Teach a kid to cook!

“Café Kiva” is a game changing start-up created by TS Gordon and Kathryn Harris.  Our first [scrappy] pitch was done live in San Francisco at a conference for French investors. The attendees were racing into the new FoodTech space, yet we sought to encourage them to think about our markets differently. And we had TWO Public School systems vying for immediate attention before saw Covid school “lock-outs” slamming door after door in everyone’s faces. Kids who learn to cook in junior high and high school typically don’t crave junk food post graduation. Some develop a strong desire to attain a profitable career in food services.  But, if you’ve ever ran a restaurant [Juanita’s Cantina 35 years] it should be apparent that the KEY benefactors through this round are those BUSINESS OWNERS who can only dream about their next ‘APPLICANT’ having actually put TIME into practicing CULINARY/HOSPITALITY SERVICES over the past what, three ++ years. In the grand scheme we formulated an amorphous highly scalable corporation, based on the meme ‘schools without walls’. with parallel channels enabling true family and community ‘buy-in’ unlike closed-shop product development corporations. Above all, Café Kiva actively seeks to engage youth in measurable age-appropriate skills they will need to enter a competitive workplace.

Sunday Buffet at Ruby Collier Thomas’ Red Apple Inn, Eden Isle, Arkansas, circa 1989

Here you see the relative cooking skill and presentation style that mom and I had achieved as we completed the photos for Feasts of Eden. It takes me back to my minor in culinary training under Chef Snowden in Chicago. Things went swimmingly well at first, except various roommates and ‘friends’ quickly ate me out of house and home. Tutelage under ‘Tacky’ at the Red Apple Inn squelched my interest in commercial ‘fast casual’ junk food, leaving me with good food memories to dine for!

“Cafe Kiva” as mobile App!  It’s underway in a modified form and I have lots more to add about this soon…