Last week, I got to attend a Rose Cafe with Chef Hans Butler, the chef for Rose House. It was very interesting to hear some of his background and what happens behind the scenes in preparation for our dining hall food. At first, Chef Hans worked at the Risley dining hall. Eventually, he was able to pass this on to one of his students and encouraged this new chef’s vision. The concept of a “vision” is something I really appreciated from the talk. When Chef Hans saw how food was prepared previously at Risley, for instance, he was disturbed by how much was taken straight from packages. Instead of using cleaning fresh broccoli, for instance, it came straight out of a bag. He had a different vision, and he slowly worked to achieve this. However, as is important to realize for achieving any big vision, progress generally has to be gradual. Chef Hans recognized this, and gradually introduced new ways to produce the food. Through this approach and also letting cooks have a say in what food was prepared, he was eventually able to foster some excitement in his chefs for caring about the food they were creating.

This last point stood out to me as well. Chef Hans pointed out that if the chefs don’t enjoy preparing a particular food item, then it won’t come out well. I believe this extends to anything in life. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, it won’t be exceptional. If instead, however, you are excited by what you are doing and really enjoy it, that’s when magic happens.