Day 317: Virginia Willis

August 13, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… food is so much more than just sustenance, and the fact that there’s so many stories behind that bowl of peaches:  there’s the farmers that work the land, there’s the immigrant workers that more than likely pick those peaches … you know, it’s not just a peach in a bowl.  There’s a lot more to it.  It’s me remembering picking peaches when I was growing up in South Georgia, or you know, my grandmother, who is now deceased, her making fried peach pies.  There’s so much more to it.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Virginia, for agreeing to be part of our Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Virginia Willis: Yes, certainly.  Well thank you so much for asking me.  My name is Virginia Willis, and I am a French trained chef, Southern, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Toni: Well again, thank you for being here, and Virginia, when you think of that word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?

Virginia: Well, I strive to inspire, I should say.  I hope I inspire the people that read my cookbooks, that read my articles.  Through the work that I do, I come in contact with quite a few people that are coming up in the industry, whether it be through restaurants or through wanting to help editorially, and I try to inspire people and to show them that things can be done, and that through hard work that you can accomplish things.

Toni: How does that happen?  Can you give us an example of a way that someone can be in your presence and learn from you and they are inspired?

Virginia: Yes.  I laugh often, because the culinary scene, the cooking world, is still quite an almost medieval approach to apprenticing or doing what in French would be called stagier.  It’s essentially a program in which one works for people to gain experience and to learn on-the-job learning, and often one isn’t paid, but that’s really sort of the way that it still continues.  It’s an apprenticeship.

And so there are people that I work with often that I try to share my knowledge and my experience of what I’ve been doing in cooking and writing and working in food television for the past 15 years.  So if I see someone that really puts forth the effort to become a part of that, then I try to reward with that effort.

Last week, for example, there’s a young woman that I work with often, and I was hired to do a job for a large cookware company, and I was doing some food styling – that’s one of the things that I do – and it wasn’t in the budget for me to have an assistant.  But I felt like it would be really good for her to see and to learn, and I outreached to her and I said “I’d love for you to come.  I can’t pay you today, it’s not in the budget for that, but I think you’ll learn a lot.  Do you want to come and help?”

And she came and helped, and it was a 12-hour day, long, lots of dishes, lots of garbage, you know, lots of tidying up and cleaning up, and she was three feet off the ground at the end of the day because she had learned so much and she had gotten to meet so many different people and get that experience.

So she was inspired by getting to have that experience with me.  I try to do that whenever possible, and often, obviously.  If I can compensate someone I can, but she gained more than a paycheck that day.

Toni: I think that was the key, wasn’t it?

Virginia: Right.

Toni: How do you then help others to explore their potential?  Using that example of this woman that went with you on this, where do think you got to her as far as her realizing her potential?

Virginia: Well, I think that it’s a matter of building confidence.  And my approach is sort of very pragmatic and sort of structured, but if one keeps repeating things or gains some experiences and does the work, then as you see it, then you can do it.  And so now, this young woman is still in a situation where she apprentices, but when she helps me and does that and becomes inspired, then if there are jobs that I can hire her for or recommend her for, then that’s sort of a reward.

And it’s sort of like a … it’s very much a … it’s very practical.  If she does good work, acts professionally, does what she’s “supposed to do” then that will allow her to do these things on her own.  If it weren’t for someone knee deep in the industry reaching out to her and sharing that with her, then she wouldn’t have those experiences.

However, what’s sort of interesting is that the reason that we’re working together is because she was persistent.  Very polite, but very persistent and wanting to do exactly that with me.  She outreached to me; and this happened more than once, but she just kind of stuck, if that makes any sense.

She would just outreach to me periodically and say “You know, I would really love to work with you.  I’d love to help you.  Please keep me in mind.”  I brought her on once, she did a great  job, so then she got to come back.  So now, I know that I can trust her and it’s a mutually beneficial situation.  I like her freshness, I like her approach, and you know, it’s a learning situation for both of us.  If anyone’s paying attention, you can learn from somebody else.

Toni: Absolutely.

Virginia: Even someone with quite a bit of experience.

Toni: So what inspires you, Virginia?

Virginia: I love food.  Everything I put in my mouth I consider a learning experience.  I think one of the things that becomes really wonderful for me and it’s very satisfying is that I’ve always loved to cook, but I now realize that I like to write as much as I like to cook.  Of course, I write about food and family — that’s what most of my stories are about.

So sometimes when I craft like a really nice sentence, I find that so satisfying, and when I’m able to do that, that really is inspiration.  Like I’m able to write something that people care about.  I’m able to write something that moves people.  I find that very humbling and awesome, but inspirational at the same time because it makes me want to do it again.

Toni: It’s really … I think this is so cool.  We have, as I have mentioned to you, and those who are listening to the Project know, that we haven’t had a lot of … we haven’t had anybody from the food industry on our Project until just recently, and it’s just so amazing how it doesn’t matter what you do, the inspiration is there, and I just wrote down here, whether it’s craft a sentence, cooking a meal, or eating that meal, it’s the inspiration is just as deep and just as powerful.

Virginia: Yes, I think so, and there’s so … I mean, food is looked at many different ways, obviously.  Bare minimum, it’s just pure sustenance, it’s what we need to live.  But it’s so much more than that and sort of the anthropological approach in terms of food and family and being at the kitchen table together, or being at the dining room table together, or how food memory is so important.  A lot of that is scientific and biological about, you know, smelling a certain … you know, like I smell a cake baking and it can make me think of my grandmother.  There’s a lot of that.

So food is so much more than just sustenance, and the fact that there’s so many stories behind that bowl of peaches:  there’s the farmers that work the land, there’s the immigrant workers that more than likely pick those peaches … you know, it’s not just a peach in a bowl.  There’s a lot more to it.  It’s me remembering picking peaches when I was growing up in South Georgia, or you know, my grandmother, who is now deceased, her making fried peach pies.  There’s so much more to it.

Toni: So when you are working in this industry and working … is this what you would imagine then as your purpose?

Virginia: I think so, yes.  I do.  I feel like I’m doing … you know, the whole concept of do what you love and love what you do?  I very much believe in that, and I think it does take some persistence.  And I’ve definitely put myself in situations where, you know, it took a lot of hard work but I think that if you enjoy what you do and you’re good at it and work hard at it, then things will come.

Toni: When you find yourself needing inspiration, do you have tools and resources that you tend to reach for on a consistent basis?

Virginia: Yes.  Well, from a culinary standpoint, there’s all sorts of, you know, practical things.  Going out to dinner at different restaurants to get inspiration for recipes or reading different magazines.  Maybe … Australian Vogue is very famous for food, and they sort of have a different take on food than Americans.  So it’s sort of reaching out through publications or going out to dinner, or perhaps sometimes different websites and stuff.  I love to look and see what other people are doing.

But seriously, I do mean that almost everything I put in my mouth can be part of my work.  It may be that … I mean, I have a project literally that was causing me to run late this afternoon.  I was at an establishment tasting different chicken wings for a client for a project.  It’s not very sexy.  It’s not about food and family.  It’s a project, but it’s part of what I do.  It’s not the romantic writer in the garret or cooking the peaches sort of thing.

It’s very practical – but it’s also a mortgage payer, you know?  There’s that work that we all sometimes have to do, but it still gave me thought, gave me ideas.  “Wow – that really does taste good!  That’s crazy that this chain can produce something like that.”  So I truly can find ideas and inspiration because what I eat is so integral to my work.

Toni: What do you do now to continue to explore your own potential, so that you can continue to write and to do the work that you’re doing and really what you had said right up front was that mentoring.

Virginia: Well, I am very much in contact with the people that have mentored me, and I feel very strongly about trying to help people, because I was so helped and blessed with the people that helped me as I came up.

The thing that I’ve been focusing on the most lately, which I think is very interesting because there tends to be this competitiveness with many different industries, and I’m trying to focus more on if we have a series of successful partnerships – and the key word being partnerships – and everyone is mutually beneficial to everyone, then everyone wins, as opposed to sort of being more competitive.  If everyone is satisfied and receives what they need, then it’s better in the long run for everybody, and I find that very … I find that very helpful and very satisfying on a personal level as well as a professional level.

Toni: So it’s looking for the community of partnerships rather than the competitive environment.

Virginia: Exactly.  There’s something one of my dear friends and mentors, Nathalie Dupree, she’s the doyen of Southern Cooking, and she has what’s called the “Pork Chop Theory,” and I love it, and I’ll share it with you.

If you put one pork chop in a pan and you turn the pan on medium high, the pork chop will burn.  But if you put two pork chops in a pan and turn it on medium high, they will feed off the fat from one another and they will turn out okay.

Toni: I love it!

Virginia: Don’t you love it?

Toni: I love it!

Virginia: It just really … it makes … I think it’s so … I reference the Pork Chop Theory at least once a week.  I think it makes the most sense of anything.

Toni: Wow!  It really does.

Virginia: It really does.  I had an experience earlier today – someone called me, and they were asking me for some confidential financial information, and they were very hesitant about asking me, and I said “It helps me in the long run if I help you, because if I’m bidding for a job and I’m high or low, then it’s not good for anyone.”

So it’s just like being open and transparent, and once again, trying to create those partnerships.  It’s the Pork Chop Theory.  If we help one another, then everyone’s helped.

Toni: What a way to end this interview – I absolutely love it.  And I can tell you that this is the first, and I think as I’m speaking to you we’re in the 300’s of the 365-day Project, and no one has ever ended the final question with the Pork Chop Theory.

Virginia: I would imagine.

Toni: That is awesome!  Thank you so very much, Virginia, for being part of this Project.  It’s been a wonderful interview, and we can’t thank you enough.

Virginia: Thank you so much for having me.

Toni: Take care.

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For more information about Virginia Willis:  www.virginiawillis.com

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