Employment personality tests decoded for nutritionists & culinary professionals: why you're screened

Do you need to take a personality test to enter the culinary or nutrition occupations? What do employers use to screen you out that are not obvious such as tests of integrity?

Nutritionists, for example, are faced with having to make quick decisions in an environment of reduced time. The goal is to balance the need to wait for important information to arrive with the employer's requirement for making good decisions that pose least financial risk to the company or institution.

The idea is not to be blindsided by faulty decision-making skills early on in a career. And employers surmise that taking valid or not so valid employment assessments can possibly predict how you'll fit into the career, or a particular job.

The purpose and unique contribution of writing the book, Employment Personality Tests Decoded, as a special diets nutritionist, but writing not only for the culinary worker, but for anyone to understand why employers use tests to screen you, is to guide readers towards the goal of understanding that workplace decisions may be made about you by your employer. Here's why and how those decisions are made.

The decisions are based on abilities tests or personality assessments that may or may not be always valid. You need to ask for feedback on any assessments you take. And ask your employer to keep your results confidential. The purpose of the tests to supposedly to help you make better decisions as part of a team so that you won't be blindsided early on in your career by making snap decisions before all the information comes to you.

What the assessment is supposed to measure and what your employer thinks it measures may be different. Your employer might be looking for depth or breadth when the test is measuring a voice of resilience and self-confidence. And in an employment personality test, you’re looking for a valued ‘beast’ that enjoys tunneling into that well of sanity called a long-time career.

A test might use the word, dovetail as a verb to mean “work well with” existing markets. You might want a test that uses plain language to say what it’s supposed to mean. Many tests of personality, cognitive, or job skills turn out to be timed tests of reading comprehension. Employers may ask other team members whether a new applicant connects well with the team instead of whether the team member is well connected.

Personality or abilities tests need to be handled like confidential medical records. Find out whether or not test results are given to your health insurance company along with medical information. Psychological testing, like medical exams should be confidential and not stored in open-ended databases in your employer’s human resources department.

Users of psychological tests include employers, teachers, school guidance and career counselors, outsourced consultants, clergy, and workshop leaders who are independent contractors. Is the person administering the tests trained in the pitfalls to avoid—hindsight? Has your boss researched alternative types of assessments and given you a choice as to which you prefer?

What decisions are being made about you based on taking corporate tests? Are assessments part of the hiring process, or given mainly to executives to build better teams? The second reason I wrote Employment Personality Tests Decoded, is to look at the root of where the definitions, origins, or coding of a variety of personality tests actually come from.

Part of my day is spent reading books on population genetics that looks at prehistoric migrations and origins, historical linguistics that looks at origins of words, and reading about the roots of behavior and personality choices—how and why people make specific decisions under reduced time pressures. That’s bad in a work place—to have to make more decisions under continuing reduced time. You have to make good decisions. But whether decisions are good or bad often are validated by peers at work.


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Filipino Chef Gets Oprah's Notice

CHICAGO, Ill. -– “I am not financially well-off, but I am rich in experience. So I want to give something back to our less fortunate countrymen,” Chicago-based Filipino American chef Ron Bilaro says of his trip to the Philippines this November to help raise funds for the Gawad Kalinga (GK) project for the poor.

Bilaro will travel to Manila with his mentor Art Smith, private chef to Oprah Winfrey. Ron also cooks for the entertainment mogul as sous-chef to Smith, who has his own children’s foundation, Common Threads. Smith was inspired to team up with Ron, and visit the Philippines after learning of the latter’s charity work.

After the White House named Filipino American Cristeta Pasia Comerford as its executive chef, a sense of kinship among Pinoy chefs in the U.S. was established. One of those who emerged from anonymity is Bilaro. He invited this reporter to his hip residence near the heart of Wicker Park’s yuppie village. Ron’s digs, which offers a stunning view of the Chicago skyline, is surrounded by upscale restaurants, which he visits often to try out new tastes.

Chicago’s Fil-Am community learned of Bilaro’s high-flying culinary stint after visiting actress Sharon Cuneta introduced him to the audience during her hit concert last May. At his own stage -- the kitchen that is – Bilaro has been earning raves from his well-heeled clients, including an old rich family and an international hotelier. As a personal chef to Chicago's corporate families, he whips up culinary concoctions that are delicious to the taste as they are delightful to the sight.

At the recently concluded Chicago Air Show, Ron was busy cooking for a corporate family whose guests included television producers and reporters.

In one of those private parties, he caught the fancy of author and celebrity chef Art Smith, who happens to be the private chef of Oprah. From there, the two forged a working relationship, such that whenever Art Smith needs assistance, he calls on Bilaro.

