Lessons from a Quitter How Chef Jenny Dorsey quit her MBA program to create social change through food
Jun 18, 2019
44:50
You can pursue a traditional career and yet still approach it in a unique way, making it your own, and that is the basis for today's interview. Prior to crafting her own career path, Jenny Dorsey was a management consultant in the fashion industry and went on to become the youngest MBA candidate in Columbia Business School. But it was then during a sabbatical between leaving her job and moving onto business school that she decided to enroll in cooking school. At the time, cooking was nothing more than a hobby and something she pursued purely out of her passion for food. Once she went back to her original path of business school, she realized something had changed and it no longer aligned with her. This lead to her final decision to pursue food instead. Throughout her journey in the culinary world, she worked both traditional and un-traditional kitchen jobs that eventually lead her to where she is today. Currently, Jenny is a professional chef, author, and artist specializing in multi-platform fusing food with social good. She uses cooking as a way to facilitate conversations about topics like race, privilege, and politics. She leads a nonprofit studio, Studio ATAO, is the co-host of Why Food? podcast on Heritage Radio Network, and runs a popular popup series named Wednesdays. Jenny's story is so inspiring because she could have easily taken the traditional route with her cooking career. She could have become a chef and considered that the end goal, but she didn't. Instead, she found a way to think outside of the box and combine all of her passions into a fulfilling career.
Here is what we chat about in this episode:
- How there are many ways to do something.
- That it's normal to feel panicked when you don't know where your path is headed.
- Why you shouldn't do something just because you're good at it.
- How Jenny combines food and conversations about social topics.
- And so much more!
Where to find Jenny:
- Website: https://www.jennydorsey.co/
- Website: https://www.studioatao.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefjennydorsey/
- Podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/why-food
Resources Mentioned:
Follow along for more: