First Impressions Panel

Yesterday I was a part of a faculty advisory panel for the faculty of George Brown College's Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts. I wouldn't call myself a hospitality professional, and by no stretch a culinary artist, but I came with the perspective of the future of meetings.

George Brown is generally regarded as Canada's best for these programs, but this was a very critical and candid evaluation of their performance and integration with industry. There was a chef on the panel, the Executive Chef Nigel Didcock from The Granite Club. I was very impressed with his staunch position and consistent response to all questions. He challenged the faculty over and over to get with the times, but mostly he insisted that they behave as mentors and coaches to the students. He was adamant that they needed better direction.

While I might replace "direction" with "nurturing guidance" or other less domineering jargon, he made a very compelling case. He shared a lot of personal accounts of mentoring practices he's engaged in, and was open about having a multitude of mentors in his life that he leaned on.

Regardless of where we are in our own careers or lives, the good chef made me realize that we should all be considering mentorship and developing those around us to the best of our abilities.