Oh, to be a fly on the wall at the American Idol After Party

While in-between jobs about 5 years ago, and needing money; I started catering from time to time for a little bit of cash. What I learned though, is while the cash is sh*tty, the stories that I come away from with are worth way more than the check I get. I've had a chance to see how the famous and wealthy party, which is usually over-the-top lavishness. Now that I have a full time job though, I try to avoid the catering whenever possible. Except for last night, when I was asked to work the American Idol After party.

The after party was in a tent on top of a parking lot attached to the Nokia Center in downtown L.A., which is where the finale was held. Now, I know when I say "tent" you think of a standard party tent or canopy you might see outside for a tailgate party. This tent however, was big enough to hold 2,000 guests, and over 200 catering, security, and event staff. It also had two 60 foot TV screens inside of it, (showing FOX all night), a DJ tower, two bars, 4 buffet stations (yours truly was running food out for buffet station #1), a dessert station, Go-Go dancers, and fog machines. It also had wall-to-wall carpeting, and plush couches and chairs, 6 photo booths, and traveling photographers.

In the interest of being succinct, I'll try and keep my observations short, and to the point:

• The crowd there took everything. And by 'take' i really mean stole. They took American Idol pillows, wrappers, cups...shoot, I saw one lady even loading her purse with American Idol cookies into her purse before she left.

• American Idol contestants are a big deal...and I know none of them. There was a bunch of them there, signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. I asked all my fellow caterers "who is that?" and not one of us knew any of these people. What I do know is that they all seemed to try really hard to look like celebrities.

• Ke$ha rocks. Unfortunately, she wasn't there, but when the DJ put on "Don't Stop" everybody in the party got into it. And I mean everybody: the teenage girls, boys, their mom's. Dad's there escorting their kids were bumping up and down. Hell,I even saw the security guards with their dark suits and earpieces bobbing along to the music. And yes, I'll admit it- I caught myself singing along.

• Paula Abdul is the smallest person alive. She was also a walking petri dish last night. She came to the afterparty, and seemed to be the one that everyone wanted to meet. I didn't realize who it was, I just saw a crowd surrounding her taking pictures, videos and waiting their turns to meet her. When she made her way over to my station, I saw that it was Paula, still in her little pink dress and heels from the show. She hugged everybody. She also can't weigh more than 95 lbs, which only leads me to believe how small all the other celebs are on the show, because she certainly doesn't look that tiny next to Seacrest and the crew.

And last but not least, I had the same experience at this event that I've had at every other one I've catered. When you are part of the wait-staff, then you might as well be invisible as far as the guests are concerned. They won't look at you or acknowledge you unless it's to hand you an empty plate, or piece of trash.

Harvest Time!

The beets bulbs are starting to show above the soil, and from the looks of things it was time to 'harvest' one or two of them to see how they were tasting. I actually got excited to see how they were going to turn out. Before I picked them out, I wanted to find some way to cook the beet greens, because I've read that they're really high in vitamins, and easy to incorporate into a meal. So I found a recipe for a potato and green recipe:

Greens and Potato Gratin

The beets were smaller than I hoped when I pulled them out of the dirt. They came right out though, without many roots growing from the bulb. Then I trimmed off several of the greens on the other plants, because the recipe called for 2 1/2 lbs of greens. I still have 5 others planted, so I'll leave them in the soil and hopefully they will continue to grow to a respectable size.



The recipe called for a 1/4 cup of parsley...



I chopped off the greens, then wrapped the bulbs in tinfoil, and baked them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. They were extremely light tasting and delicious. As you can see, by the time they cooked though there wasn't much to them.



I blanched the greens, and then cooked them into a potato au gratin casserole. It was really delicious! Lots of cheese, so probably not a diet food, but definitely a hearty meal. And although it sounds like a cliche at this point, there is nothing better than eating food that you've grown yourself.

Resume Tips

I’ve recruited for almost ten years now (dear god I’m getting old…) and over the past year of reading more resumes than ever before, I thought it might be good to try my own hand at writing a quick help guide for people that are trying to get responses on their resumes and applications. Here’s my advice:

• Make sure your title matches the description of the position that you’re applying for. Now, I’m not telling you to lie about what your title was at the company, but if you’re applying for a “Technical Analyst” position, and you are a “Desktop Analyst” then do yourself a favor, and change the title to Technical Analyst, you’re not lying and it will help your cause. Same with “Sales Executive” and “Account Executive” etc.

• Your cover letter should only be used to answer any questions that will be addressed instantly from your resume. For example, if you’re applying for a job out of state, explain why/how you’re going to get there (although I’m currently living in NY, I have family in Los Angeles and a place to stay once I arrive.) If you’re applying for a job that isn’t even close to what’s on your resume, at least acknowledge it in the cover letter (Although I don’t have experience as a food scientist, etc etc.) If nothing else, you might at least get a second look at your resume.

• Find out the name of the person handling the hiring. While most companies don’t publicize who is the person quarterbacking the recruiting, you can usually call the main number and get transferred to someone’s voicemail, and hence, have a name to address when you email. (LinkedIn has made this even easier.) I almost always respond to someone if their email starts “Dear Mitch” vs. “To whom it may concern,” Which leads me to next point…

• Whenever possible, email someone directly with your resume, and send your resume as a word attachment vs. pasting it in the body of the email.

• Nothing can be more frustrating for a candidate than if you actually get a response, but find yourself in a vicious game of phone tag with the recruiter. If this is the case, it always helps to leave specific times that you can be available to speak. A lot of Recruiters will just add you to their calendar at the time you tell them. Also, if contacted, respond in kind. If someone calls you, call them back. If someone emails you, then email them a response.

• Never respond to an inquiry on your resume from a blackberry or iphone. It doesn’t look professional to respond to an inquiry with a quick statement from your phone. I hate it if I send a professional inquiry, and get an instant response that looks like “sounds great!” –sent from my iphone. It’s just a turnoff for me.

• No smiley faces in any emails or correspondence (but you knew that…)

Now, I can’t promise that you’ll get the job or anything like that, all I know is that there are things that compel me to call a candidate, and there are things that turn me off from calling a candidate. Let me know what you think.

Farming - an update

Everything is starting to fill in nicely right now, and when the morning sun hits the back'yard' at our house it's always fun to see how our veggies have grown and are starting to look like real plants. The beets greens are filling in, and you can actually see the start of the beet root growing in the soil. I'm hoping that they continue to grow into something that I'd be able to roast with a lil' salt and pepper and then add to a salad. We also have 5 heirloom tomato plants growing in the same bin, they look huge already and hopefully will continue to grow. I've gotten several snow peas from the vines growing.


In fact, one of my favorite pastimes now is roaming around my various pots and plants and just stuffing this food into my face as I inspect things. A little lettuce here, maybe a snowpea there. Hell, I even plucked a flower off of my pumpkin plant and ate that...not sure if it's edible, but I'm not dead yet, so it should be fine...right?

I also have had several salads from my red leaf lettuce plant. It's tasty, but literally is growing faster than I can eat the leaves from it. Here's one of the salads:



I've started a compost bin. Compost is a funny thing, because every gardener talks about how important it is, and thus I'm on board with making my own. What they don't tell you is how your self awareness will go right out the window when making your own compost. Let me explain: picture exactly what compost is: you basically have rotting food turn into soil. Maybe there's a little bit of smell, some fruit flies, ants.

Does this bother me that it's next my bedroom window? Not in the slightest.

Am I further bothered by the fact that I have the bin up against my neighbors wall, hence they're probably getting an interesting whiff every now and then? Nope, and nope. It's all about the soil, baby.