Today we’d like to introduce you to Dani Zuchovicki.
Dani, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Everything started with an endless identity crisis, as they usually do. I was in college and had just taken a course called Cultures, Class, and Cuisine: A Question of Taste, and I finally put everything together. I had been cooking all of my life, I’d host dinner parties with my high school friends and my parents, and that didn’t stop in college. Thanks to that class and reading Kitchen Confidential, I decided to leave school to pursue my true passion: food. And boy, am I happy, I did that! Food is so cool, important, innovative, creative, beautiful, and delicious! I ended up at the Culinary Institute of America where I pursued my Associates Degree in Culinary Arts and later, my Bachelors Degree in Applied Food Studies.
During my time in school, students were required to do a 15-week externship in any restaurant in the country that would accept us. My fiancée, at the time boyfriend, kept pushing me to apply to all of these restaurants that never in my wildest dreams would have ever thought wanted me. Thanks to Ethan, I saw how capable and brave I am to walk up to one of my biggest idols, Stephanie Izard’s door at Girl and the Goat in Chicago, IL, with my little knife roll, bandana, and clogs. After a 13 hour unpaid shift, I landed the job and ended up working with some pretty awesome people that taught me a ton of stuff.
After completing my Associates, I decided to take some time off and I found another awesome opportunity that leads to my love of teaching. I began working for an awesome kid’s culinary school called The Kids’ Table. I learned how amazing it is to teach people about food, especially people from underserved communities.
I once taught a class of high schoolers from the South Side of Chicago to make Macaroni and Cheese, and not using the blue box. I grabbed a sweet potato and asked my students “what is this?” And that’s where I heard a student say, “a rock,” which led to a whole bunch of guesses but none of them is a sweet potato. I finally told my students what the ingredient was only to find out that most of them had never had a fresh, straight from the plant, sweet potato. I went home that night completely heartbroken for those kids. But that’s where I saw my future.
When I went back to pursue my Bachelors, I chose a major that focused on my greater passion: the politics and social economics of food. Food can be incredibly exclusive, with all the fine dining restaurants, and the health fads and misunderstanding of things like organic. But we often forget how inclusive food actually is, for example, everyone’s gotta eat! Why not start with that? Through luck, I found Emily Boling, the founder and Executive Director of The Floured Apron. Emily took a chance on me, and here I am, honored to be empowering women with the tools, knowledge, and resources to enter a more economically secure career path.
Has it been a smooth road?
It would be awesome to say it was so smooth and everything just fell into place. But life doesn’t always work that way all the time. There were some big ol’ bumps along the way and still are. In this industry and this world, as a woman, I have found it really hard to consider my worth. In the first restaurant I worked in, I was made to feel so useless and constantly sexually objectified by all of my peers. I was the only woman in the kitchen and that was intimidating and scary. I have been pinned up against the wall of the walk-in cooler by my superiors while I was trying to do the inventory of my station in peace. Hearing my Sous-Chef say that the only reason I am in this kitchen is to have something nice to look at, followed by recommending me to wear yoga pants as my uniform. In my time in the industry, I have felt very lost and powerless. And I know I’m not alone, but it took me many years to learn this. I look back on all the uncomfortable circumstances that people put me in, and I constantly regret that I did not use my voice. Although it may seem easier to hold everything in and shrug everything off, remember your voice is important. Speak up for yourself, you are important, and your voice is so powerful.
We’d love to hear more about The Floured Apron.
Founded by Emily Boling in 2015, The Floured Apron is a non-profit bakery job training and mentoring program whose mission is to empower women from underserved communities with the training, knowledge, and support they need to forge a new and more economically secure path. We seek women in transition facing a variety of challenges including poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, unemployment, and underemployment.
Our intensive, full-time, 10-week job training and mentoring program provide curriculum-based, hands-on training in skills valued by culinary industry employers. It includes personal and professional development and one-on-one career coaching. Maintaining a consistent work history has been a challenge for most of our students. Our program addresses this challenge by taking the love of baking and turning it into a career. This increased stability not only benefits our graduates but their children and generations to follow. 77% successfully graduated with the skills and certification needed to begin a culinary career months later, 95% obtained stable housing within three months of graduation, 85% placed in Full-Time jobs, and 92% of whom are still working 6-12 months later.
The Floured Apron engages volunteers and utilizes one-on-one mentoring, personal coaching, and professional counseling to meet these objectives: Provide the tools and support necessary for motivated, capable women from underserved Chicagoland communities to believe in the possibility of their own potential; Empower our students with the training and skill development necessary for entry into culinary industry employment; Improve the economic stability of our graduates and their families through culinary industry job placement and career development plans.
Finding a mentor and building a network are often cited in studies as a major factor impacting one’s success. Do you have any advice or lessons to share regarding finding a mentor or networking in general?
Finding a mentor is tough, but I have gone out of my way to find people that make me feel good about myself. I’m not talking about narcissism or anything, I’m talking about finding people that bring a big smile to your face. Those people that help you grow and look at the world from at least ten different perspectives. The most important thing I’ve learned while having my current position at The Floured Apron is that any moment can be a networking opportunity. Be open to discussing your hard work and you never know what will come from it. I’ve acquired many students and volunteers for our program in the most random of places!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.theflouredapron.org/home/
- Phone: 847.868.BAKE
- Email: info@theflouredapron.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theflouredapron_org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlouredApronBakery/
- Other: http://www.theflouredapron.org/home/tickets/
Image Credit:
Lisa Olson
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