During Oprah’s grand 50th birthday celebration, Bilaro flew from Chicago to Montecito, California to join a few more chefs in creating a menu worthy of the grand dame of American entertainment.

Since his fortuitous meeting with Art Smith, Bilaro has had his share of “Oprah moments.” However, he is prudent enough to protect his client’s privacy. He only goes as far as describing her as “a wonderful person and very down-to-earth.” She likes crispy quesadillas, and has not tried bagoong or kare-kare just yet


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CHILDREN’S CHOICE EXPANDS TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND TAPS CHEF TRAVIS JONES TO HEAD UP NEW KITCHEN OPERATIONS

Huntington Beach, CA -- Children's Choice, the privately-held sustainable school lunch company, has appointed Chef Travis Jones to head up the new Southern California operation as demand for the company's program is expanding statewide. The addition of Jones speaks to the company's mission and commitment to provide local, sustainable kid-approved lunches to student customers throughout California and beyond. This summer's expansion into Southern California comes on the heels of the company's 70 percent growth during the past school year, including nearly 30 new schools that have signed on with Children's Choice as their preferred school lunch provider in Southern California alone.

Jones, a native of Southern California and the Chef Founder of Green Kidz--a Southern California school lunch company renowned for its vegetable-purée-rich entrées--knows the area's school lunch market better than most. As a chef and entrepreneur who grew Green Kidz to a 16-school operation with specialties such as his 13-vegetable marinara, Jones knows how tough the school lunch industry can be.

"We made kids and moms really happy. Unfortunately we didn't have the financial means to keep the company going. Joining Children's Choice allows me to keep my dream alive and do so with a family-owned company that is so very committed to this mission of feeding kids well, supporting local farms and growers and exemplifying mindful business practices," Jones says. "A door closed for me, but a wonderful one has opened and I am so very proud to be a part of this terrific team."

Jones, along with Children's Choice founder and CEO Justin Gagnon, and Executive Chef for Northern California Charlie Prosch, also believes in the importance of serving locally "grown" lunches. Sourcing the freshest ingredients and products from green businesses that range within 150 miles of the company's three kitchens, Children's Choice has built a statewide network of preferred providers, called Choice Partners. From Earthbound Farms in Northern California to Heritage Milk in Southern California, the company selectively sources vendors that are in sync with sustainable business practices and offer 'clean label' products.

Jones, with his extensive culinary and restaurant background, is no stranger to the organic food industry. He served as the CEO/partner of an organic restaurant company, Stillwater Restaurants, which features a white tablecloth restaurant and three eclectic cafés, located in Los Angeles and Orange County. Jones's tenure also includes kitchen time as Executive Chef at P.F. Chang's and Executive Sous Chef at the St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Beach. His fast-paced restaurant career demonstrated to Jones the importance of quality ingredients and scratch cooking.

"What I really believe we're doing is bringing it back to the way food used to be made -- real food from real ingredients prepared by chefs in real kitchens. We're making food the way your grandmother would have done 30 years ago," Jones explains. "Cooking from scratch allows us to control exactly what goes into the food. We source sustainable ingredients from local suppliers and all of our ingredients are scrutinized by our Registered Dietician to make sure the label is clean, but that's just the beginning. The real benefit in scratch cooking is in providing a flavor experience that is perfectly tailored to the palates of our children."

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Cooking is therapy: Making meals helps to reduce stress, heal a broken heart, among other benefits

It can soothe jangled nerves, heal broken hearts and cure boredom, insomnia and anxiety.

Cooking is therapy and, fattening or not, it's effective.

It worked for Julie Powell, who set out to whip up every recipe in legendary chef Julia Child's cookbook when she felt stymied by her own problems. The blog and book that resulted, "Julie & Julia," are portrayed in a new film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Just why cooking is so soothing may be because it encourages creativity.

"Cooking is a great destresser because it serves as a creative outlet," says Debbie Mandel, author of "Addicted to Stress." "And while stress can numb your senses, cooking activates them. It's a sensory experience with aroma, taste, touch, visual delight and even sizzling sound."

Psychiatrist Carole Lieberman says cooking makes people feel good because it's a way for them to nurture others.

"If you're cooking for people you care about, you get nurtured by their appreciation," she says. "Cooking is like giving birth because you are mixing things together to create something new and wonderful."

For Brigita Jones of Carroll Gardens, cooking offers a way to feel better about life because it offers immediate gratification.

