Watching Chef’s Table

July 26, 2026 – Learning about myself through others

Yup… of course I’ve shared a photo of tonight’s dinner. It’s a baked sweet potato with ground turkey cooked in taco sauce with cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and homemade salsa. The sweet potato, lettuce, and tomatoes came from the Desert Hills Ranch. This meal was absolutely delicious and satisfying. I love eating fresh food from Desert Hills (it was my first experience), and I love their taco stand in Cache Creek. Absolutely delicious. Anyway, I wanted start of this blog post with a food pic, but really, what I wanted to talk about was my joy and inspiration listening to the biographies of chefs on “Chef’s Table” on Netflix. Also, AMAZING. I love the production, I love the stories, I love the honestly of their struggles and failures, and of course, I love their successes and how they overcame, persisted, and found themselves in their journey. I have been watching and listening to this series as I work in my LazyBoy chair. In fact, I’m watching it right now while I blog.

I started and re-started this blog post with hopes of discussing NORMALIZING FAILURE, but when I watch these documentaries, failure is part of the journey. These chefs took big risks, failed along the way, and eventually found their way. The journey is not meant to be easy. I can see that, if you want to do what you want to do. And I love what this person just said as I am writing this post… “I just got to be me.” Hello? I could not agree more. This chef is also Asian, and she described her struggles with her parents, her self-doubts, and struggles with racism. I get it. You need to be who you are to thrive. It takes time to figure out who you are, and to live this authentic life, you need to not only be honest to yourself and your family. I can really relate to this. I was reminded when I quit my teaching job in K-12. It was one of the toughest things I had to do in my life. Not just making the decision to resign, but telling my family of this decision was difficult.

I love this current episode… she is finding herself… her confidence and voice are so inspiring and I’m captured. She is standing up to herself and she has now accepted herself… and to pursue and do what she loves and who she is. She said, “F___ FEAR!!” Love it. I understand that. “All of my life, I was listening to other voices”… I can relate to this. Once she found herself, she won an award for her work. This story is much like the others shared on Chef’s Table. I just love how these people found themselves in food and their craft. Don’t get me wrong, I am not planning to become a chef, but I will continue with taking selfies and food pics. That’s just who I am. I love teaching and learning, and research is one way to share about what I have learned, to collaborate with others, and learn more about my craft and do what I love to do. The intersection between teaching, learning, and leading is at the heart of what I do and love to do. The Scholarship of Teaching and Action Research are vehicles or pathways for me to move forward and thrive as a research-practitioner. Thank you Chef’s Table. You have inspired me!!