Not Just a Flash in the Pan
Our Leading Female Chefs Here at The Broadmoor
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: RITA PEREZ, RANDI POWELL, BETHANY FAHEY, AND ROCIO NEYRA PALMER
The Culinary world is robust and ever-evolving here at The Broadmoor. For our exceptional, leading women chefs on campus, cooking is not just their career—it is a time-honored bridge between the different generations within their families, a branch reaching from a mentoring chef to the unripened apprentice, and a mutually enjoyed connection amongst different cultures that eliminates barriers and forms lasting bonds.
Welcome, ladies! Can you each tell us your job title, and describe what you do here at The Broadmoor?
• Hi, I am Bethany Fahey, the Chef de Cuisine of the Main Kitchen here. Eight outlets have food coming out of this kitchen, including Lake Terrace, Hotel Bar, and Room Service. We also provide all of the food for the cold cases in Cafe Julie’s, Natural Epicurean, the Pool, and Oasis.
• My name is Randi Powell and I am the Chef de Cuisine for Ristorante del Lago. I was previously in charge of cooking for the Wilderness properties.
• Hi, I am Rocio Neyra Palmer and I am the Chef de Cuisine for Summit restaurant. I have worked at almost every restaurant on property prior to this.
• Hi, I am Rita Perez and I am the Chef de Cuisine for Restaurant 1858. During the offseason, I work in Ristorante del Lago and help Chef Randi. Before I started at Restaurant 1858, I was Randi’s Sous Chef, which helped me a lot and I learned so many things, so I am happy to be back.
Can you tell us a little bit about who or what inspired you to work in the kitchen?
Bethany: I’m from Georgia, and food is very big in Southern culture. I grew up in the kitchen with my mom and grandma, as well as a family friend called “Big Mama.” After high school, I did three years of nursing school, only to realize I’m not a very compassionate person when it comes to caring for people. I really liked the science behind nursing and enjoyed nursing school, especially how our bodies are machines and can regenerate and do all that stuff, but when it came to patient care, I lasted one month in clinicals and had to leave. Then I was really stressed out and having a moment, and my sister said what are you doing to calm down? I said, “I’m cooking.” She asked, “What are you cooking?” “I don’t know!” So, there we go—I packed up and went to Atlanta and enrolled in culinary school and have been doing it ever since.
Randi: Cooking was always big in my family. I’m the only child, but my mom was one of five girls, so I have a lot of cousins. Holidays were big production days. Lots of cooking was always the norm for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and events like that. I didn’t start pursuing culinary until a little bit later. I went to school for art at Colorado College and ended with essentially an Art Studio and Art History double major, and then had a panic attack that I had studied art in college. One of my mentors actually approached me and was like, “Randi you are constantly bringing in treats for the class, have you ever thought about culinary?” So then I was lucky to find the Culinary Apprenticeship Program at The Broadmoor, because that’s where I got my training in the culinary field.
Rocio: In Peru, my parents worked all day, so my grandma would come and take care of us. In my case, she told me, “Don’t come into the kitchen because you will hurt yourself.” Still, I would sneak in and my grandma was like, okay, if I don’t teach her anything then she will hurt herself. I watched Peruvian cooking shows on TV with French and German Chefs—even shows in Japanese without translation. Then I just started playing with ingredients, even if I wasn’t sure if it was exactly what I had seen on TV. And my grandma would come in and say what are you preparing today? And I’d reply, “I don’t know, but it sounds like it was beef?” I would just try to mimic whatever I was seeing on the show! And she would say, “Ok, now we are going to do my version here, because otherwise no one is going to eat it.”