"For the most part, it's very manual," she says. "What I like about it is that it's honest work."

Jones, who has a corporate day job, liked cooking so much that she not only joined a monthly supper club, but took a part-time job working in the Chocolate Room in Cobble Hill. Now she looks forward to each delicious shift.

Making desserts clears her mind and makes her feel like she's more in touch with reality.

"These days, it's here's your degree, here's your computer, here's your email address and good luck with that," Jones says. "But with cooking, you can imagine someone cooking 200 years ago, minus the KitchenAid. I mean, dough is dough."

Debbie Mandel explains that cooking ensures such an intense involvement with an activity that it's possible to forget, at least for a little while, about less than pleasant aspects of life.

"You are in the moment," Mandel says. "And this shifts your attention from a brain locked into worries to a recipe for living."

Lucy Saunders, author of three cookbooks on beer and food and editor of Beercook.com, uses cooking to mend her broken heart.

"I've cooked my way through heartbreak several times," she explains. "You can start from scratch and have something fresh and new. It's creativity with some measure of pleasure, and you can enjoy the results right away. And it's a wonderful way to engage the senses, even without a spark of romance."

Home cook Danielle Cyr frequently takes classes in cookie and cake decorating just to take her mind off her work.

Some of my best client ideas come from being in the kitchen, when I'm relaxed," she says. "Cooking clears all work and stress related matters out of my mind so I can focus on something relaxing and enjoyable. It triggers ideas for work."

Julie Powell, who is played in "Julie & Julia" by Amy Adams, was a frustrated writer in a dead end secretarial job when she decided to write and blog about the dishes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

And when making Child's stuffed chicken, she felt better.

Which is why Nikki Cascone, chef/owner of 24 Prince, said she never skipped a beat in her cooking when her father died two years ago.

"It was the first time I had experienced the loss of someone close to me, and I didn't want to deal with it," she says. "Cooking was comforting then and now. Even today, when I get lost in the dough, I almost start meditating. For me, cooking is just so rewarding."


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From Italy to US: the super premium olive oil road map

The international conference “Beyond Extra Virgin” that was held in California the 21-23rd June, 2009, may represent an historical breakthrough in the market of olive oil in the United States.
The Culinary Institute of America (C.I.A.) at Greystone (Napa Valley), one of the most influential culinary schools in the world, has decided to adopt the Super-Premium Olive Oils as one of the pillars of its mission of culinary culture and research, between tradition and innovation, health and taste.
Some personal experience may have contributed in this decision. In fact, Greg Drescher, the Strategic Planning Manager of the C.I.A., was one of the researchers of the Department of Epidemiology of the Harvard School of Public Health that coauthored the most famous paper entitled “Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: a Cultural Model for Healthy Eating” published in 1995, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The olive oil was, in fact, one of the most significant components of the Mediterranean Diet. We can therefore speculate that the decision of the C.I.A. to choose the Super-Premium Olive Oil as a key product in its approach to the quality of food and meals is motivated, at the same time, by the reference to firm scientific foundations and by consideration of a strategic value in terms of culture and business.
As a consequence of this strategic decision, now more than ever the use and consumption of excellent olive oils have an opportunity for commercial growth and success in the US.
In the complex and often confused commercial and legislative situation of olive oil, what makes the C.I.A. decision trustworthy is the partnership it has established with association TRE-E, a no-profit organization which was founded in 2004 as a practical result of studies and discussions carried out at the Academy of Georgofili in Florence, on the initiative of Claudio Peri, Professor Emeritus in Food Science at the University of Milan. In the last three years the model of excellence of olive oil proposed by association TRE-E has gained international recognition and has started practical application by a number of olive oil producers from several Italian regions. The TRE-E model of excellence has been concisely presented by Claudio Peri at the Californian conference with the title “Designing Super-Premium Olive oil: Critical Control Points of Quality, from Cultivation through distribution”

The TRE-E model of olive oil excellence attracted the C.I.A.’s attention when the first edition of the conference “Beyond Extra Virgin” was held at the University of California Davis in 2007 and then when the second edition was held in Florence in 2008. The idea of excellence of olive oil finally originated an initiative that was subscribed by The University of California, Davis, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, the Academy of Georgofili at Florence and the Association TRE-E. The following title was given to the initiative:
“Beyond Extra Virgin”
Olive Oil excellence & World Heritage Project
Fostering Innovation in Quality and Flavor Discovery at the intersection of Agriculture,
Science & Technology, and the Culinary Art

According to the TRE-E procedure, the selection and guarantee of excellence is based on principles and methods acceptable by all producers, regardless of the country or the cultivars or the company’s dimension or the techniques applied. All skilled and dedicated producers of olive oil of the world may be granted the Super-Premium TRE-E selection seal of excellence .
As professor Erminio Monteleone of the University of Florence explained in his speech at the conference, the evaluation of sensory excellence of Super-Premium Olive Oil will be based not only on the sensory attributes of the olive oils evaluated according to the official sensory tests, but also on the sensory function they perform in different food media and culinary preparations.

However, neither the scientific experience of Greg Drescher, nor the definition of excellence by Claudio Peri, nor the new approach of sensory evaluation by Erminio Monteleone could determine the C.I.A.’s decision about Super-Premium Olive Oil, without the decisive proposal by Paolo Pasquali which may turn olive oil from cost into profit for restaurant managers.
The Oleoteca di Villa Campestri and the system that Paolo Pasquali has illustrated at the conference with the trademark “oliveTolive” may become the most interesting practical proposal for the commercialization, use and presentation of great olive oils in great restaurants. The oliveTolive experiments that Paolo Pasquali has carried out for years in his olive oil resort at Villa Campestri has convinced the C.I.A. that Super-Premium Olive Oil can convey to the culinary world not only a great heritage of culture and values, but also a great business opportunity.

The most convincing proof that we may be on the eve of a rapidly growing search for excellence in olive oil is represented by the new Oleoteca that the C.I.A. will put into operation next October for the educational and tasting programs of its 250 thousand yearly visitors and the hundreds of chefs participating in its courses and meetings.

Besides the dominant theme of Super-Premium Olive Oil, the conference has been highly innovative in many aspects.
An entire session chaired by Alexandra Devarenne has been devoted to the terminology problem and the difficult task of translating the sensory terminology from one language to another.
For the first time since congresses and meetings are devoted to the olive oil, the culinary aspect has played a role not as a complement or an entertaining break among the technical and scientific sessions, but a critical and central role in defining excellence in terms of communication, consumers’ perception and culinary creativity. A comprehensive overview of these themes has been presented by the journalist and author Nancy Harmon Jenkins, while an attractive presentation and practical demonstration of culinary themes of the Greek tradition has been presented by journalist and author Diane Kochilas. Great chefs like Bill Briwa and Paul Bortolotta have given the audience wonderful insights in the possibilities of olive oils in stimulating chefs’ creativity.
A famous Greek professor of Nutrition, also a member of the Harvard team of researchers on the Mediterranean Diet, Antonia Trichopoulou of the University of Athens, has presented the role and uses of olive oil in healthy diets. Maria Isabel Covas from IMIM of Barcelona has up-dated the scientific information about the healthy aspects of olive oil. Ramon Aparicio of the Instituto de la Grasa in Sevilla has presented a most attractive overview on the minor compounds of olive oil and their role in the healthy and sensory properties. Jean Xavier Guinard has presented a first set of systematic sensory and preference data of Californian consumers. Alessandro Leone and Antonia Tamborrino of the University of Bari have presented a state of art and the possible innovations in milling technologies.
In summary, it has been a great conference that Dan Flynn, the director of the Olive Center of the University of California, has managed with great ability, participation and a truly innovative approach. This third edition of Beyond Extra Virgin was announced as the most important event concerning olive oil ever organized by an American University. And so it has been. The message about Super-Premium Olive Oil that comes from the Culinary Institute of America, the Oleoteca di Villa Campestri and the association TRE-E has the potential of revolutionizing the culture and the market of excellent olive oils.

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Make the California School of Culinary Arts the first step towards pursuing your career

There can be many opportunities with career training in the culinary arts, in pâtisserie and baking, or hospitality and restaurant management.

Thousands of new restaurants, bistros, grills, high profile caterers, and hotels open every year. In fact, the culinary and hospitality industry is the second largest employer in the United States. It has experienced robust and continued growth for more than 20 years. Job openings are expected to be strong, reaching a total of 13.1 million people, through 2008*.Imagine having a quality culinary arts education and prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Diplôme as you start your career. CSCA offers you the professional Le Cordon Bleu training and education required to take advantage of the diverse career opportunities found in the world of culinary arts, pâtisserie and baking, and hospitality and restaurant management. Our Pasadena location gives students easy access to the Temecula and Santa Ynez Valley wine regions as well as the culinary melting pot of Los Angeles, or our Hollywood campus.

If you're looking to pursue a career in a high-energy profession that challenges and rewards you daily, feeds your passion for food, and allows your creative side the freedom to express itself, you're looking for the California School of Culinary Arts.

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