RE:CONSIDER | FROM MICHAEL

EVERYDAY HEROES

Although these are “unprecedented” times, as everyone says, some things stay the same. We know that our Bon Appétit teams always do what needs to be done, regardless of what the challenges may be.

What’s different about our current situation is the level of risk it presents. We are now a few weeks into dozens of reopenings, most in higher education but some corporate and specialty venue locations too. I am so grateful to all of you for the courage and commitment to safety you are showing every day. You are all doing an outstanding job of keeping yourselves, your teammates, our guests, and our clients safe while deliv ering on the promises we have made.

It can’t be easy to keep all the new rules straight, to stay apart from each other in the kitchens and on the lines, to wear masks all shift long, while upholding our Bon Appétit standards for food and hospitality. But we continue to make it happen. I especially want to thank all of you for that, especially the communication by everyone, both internal and with our guests and clients. Your efforts are paying off. We are getting thank you notes from clients (some of them appear in this issue), and I just want you to know that you are the ones who truly deserve our gratitude.

Last week, the week of Sept 13-19, was “Chef Appreciation Week.” This year it took on special significance as “the people behind the food became the heroes behind the food in one of the most challenging years we have ever seen,” as Dominic Blakemore, CEO of Compass Group PLC, said. Across multiple social media channels, we all cele brated the “heroes behind the food.” [See box, opposite page.]

It is important to me that you know that every single one of our employees reading this is a hero to me. You all have a critical role to play, whether you’re in the kitchen or the front of the house or the back office. We are grateful for your efforts in the service of Bon Appétit, every day.

SOME OF OUR ARMY OF #HEROESBEHINDTHEFOOD

“Chef Appreciation Week” has been an annual tradition on social media for some time now. This year Compass Group and Bon Appétit Management Company broadened the pool of people to celebrate beyond that one title. During the week of Sept. 13-19, Instagram and Facebook were filled with an inspiring scroll of portraits of #HeroesBehindTheFood. A selection:

Executive Chef Alex Drumm and his team have fed Emerson College students, faculty, and staff as well as young adults in a homeless youth program

Pacific University Sous Chef Allison O’Neill, who grew up with a love for cooking instilled by her chef-father but attended Le Cordon Bleu anyway, loves to make the team laugh

Food+ Sous Chef Francis Sibal has baked hundreds of batches of the sweet, fluffy traditional Filipino bread pandesal for healthcare workers

Edwards Lifesciences Executive Chef Rene Adame, who was “born and raised Bon Appétit,” has been feeding essential workers at this medical technology company as well as thousands at homeless shelters around the region

Lafayette College Cook Lynette Shorter “brings positive energy to the kitchen every day” and learned to cook starting as a child from her grandmother

General Manager Ally Shelden and Executive Chef Daniel Williams have been making sure the onsite employees and test operators at the autonomous vehicle technology startup Cruise remain well-fed, so they can deliver donated meals and groceries to some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable populations

When Transylvania University’s dining hall closes for the night, Utility Worker/Dishwasher Simeon Glasper — who wanted to smile for the camera so temporarily removed his mask — goes into superhero cleaning mode in the kitchen

Executive Chef David Smigo, who earned Cornell College’s Purple Rock Award this summer, is “the hardest working human I’ve ever met” and “a culinary Mozart” who “makes the trains run on time” says General Manager James Richards