The Search, Finale

Okay, so it seems we're full of new people over here at FIG, but I just knew you'd want to hear about the end of our Search for the Perfect Assistant. At the end, it came to really small reasons over picking one over the other three. We eliminated the candidate who didn't follow the assignment to the T, we decided against the candidate with a Master's degree because we felt she would move on if presented with an opportunity in her field of study (sports marketing) or a higher paying position (considering the school debt...yikes), and we even said no to our bubbly, friendly candidate who wrote the most creative press releases and offered to tape Top Chef for me. So, drumroll please, the woman we hired is named Nicole Banks and I'll let her tell you more:

I was born and raised in Chicago, but went to Arizona to study marketing an public relations at Arizona State University. After graduation I moved to San Francisco and accepted a role with an IT firm as their Marketing Communications Manager. In California I made great friends, advanced in my career, and also found myself. I fell in love with restaurants, thrifting, exploring the city, and frequently made trips to Napa and Tahoe. Two years later, "I left my heart in San Francisco," and moved to Chicago to be closer to my family. Since then, I've handled PR and Business Development efforts for a Commercial Real Estate company in the burbs. Well, we all know how real estate is going, and I found myself looking for a job. I was intrigued by the opportunity at FIG Catering because it seemed to involve many things I love including marketing, talking to people, and food. Today, I'm certain FIG is exactly where I'm meant to be because I'll have the opportunity to do a wide variety of things (including menu development and tasting, I hope).

I live downtown and love Chicago. I love to cook and shop (what girl doesn't?). I spend my spare time at the driving range, volunteering, traveling, meeting new people, and dining out at both new (and old) restaurants throughout Chicago. In the last 12 months, I've been in two other countries and six other cities. I'm a huge Cubs fan and I'm head-over-heals in love with my vintage apartment. At home, I spend countless hours online perusing all the food blogs - or buried in the latest Chicago Mag, Time Out, or Food & Wine reading about the latest and greatest. I have an ever-growing list of places I'd like to check out for dinner, drinks, or brunch. At the end of the day any extra hours I have are spent helping friends with their own businesses, designing their logos or websites (although I didn't learn design in school, I've taught myself a lot since graduation. Molly says, "check out her website").

My First Day at FIG!
I arrived a bit early to find street cleaning on almost every street in Pilsen, so I settled for a metered spot, busted out a ton of quarters (Thanks, Mayor Daley), and walked on in. After meeting Dorcas, I received the grand tour. Then I jumped right into my first task - creating a proposal for one of FIG's repeat clients, using the upcoming UFC fight as the theme. This was quite time consuming because I first had to familiarize myself with UFC and the vocabulary they use, then search through the hundreds of menu options and event proposals FIG has completed to get ideas and inspiration. Lunch followed, and Justin did not disappoint. I was lucky enough to taste a few dishes from the dinner party FIG was hosting that night. Twenty five administrators, volunteers, and friends of The Academy of Global Citizenship (AGC) would be dining in the FIG kitchen and after lunch it would be time to set up the table that makes the kitchen look a little more like a dining room. Molly needed to get rid of some delicious desserts from a past event and I was more than willing to rid her of a Frango-mint brownie (I'm really going to have to learn to like working out with this job). After my first day with Molly, Justin, and Dorcas, I am even more excited for what the future has in store. I'm looking forward to everyday I get to spend at FIG and can't wait to contribute in any and every way that I can.

New Intern

Shacana, our last intern from the Illinois Institute of Art, has graduated and left us. Fortunately, we already had another intern lined up for this summer (yay, no more interviewing!). Our newly minted intern, Dorcas Wong, is from the University of Dreams (UD). No, that's not a acid-induced fairy tale school, but a summer internship program that allows students from around the world to travel to exciting cities and get experience in their dream jobs. The jobs are generally in glamorous industries like fashion, media, advertising, film, and catering (I always tell Justin how G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S it is when I burn myself on a sheet pan or am elbow-deep in dishes.). Dorcas attends the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada; she's studying hospitality management and is interested in food, hotels, and tourism (she's young and hasn't quite decided yet). We had a phone interview with her, but did not meet her in person until yesterday when she showed up at our doorstep.

The UD sets up housing for the students while they're in Chicago (or whatever fabulous city they're in) so Dorcas' first mission was getting here -

Finding my way to Fig Catering yesterday was kind of brutal. I got lost a few times, but in the end I found the way (like an hour and a half later, when it only takes me 30 minutes.). - Dorcas

She got here early and we were preparing for a lunch delivery downtown and a venue meeting. I showed her around, she watched Justin prep some food, and she accompanied Justin on his delivery.

I've also realized that the roads in Chicago are a narrower than the roads back home. This was true, especially when Justin drove to that parking place to drop the food off. - Dorcas (This was actually an alley, not a road, but she'll learn. Toronto has ethnic neighborhoods, like Chicago, but possibly not alleys you drive through.)

Upon our return to the office, we were famished and decided to introduce Dorcas to one of the culinary gems of the neighborhood. Dorcas had her first tamale!
Photo courtesy of Time Out Chicago by Martha Williams

Then, we had a fire to put out (when don't we?). An event, scheduled to take place at our space on Thursday, didn't have a confirmed guest count, a staff or rental order, or a firm menu. In between explaining to Dorcas what I was doing, I had her follow up with our outstanding proposals. She's very quiet and wasn't quite comfortable on the phone, but it was a good learning experience. After all, we have to deal with people all of the time.

Finally, Dorcas got to do something she feels she excels at...shopping.

Molly and I had a "shopping" project to do. We were looking for different glassware and table linens for an event coming up on Thursday. It was really interesting because there's actually a wide variety to choose from, just like shopping! - Dorcas (I did have to put a slight damper on the process when I introduced the reality of rental prices.)

All day Justin joked, in his sarcastic manner, with Dorcas. She doesn't quite "get him" yet, but eventually we'll make her part of the team.

The Search, Part Three

Yikes, I really don't know who to choose!

I am not a professional hirer. I've sometimes been asked my opinion (at the branding agency I worked for I somehow choose one person to do our books who didn't balance her own checkbook and another person to interact with our English-degree-holding-boss who had never read a book outside of a school requirement). I know you should check references, but I don't know exactly what I should ask them or how to "read their tone" as they spout glorious attributes of their co-worker/employee/friend.

We gave our four final candidates a little assignment. To write a (short, witty, and specific) press release based on a seasonal fall ingredient (hey, we may use these, I didn't want them to be obsolete!) or party trend. The candidates all got back to me quickly with some great ideas! Our favorite interview candidate did not give us the best press release, but it was still interesting and well written. The candidate we almost eliminated last round responded with a whole lot of enthusiasm and two press releases (overachiever!) that were really fun. Two of the candidates made up .figcatering.com e-mail addresses for themselves which I thought showed a little confidence and spunk. One candidate, unfortunately, did not read the assignment thoroughly and wrote a summer based press release - do I eliminate her based on a technicality? All of them demonstrating good writing skills with differnt strengths - menu writing/conceptualization, creativity, design.

Do I base my decision more on my personal impression? Their references? The assignment? Which is the most important factor?

(Potential) and Actual Disasters

After we published the post about losing all of our platters out of the side of the truck, we got so many comments about how funny, horrifying, hilarious, and comical our lives must be. Slowly we realized that our friends, family, and clients like to see us punished and prefer to read about how difficult our job is. Just kidding. I know you all only wish us the best, but it is good to laugh about these sort of things...after the fact, when we've given them time to breathe. Here are some other memorable, potential disasters that we've encountered in our 4+ years in business. Have fun.

Justin's all time favorite kitchen nightmare: New Year's Eve, steaks (mostly well done) and risotto for 30 on a electric stove with two working burners; meanwhile Molly in the too small dining room fitting huge rectangular plates in front of each guest (some went on vertically, others horizontally)


This is a kitchen? When working in some one's home or a venue with a kitchen, our contract specifically states that a working oven, stove top, running water, and electricity must be available. When Justin showed up to a job last week, after climbing the four flights of stairs with all of our food and rental equipment, he found himself in an office kitchen with a toaster oven and microwave. Cooking mini burgers, bacon wrapped dates, mac and cheese for 60 guests was, how shall we put it? Interesting.

Serving time changes: "Can we serve dinner now?," when you were told guests would be mingling/drinking for another 30 minutes (how to make food cook faster). Or, "I think we'll be ready to eat in an hour/hour and a half," when dinner is basically done (how to hold food without letting it dry out). We've even had the hostess come to her birthday party 2 hours late - we were ready to go before that one even started.

These were not cooked in a microwave.

Forgetting: Senility shouldn't come on this early in life, but sometimes when rushing out the door things get left behind. Last week, I forgot I was supposed to provide ice and limes for a party. The host forgot she was supposed to provide cups. Don't worry, everyone got to drink, but I gained a gray hair (yes, just one).

Breakage: Losing 150 plates because a table wasn't set up securely, getting a client's percolator stuck in their garbage disposal, breaking (nearly) irreplaceable "wedding gift" glassware, and more platters than we care to count.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot (blog series?), but all in all most of our jobs are nearly perfect. Just like our friends, family, and clients.

The Search, Part Two

So after conducting short phone interviews, Justin and I were unable to eliminate many candidates. The one candidate I was ready to eliminate called back about 1 hour after her interview explaining that she didn't think she did well, but that she was really interested in the position and hoped I would give her a chance. I'm a softy so I caved.

Last week we had about fifteen interviews scheduled between Monday and Thursday (two interviewees never even showed up and one called to let us know they had found a position - making our jobs a little easier). It was semi mind numbing to repeat the same information over and over again, but in general they were very interesting. Some came in jeans (perfectly acceptable in our casual, kitchen environment), others came in suits (Justin didn't advise them on our lax dress code so overdressing was par for the course), and one even showed up in a suit tie, black slacks, and high tops (I thought he had a maverick sense of style and only later learned that he locked himself out of his apartment and was unable to get his "real shoes"). Only one candidate showed up smelling of alcohol - in the food service business we considered that a good percentage. Some candidates made me feel very old, including a self-admitted (although sheepishly) Jonas Brothers fan. Most of the interviews we teamed up on, but a few were done solo (I left Justin alone with a particularly attractive actress-candidate who could have convinced him to take up acting.).

After getting lost and walking for blocks in Stuart Wietzman heels, one candidate spent the entire interview telling us about all of the fabulous things she's done. She's eaten at nearly every restaurant in Chicago and is definitely part of the "in-crowd". She's traveled around the world multiple times, including an awesome sailing trip through the Turkish islands to Greece. And, she occasionally plans events for wealthy friends in Napa and Hawaii. After she left, we looked at each other and wondered aloud if we could picture her unloading our truck of catering supplies. We decided we couldn't; I decided that I wanted her life.

We narrowed the field down to four, particularly qualified, very personable, and seemingly intelligent women (Yes, they're all women, but so are almost all of our clients so I guess it makes sense.). Instead of grabbing the darts and making a random decision, we decided to give the finalists a short assignment to test their writing skills, food knowledge (or ability to research), and style (I'm also contacting references which I've learned from past bosses is probably a good thing to do since seemingly normal people are often crazy.). Sure, it gives us a little more work, but eventually we'll find the perfect FIG addition.

It Is Easy Being Green #6

Each American household averages 70 gallons of water per day as determined by the AWWA. There are several way you can decrease your own personal usage. The easiest and most helpful is to simply take a "California Shower". An average shower consumes 11.6 gallons of water. If you cut your water off while you scrub down you can easily cut that # in half. And if your someone who is not quite ready of the eventual reality of cutting back simply change your shower head to a lower flow and you can cut your usage by 3 gallons. Not bad. Cutting back at home is a easy first step to reducing your overall usage.

The Search, Part 1

Two weeks ago we finally decided we needed help. Okay, we've known this for a while, but we couldn't decide what kind of help we needed. A salesperson? A chef? A dishwasher? A psychiatrist (probably that too)? Ultimately we determined, with the help of a friend, that a part time office assistant was our best bet. Someone well rounded with mad organization skills, the ability to get along with all of our crazy (and sane) clients/vendors, and great writing skills. Marketing background, love of food, and strong personality were pluses. A cover letter was required.

After posting the position on Craigslist and the Chicago Reader, we received over 650 responses. That's right, 650! We needed to hire someone just to sort through the resumes. My friend, Tricia, was called in to do the dirty work. Unfortunately although Tricia's currently looking for work, we can't afford her full time.

Anyone without a cover letter or at least an introductory sentence was tossed into the Bad Folder - it may be unfair, but with so many applicants I was not going to comb through resumes for the reason someone was applying for the job (Hint: Your cover letter should tell people that.). Any applicant who claimed to have "good writing skilz" was tossed (not all of the mistakes were that blatant, but you get the point). Any applicant who met the requirements was put into a folder we labeled 'Okay,' but only applicants we felt showed personality and went above and beyond the needed requirements were put into the 'Good' category. Good hardly describes these applicants - many possessed multiple degrees, had 10+ years in foodservice management, had planned events for upwards or 200 guests, or had worked for major marketing or event planning companies. These were the cream of the crop...we hoped.