A new begining

A new beginning arrives to most in our society but why not all? Providence, happenstance or prudent guardianship may be plausible explanations why one might abstain from violations of the law thus inheriting a new beginning with hopefully brighter prospects. Those brought up in circumstances filled with one harrowing experience after the next leading to incarceration or some other form of institutionalization are usually economically, culturally and or educationally deprived individuals. I will draw on my experience and perspective as a chef to introduce theories of why crime happens and hopefully cause you to think as an active participant.


As a cook in charge of large kitchens with very large staff's, I took pleasure in the assimilation process that would teach primarily those working inside my domain how to first take pride in their appearance and overall health. This did not so much involve fashion as it did overall hygiene and dietary habits. From my first job as an apprentice peeling several 25 lb. boxes of artichokes, I inadvertently learned what renowned criminologist Edwin Sutherland held to be true; criminal behavior is learned through social interaction with others. If you are expected to look and smell clean, you will naturally become inclined to act the part. Don't act the part and you will be docked one day's pay or worse yet banished. For too many in this world of culinary arts, banishment is not an option they want to experience - a second time.

As a young cook peeling three cases of artichokes while an astute chef periodically passed by to scrutinize my work, I had my first introduction to positive social control or perhaps coercion. Fear I can now look back and reflect was not so much an emotion the cooks would routinely feel but rather an instrument cleverly used by the chefs to build cooks out of street thugs, run always, hustlers or young men banished by their families for numerous reasons. Sexual preference is chief among these reasons. Please consider that this amalgamation of individuals ranging in ages as young as 15 to as high as fifty plus myself included choose this vocation purely out of one singular need; the want of food. Growing up, I was not a product of a home where food was plentiful and reasoned that if I worked in a restaurant, I would never go without it. I was correct in my assumption but never suspected the the extent nor magnitude of lessons and values learned.

The insane work schedules culminating into a seventy two hour work week does much to keep tired budding cooks off the streets. When off, cooks can usually be found in a deep sleep while resting their tired aching feet and tired legs. These are the reasons why a smart cook quickly learns the "dance of the kitchen" or the effective economy of movements thereby reserving stamina and mental awareness. In so many ways there are similar parallels to the military with one simple and constant goal, that of unity. The concept of unity is a simple one that does not always exist in so many and is even frowned upon by an autonomous few who hold firm to individualism. Group cohesion is often a novelty to those entering a kitchen for the first time and is most always the one thing holding them back on a subconsciousness level. Like a new soldier they must be broken down in order to be re-built.Unity is a plural pursuit in this specific setting with an eventual organic progression to community. Once a community takes shape in the minds and lives of these individuals they are off to a new beginning.

Transitions

In my experience as a graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, I had the very great fortune of meeting for the first time people who I would enjoy knowing for a lifetime. As a Masters candidate with a focus if not a burning and resurrected interest in criminology, I had only some years prior left behind an extremely satisfying and lucrative career in professional cooking right in the grandest stages of them all; NYC. Make no mistake, the profession itself enjoyed a rather haughty and denigrating air about it. This was a job of obscene extremes. I saw as most do in this line of work the best of humanity as well as the unimaginable worst which I will indeed come back to later.

So as not to belabor the story, a medical condition effectively put an end to my nocturnal existence of nightly instant gratification but not without having carved out my fierce work ethic which prompted me to quickly consider a change of pace. John Jay and a handful of remarkable and accomplished professors who became my new friends marked the beginning of my transition new found journey in life. Here is my story, experience and observations about all that I am certain we have all witnessed but don't like to talk about, aloud. This dialogue must take place in order for positive change to take begin to happen slowly.