Rita: I’m from Mexico City and my mom used to work a lot, so I grew up pretty much with my aunt. She was often cooking for the entire family–her family and ours. We were always a big family sitting around the table. My aunt really introduced me to the kitchen. When the time came to decide what to do with my life, the kitchen was calling me, and cooking is what I liked to do. So I did culinary school in Mexico City, and it took about three years to get my title. When you go to culinary school, you realize it’s very different than what you thought! It’s techniques, a bunch of math, a lot of things you have to learn that you hadn’t thought were involved (like money, reactions between things, etc.) It’s way more than just cooking at home. Sadly, many realize that and then give up, but I decided I wanted to be a Chef and travel—I dream big! Once I finished my schooling, I started in a restaurant and that’s a whole new world again. You realize you know theory, but you don’t know anything about restaurants, so that is another
shock. Eventually, I found myself looking around at different restaurants to try. I worked at Four Seasons in Mexico City and then experienced working different meals, and started working with standards and stars and Forbes. Service there seemed different, with a different pace and different quality. Service had a purpose, it wasn’t just cook food and deliver. There was an extra step. I liked that a lot and they helped me grow a lot. And then I had my first experience training people too. It made me realize you need to know the purpose. The “why am I doing this” and “where is it driving me to?” So after that, I connected with the company that helped me find The Broadmoor four years ago and started as a Junior Sous Chef.
How would you describe your overall cooking philosophy?
Bethany: We start our lineups with, “I expect everyone to work safe and serve exceptional food today.” Also, patience is so important. Before I was in Main kitchen, I was in Broadmoor Hall, which meant 70 cooks looking to you with 100 questions and calling your name 100 times a day. Now in Main, it’s 32 cooks, still a lot, so having patience with all of them, especially with all the different backgrounds we have and the different language barriers, is important. What’s common sense to you is not necessarily common sense to everyone else. And I try to explain that to our cooks. When they’re having frustrating days and their station partner is not working at the same level they are, I really stress patience and understanding with the cooks. Same with the food as well, especially when everyone is tired. Everyone wants that sauce to finish quickly so they can clean up and go home or wants service to end quickly. But we’re here to serve the guest at the end of the day, and if the guest calls at 10:30 pm wanting something, you are going to reopen your station and serve the guest because that’s the guest experience. We are here to serve. We are in hospitality. Yeah, my philosophy is just find your passion and don’t lose it. You need to have the patience and the know how to do everything every day, but you need to be able to every day find something that makes you happy, or it’s not going to be a very good career for you.
Randi: I agree with everything that was said. I think empathy is really important, and that’s what working in this environment has really taught me. Being in a very closed environment with the Wilderness Properties, you see and know everyone, from Concierge to the Front of House staff to the Manager of the camp. It’s like a tiny little hotel all in one, and you see what everyone does to impact the guest experience, whether it’s what’s on their plate or how they are greeted or how a call is received. I think that has gone very far for me in the kitchens as well. We’ve overall gotten very good at bridging the gaps between front of house and back of house, because there can be a very big chasm between both. But taking a step back and understanding why something was done helps, especially when working with the diverse group that we have here. I just remember that everyone comes from different places and different levels, and we are here to teach everyone and bring them all up to the same level that we want in our kitchens. I think that is a very important lesson that I continue to develop and learn in the cooking field and as a leader here.I think it’s key to also honor good vendor relationships, too. One thing that we get spoiled with at The Broadmoor is that the product that we get to use is exceptional. We are exposed to ingredients, including really nice produce, that I know that restaurants down the street do not get the same exposure to. We have good relationships with our purveyors. They know they are supplying to The Broadmoor, so the quality should be high.
Rocio: I’m going to lean more into what Randi was saying about remembering where everyone comes from, and how every team member can evolve. For me, I challenge my staff to think about who they are serving. I say, imagine who your favorite family member is. Your mom? Okay, your mom is outside at a table with your Chef because they just met each other and they are friends. Can you go and take this dish to them and tell them that you made it just for them...without doubting yourself? They might say, well, I could have tasted it more or made it better, etc. My response is, ok, well then always be proud of what you do. Treat every single dish as if it were going to that person you like the most or to the person you want to impress the most. Be proud of what you’re giving them. Be the one that is bringing it out to them. With every single dish, be proud of what you’re doing.
