to manage it.” The women of the IWCA set about delivering one-on-one empowerment training and in helping their mentees to become as strong and bold as the coffee they grow.

 

Over the course of a year, Mireya said, “They trained the women to manage day-to-day operations of their farms, educated the on the eight diverse growing regions that yield different flavors of coffee and teaching them about the indigenous Latino populations and languages.” She added, “In the first wave we had 125 women producers in business suits to native dress now with the desire to improve the quality of coffee and their lives.”

 

The following year, the delegation visited Japan, “one of the newest and growing coffee consuming countries.” Continuing across the globe she said, “Last year, two (women) from Egypt and East African nations joined us and we were astounded with their progress into a more efficient and productive way of carrying out their goals in what has always been a man’s world. The ripple effect has proven amazing.”

 

In summation, Mireya suggested that Les Dames add a new dimension in training – create their own ripple effect. She asked, “What would you think of establishing a training program and organizing trips to origin? These exchanges take cultural diversity to another level…they enable people to actually see, “the culture behind that cup of coffee.”

 

She then shared information about a program that brings 20 women from Rowanda and 20 from Afghanistan to Dallas, Texas annually for daily sessions in best practices and empowerment. “After a week, these women are sent individually out to business counterparts around the U. S. and taken into homes for three-day periods for sharing.”

 

She smiled, “How do you explain spaghetti, tacos or most anything other than root vegetables (to other cultures)?” She asked. “My first trip is usually to the grocery store where sharing and real partnerships develop.”

 

By participating in these types of mentoring programs, Mireya sees LDEI members making life-changing contributions by helping women develop roots in their own communities and empowering them to create ripples across the globe. “I have tried to share where our common paths and goals are taking us in this culinary world of ours,” said Jones. “My mantra -- with my children, the non-profit affiliations I have led and best practices in businesses -- has always been and I give to you, the concept of roots and wings.”

 

The IWCA’s Annual Conference scheduled for April 28 – 31, 2011 in Houston, Texas.

 

CiCi Williamson (Washington, D.C.)

 

CiCi Williamson, past LDEI president, “mother” of the M.F.K. Fisher Award, and a food and travel writer, has traveled the world – all 50 states, more than 100 countries and seven continents. (“I learned to cook Penguin in Antarctica!” she said.) With an animated personality and an accent to rival Paul Dean, the television host and author of six cookbooks including “The Best of Virginia Farms,” literally bubbles with enthusiasm at the mere mention of food education. Her contribution to the roundtable was to profile some of the successful education programs of the Washington D.C. Chapter.

 

“Washington D.C. was the second chapter of LDEI,” CiCi said proudly. “We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2011. Of our 120 members, 20% hail from a variety of ethnicities; thus we have a wealth of knowledge that comes from diversity. It helps us to showcase our Dames’ global culinary talents.”

 

“We have hit on a winning combo of programs. Every other year, we host an all-day symposium. When it first stated in 1995, it was called “Salute to Women in Gastronomy,” which we stole from the New York Chapter,” she laughed. “Now, we have branded the symposium ‘Celebrating Food: Cooking * Careers * Communications.’” Our PR Dames recommended branding the symposium for community recognition.”

 

“This is what this type of program can do for your chapters,” CiCi said. “You benefit through education, an opportunity to showcase your Dames, a positive reputation in the community, and visibility. Although it’s not a fundraiser, we do make $5,000 profit from the seminar and it bolsters your IRS requirement for 501(c)(3)!”

 

CiCi estimates that 50 Dames work on planning and orchestrating the all-day symposium, which is attended by 200 to 300 participants at a cost of $95 (includes breakfast and lunch) and $35 for students. “It is the best program our chapter does. I get tears in my eyes to see the talents of all those Dames, and we get appreciation from the community.”

 

Opening session includes keynote speakers, such as Zanne Early Stewart (Executive Editor, Gourmet Magazine), Dames Irena Chalmers, Natalie Dupree, Carolyn O’Neil, Roseanne Gold, Lydia Bastianich, “Top Chef” finalist, Carla Hall and Nongkran Daks who bested Bobby Flay in a pad Thai throw down! The event includes a food and product expo and a dessert extravaganza prepared by Dame pasty chefs.

 

There is also a lot of interest surrounding Dueling Dames, “That’s where we give two competing Dames the same ingredients to prepare a dish.” She continued, “There are 16 (75-minute) breakout sessions including four hands-on cooking classes (two Dames to 30 students) that offer a selection of cuisines and are the first to fill up.” CiCi said another Dame is in charge of pulling together vendors to participate in the expo, and 50 culinary students from the University of Maryland prepared the luncheon and managed the logistics for the day.

 

“(Dame) Gail Forman started the first one (symposium) but, she couldn’t be with us to day. We started out in hotels but it became too expensive, so the past three times it’s been held in colleges, the last two at the University of Maryland, Shady Grove.

 

The huge success of the seminar has inspired the Philadelphia Chapter to plan a similar symposium in June 2011.

 

Located in the “Capital of the Free World,” Washington D.C. Chapter is in a position to increase LDEI’s visibility by holding events in Embassies and at the palatial home of the French Ambassador. Eager to share their success with other chapters, CiCi said, “Even if your city does not have an Embassy, many have consulates. There are many foreign food companies that will partner with you.”
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