There is a book called “150 Good Food Jobs” and I’ve had 43 of them. This means I’m either really old, I can’t keep a job or I get distracted and curious by shiny objects. But basically, these have been encapsulated within two long-term careers, one in Napa Valley as a winery culinary director and the other at Cornell University and in Ithaca.

Two-and-a half years ago, I “retired” from my 20-plus years at the Hotel School. After some years teaching about wines and later restaurant management and co-owning an Ithaca restaurant, I served as an academic and career advisor to “hotelies” – some of the most entrepreneurial, engaging, smart young adults around. After a serious cancer scare I retired at age 55 and went rogue, looking for a new career combining my love of travel, food, culture and service.

A SEMESTER AT SEA

I found my calling in fall 2011, as the adult lifelong-learning coordinator for the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program. With my husband Dave, 500 undergraduates, 60 adult learners, the faculty and the crew, I sailed from Montreal to Casablanca, Morocco; Accra, Ghana; Cape Town, South Africa; Port Louis, Mauritius; Chennai, India; Penang, Malaysia; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Hong Kong and Shanghai, China; Kobe, Japan; Hilo, Hawaii; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; and Coxen Hole, Honduras before docking in Fort Lauderdale at the end of 120 days. students getting a semester’s credit while circling the globe, making 14 stops in 120 days.

My job was to keep the adults (“the Salty Dogs”) happy and occupied. A perk of the job was the opportunity to chaperone field food programs, which I often did, including a Tropical Spice Garden in Penang Pang, Malaysia; a cooking class in Capetown, South Africa; and a coffee plantation tour in Mercedes, Costa Rica.  This freedom in ports allowed my husband Dave and me to explore each host country independently for three to six days at a time. I spent that time focused on food; food in the markets, restaurants, and the street (which caused a bit of food poisoning and worse, two days in ship’s quarantine).

THE CORNELL HOTEL SCHOOL GLOBAL ALUMNI NETWORK 

Hotelies personalized our visits by introducing us to locals, their customs, culture and, of course, their food — from production and preparation to consumption. All Cornell alum showed us incredible support and hospitality. Scores of former students, colleagues and college friends made suggestions and introductions for just about every port; the power of networking was extraordinary.

I often speak to students across the Cornell Campus on how they can build a community of contacts within their field of interest. Students (non-hotelies, that is) frequently cringe at the thought of “networking,” so I use this trip as an example of how, over a lifetime, if you seek to create meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships, the rewards are invaluable and the friendships lifelong.

While preparing for the trip, in addition to the endless flurry of emails I was keeping track of from people I’d contacted or who had been contacted on my behalf from all over the world, I compiled copious notes about what cafés and markets to visit, based on the best Anthony Bourdain travelogues. I unearthed travel articles from favorite newspapers and magazines. I tore protocol pages out of an old “Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands” book, discovering that no matter what, don’t give a Chinese host a gift of the clock replica of the Cornell McGraw Tower –clocks convey death to the unfortunate recipient.

FOOD IN EVERY PORT

I view food as the root supporting many branches of a culture–its history, tradition, spiritual beliefs, political agenda, cultural norms and community.  My goal was to touch, see, feel and taste food as much as possible in as many different places as possible, and thereby to glean a deeper understanding of its integral role in a culture. Cooking schools were one avenue, and I visiting many, including three in Morocco, one in Penang, Malaysia and 2 in South Africa. All offered lessons beyond the ingredients.

In the home of Mama Lungiswa, in a Capetown, South African township, for example, we killed a chicken in her bathtub and plucked it clean, learning the local Xhosa Cooking while hearing (and seeing) the challenges she faces in a land with few economic opportunities. On the other end of the spectrum, we met with the hip and highly spirited Brit, Mike Richardson, owner of Café Clock in Fez, Morocco who is also about to open a full-service cooking school to complement his booming café.

Beyond classes, we visited many food-driven enterprises.  Some enterprises were located right on top of a woman’s head. A tray, balanced atop the head, would hold a tall stack of a food item and without the aid of a hand; women would bustle along, selling their goods. What seemed like a precarious place to carry food was easily managed by these enterprising women with their impeccable postures and strong backs.

