My Food Job Rocks!

  We have another great small business this episode. Piccola Cucina is an Italian bakery that focuses on Italian baked goods such as macarons and focus on using almonds in their mix. In this episode, you’ll learn about the different varieties of Macarons, how important it is to maneuver and adapt in the food industry as a small player, and some amazingly good resources and advice from the CEO herself. I always appreciate having small businesses on the podcast and we have a few more coming up in the pipeline. I admire their tenacity and thinking in the long term. This interview is no exception. About Pina Romolo An entrepreneurial, international trade, sales, and relationship management executive, delivering the highest level of client service with keen attention and acuteness to cultural and political sensitivities with valuable contacts in a number of worldwide regions; expert knowledge and proficiency in English, Spanish, Italian, French and basic German. Specialties: BA in languages, Specialty Food Manufacturing, Strategic Business Planning, Channel Sales, Web presence, Business Development, Event Management, Public Relations, Relationship Management About Piccola Cucina Piccola Cucina is the premier manufacturer of gourmet, handcrafted, almond based foods. These artisan products use almonds as the first ingredient and are made with the utmost of care and attention, manufactured in a dedicated gluten free facility. Products include a line of Italian macaroons, 6 flavours in all. Flavours include Amaretti, Chocoretti, Pistachioretti, Limonetti, Coconutt & Walnutti. Products also include almond based pie & tart shells. The sweet shells are free from gluten, dairy, grains, soy, corn & yeast, low in sodium & vegetarian. And the unsweetened shells are a multipurpose, vegan free from gluten, dairy, soy, corn & yeast & low in sodium. These shells are dense, won't get soggy, can withstand and hold any filling, from sweet to savoury, to quiches & meat pies, to deep dish pizza and anything in between. Key Take Aways - The history and diversification of macaroons (macarons) - Amazing specialty food industry resources - The ability to listen to customers and pivot - How do small businesses compete against the bigger guys? - Why family is everything What We Talk About Italian Family Recipes Italian Macaroons Amoretti cookie Almond flour French Macaroons, America Macaroons Brazil Macaroons Tip for making macaroons: Ask my mother Vegan Pie shells Listening to customers Food and Beverage Mannitoba (Board of Directors) Ciao Specialty Food Show Fancy Food Show in San Francisco Specialty food association newsletter Biscotti Gluten-Free My Food Job Rocks: I’m surrounded by good people, I get to be my own boss, I can build a legacy Food Technologies: Non-GMO As a business, what would you like to know more about?: I am learning every day District Ventures- Armine Dickinson’s Incubators Who inspired you to get into food?: My family, my mom Favorite Book: Arlene Dickinsons: All In Favorite Kitchen Item: A good knife Freezing basil Favorite Food: Pasta, Spaghetti Carbonata Advice to Start a Food Company: Be prepared to be in it for the long haul Don’t cut corners piccolacucina.com twitter linkedin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Ronquillo is a Cal Poly alumni, and perhaps she could be described as one of my first influences in getting me involved in college. She was the ideal academic student. With the 4.0 GPA, president of the food science club, she’s smart. After college, she went straight into industry and works at Newly Weds Foods as a food scientist where her focus is on seasoning blends. In this interview, we focus a good chunk on strategies to make your college experience meaningful, childhood heroes, and interview tips.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is the Vice President of Business Development for a distributor/ supplier, SPI Group, Russ Nishikawa. What SPI Group does is brokers deals with lesser known ingredients and markets them to customers. A specialized ingredient producer will make deals with distributors for them to market or sell their product. For example, I would have never known about a pea protein from Belgium if it wasn’t for the SPI Group. You don’t hear much about these types of businesses in school, but they are all the rage in industry, especially if you deal with highly functional and trendy ingredients. Anyways, I’ve known Russ Nishikawa for a couple of years in Northern California. He reminds me of my uncle to be honest. About Russ Nishikawa Russ has been involed in the growth of SPI Group for 25 years. He is involved in new ingredient business development with key customers and targeted market segments, working with new ingredient from new and existing suppliers and determining how applicable the product benefits are to each end product and customer, and maintaining a very technical approach to understanding the value of each ingredient to our customer's needs. About SPI Group SPI Group is a distributor of specialty ingredients to food, nutritional, and nutraceutical manufacturers in the Western United States and Canada. Quality Ingredients Personal Service Logistical Solutions Technical Personnel Key Takeaways How Russ got his first job in Hawaii Why learning about people is more important than process and equipment How tricky it is to substitute cleaner ingredients What We Talk About Humble Pie NCIFT New Professionals SPI Group Colorado Utah Clean Label Sodium Benzoate Lactic Acid Social Media MSG UC Davis Food Science Hawaii- Maui Papayas Punaynay IslandCommerce Wisconsin Learning more about People Formosa