#YTILI — Lifetime experience part 2 (Chicago).
After the great start of YTILI fellowship in Washington, DC part of us flew to Chicago to spend the main part of the program — 2 weeks professional placement.
We we warmly welcomed by “World Chicago” team at their headquarters.
All of us had host families so we can immerse in the American culture. I was lucky one to have a lovely couple as hosts living in the best neighborhood in town.
I was impressed my the beauty of the neighborhood Lincoln Park my host are living in. A lot of houses looked like landscape from Europe (Italy or France).
People from Chicago are proud of the brick houses with the special red color.
The fellow from Macedonia, Blagica had a birthday so we started our journey in Chicago with the amazing view from 96th floor Signature lounge at John Hancock Center Building. As Blagica said “From now on my birthdays are going to be on places as fascinating as this one!”
During our fellowship in Chicago we had 2 workshops. The first one was at the end of the first week with goal to improve our own action plans with the help of each other advises practising team work and learning from equal level professionals with different backgrounds under the mentorship of Laurie R. Glenn, President & CEO of Thinkinc.
The second workshop was for building networking skills — a practical seminar just before the GES 2016 with Jennifer Ladek, President of The Coaching Group. Key lessons learned: be prepared and have a goal of the current networking, ask questions, listen and have your pitch ready, be confident, use and read body language.
Main goal of mine was to learn about the distribution chain of the specialty food industry in US. One of the most useful meetings I had was with Natalie Shmulik from the Hatchery. She is responsible of helping food start ups grow and develop distribution within US. At the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago International Trade Center they aslo have production facilities where chosen start ups place their production. The services they provide go even beyond, they provide mentorship, expertise and connections for starting export when the companies are ready.
The person that impressed me the most with knowledge was the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium, Mr. Paul Van Halteren. Our conversation started with a discussion of the current political and economic situation in Europe. As he had a rich background with international trade in the food industry and is a true “foodie” and gourmet person he gave me advises for key players of main markets for us like Japan, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and USA. He showed me also good retailers in Chicago like Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Cost Plus World Market, Williams-Sonoma, Sur la table — places where he goes shopping for international high quality food.
Mr. Paul Van Halteren appreated to be a great fan of the famous Bulgarian singer Sylvie Vartan and kindly surpriced me with some of her songs like “La Maritsa” and “Oblatche”.
Other good retailers I have visited are Treasure Island, Trader’s Joe, Plum Market, Foodstuffs, Whole Foods, Mariano’s, Fresh Market Farms International, Potash Market, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, The French Market and others.
Do you know Chicago has 22 Michelin Stars restaurant?! I was definately surpriced and facinated by this fact. Here is the full list.
We had a dinner in “Salero”, a very good spanish restaurant just next to “Blackbird”, one of the most popular michelin star restaurant.
Speaking about food industry cannot miss mentioning the best BBQ rips I have ever had cooked by Roland Kulla — a true artist famous for painting bridges and cooking delicious food with his own grown up vegetables and herbs. Mr. Roland Kulla was also the host of YTILI fellow from UK.
I had the pleasure to attend an event dedicated to roof top gardening. They explained us how many different plants they are growing as well as all the benefits that come with the urban farming.
We enjoyed a catering with the plants from the roof icluding a special cocktail and flower infused water.
Recipe for the cocktail: Prairie cucumber vodka, St.Germain, roof crop mint syrop, fresh lemon juice, soda water, roof crop edible flowers. It was a pleasant surprice as in Rosey’s mark we are developing the culture of “floral gastronomy” by creating specialty food from roses and creating recipies with our rose petals tea, rose jam and chocolate with roses.
Chicago has come interesting concepts in food industry. Have you seen a Cupcake ATM?
A key lesson I learned during my fellowship was the importance of having an Advisory board, keep networking with same level professionals from different industries, listen and observe contantly the changing environmet. It sounds as nothing new but I tend to forget doing it when jumping into the busy everyday life. I participated in a COO forum meeting which is scheduled once per month on a Tuesday morning 8:00–10:00, time which is proven to be spend not as wise as the other hours in the working week.
Chicago is know as the city of Blues music. We were lucky to visit the Chicago Blues Festival where Fred Wesley was playing live for us.
My favorite jazz club from now is the “Green Mill” known as the club of Al Capone. You just have to visit it — I have no words to describe it!
My “frined in crime” expeciencing Chicago blues culture was the YTILI fellow from France.
I cound’t miss the Art Institure in Chicago.
Chicago is knows for its skyscrapers. Among them is the rose blossom shaped Mr. Van der Rohe piece of art.
The first thing people hear when visiting Chicago is “Let’s meet at the Bean”. So here it is. Designed by the artist Anish Kapoor it is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates — giving the appearance of liquid mercury. Up close, the highly reflective nature of the sculpture captures the beautiful skyline of Chicago.
Chicago has always been a big trading center. People still remeber the big cattle market. The city is famous also for the Stock Exchange.
A lot of movies are shot is Chicago like Batman and the Jocker and Home Alone.
Chicago has so much to offer — I highly recommend everyone visiting it!
At the end of our fellowship in Chicago we had a farewell party with Word Chicago team, our hosts and mentors.
Farewell Chicago, I hope to see you soon.