In the remote cocoa plantation in the isolated village of Ebekawopa, Ghana, (thank you to Tom Neuhaus, PhD. (CALS) ’00), the gracious Reverend Sampson proudly walked us through the densely planted cocoa orchard where huge cocoa pods hung low from their branches.  We shared a meal of fried plantains, bean stew and cut oranges in the Reverend’s home, a modest dwelling with no electricity, running water or private bathroom. In the corner stood a beautiful wooden Ashanti stool that had been presented to Tom Neuhaus for the work to improve cocoa production in this and many other villages in the region. As we walked the mile and a half back to the main road, we passed a group of villagers who waved goodbye as they pounded palm seeds to make another village product, palm oil.

In Japan, I joined students as we traveled in the wee hours to the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Whole Market. There we found the chaotic but exhilarating Tokyo fish auction in full swing. Intermediate wholesalers and buyers in bleacher stands were holding up palettes, bidding on the various fish presented.  Sounds of buzz saws filled the air as fishmongers cleaned and cut huge tuna into sizable chunks.

A FIVE-COUNTRY SAMPLER PLATTER 

INDIA

It’s one thing to have Anthony Bourdain suggest a food market, it’s another to have Amie Inman (owner of the La Paz Group/RAXA Collective with her “Hotelie” Husband Crist Inman PhD ’97) as a tour guide.

In India, your senses are on overload and from the industrial city of Chennai, we quickly made our way to the south-western coast of Kerala to Fort Cochin, where Amie took us for a full day exploration of open-air food markets and spice shops at Ernakulum’s famous Broadway.  I had never met Amie before and it had been decades since my paths had crossed with Crist in the Statler halls. Yet through emails and a Cornell commonality, Amie and I became fast acquaintances before we ever met. Thanks to Amie’s gracious hospitality, our stay in India surpassed anything we could have imagined.

It began with a traditional Thali lunch–aromatic rice, lentil dal and spicy vegetarian preparations served on a fresh banana leaf and eaten with fingers. Afterwards we moved on to the open-air food markets and at a spice shop at Ernakulum’s famous Broadway. Each stall conveyed the pride of the vendor – no matter how simple the food, displays were spectacular in their simplicity and vibrancy. Sellers would catch my eye, smiling as they beckoned me to come closer. A banana stall was walled with huge green banana stalks, highlighted by various colored and sized bananas, while another vendor artfully displayed just betel leaves.  A neighboring stall had multiple mounds of rice covering a long table – each mound featuring a little different shape or color of rice. A blue tarp covered yet another section of the market, creating a surreal sapphire glow over the vendor’s piles of straw baskets and bundles of folded fabric. Every glance aside was breathtaking.

Amie’s favorite spice store was lined with wooden bins, burlap sacks and tin containers holding an endless array of spices, including what looked like wildly funky pink skulls. They turned out to be mace, the husks of nutmeg.  The store was lined with wooden bins, burlap sacks and tin containers holding an endless array of spices.  I left clutching packaged whole spice blends that the storekeeper kindly created, precious containers of saffron and bags of sugar-coated fennel and candied cumin seed.

Amie had arranged for two other extraordinary adventures with RAXA Collective – River Escapes in Appelley and a visit to Cardamom County in Thekkady. (Lucky Hotelies who have interned with Amie and Crist have blogged about their extraordinary experiences on this site before, as have I!) Our “river escape” included an overnight on a wooden houseboat built for two passengers. Our crew of captain, first mate and chef were  gracious, formal and attentive.  The oversized wicker chairs, large open-air windows and air-conditioned bedroom felt like an embarrassment of riches–to which we adapted quickly enough.

Having been a chef on the high seas myself, my attention was on the chef, who skillfully prepared our fish, a favorite on the Kerala backwaters called Pearl Spot or Karimeen. Though it resembled more of a skeleton than an edible item, its boniness, crunchiness and spices were delicious. The local trinity of mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves often underlay such flavors as coconut, fenugreek, chiles, tamarind or cumin. I took copious notes between bites and today, continue my ambitious attempt at replicating those flavors with the spices I’d purchased on Broadway.

As the chef cooked, (and we ate) the captain slowly navigated through waters that eventually lead to the Arabian Sea.  At one point, no houseboat of any size could get through the thick carpet of aquatic plants, and we moved to a smaller boat to enter a gateway to a whole new world where people modestly bathed or washed their pots and pans in the water and where boats and bridges replaced cars and roads.  As the sun set, we watched fishing boats head for home, often seeing a string of small boats catch a ride with a larger boat towing them to shore, easing the end-of-day commute for the fisherman.

Cardamom County in Thekaddy, home to high altitude tea and rubber plantations in the Western Ghats was our next excursion. At Dave’s urging we went ”local” and made the 4 hour trip – in a stripped down bus, packed like sardines, barreling through dusty villages on bumpy roads in steep mountains, the gears relentlessly grinding and shrieking and the horn constantly honking to warn those around blind curves of our presence.  Though unnerved at first, we soon settled into my lumpy seat, feeling very content as I lazily gazed out the window.

Our final destination was a farm in full bloom with lush gardens of spices, herbs and tropical fruits. My private cooking class with the Executive Chef, an unexpected gift arranged by Amie, included fragrant Duck Roast with thirteen spices, as well as Appam and Puttu (aromatic coconut-based rice dishes). But it was the chef’s dazzling dosas (large crepe-like flat pancakes) that captivated. As the chef poured the batter in the center of a hot griddle, it quickly formed a large round disc that was either quickly rolled (traditionally) or, by the more skilled and artistic hand (aka Chef) shaped into an imposing cone or beautiful flower.

While at an Elephant Encampment in Thekkady, I was given a huge brush and a bucket of water to do the honor of providing a pachyderm’s daily bath. With the animal on her side I bathed her from head to toe, while stroking her trunk, whispering in her ear and massaging her rather imposing thighs. When done, I sat on the elephant’s back and within seconds, the elephant showed her appreciation by filling her trunk with water and SPLASH – reciprocity occurred. A profile photo I posted on Facebook captures the spirit of the voyage –unexpected, adventurous and at times, uneasiness of the unknown that turns to exhilaration.

And finally, in Madurai, we visited a city of spiritual and religious richness and history. Though no food tale to tell here, it is worthy to mention the five beautiful tall Hindu stone temples, each intricately carved with detailed, and vividly painted images of the Hindu gods, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma in their various stories of life, love, evil, goodness and betrayal. Without a tour guide, the images might look almost cartoonish with their wild expressions and brightly colored facades. Fortunately, Amie had arranged for a tour guide to meet us and when we learned the stories from him, it became easy to imagine the deep, rich storytelling tradition of the Hindu culture, which has been passed on for centuries.

JAPAN

As soon as I saw Rose Tanasugarn, A&S’90 wearing her Cornell Big Red sweater holding a package of chocolate-covered Pockys at Kobe’s dock, I knew we were in for a Cornell-Japan foodie love fest. Rose works for Hitoshi Nakauchi MPS ’92, president of the Kobe Portopia Hotel, and is a devoted Cornellian. She took us to roam the Osaka Isetan Department Store’s underground food floor where perfectly round melons, nestled in beautiful green-lined cushioned boxes, sold for $125.  No matter the cost, every item from dozens of kiosks, was elegantly packaged with exquisite precision, from simple sweets to elaborate but exacting placement of sashimi.

We spent the afternoon making soba-noodles with Ueda-sensei, a master noodle maker in his sixties. As a highly respected artisan for his knowledge of an ancient craft, he had a group of  retired Japanese professionals sitting like eager college students waiting for class to begin.  Because of our arrival, one of the elder students graciously translated the words of Ueda-sensei, who was quite successful conveying his lessons via animated body language and an easy laugh. I was in awe at how our instructor turned buckwheat flour and water into a smooth dough, kneaded into various shapes, including a chrysanthemum, before rolling it into a perfect circles, and finally a perfect square. He then folded the square upon itself to create a layered block that he cut (with a menacing looking cleaver) into matchstick-thin noodles.

We tried to repeat what we saw, the master gently adjusting our techniques with the knowledge that the outcome would not be pretty.  But we all admitted, as we ate our hard-earned lunch with slender-tipped chopsticks, that our noodles tasted pretty darn delicious.

Chiaki Tanuma, MPS ’80, and his assistant, Noriko Konuma made it possible for us to participate in a private tea ceremony in the small and beautiful town of Kamakura, known for its multiple temples, shrines, Great Buddha of Kamakura and killer green soft-serve tea ice cream.