Food Ingredients New Zealand Milk Products New York Most Important Skill in the Industry: Empathy How to improve empathy: it’s about character, you’re trying to do the best for yourself and others Why Does Your Food Job Rock: It’s Part of Commerce Food Trends and Technologies: Clean Label GMO, Non-GMO Phosphates Spices and Extracts The Biggest Challenge the Food Industry needs to Face: Trust in the consumer and transparency We’re on the same side What’s one thing in the food industry you want to know more about?: How food interacts with each other Understanding process Inspiration: My Sister got me to look at food science Pilot Plant Most important ingredient: The people. Quote: Be The Light –Buddha Don’t be a downer Favorite Food: Poco Loco (might actually be El pollo loco) Poke QSR Advice for the Food Industry: Match your personality to the career you like For the Future: I’d like to build process lines to Food Banks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First off, I am loving the diversity of our guests recently. From different ages and genders from all over the world! The person we are interviewing today fits into this category. Deya is from Mexico and now works for the ever-trending Beyond Meat, where they produce meat substitutes that actually taste like real meat. If you do some research, their process making it (which is proprietary, and won’t be discussed too much here, sorry folks) is pretty fascinating. You’re going to learn a ton about an interesting process called extrusion, which is a very scientifically complex process that creates really cool products. Basically, you take raw materials, put them into a machine and it pops out a product… that was a horrible description… but if you just google the process on how hot dogs, protein bars, or even how puffed cereal is made, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I used to do some extrusion work in college and at my old job so it was nice to talk to somewhat of a kindred spirit. However, I think Deya takes it to the next level, she is probably one of the most passionate people I’ve ever seen in a particularly specific subject and you will find out exactly why in this episode About Deya Suarez Trujillo Deya was born in Monterrey, Mexico to parents with engineering and food science masters degrees. Their influence and understanding of the teaching method and her mother’s strong belief in leading by example and learn by doing, challenged Deya early in life to take risks and not be afraid to fail, as well as her dad always pushing her to be limitless creative.  Together with her passion for creating yummy food allowed her to excel as a fearless, young engineer, working with heavy machinery, and integrating her work with scientists. Deya attended university at Tecnologico de Monterrey known for their expertise and innovation with food science, particularly food engineering using extrusion technology.  Additionally, Deya spent a year as an exchange student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  A food protein extrusion program at Texas A&M exposed her to the versatility of combining food and engineering machinery to create a wider range of food products. This lead Deya to Beyond Meat, a company focused on improving human health, positively impacting climate change, conserving natural resources and respecting animal welfare through the innovation of plant based meat products. There, she leads the extrusion team developing, designing and communicating scale-up technology transfer for manufacturing in the extrusion team. On any given day she can be found working the drill press, creating and testing new die models for product improvement and functionality or testing new sustainable ingredients to help make the Beyond Meat products better. She gets messy, takes chances, develops early proof of concept designs, and executes on time. Deya rides her bike to work along the beach and enjoys the beach with friends. She loves hiking in the hills above the ocean, painting, watching football, doing yoga and cooking with friends and family (specially Mexican food). Key Takeaways How Deya got into extrusion technology Why Deya and I love Steve Jobs Why you should be involved in something specific What We Talk About IFT16 IFT App Uber Extrusion Engineer Meat Replacements Extruder Clextral Twin Screw Extruder Buhler Extruder Extrusion functionality and reminiscing problems How to recreate extrusion during the bench sample process Texas A and M Extrusion Course Food Science Engineer Easy-Bake Oven Techologico De Monterey (College) Cereal Science My Food Job Rocks: I do what I love Beyond Meat Why Plant protein is the future Extrusion By Products such as Whey, Fruit Skins, etc Reducing Food Waste Favorite Quote: Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. (I have this on my cubicle) Steve Job’s Autobiography Favorite Book: The Happiness Track Emma Seppoa Life’s too Short to Be Stressful Favorite Food: Mexican Food (Salsa) Advice for anyone who wants to go in the food industry: Get Ready. Find something unusal that you’re passionate about Find the experts and go out to find the experts Invest in your future: You might not have all the knowledge right now, but if you’re surrounded with people who know things but you don’t, learn from them. Appreciate what you know, and share what you know, and learn other things from other people My Linkedin Video about Extrusion Processing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Download Interview (Right Click Save As)   For today’s episode, we have Chef Michael Bunn, Senior Manager of Sam’s Club where he takes on a Quality and an R and D role. This guy has an amazing food career. From culinary school in the military, to academia, to being a research Chef, so many things. This guy loves what he does. The RCA loves this dude too. He’s had articles published about him, and Kim also has a great podcast about him as well. Enjoy Chef Bunn’s interview, where we talk about chef school, retorting, and…Baltimore crab… About Chef Michael Bunn As a former military cook and current Sam;'s Club senior quality and product development manager, semper fidelis- the "always faithful" motto of the Marines - guides Michael Bunn's life and work. I cannot do this justice, but this amazing article about the Chef will be the best bio I've ever seen. http://www.nxtbook.com/sosland/rca/2016_09_01/index.php?startid=1#/30 Key Takeaways Why Mike decided to go into research instead of being a chef Whether Mike enjoys Product Developing versus Quality What the heck is Clean Label? How do Chefs help the clean label trend How to ship Baltimore crab to your house Why the industry is looking for both chefs and food scientists What We Talk About Being a Chef Culinary School in the Marine Corps Culinary and Hospitality Management University of Akron, Ohio Food Science at Akron, Ohio University of Cincinnati Food Science Program The Werner Company Retort Intern (company disbanded) JR Simplot Masters Degree in Food Science in Kansas State Sam’s Club Retorting MREs Private Label Research Chef Association Important Skills: Communication, Networking, Flexibility. Be Humble Interview Article for the Culinology Magazine Food Trends: High Pressure Processing versus Thermal Processing Sous Vide Ramen egg Biggest Challenge we need to face: Sodium and Clean label How Mike talks about Clean Label: Depends who’s asking. Panera Bread, Subway have different views for instance What Mike wants to learn more about: GMO’s, Sodium Who inspired you to get into food?: His grandmother Quote: Poor Planning equals Poor Results Book: Culinology Book: Interaction between culinary arts and food science (actually called this) Kitchen Item: Hand blender Favorite Food: Sea food. Crabs and Shrimp. Steam garlic crab, whole boiled crab. Baltimore Crab (they will ship live to you) Google: Live crab for sale online (Maryland) Mayland Blue Crab Express Advice about the food industry: for the chef Learn the craft and skill set very well Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we have a special guest who came all the way from Australia. Bo Wang was born in China, moved to Canada for academia, and now lives in Australia working for the industry. His focus is microencapsulation and works to encapsulate fish oil at Nu-Mega Technologies. Within this episode, he not only talks about his amazing opportunities living in difference contries, but also really digs deep on the difference between academia and industry. Also, let me know if the audio is good or not, it’s a bit fuzzy this time and I would love your feedback. I recommend you listen without headphones this time if you can. The first section of this episode is a segment of Peas on Moss' episode. You can find the full article here. About Bo Wang Dr. Bo Wang is a Senior Food Technologist at Nu-Mega Ingredients, Queensland, Australia where he is leading the development of novel microencapsulation delivery systems for various bioactive ingredients. He is also an adjunct Senior Lecturer at The University of Queensland and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University. Dr. Bo Wang has a Ph.D. in Food Chemistry and Engineering from China Agriculture University and completed his fellowships at Agricultural and Agri-Food Canada and Deakin University before starting his career in the industry. His current research interests include a broad spectrum of natural products extraction and characterization, analytical chemistry, food biotechnology and omega-3 oil technology with expertise in the nano-/micro-encapsulation technologies. About Nu-Mega Ingredients NU-MEGA Ingredients Pty Ltd. develops, produces, and supplies omega-3 DHA as an ingredient to the food industry. The company offers a range of microencapsulated Hi-DHA tuna fish oils for addition to various products in dry powder form. It offers its products for various applications, such as infant nutrition products, including infant formulas and moist solid preparations; bread and bakery products; cereals, which include muesli bars and breakfast products; dairy products, such as frozen confection, yoghurts, fromage frais, and milk; supplements, including capsules and dietary products; beverages and juices; animal feeds; and fruit preparations. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Melbourne, Australia. NU-MEGA Ingredients Pty Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Clover Corporation Limited. Key Takeaways - Bo’s AMAZING traveling opportunities - Why Microencapsulation is pretty important - Different Cultural Ways of thinking between culture, academic and industry - When Bo said he was a Food Engineer and people thought he was a Chef - The big difference between Industry and Academia What We Talk About Australia China Agricultural Engineer Canada Lycopene Food Engineer Ph.D Microencapsulation Fish Oil Cultural Way of Thinking Most Important Skill: The consumer don’t really need a perfect product. Fulfill their needs, not yours Food By-products My Food Job Rocks: I love it! I can serve people Biggest Challenge: Food Industry focuses more on money than research What’s one thing you’d like to know more about?: How to process raw materials into extracts Did anyone inspire you to get into food? : My Supervisors and connections Favorite Food: Chinese people can eat anything Scorpions Insects (why he doesn’t like the trend) Advice for anyone who wants to go to the food industry: The connection between academia and industry is close. Do not stay in the lab, keep on making connections and asking questions IFT Expo Retail Euro VitaEuro AIFST – Austrlia IFT AOCS – Chemistry Society Agricultural Engineering Conference Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wanted to start your own Ice Cream Buisness? Daryl David is the man for you! His life is 100% ice cream. From starting his own business, to now helping people grow their own, there is no man I know who knows more about ice cream than Darryl David If you want more information on Darryl, check out his website on www.icecreamprivatelabel.com This episode is full of everything ice cream. Ice cream history, ice cream business, ice cream science, and ice cream innovation. Key Takeaways The history of ice cream and its renaissance How to contact a co-manufacturer for business Rich, young entrepreneurs who want to make pot ice cream Why ice cream is the perfect food science experiment What We Talk About Dairy or Non-Dairy Frozen Buisness Such as: Ice Cream,Popsicles, Mom and Pop Ice Cream Shop, Gelato icecreamprivatelabel.com Private Label CoPacker SEO friendly Soda Fountain Steve’s Ice Cream (Harryl’s Ice Cream) Batch freezer Coldstone Creamery Electrofreeze White Mountain Freezer Quote: “What people see today is the fast moving train, not the wheels struggling at the beginning” Golden Age of Ice Cream: Chunks of Cookies, Artificial turned Natural, adding nuts Startups for Ice Cream What you need to talk to a Manufacturer: Ingredients, products, capacity, formula The difference between making things at home versus manufacturing Maltomeal Enough information to know everything, or over confidence THC-infused ice cream Mantra: Let’s make a product professionally, consistently, and good! Good Experience versus Bad Experience in product development Momenti – high end alcohol ice cream Who inspired you to get into ice cream?: Me People eat ice cream to feel good The perfect food example Liquid Nitrogen Shops The process of Dippin’ Dots Advice about Getting into a Food Buisness: Call Darryl I mean, if you think you can’t hire a professional, wait till you hire an amateur Quote: I may lay the canvas out, but they will paint the picture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Download This Episode Here Congratulations to Alanna, Brian, and Amit for snagging Ali Bouzari's new book! This monologue is about the ways you can maximize your college experience and hopefully prepare you for the future. You can follow all of these rules, or none of them. I'm just distilling my "complicated" college life. Key Takeaways Why you need to be involved in college How to be involved in college Why my best experience in college wasn't food science related What We Talk About Lion Dancing Transcript In this episode, I’m going to talk to you the importance of getting involved in college. Before I go into college, don’t be one of those people who thinks college is a waste of time. You can be rich going to college, you can be rich going to trade school, you can be rich by not going to school at all! I’m a bit fatigued about how any people complain about working at starbucks after graduation when the anecdotes between successful people and unsuccessful people are relatively the same. College is indeed, what you make of it. And it’s a time that will really cement how you will deal with life in general. Some people will spend it partying, some people want to find true love, some people want to get experience starting a company, get into the Big 4 Accounting firms, support local communities, or change the world. Me? I’m not sure. I kept my options open. A lot of people get screwed over on college debt. A lot of people have to work two jobs in food service and take classes. I’m going to be honest with you, my parents paid for my college so I was able to focus on more things that other people could not. However, I want to give you service on what I thought was most beneficial in college. This is me sharing my experience and though you may or may not be in my shoes, distilling my experience might enrich your college experience. I hope. At my busiest time in college, I: Had 2 part time jobs: in the pilot plant and in the Multicultural center. I probably wouldn’t survive working there with the wage they paid me. Did 2 product development competitions: Disney and Developing Solutions for Developing Countries Was in 3-5 clubs with 2 being officer positions (Captain of the Lion Dance Team, Treasurer of a cooking club) Was a committee head for a really cool diversity event with 500 people involved. Did an entrepreneurship competition So this involved staying up until 12 to 2am every day. Fun stuff, right? So I didn’t have to do all this, and to be honest, you shouldn’t. What I found valuable from these experiences was the relationships you for by meeting different people. With these relationships, you learn so many things. How to talk to people, how to convince people, how to be charismatic, how to excite a crowd, plan events, count money, take notes, write agendas, align visions, work together. The relationships you kindle when you do these extracurriculars are vital if you choose to go into the career you studied. Or not. But it certainly has helped me with this podcast. So in this episode, I want to give you 5 distinct actions why you should be involved with things in college and 5 distinct actions on how to do it. Let’s begin. Let’s start with “Why”: For some people, getting involved in college can be a way to make new friends, a shiny spot to put on your resume, or because you’re generally a good person at heart, right? Anyways, I have 5 reasons on “why” you should get involved in college especially if you’re in your freshman year. 1. You will look attractive on paper Of course, the most straight forward reason you should get involved is to put it on your resume Here’s some real life advice: it might not be wise to do everything. There are a lot of people who were just good at one thing and got a job super easily. There was this one girl in college, where all she did was talk about wanting to be a plant manager and so she did an amazing job climbing through the ranks of college and grab a leadership position within the Cal Poly Pilot Plant. Her focused experience got her the job quite easily where my sporadic experience…well… took me a while. You can check that out on episode 10. However, getting involved as much as possible does have its perks… For one, you get this huge foundation of soft skills, something that throughout this episode, you’ll come to find out. More importantly, it makes you a more wholesome person, you learn not to be so much of a jerk, and you have increased diversity awareness due to just dealing with different people. However, you can’t fit everything on your resume…but you can on your linkedin profile… You can’t BS experience In most interview questions I’ve experienced, I have been able to fit in the question with an answer quite well because of the myriad of experiences. In fact, I could give comprehensive stories on how I delt with the situation. It’s very hard to BS experience, but that’s not to say you can’t. I know a lot of people who BS or stretch the truth, but it doesn’t make them good people. You should be a good person. I think what I really want to get at here is this: most interview questions you’ll get can be answered the best in a story format. It enriches your answer and gives people a much better understanding on who you are as a person. So armed with this knowledge, BSing your answer will make you seem good at first, but you’re probably going to be living a lie throughout your time at work. But some people do it. Some people are very good at lying though, and some people pull through with it. Hey, if it’s what you want in life, then you do you. You will forge deeper connections As long as you are consistent at meetings and not a jerk, you will forge very deep connections with people who are involved. It is vital to forge these connections for people who are involved in things because the return on investment is extremely valuable. But you can only forge connections if you are fully committed. Commitment, like many of you guys probably know, is a huge sacrifice because you can only share who you hang out with so much. In a platonic point of view, which club is going to give you the most value from your time? On a deeper level, which friend is going to? And value is very very subjective. Depending on the person, value can mean so many things. At my freshman year, I tried out 30 clubs. In my final year, I peaked my head in about 4. You’d probably go insane if you invested all of your time in 30 clubs. I might have almost did. But you soon realize who or what is more important. I found the people in my department and the diversity-advocate community, along with some food clubs, important to me. Let me give you an example: All of the Cal Poly Alumni who have been interviewed for this podcast were a result of forging deep connections throughout college. Whether it be in classes, clubs, or competitions. If I didn’t forge a good connection with them, I don’t think this podcast would have turned out. They really supported me during the makings of this, and they were the spark that ignited the flame. I really can’t thank my Cal Poly friends enough for supporting this podcast. I’ve worked with Katie and Taryn on food science projects, the IFTSA product development competitions, and other crazy things in my University. Because we were involved in everything together, we trust each other.  So I’ll just say another thank you to both of them. 4. You get, and I’m putting this in quotes… “free stuff” One of the funniest things I like to do is post stuff on social media on things I get for free. I used to do it on facebook, instagram, and now snapchat. By the way, every social emdia thing I have is itsmeadamyee, all one word. Free stuff is nice, but as the old saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. I feel like with that mindset, it ruins the involvement experience because it makes you very ungrateful on the free swag (shirt, food, concert pass) that you received. For me, I enjoyed helping people and getting involved so I enjoyed the benefits of the free stuff. Point being, the value you put into something will bring back as much value as you get out of it. Here’s an example: You get paid to go to work for 8 hours a day. You convert hours to dollars. If I spent 5 hours a week feeding the homeless, I don’t necessarily get money, but the value is still there. Feeding the homeless gives me satisfaction, it gives me, purpose, it gives me happiness in times where I feel really bad about myself. Seeing people smile when I give them a can of corn feels good to me. But it can also give other things. What if it gives you the chance to meet a famous person? Or the love of your life? Granted, these are far off, but the point is, you never know. Exposing yourself as a good person to people makes you valuable, and it should strip you of any bad intentions that you think you have. However it’s also an investment, you might not see returns in a month, but it snowballs. Your reputation increases, and the value might return 10 fold. 5. You develop a sense of purpose and meaning So this mainly happens when you get into a leadership position. Especially the VP or President stage. For some people, leading something’s pretty cool, and don’t knock it till you try it. Once you learn to lead something, and get people to do things for a common cause, it’s quite a strange, but satisfying feeling. Especially in hindsight. But people will do it, because they either like you, or the idea. Both help…a lot. With enough leading on something you’re inherently passionate about, you might actually make a difference. For me, it was working on getting Cal Poly to get involved in IFT and entering the product development competitions. Once we actually placed and were able to go to Chicago, that was like “wow, we actually made progress!” And that’s an amazing feeling! The feeling of actually leading people to do something significant is something everyone in the world should try to do. Once this happens, you can actually feel a sense of purpose, and later in life, that might save you from the impact of being an adult. Never have anyone berate or laugh at your sense of purpose. Whether God, the environment, improving your home town, getting married and having kids, being an astrounaut, telling everyone you’re a food scientist, your purpose is unique. And for some people who say they don’t have a purpose, well, my only advice to find it is to really lead something and make an impact. Once you’ve had small successes doing that, go bigger, and suddenly, it’s like you were born to do this. How Alright, you’ve made it this far. As much as we like to hear why something works, it’s more practical to learn how something works. Here are 5 actions you can use right away to get more involved in college. Join a club/organization dedicated to your major To get ahead of half your classmates, you should probably join the club or organization dedicated to your major. For Electrical Engineers, that’s I Triple E, for Food Scientists, it’s IFT. Ask your professor which organizations to join. Do it, email him or her right now. Unless you’re driving… then wait until you get home. Other than club fairs, job fairs, etc, the best way to absolutely get into an organization is to just ask (well, except for the Greek system). People absolutely love it when you ask if you can join something and they shouldn’t ignore you if you request to join, unless you give off that you’re a horrible person. Join a club/organization dedicated to your major …and make it better It’s vital that once in your college career, you do a leadership position Some leaders want to do everything, and then get overwhelmed and depressed, and ultimately, their legacy fades. Actually, your legacy is probably going to fade anyways since college is like life on steroids. After you graduate, you’ll keep clinging on to your friends in college, and then maybe in 3 or 4 years… poof, you’re forgotten. Oh well. I went off tangent… basically, instead of focusing on making an organization better as a whole, make it your vision to improve just one thing about the organization. This can be getting into a new competition, or hosting an amazing banquet, whatever. This teaches the power of legacy. Legacy is important, especially in college, but probably later in life. At most, you’re going to have 2 years tops in improving your organization, so time is valuable. Getting in the mindset that you need to impact your “legacy” is important. Legacy isn’t exactly a name, it’s what you actually did during your year of leadership. Did you make a cool How-To manual for next year? Or did you organize an amazing event for the campus? Or as simple as implementing a successful fundraiser or bake-sale is good enough. 20 years from now, wouldn’t it bring a tear to your eye if you came back on campus and saw the thing you worked on still being worked on? Like that pizza Friday you kept on pushing year after year was successful after 20 years. Stuff like that, though small, is what you need to strive for to make an impact in college. And they may forget that you did it, but that shouldn’t matter. The fame shouldn’t matter, the experience that you received should matter the most. And of course, you don’t have to be club president to do so. In fact, I ran twice for food science club president until you realize how cliquey it got. But in hindsight, I realized I got really power hungry. I’m proud of the things I did in my department so I have no regrets in what I did. Roberto and Emma did a great job in their terms. Join a club/organization not dedicated to your major So besides Food Science activities, I really enjoyed getting involved with the Asian community in Cal Poly. There was a point where I was living two lives: an overachiever in food science… and an overachiever in Asian things…. Looking back, was it necessary? For an average person, probably not… but… yea let’s leave it at that. Let’s see, I had a job for 2 years at the Multicultural Center, lead a 500 person diversity initiative, and probably my most precious moment, I would say, the most ephinany-like moment in Cal poly was leading and growing a Lion Dance Team. This was the first team I grabbed by the horns and lead charge. I fell in love, became absolutely obsessed with lion dancing. For audio reasons, it’s the rawr Lion, not the one in country bars. Please, just google it. Lion Dancing is this ancient art of Chinese Dancing where we dress up in these giant paper mache dragon-like costumes and scare away evil sprits… that’s probably the best description I can give. If anything, you can google Lion Dancing… L-I-O-N Dancing and something cool will pop up. It’s cultural, and frankly, it taught me how to run a business (which to be honest, a good chunk of profit was rewarded to our club members via all you can eat Korean BBQ). It taught me how to manage money, members, develop systems to make things really effective, how to motivate members (via food), and how to develop strong family-like bonds that would make it impossible to leave. So this can be practically anything. Not just cultural. I chose cultural because… I’m Asian. As discussed on how to make a legacy, my most proudest legacy was mending relationships with our parent organization, the Chinese Student Association. I found this extremely satisfying in the beginning, there was a mutual hate with each organization, and after 4 years, having half of our board have lion dance members just last year. What’s amazing about that, is that you basically planted a seed, and told the next person in charge to keep watering! But there’s plenty of other avenues to look into such as socially conscious organizations like a fair trade club or permaculture club, a project oriented club like a rose float or robotics club, or sports club like club soccer and intramurals. There are so many options it’s ridiculous so just go for it. Try everything. Form bonds and maybe a following Though the food science clubs gave me value professionally, joining the cultural environment at college improved me as a person. It was the family I never had. And that’s extremely important to acquire in college. So forming bonds between your collegues is extremely important. Like I mentioned before, you are investing in your future by forming these bonds. You never know when someone can get you a job offer just because you helped them on their homework. But the food science organization did give me a kind of following… So there’s a lot of debate whether to form a lot of bonds with multiple people, or form strong bonds ith a few people? I guess not everyone is a connector, so whatever floats your boat. My recommendation? At least in a professional setting, form strong bonds with people who have a good network. Usually, those people are pretty friendly. Don’t cry when you lose When you fail at an election, or have 3 people show up to your scheduled event, a fancy banquet that fell through, or whatever, don’t cry about it… at least not in front of people. You can cry when you go home, or in the arms of a loved one. So you’re going to hear this throughout your whole adult life: you need to embrace failure. We’re taught all of our lives not to get F’s in school, and I’m still in the mindset that failure hurts. But that’s a good thing. It’s very important to learn how to feel the pain of failure. It’s more important to have the ability to analyze why you’ve failed and improve on it. Failure hurts as much as a bad test grade, a broken heart, and a lost acceptance letter. Some will say those scenarios are all failures. But when that happens to you, what did you do? Did you complain on facebook? Did you cave in and stay in your room forever? Maybe. Can’t say I haven’t. Can’t say you haven’t. But every time I’ve “failed”, I’ve learned how to analyze what went wrong and try something new. Everyone has their own different story on how to conquer a loss. Some get numbed, some walk away, some crumble and never leave their room, ever. The best advice I can give you, is that when one door closes, another one opens. And it’s up to you to pack your bags and charge at that door at 100%. Final thoughts: The most important thing you need to learn in college is learn how to be a leader. To progress anywhere in life, to be recognized, to be respected, you have to learn to be a leader. So make it your goal to lead at least one thing you’re passionate about in college. It’s such an amazing opportunity to inspire others. You need to take it. And when you graduate, never stop leading. Join a non-profit or 12, build something in your town or city that you’ve always wanted to be a part of. You have that ability now. By being a leader, your life will have meaning. And always remember: there is no better time in the world to create something new. This podcast was made with about $100 dollars in equipment, all I needed was the initiative to start, and the courage to ask experts to help me. Before, I hated my own voice, before, I could never think of talking to people, asking engaging questions right on the spot. When you ‘Grow up”, it’s easier, yet scarier to start something new, and lead. But those who feel your enthusiasm will follow. It might take a while, you might have people who think you’re crazy, but all you have to do is smile. Learn to Lead and keep on leading. Thank you for listening Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Download this Episode   Today we have our first food retail business owner! Sarabeth Yeli Marshall has her own chocolate company and she tells us her amazing story of how she got to where she is today. The questions are a little bit different, but this is the side of the industry where anyone can start. We have a  few more food business ones in stock and the amazing thing about food buisnesses is that you can start anywhere, any time, with any degree. I hope you find this podcast inspiring…and craving chocolate! PS: Click here to vote for Yeli Belly Chocolates for the Brassy's Award! About Sarabeth "Yeli" Marshall The proud owner of Yelibelly Chocolates in Southlake, Texas. Visit our store and sample our award winning, artisan chocolates! Registered Dietitian and chocolatier with over 14 years of experience in the fields