我的同龄人的陪审团
Editor’s note:公共桌子，一个在食品行业放大第一人称声音的论坛。亚搏电竞我们的目标是与领导者长期合作，以创造更人性和可持续的工作场所。我们鼓励餐厅和酒吧工人和所有者在这里写作并分享他们的经验：kat.kinsman@meredith.com。有关于如何使行业成为更安全，更好，更可持续的工作场所的想法吗？也请分享。我们将编辑并发布一些条目亚搏电竞foo亚搏电竞dandwine.com。
kwame onwuachi是创造者和行政总厨KITH/KIN在华盛顿特区，2019年美食与葡萄酒最佳新厨师和20亚搏电竞19年亚搏电竞的詹姆斯·比尔德（James Beard）年度明星厨师。他的新回忆录，年轻的黑厨师的笔记于2019年出版，并将成为主要电影。
“谁在这里负责？”厨房里的每个人都将其刷掉，这是一个普遍的情况。送货员走到唯一刚刚穿过厨房的白人。“嘿，好吗？！”他说，这有很大的热情。“你能为此签名，兄弟吗？”
The server, still not really knowing what is happening says, “Actually no I can’t, chef is right there.” Some of the line just snickers at the sheer ignorance, I mean I’m at the head of the pass, wearing crisp whites, Sharpie in hand, calling out for hands as the waitstaff walks by, and firing Kanpachi escovitch at the top of my lungs. But, despite the clipboard of the day's prep hanging before me, the neatly folded towels next to my station, the cake tester peering out from a button of my dry-cleaned chef coat, and "行政总厨“在我的吹牛夹克上刺绣，他所看到的只是一个年轻的黑人，他不可能掌握米其林指南中的三天餐厅的掌舵。他只是看到颜色。
Some of the cooks just shake their heads, some of them are fuming, but it’s a been a normal occurrence for most of my life. I grab the invoice, scribble my signature, and continue firing off the next ticket that prints out of the Micros machine. Welcome to a day in the life of a chef of color.
也有很多奖励和认可，我不想减少这一点。当我走进我的非洲加勒比海餐厅的餐厅到达各种颜色的海洋，享受散居侨民的食物，用手吃东西，并在高档环境中列出到劳林·希尔。亚搏电竞我感到骄傲。没有很多地方可以提供这个。我们的美食长期以来一直被视为“种族”食物，当您想要一种家庭感或“文化”时，您去的谦卑的妈妈和流亚搏电竞行商店。现在我们有像我这样的餐馆爱德华多·乔丹（Eduardo Jordan）Junebaby and Salare, and尼娜康普顿Compere Lapin和Bywater American Bistro，我们可以在那里庆祝特殊场合，同时仍在庆祝我们的文化。
这就是为什么我们做对吗？是的，一点没错。但是仍然有向认可的渴望。我不认识其他任何人，但是如果要达到另一个级别，我本质上想达到这一点。米其林星星，纸上四星级，Food and Wine最好的新厨师詹姆斯·比尔德（James Beard），无论您当地的餐厅奖是什么，我都想要。就像其他所有职业一样，因您的辛勤工作而被认可给您在所做的事情上具有目标感。而且，当我看一些餐馆的评论时，我不禁会想，如果有更多的批评家是有色人种，情况会有所不同吗？
我回想起Chappelle表演。We all know him for his Black (and blind) white supremacist and his hilarious Prince impersonation. But what really sticks out to me was the法律和秩序episode. It was a direct parallel of what it is like for a Black person in the judicial system, but if a white person if they were put in that same situation. In this sketch, the police bust down the doors and arrest a white guy working in finance for a crime that shouldn’t involve all of the theatrics. Meanwhile the Black drug dealer in this episode is kindly asked to turn himself in whenever it is convenient. Long story short, the white guy is about to get a guilty sentence and when the judge makes a reference to how this was a fair trial by a jury of his peers, the camera cuts to a jury of all Black guys in durags and Timberlands. It is hilarious, yet sad when you think about it. This is our reality in and out of the courtroom.
In the culinary industry we are so often judged for our African, Caribbean, African American, and Latin food by people who have little to no emotional or cultural connection to it. I can count the number of Black food writers who have interviewed me for major publications on two fingers. Their enthusiasm can’t be tamed. They understand the cuisine, but most importantly they understand what a restaurant like mine means for the industry. It means more people who look likeJJ Johnson,Nyesha Arrington， 和Gregory Gourdet，仅举几例，最终将开放自己的地方。也许它会激发更多的人写关于他们的人，他们看起来也像他们一样，使整个行业多样化。
当我外出吃饭时，我了解作家科尔沙·威尔逊feels while dining a restaurant as one of the few mainstream Black food journalists. Just as she wrote about in her much-shared Eater essay,A Critic for All Seasons，我不觉得批评家有时会立即感到联系；公正的感觉being等待或照顾。只有时期的感觉。一切都带有“我在这里是'精致'餐厅中唯一的黑人食客之一吗？”以及食客和员工的外表，说“他是如何发现这个地方的？”Not until someone checks the name on the reservation, or recognizes me does a good table open up, or the famous “Let me see what I can do to get you in” happens. And then suddenly the reviews make sense; the accolades live up to their potential.
But as I sit there in my Malcolm X hat and Miles Davis screen print tee, I wonder if the other patrons who look like me without the pedigree or connection to the industry would ever feel the same way I feel dining while Black. I wonder if a critic who loved going to the South Bronx, Lagos, or Accra as much as they loved vacationing in Hawaii, Florence, or Chiang Mai would dole out the same praise. Could they even be capable of that without smelling the scents, seeing the beautiful smiles, and understanding everything those people went through to now have a restaurant where they are最后allowed legally to sit in and enjoy their cuisine and for it to be also recognized and valued like those lauded in the mainstream press?
The answer is simple: Restaurants and major publications have a huge responsibility in making the minority feel included in this vast and diverse industry. That means hiring more people of color to review, patronizing more restaurants run by up-and-coming chefs of color, hiring and investing in people from all walks of life, and celebrating different cultures in a genuine way. Let's not forget it’s only been 55 years since we’ve been able to sit in restaurants legally—my mother is 54 for context. I wonder when was the first review on a Black owned restaurant was?
我们已经努力工作了，现在是时候做任何需要做的事情来重新获得认可的了。同时，我们所能做的就是继续在发票上签名我们的名字，点头，微笑，并希望有一天我们将不仅因肤色而得到认可，而且还因为我们的骨头，骨骼的才华，多年来，技能均具有磨练，以及能够站在通行证的领先地位所需的奉献精神。
Illustration byShanee Benjamin