Like soba-noodle making, the Japanese tea ceremony is ancient. A powdered, slightly bitter green tea called matcha was prepared and served with dreamlike grace in a sparse but beautiful room called a washitsu. Every movement of the ceremony has meaning; the sequence, though fluid and seemingly effortless, is tightly orchestrated and complex. Our hostess had been performing the ceremony for over 40 years and had a calming aura that exuded a beautiful, peaceful energy. I could feel my breathing becoming slower, even when my cramping legs finally lost feeling from sitting cross legged on the floor for so long.

In my presentations, I often speak about etiquette and courtesy but if you want to see courtesy continually practiced, Japan is your place.  Whenever we were lost or confused – which was often, once we opened a map on a street corner,  a small crowd would gather to help us. I tell students at Cornell how helping  a visitor decipher a Cornell campus map can go a long way. We would still be in Kamakura if it weren’t for the friendly citizens in that town.

HONG KONG

There is a robust community of Hotelies among Hong Kong’s seven million people in a city that never sleeps.  Christa Chi ’09 was my host by night, and organized a great dinner party that included Otto  Rincon ’01, and husband and wife Gary Lam ’90 and  Ada Lo ‘ (’92, MPS 93). Ada, an assistant professor at the School of Hotel & Tourism Management, had arranged for me to speak to students in a cruise line class. I was delighted to be given a tour of the school and of their hotel, the ICON, a stunning display of modern design with a spectacular vertical garden by French botanist Patrick Blanc. The abundance of artfully displayed seafood would make any foodie swoon. Raw octopus on ice never looked so good.

During the brief  stay in Hong Kong, I squeezed in a dim sum cooking class, participated in a tai chi session in a busy city park and took part in a Chinese tea tasting.  The pace in Hong Kong felt frenetic but our elf-like instructor reminded us to turn the internal volume down and slow our pace while instructing us to  ”move hands like clouds” and “push needle to sea bottom.”

VIETNAM

The shipped arrived in Ho Chi Minh, a city erupting with ultra modern buildings in homage to economic prosperity. Glossy billboards and signs everywhere were promoting expensive clothes, sporty cars, Rolex watches and other luxury items – a totally unexpected landscape.

Our brief time in Vietnam started with a bowl of spicy pho soup and a friendly tuc tuc driver. The number of European bakeries and cafés recalled the prewar French influence and long-gone aristocracy.

But, the death-defying feat of crossing a street is this country’s most vivid memory. Thousands of scooters and motorcycles fill the streets. Traffic lights, which are few and far between , seem to signal the start of a motocross race with every change to green. The best thing is to follow an old woman across.  But if no “bà” is to be found, you slowly walk without stopping or changing your speed – if you do, you will die or with   luck, just get hit.  As we steadily made our way, vehicles just swerved around us without a honk or blink of the eye.  A steady pace allows the driver to predict how and when to go around you. Praying doesn’t hurt either.

CAMBODIA

In Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, our goal was to become familiar with EGBOK Mission, the non profit founded by Ben Justus ’08.  EGBOK Mission teaches Cambodian young adults basic hospitality skills so they can pursue a career in the local hotels or restaurants.  We visited EGBOK’s Palm Tree Foundation orphanage, where Andrew VLock ’11 was spending a year teaching and mentoring about 20 students. After talking with the students about job interviewing, I thought I could be of benefit here as well. Dave and I spoke at length with Ben over a delicious meal in Siem Reap, and agreed to think about returning for an extended period of time.

MOVING AHEAD – JOB #44

It didn’t take us long to think about it and Dave and I spent three months at EGBOK volunteering between October – December 2012, after which we traveled for 3 weeks in Southeast Asia, expanding our connections with Hotelies around the world.

As I look to the future, I’m thinking about job #44 – I want to somehow continue this momentum of forging new relationships around the world within the closely knit community of Cornell alumni and specifically with Hotelies. Traveling around the world was incredible, but I have the most gratitude for my old and new relationships with fellow Cornellians. Their outreach, generosity and hospitality have literally changed my life.  I’d like to provide similar memorable moments to others through food adventures, travel experiences, and culture immersion.

What can I say? Hotelies dream big.