of food/nutrition program branding and promotion, menu and product development, wellness program development, foodservice management and USDA food programs. About Yelibelly Chocolates (from the Brassys Award Site) What is your company’s vision? Working with chocolate requires a range of culinary skills, a bit of artistry and a talent for taste. While technique and hand skills are important to the success of a chocolatier, taste is the most important element of all. To provide something that looks amazing is one thing, but once someone tastes the chocolate, nothing else matters. Our vision is to offer exquisite, flavor-infused chocolate to the masses. We’re willing to break a few culinary rules and set our chocolate apart by offering flavors that tempt and tease. Let’s spice it up with habanero or bring in a savory taste with a procini mushroom infused ganache. In the end, we are going to get chocolate wasted! What makes your product or business unique and innovative? Yelibelly Chocolates is built on science and sparkle. Meet our chocolatier, Yeli, the only belly-dancing, dietitian-turned-chocolatier on the scene. Her background is not in culinary arts but in food and nutritional science. She worked as a dietitian for 14 years before opening Yelibelly. That science background brings a different vision to the chocolate from years of working in research and development and it shows in our unique flavor profiles. And then there is the sparkle! The first boutique to sell our chocolate was the dance studio were Yeli was teaching Egyptian Belly Dance. By bringing together her two passions – chocolate and bellydance, we get Yelibelly Chocolates!   Key Takeaways - How Yeli went from Being a  Dietitian to a Food Buisness - The power of aroma-based Chocolate - Why Yeli enjoys being creative and loves it when people enjoy her food What We Talk About Texas Artisan Chocolate Company Bon bon and truffles Back end selling Airbrush Colored Cocoabutter transfer sheets Registered Dietitian Genova Italy Cardemom Cedar Infused Chocolate Sriracha Chocolate (not a good idea) Biggest Challenge we have to face: Misinformation. My background leads me to too much knowledge Gluten-Free Water What’s one thing you’d like to know more about?: How do I make new products? Chicago Callebuat Academy Valrhona Chocolate Company East Coast Guitard California Chocolate Course Callebaut learning library (FREE) Who Inspired You to Get Into Food?: Ethnic Restaurants, her ex-husband Kitchen Item: Sil-pad (Silicon Pad), Tempering Machine One Meal to Eat: Indian Food, more specifically Chicken Tiki Masala Clove in Chocolate Advice for Starting a Food Business: Don’t give up, don’t back down. It’s always going to get better. Hang on. What’s Next: Finding her own place. She currently has a Shared Storefront Southlake Texas Dallas and Fort Worth   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part two of Ali Bouzari's amazing interview. Find part 1 here: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/018ali/ And don't forget about our giveaway at www.myfoodjobrocks.com About Ali Bouzari As an Iranian Texan, Ali Bouzari grew up with exposure to different cuisines, but most notably, beef over an open flame. His affinity for food and science lead him to become the guy where all the top chefs call him for help on the science of food. After waking up from a nightmare, he googled on his phone, “food chemistry PhD” and found himself at the University of California, Davis for Food Biochemistry. Strategically located near Napa and Sonoma’s food scene and San Francisco’s thriving entrepreneurial food and tech hub, Davis was his master plan to be the guy where chefs call him. Between being an instructor for the Culinary Institute of America and a graduate student at Davis, he juggled being a freelance consultant for chefs, tapping into the new market of research chefs. Later, he co-founded a consulting firm with top research chefs and a stealthy food lawyer to help make his dream of becoming the go to people for solving food problems. About Ingredient If you want to pre-order Ali’s book, Ingredient, you can go on Amazon. The book is expected to release September 27, 2016. For the price of two mouthwatering sandwiches, the ones similar to what Joey Tribbiani savor, you can learn the essentials of food and cooking through colorful artwork and the translation of esoteric scientific theories into practical at home cooking. You can learn a little more about Ali by reaching out to him on Twitter with his account, Alibouzari. You can also find out more information on his website. The website includes media coverage on Ali, his works in writing, media and Pilot R + D. What We Learn About Read a ton of books; books help you recognize what is really great and between the lines, it helps you understand why something is great Eating can be constituted as research Savory applications in food is trending Ingredient by Ali Bouzari is the Rosetta Stone to cooking What We Talk About Research: Eating the best Austin BBQ as tax certified Favorite food: Texas BBQ Brisket Beef is a huge thing in Iran and Texas Umami Human breastmilk has 20x more glutamate than cow milk MSG EXO bars Fermentation and Food Industry Favorite Books: Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking and Sandor Katz’s Art of Fermentation Favorite Kitchen item: Deep Welled-Spoon and Rubber Spatula Advice: Hire a food person when starting a food company. CDO: Chief Deliciousness Officer (this is a mde up term) Ingredient book presale Rosetta Stone of Cooking Website: alibouzari.com Twitter: AliBouzari Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices