While I was in California, I had the pleasure of listening to Chef Naomi Shim of the Doubting Thomas restaurant in LA speak about her journey from 6th grade teacher to restauranteur. She is now a multi-faceted culinary maven but this wasn’t always the case. She started out by asking some of the finest chefs in LA if she could shadow them and they said, “YES!” And her wonderful story began to take shape.
She was honest and humble about the trajectory of her success and it wasn’t always straight up. I was moved by her bravery to switch careers completely. I was impressed with how she chose to educate herself on how to become an amazing pastry chef by surrounding herself with those who where already doing it well and practicing along side them. And I really loved how she created a vision for her team and how they would treat each other as well as their guests, including the occasional homeless.
How can we benefit from Chef Shim’s story? What are we afraid to move forward with that her bravery will encourage us? Who could we learn from if we just stood along side them long enough to see how they do it? And who could we treat better if we simple stopped to recognize that we know better, therefore we can do better? That isn’t our best self. And if you’re ever in LA, run to her restaurant and do not leave without ordering the Passion Pie—don’t take my word for it, The New Yorker already wrote about it!
Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!
Beth Fitzgerald
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