Building Confidence, Curiosity, and Resilience: Inside the Professional Development at UHCHI Culinary Apprenticeship
by UHCHI Staff, Carlos Mata
As a workforce development agency, UHCHI’s success relies on the success of our apprentices. We hand-review each registrant as they go through our process to ensure that they can not only pass our training but thrive in it. As we review, test, and interview each registrant we look for signs that this program is a good fit for them, but also that they are also a good fit for us!
I sat down with UHCHI Business Services Liaison, Jim Cicero
to talk about what makes an applicant a good fit for UHCHI. Jim plays a pivotal
role here at UHCHI, as he oversees connections with local employers to address
their staffing and training needs. Jim communicates directly with Chefs and HR
teams to ensure that UHCHI’s apprentices have the necessary training and
professional development to succeed in any Chicagoland kitchen. Jim also
oversees apprentice professional development with his coaching workshops
ensuring that our apprentices build the confidence, curiosity, and resilience
needed in the culinary industry.
“What are some qualities you look for in applicants who are interested in joining this program?”
Not in any particular order, but they must be reliable, dependable, motivated, and eager to do this work. They should have an upbeat personality and be humbly confident in who they are. It’s okay to know what you know, but it’s also okay to acknowledge what you don’t know. If you understand that you’re here to learn, you will show up excited and open to discovering new things. Chefs love it when you interview with hunger and curiosity. When you demonstrate an interest in learning more about the culinary field, you’ll find that chefs are also eager to share their knowledge.
“You have a background in culinary, would you mind telling us a bit about that?”
I started my career in this business in culinary school. I began as a prep cook in a small restaurant in the Wrigleyville area. While I was working there, I worked under a chef who was on the cover of Food & Wine magazine in 1998. It was a small place, but the food was important. I didn’t know anything at the time—I had just started school—and the only reason I was interviewing there was because I answered their newspaper ad. The chef invited me to come stage for him, liked what I did, and it went well. I ended up working there for the next two years while finishing school. I had many opportunities to grow during that time. Eventually, I was given the opportunity to work the hot line, and I realized that I couldn’t hang. I realized I couldn’t tough it out. Although I came to understand that working as a cook wasn’t going to work out for me, I still had a love for the business. I began thinking about running my own business. One of my professors mentioned a company called Lettuce Entertain You, saying they would teach you how to really run a restaurant. I took a risk and applied to work for them. From them, I learned how to run operations, how to take care of people, and how to manage staff. I had the opportunity to become General Manager, a role I held for the next 20 years. Even while working as a GM, I loved to cook. I understood the chefs and supported them wherever I could. At the last property I worked, my Executive Chef left, and I couldn’t find anyone I felt comfortable enough to take his spot, so I did both the GM and Executive Chef roles for four years. For the last two years, I was promoted to Regional Corporate Chef, where I supported the 15 kitchens in our network around the Rockford and Chicagoland areas. I am fortunate enough to bring my knowledge to UHCHI, where I can help apprentices properly navigate through this industry.
“Knowing now that you have real-world industry experience as a Chef, in your opinion how important are the professional development trainings UHCHI provides in a real-life interview?”
I think they’re key. The restaurant business, or working in
kitchens, is a different environment that many people haven’t been exposed to,
and understanding what your role is in the kitchen, as well as how you navigate
through kitchen leadership, is important. That can be a stumbling block for
people who aren’t familiar with it. Here at UHCHI, we instill the confidence
that you know what you’re doing, that you can walk into any professional
kitchen, and when the Chef gives you a list of things to do, you’ll get them
done. That kind of confidence is something that can only be taught through
training and repeated practice.
“What are some of the professional skills that UHCHI apprentices develop during this training?”
We start by ensuring that everyone has a strong professional
cook resume, regardless of their experience. We build confidence in
interviewing, including developing a strong elevator pitch so that if you only
have 30 seconds to explain why you’re the right person for the job, you can
confidently do so. We work on all the soft skills that go along with the
interview process to convince people that you are the right person for the job.
The feedback we receive from the Chef Instructors, as well as the communication
between the Director of Programs & Services and me, with the apprentices,
is invaluable. In this industry—and especially in this training—you must be
able to accept feedback on how you perform and put that feedback into practice.
“What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced working with apprentices during this training?”
One of the biggest challenges we’ve noticed with apprentices is that some are reluctant to trust the process. We see that it takes them longer to reach the point where they are truly confident in what they’re doing. Another challenge comes from the learned behaviors people bring into this training; some of these behaviors aren’t conducive to their success moving forward. Part of our feedback process is addressing these behaviors and encouraging apprentices to really question whether what they’re doing will lead them to success. Our program requires a tremendous amount of discipline and dedication. People who are not as willing to put in the required time will not be as successful as those who do.
“One of UHCHI’s slogans is ‘Remember your Why.’ What’s the history and purpose behind that saying?”
We came up with that slogan because we realized that some people were struggling—this job is not easy, and this work is not easy. There will always be obstacles and challenges. Being able to navigate successfully through those challenges is a big part of what we teach here at UHCHI. It’s important to remember why you’re there in the first place. If you keep that at the core of whatever you do—”Why am I here? What brought me through these doors?”—it helps you navigate the challenges, whether they are personal, life-related, or work-related.
“When you think of the opportunities that this training provides, would you be able to name a couple people who have used this training to really advance their career?”
Leah Jordan and Darryl Hall are two that stand out. Maggie Schroeder is another one. They trusted us early, even though some of them had reservations about doing so. All three of them faced challenges in their own lives that interfered with them at times. Despite those challenges, they remembered their “why” and reached out for help when they needed it. They were open to feedback and were good at putting it into practice. Despite those challenges, it did not deter their motivation or positivity, nor how they moved through their experience. Some people come in feeling nervous because they don’t have significant cooking experience. But we can always find relevant experience in people’s backgrounds that can apply to this program and moving forward. They can use those same sets of skills in the environment they’re entering.s