Day 334: Meredith Deeds
“I think that whenever you gain confidence in anything, it’s like a link in a chain. It makes you feel better about yourself and your ability to do things, and it brings you to the next adventure, and you look at the next adventure differently.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Meredith, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Meredith Deeds: Well, I just want to say thank you, Toni, for giving me this opportunity. What a wonderful Project this is.
Toni: Thank you.
Meredith: My name is Meredith Deeds. I’m a cookbook author, and I’m a freelance food writer, and I’m a culinary instructor, and I’m an editor, and I’m a mother and a wife, and a friend.
Toni: Well, Meredith, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Meredith: Well, I hope I inspire my students and my readers through my cookbooks and my articles, and everywhere I can reach out to people about cooking. I really, really think about what will make them feel good about themselves, and the way I like to approach teaching people how to cook or giving people information about food is to build up their confidence.
So often people feel like they can’t cook, and that’s not true for anybody. Everybody on the face of the earth can cook, and it’s just giving them the information that they need to feel better about it. And for me, it’s not just about getting them to create better food for themselves … that’s a big part of it, but I really feel strongly about the inspiration that food itself will bring to other people. It certainly brings it to me, but it inspires people to come together in the kitchen. It inspires them to come together around the table, and the more they enjoy that process, they more they are going to participate in it. If they feel good about what they’re doing and their ability to do it, I think that they’ll be more inspired to be a part of that kind of community.
Toni: What happens with … when you are teaching or writing and you said what you hope happens is that you’re inspiring people to think about food differently and to have that confidence.
Meredith: Right.
Toni: What happens to someone’s potential in that particular area? If they gain the confidence in cooking, what might happen as far as exploring their potential?
Meredith: Well, I think that whenever you gain confidence in anything, it’s like a link in a chain. It makes you feel better about yourself and your ability to do things, and it brings you to the next adventure, and you look at the next adventure differently. “I could never bake a cake, but then I read this recipe, I saw this teacher, I got through this article, and I created this extraordinary cake, and we all enjoyed it together, and what a fantastic experience.” “You know what? I’ve never climbed a mountain, but you know, maybe I’ll think about it. I might not do it right away, but maybe I’ll think about it, because look what I did that I never thought I could do.”
And so it’s just really … I mean, that’s an extreme example, obviously, but I think once you start to gain confidence in yourself, that really the sky is the limit and you start looking at the world in a very different way.
Toni: You said you are a cookbook author?
Meredith: I am. One of the things I do.
Toni: How many books have you written?
Meredith: I’ve written six books.
Toni: Wow.
Meredith: It’s a lot of books.
Toni: And aren’t they called like a “big book” of something?
Meredith: Yeah, they’re all big books.
Toni: It’s a lot of the big books.
Meredith: It’s a lot of the big books, yeah. I’ve got several big books, and you know, the fun thing about the future is that now that we’re all entering the digital age, there really is a brand new world open to us. And maybe we won’t do the big books so much anymore, but we’re really learning to touch people in a million different ways. We can be there in the kitchen with them, they can see us cooking on their iPad, they can read our recipes, and that’s another way that we can give people a little bit more confidence in what they’re doing in the kitchen.
Toni: Exactly. It’s a virtual mentor, isn’t it?
Meredith: It is; it really is. It’s having someone really almost feel like they’re right there by your side.
Toni: So what inspires you, Meredith?
Meredith: What inspires me? There’s a lot of things that inspire me, obviously, but one of the things that inspires me the most is opportunity. And if I have a great opportunity in front of me and it seems like a positive experience, I am often inspired way beyond what I ever thought I would be, and I think the inspiration makes me more creative and makes me more confident and allows me to really reach, push the envelope for myself. And I think that that’s an important thing to do for all of us.
Toni: When you are seeking inspiration, do you tend to reach for certain tools or resources? Are there consistent things you go to?
Meredith: Yes, yes. One of the consistent things I go to is my husband and my children. I find constant inspiration. When I feel down, there is nobody that can cheer me up quicker than my husband. When I feel as though I can’t do something and I’m way over my head, my family gives me the confidence to carry on, and I would say it’s absolutely as consistent as anything can possibly be.
Toni: Would you say that you’re passionate about the work that you do now?
Meredith: Absolutely, absolutely.
Toni: So people that are listening to this interview or reading your transcript, there’s been an unintended outcome of the Get Inspired! Project, which people are talking about what they’re passionate about and working towards or on their purpose. How did you get there?
Meredith: How did I get passionate about what I’m doing, or …
Toni: How did you get lucky enough – and I don’t know that you have – but how did you get to the place where you could work on something you were passionate about?
Meredith: Well, luck has its role, and it always does. I grew up in the restaurant business. I grew up in a family that was very adventurous in a culinary way, and I knew from an early age where my passion lies. That is just luck. You know, there’s a lot of people that don’t find out until they’re 40 … I think there’s even a famous, you know, speech about that, like the people I like the best are the ones that they don’t know what they want to do until they’re 40 – they don’t know what they want to be when they grow up until they’re already, you know, old. And there’s, I’m sure, something to that. But for me, knowing early how much I loved food and how much I loved to cook was a big, big, big plus.
Then there was a period of time where things weren’t great in the country in an economic way, and I veered off the course a little bit and I got an accounting degree. And I spent a few years being an accountant, getting my husband through his Ph.D. program, and that really solidified my belief that food is what I’m passionate about.
And it really is … life is bittersweet, and I think that that is the best part about life. And if you’ve never experienced the bitter, how are you really ever going to appreciate the sweet? I think that that has been key for me often, and one of those things is realizing how much I dislike doing something I wasn’t passionate about has really made me appreciate and work harder at the things I am passionate about.
And the other thing, too, is I’ve been in a fantastic partnership. I’ve been in a few fantastic partnerships, but my husband has certainly been encouraging, and there have been some lean years, you know, where that might not have been an easy thing for him to do, and he always was. You know, I’ve had a writing partner, Carla Snyder, I’ve worked with, and that was … you know, partnerships are a good thing. But the passion, being passionate about what you do – life is too short not to be.
Toni: Absolutely. What a great way to put that as well, and I like the bittersweet analogy with no pun intended on the cooking.
Meredith: Right. I haven’t even gotten into the puns yet, Toni. We’ll work our way into those. We haven’t even talked about biting off more than you can chew, right?
Toni: Oh my goodness … okay … so, what do you do now to explore your own potential?
Meredith: You’re going to laugh … I do bite off more than I can chew.
Toni: There should be a bell ringing somewhere.
Meredith: I know. There’s a rim shot in there, you know. I do do that. I tend to not say no to opportunities that are in front of me even if it’s not something that’s in my comfort zone. I’m not afraid to step out of my comfort zone. My initial response at saying yes to things is often because I tend to be a little bit of a pleaser. “Sure, I can do it for you. I can solve your problem for you.”
And it starts off in a good … you know, I do it from a good place in my heart, but what often it leads to is down a path I never expected to go. I find things out about myself, and “Wow, I’m much better at that than I anticipated I would be,” or “that’s not something that interests me as much as I thought it would.” But either way, I think that if you do get out of your comfort zone and take advantage of the opportunities that lie in front of you, you’re going to find your way, and it’s going to benefit you in the end.
Toni: How do you keep up on the learning and the teaching that you do and coming up with new books? How does that happen?
Meredith: Well, a lot of it is reading. You know, I’m in this fantastic industry where there’s so many other creative and inspirational people writing about food and talking about food and making food and tasting food, and kind of keeping up and being a part of that community, so I find myself in the loop. I find that really important, and anymore with social media, this is a pretty easy thing to do. I’m not a social media expert, but I do find that the one thing I really appreciate the most is how much it does help me with my continuing education.
Toni: So you really have to be aware of what’s out there and then also read it, digest it … there’s another one … I didn’t mean that …
Meredith: See – once it starts, it’s hard to stop. You just can’t have one. There’s … yeah, exactly. And you figure out, you know, the sources that you like the most. Not everything on the internet is quotable or reliable, but you do find your way, and that’s how I kind of keep myself, you know, informed. Also, there’s just simply a … the learning curve keeps you educated and going. You say yes to something, and you kind of have to figure it out along the way if you’re not familiar with it, and that’s a part of it, too. By the time you get to the other side, you know a lot more than you did to begin with.
Toni: Absolutely. And I can only imagine just in this brief interview with you how inspirational you must be in front of your students. And if you write this way … because the interview … there’s words that I associate with most of the interviews and for you, it was delightful, because you really and truly were, and if you are this passionate and it comes through and this … you sound so full of joy, really, and if that is put in front of your students, what a gift you’re giving them.
Meredith: Well, I hope so. It’s certainly a gift I’d like to give them. And it’s not really a gift I’m giving them, it’s a gift we’re sharing with one another, and that’s … again, that brings me right back to food and the table and the things I find most inspirational.
Toni: Well, Meredith, thank you so much for being part of this Project, and I wish you the best success.
Meredith: Well thank you, Toni. This was delightful for me as well.
Toni: Great. Take care.
Meredith: Thank you.
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For more information about Meredith Deeds: www.meredithandcarla.com
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