Rita: First of all, you need to like what you do and be passionate about it. Because if you don’t feel that, then you will put that in your food and deliver that to your guest. You want your guest to feel like they are at home and you want them to go to your restaurant and feel the comfort. That is something I like to tell my cooks. We are using these ingredients and they are high quality, and they are spending a lot of money on their meal. There are a lot of resources you have here to make the meal, but it’s not just that. You are doing it because you are cooking it for someone you love. You must think that you are cooking for your own family so that you can deliver those feelings to the guest—then the guest is going to feel good and come back. And then the whole experience is complete and it’s like a full circle! They are here for an experience and you are creating memories for them. It was easy being at Seven Falls because you can tell the team, literally, look at what is around us. They are coming all this way for this, and you are part of this beautiful experience! When they look back on pictures of them at the waterfalls, they will say, “Oh! Do you remember that meal!?” I have a small team but they got the idea and were really passionate to be there and they loved Restaurant 1858. It was sad to say goodbye to them when the season ended because I had J1s and H2Bs. On the last day, one of the guys who usually displayed a grumpy face said he was really grateful for the experience because he learned a lot. He said he hadn’t really understood why I was asking so much of him at the beginning and telling him to do so many extra steps. But after being there a couple of months he realized what was happening, understood what people were experiencing and saw the different reviews we got. He said he understood the purpose, why we were doing everything we were doing, and why The Broadmoor is important.
So, what are your signature dishes?
Bethany: Mine is anything Southern! One of the dishes I was known for back in Georgia was shrimp and grits even though I absolutely hate shrimp so much! I don’t like the smell, I don’t like the taste, but shrimp and grits is very big back in Georgia, especially where we’re from because we have Georgia sweet shrimp on the coast which gets brought in daily, so we do it nice and fresh. Though when I make it at home, I make chicken and grits! And then I recently found a passion for Jamaican cuisine because my better half is Jamaican, so I’m learning all of their signature and traditional dishes to make for my family.
Randi: I love baking pasta, I love making pasta! I love it in the sense of making Asian food. I didn’t grow up in an Asian household; I actually grew up in a household making spaghetti and a lot of beef roasts and New England fare. There’s a big Italian population by me, so I’m very familiar with all of that food and they are very much comfort foods for me. But, I am Korean; I was born in Korea but I grew up in the Northeast in an Irish, Italian, French family. Then, I moved to Hawaii and lived there for about four years and was really introduced to a lot of Korean food, Asian food, fusion food. I think fusion food has gotten a bad name in the culinary scene, but I really enjoy fusion. I enjoy seeing what you can mix while respecting all of the ingredients. You have to know about the traditions from which it all comes. You can have fun with it as well, while understanding that this is not a traditional way of doing things. It is very American of me to be mixing and matching. I am a vegetarian, so making non-vegetarian food for people and seeing them enjoy it is also great!
Rocio: Ceviche! Next question...haha. My parents’ house is one block away from a market for restaurants, Asian restaurants mostly. So going to the store for me meant always looking around and seeing what was happening. They’d be like, “What do you want?” Nothing, just looking! I observed them not using sauce and saw different methods of doing things. I just love the simplicity of salt, lemon and fish!
Rita: I don’t know about a signature dish, but at home I love to cook Mexican food. It is something that makes me feel good, and I like to share it with my friends. All Mexican food makes me feel happy and do that little dance – whether cooking or eating it. It brings a lot of memories back from the past. I’ll always try to have a little Mexican in my cuisine. It may not be a full recipe, but it could be a technique or a flavor that is there, so I can share a little bit of myself in the dish.
As women in a very male-dominated field, what have been some of your biggest challenges to overcome as Chefs?
Randi: I think one of the challenges is that we have a very diverse team, including some who have never worked beneath a woman and that’s hard for them. And again, that’s where empathy and understanding have to come into play, because right behind that is often a lot of anger and disinterest. I have had that experience and I’ve had it turned on its head. I am actually still in contact with this one person. He was just blown away that I was the boss, and said in my country this doesn’t happen. Well, ok you’re in my country right now and we’re going to work this way. It was just that—us crossing that bridge together and it didn’t go any further. I know other instances where it has been a bit more of a challenge, and you just have to say these are the expectations that you need to fulfill. When I started in this field, there was definitely a rebranding of the kitchens, especially here. For sure, previous kitchens meant hot pots being thrown at you. When I came in, we were in the gray area of some of the old ways still happening, not as much but definitely with my male peers. And I felt like I should be getting yelled at just as much as my male counterpart. Thank goodness I had Chef Rocio—she would yell at me the same way! So I did see that imbalance of treating some of the females a bit differently than the young males. It’s going away, but I think that sometimes people see themselves in others, and then get that way because they see themselves making the same mistakes.
Rocio: Well, I left Peru and I came here to The Broadmoor because I wanted to learn more English. In Peru, I literally didn’t get many job offers except for in Pastry. My first job was actually in Pastry, and I never took any pastry classes. I was told I would hurt myself with the “hot stuff” and that I could help the guys in my
free time after I was done with my stuff. Ok, perfect. At 7:00am, I would do all my stuff and then would be there to help them with lunch and dinner service, so it was perfect for me. I would work all day, but I didn’t care. I would get to see all the food. And it may not look like it, but I’m a very shy person, but in the kitchen, everyone is the same (or should be the same.) So I’m not a female Chef, or a female, or a girl from Peru: I’m a Chef—period. I try to do everything that I have seen others do. I’m short and I’m compact, but I’ll try to help you, and if you can do it, then I can do it! And like Randi was saying: if there is a bad situation and someone is looking me in the face and questioning my authority or position... why, yes, I am the boss. Period. “You’re in charge today?”, they might ask. “Yes, I am...what can I help you with?” Period. It’s not about genders.
Bethany: Just a little bit of what everyone has said. We’ve been told we show too much emotion and can’t hold it in. I’m not a rager or screamer; I’m not shouting at service. I just speak directly, and I expect everyone to listen. If they don’t, I just don’t have a shouting voice, but my voice gets higher. And you can always tell when I’m angry, because my Southern accent comes out. So that’s when they know Chef is really serious. But just coming up in the culinary industry it was very different for us. Back in the day, Chefs would still throw things at you and smash your plates and things like that, and that happened a lot to me. You learn quickly. If you do get overemotional and have to go cry, there’s a saying to go into the freezer and grab a bag of peas for your face so it doesn’t get puffy and your eyes don’t get red, so that you can go back out and finish service and no one would know you were crying. I’ve taught a lot of my cooks that! But in the last 8 years or so, it’s completely flipped, and Chefs aren’t angry or throwing things...it’s been more about teaching rather than expecting you to come in and just know everything. That’s really refreshing. But you also have to have the balance of not babying staff to where they get out into the industry and end up too sensitive, feeling like they can’t tackle the tough stuff.
Rita: Well, in the past I worked in kitchens with pretty much all males, I was like the only woman. I feel that I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of males in my career that were not too old school and more visionaries of the future. They mentored me a lot and were very good. I believe in equity so when I have a kitchen I feel very proud when I have other females. But also I like to teach them that we are the same—you are capable of doing the same things that a man is doing in the kitchen. Plus, to remember that we are a team, and it doesn’t matter where you are from, if you are a female or male, older or younger—you can learn from everyone. My experience of being a female in this industry...of being seen and also observing how many females right now are on the top...that is what I want—and I want more. And the only way to do that is to teach the new generation to do that. If not, we’re going to keep going with the old school mentality, and for me it’s not good to do that. I’ve never been in a position where a male has made me feel like I couldn’t do something, and that’s how I want to teach the women around me, too. I come from a mostly female family, with strong females and that’s how I was raised.
Have you ever had an absolutely epic fail in the kitchen?
Bethany: I remember early on I was just fresh out of culinary school back in Macon. The hotel I worked for had a huge arena attached to it and our banquet department was enormous. We were marinating chicken for three days for one dinner, and it was all on a speed rack, and it was my job to push the speed rack up a ramp to a cooler and it all came tumbling back on me, chicken everywhere. Twenty trays could fit on a rack, and the entire rack, all over the floor and I just stood there frozen. At the time I was 22 or 23 and I just had no idea what to do after that. The Chef was like, “What are you doing?”...“I don’t know.” I picked it up, we threw it out, and went and got more chicken and I was there until three in the morning replacing all of the chicken. That was my one epic fail that sticks out in my mind!
Rocio: I think we’ve all tried to forget, so it’s hard to think of something!
Randi: I’ve had bad luck with my phone a lot in the kitchen; I know we’re not supposed to have them. We used to have uniforms that had a pocket right by the chest, and I remember picking up a big vat of French Onion Soup, and then I bent over just enough so my phone went right into the boiling soup! So...yeah...that phone died. And of course I also got to throw away probably five gallons of French onion soup. That one I remember, but I’ve repressed all the other ones where I did terrible things to food..haha!
Rita: One day I was working the charcoal grille and I had to go get the 20 pound bag of charcoal, but I didn’t want to ask for help because I thought: I can do this, even at my height. I carried the charcoal and then made a disaster with it since one of the bags was open—I got charcoal everywhere, and I got all covered in dust/stains on my uniform! So then I was late for service and everything. I’m always normally very cautious of what’s around me, but I was trying to get ahead of everything for the service because the Chef wasn’t working, and I was in charge for that day- man oh man!
So what has been a special or memorable moment as part of your Broadmoor career on the culinary team?
Bethany: When I was in Broadmoor Hall, it’s a large team, 72 cooks on the hot side alone, not to mention however many are on garde manger at the time. But you are together, at least in banquets, for 12-18 hours a day. So you see them more than you see your family, and they become a second part of you. A few years ago, my birthday was the week of our Space Symposium, so the hours were ridiculous and we were coming in at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and staying until midnight. A couple of the cooks said they were going to check on a party, and I was sleep deprived and said ok. It turned out that two of them had called an Uber (since we can’t park on property during that week) and they went and got a birthday cake—everyone took time together to celebrate my birthday. It has really stuck with me that the cooks took the time to do that even though I’d been yelling at them for the last 18 hours/day over the last four days! That was so nice.
Randi: I think for me it’s the friendships I’ve made at this hotel. It’s just been unreal. When you experience trauma together...haha. When I started here, there were zero Chefs of color, zero female Chef de Cuisines, and it wasn’t that long ago, maybe 2014. So when we talk about glass ceilings in industries, this is a significant one. For those who have stuck around, we do have a very strong bond and you get to know people very well through the time that you’ve been here and the experiences shared. I always tell the kitchens I’m in, I see you way more than my family. I treat you all like my family, and we should all respect one another. We hang out a lot in the work area. I live far away from my family, so it’s nice to have the work family here.
Bethany: Yeah, I call the cooks “my kids.” They are all kids, even if they are older than me. Every night in the kitchen I say, “Bye, kids!”
Rocio: Mine are like flying monkeys to me!..haha. For me, it’s the change that I see in others. Like, I remember when Randi started. I remember the first interaction with Randi—it’s still one of my favorites. I think about first giving her a tour, welcoming her to The Broadmoor, giving her her jacket, etc. It’s the whole change I see in staff... going from not knowing them, watching and wondering why they are here, because some can’t even grab a knife correctly! And wondering how they can confuse Caesar salad with an oyster dish?! But then watching them evolve over time is so rewarding. Plus, keeping in mind they’re different people with different feelings, that can be an interesting journey. I had one person assume that I hated him, which of course I absolutely did not! I explained that I am trying to make you better! I would only let him rotate stations when he mastered the prior one; it was tough. But he got it, and even though he left some time ago, he has called me every Mother’s Day after that. It’s that kind of relationship that you get to experience. I have seen externs here at The Broadmoor that have then married and moved away. Just like I met my husband here at The Broadmoor—the whole passage of time...
Rita: Well, I didn’t expect to have the jump from Junior Sous Chef to Chef de Cuisine. That day when Chef Patterson and Chef Justin called me into the office... I was so nervous because I was told to head to Chef Justin’s office immediately. And I thought, “Oh no, what did I do?…” I opened the office and saw Chef Patterson and Chef Justin; they talked to me and said they were considering for me to have Natural Epicurean when they reopened it. So I thought ok, they will offer me a Sous Chef position. But when they said Chef de Cuisine... for me it was like a shock! I was like, is this really happening?! I felt like I was marking one of my goals and it felt so good! It was like finally getting rewarded for all of the hard work and sacrifices I’d made, and it was super special. Eventually, I made my way to Restaurant 1858 when it reopened after Covid, which was always a goal of mine. Chef Rocio had worked there, and she was a big mentor for me and I learned a lot from her. I felt pressure going to Restaurant 1858 after her, but at the same time was so excited about it. Chef Rocio encouraged me and lifted me up so that I felt confident I could handle it.
Can you talk a bit about your involvement with the Culinary Apprenticeship program here, and what it entails? How do you feel being a role model has positively impacted any of the students?
Bethany: I haven’t been a part of the apprenticeship program; I’m not one of the mentors yet. I’m working on it. But it is nice when they get certain projects to present and they are encouraged to go out and seek advice and help from the Chefs. Recently, just in this past year and half, a lot of them have come to my kitchen and asked my input. That felt really cool that they would come to the Main Kitchen Chef, and that they felt I could offer a different take on fried chicken, for example. It feels really good to help them every step of the way with the ordering, the practicing, the techniques and everything, and I’ll always sneak in to see their presentations and watch.
Randi: I was part of the Culinary Apprenticeship, and I like to remind the new kids of that! It’s still very hard—maybe hard is the wrong way to put it? When I did it, we had to go to school once a week in Denver, and it did not matter if there was snow—we were doing that trip and it was very often our one day off from the hotel work. So we would do that trip to Denver for a five hour class and finish at about 9:00pm, and then come back to the Springs. It was a class in Denver as part of the Rocky Mountain Chefs Association, and it was before the requirement to have a Culinary degree to be part of the apprenticeship program was in place. So we were probably the scariest things in kitchens at the time! We would go to a Culinary program at Red Rocks Community College to graduate with an Associates degree, or be just credits away from doing that. When I did the program, it was also three years long, and now it’s just two years. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. Apprentices have to build a book, and back in my day, we had to build a binder of recipes. If we couldn’t take a picture of our recipe, then we had to draw it. We had to do 150 of those, and 100 had to be costed (explain how much everything costs that goes into the recipe to know how much the plate costs). They don’t actually have to cost recipes anymore. There was a high attrition rate to our class; I started with a class of 19 and only 6 graduated...maybe 5. We lost two even in the last two months. We also had to host a giant banquet, which they don’t do anymore. As much grief as I give the students, it is very fun to see the same projects and same approaches and same mistakes that I saw/experienced.
Rocio: As the others were saying, it’s nice to have the students coming to you with questions, or asking if you have a minute to taste something. Sometimes, they come at me with a fork with different things and I’m like, ok, you taste it first…I’m not tasting anything until you taste it first! I love asking them where their ideas came from and their reasoning behind them. Plus, giving them confidence enough to come to you and ask questions. If they can’t figure out why a recipe/dish came out wrong, I have them walk me through it and we figure it out eventually together.
Rita: I’m not actively in the Apprenticeship Program, but I help behind the scenes. Any time they need something for what they are cooking, or if they are looking for advice or an idea or extra knowledge, then I am available to share it with them and it feels really good. You can tell that they really care about it and they are really passionate; they love what they are doing and they have a goal. I can see that they really want to grow, and you can trust them and give them some responsibilities, too. Then they can start looking at leadership training and also approaching other cooks to learn from a wide variety of people. Ultimately, we Chefs are paying it forward, and I can see the progress in the students. It feels good to see them grow and go the extra mile in what they do!
So in the culinary world, is it standard to hire people from cooking schools or apprentice programs? You’d have to have some sort of culinary experience versus hiring someone right off the street?
Randi: I would say that’s the case at The Broadmoor.
Bethany: Yes, at The Broadmoor. At other hotels and restaurants, it is pretty much hire off the street. If you can hold a knife without cutting your hand off, then you’re hired. But at The Broadmoor we want you to have a little more knowledge for training purposes, and we want you to be able to not cut yourself...haha.
Rocio: The Broadmoor will also give team members from within a chance, too. I’ve seen a steward that was working in a restaurant and they wanted to try something else in the kitchen—so we gave her a chance. Three years later, she was a Junior Sous Chef in Penrose Room. She went all the way from the bottom of the hierarchy and moved up. There was another staff member who was a food runner, went to another restaurant and got more experience, and ultimately was Chef de Cuisine at Summit and Del Lago. I came for an externship for a year, and that evolved into something bigger. We try to train and help others as much as we can. We help people find ways to extend with an externship or stay for extra time, especially if they are good!
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self or an aspiring female Chef, what would it be?
Bethany: I tell my cooks all the time: when you have a bad day, everyone is going to have a bad day. I had a bad day yesterday! I couldn’t even plate a Hot Brown, an open-faced, hot turkey sandwich that we serve in Hotel Bar. I’d ruined like ten plates in a row, and then I dropped one! Every time I’m on the line, they keep the broom and the dustpan handy...haha. But everyone has bad days. Just come back tomorrow and make sure it’s a new day. Don’t take it home. My advice to someone would be to let tomorrow be tomorrow and be a whole new day!
Randi: You should be proud of the things you do, and you need to let up on yourself a little more. Don’t play the comparison game. Evaluate the actual conversations that are going on or things being said about you, not the preconceived notions
that you have about yourself. That was hard for me. Again, starting out with no women in leadership roles other than Junior Sous Chefs, to now being Chef de Cuisine of Del Lago, I didn’t think that was anything that someone wanted for me because they didn’t think I was a serious Chef. I’ve had this conversation with my family and those close to me, and they’ve said, you’re being ridiculous! Avoid the fictional internal conversations.
Rocio: If you want to cry take a mop with you! Kidding...haha. No, one thing that I try to do a lot now (and I tell the guys to do) is to take a step back and look at your station. Look at what you did, look at what you were trying to do...literally, what were you trying to do? Evaluating the process from start to finish and then deciding to start from scratch if necessary. If you need to fix something, then fix it right now—it’s going to be fine. It’s not the end of the world to take an extra two minutes, or an extra fifteen minutes.
Rita: I would say first of all, don’t give up. This path is not easy, but you can do it. It doesn’t matter what you, yourself, think sometimes—just set your goals and maintain a positive mindset to continue. Don’t give up!
To learn more about any of these extraordinary chefs featured in this article, you can reach out to them at:
Bethany Fahey: bfahey@broadmoor.com
Randi Powell: rpowell@broadmoor.com
Rocio Neyra Palmer: rneyraprado@broadmoor.com
Rita Perez: rperez@broadmoor.com