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To Chef/Owner Shelley Young, founder of the Chopping Block and IACP 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year, developing a mission statement for her Chicago cooking school and retail shop was easy. She simply states her basic philosophy for life: "Food is a catalyst for friendship." Knowing this, one can only imagine how many friends Young has made along the way since first stepping behind the stoves at the age of eight. Growing up in a small Iowa town, Young's life was the prototypical wholesome Midwestern upbringing. Her mother and father owned a local antique shop in town.
Young's first introduction to culinaria is described through idyllic childhood memories of summers spent putting up beans, corn and tomatoes; afternoons pitting sour cherries for a homemade pie; and even catching and roasting fresh catfish on weekend fishing trips. Yet, even with such an emphasis on fresh, wholesome food as a running theme throughout her childhood, it wasn't until Young landed an after-school job at a local nursing home that she learned of the joy that food could spread to others.
"When the residents at this home for senior living were served a special meal, their faces just lit up," Young said. "I immediately saw that when caring and love went into a meal, those who received it felt those emotions through the food. Perhaps the meal evoked memories of their own homes, or made them feel like a family gathering around the table rather than a lot of individuals who simply ate together. But, whatever it was, it was clear to me that food could be as emotionally nourishing as it is physically nourishing. And who wouldn't want to bring joy to people for a living?"
After graduating from high school, Young earned a culinary degree from Des Moines Area Community College and continued to develop her professional experience. After graduation, she moved to Southern California, where she was the chef at Charlie's Grill, a well-known San Diego dining establishment. After seven years in California, Young pulled up her roots and took a road trip to the East Coast. Along the way, she caught up with a friend who was enjoying success as a personal chef and urged Young to follow suit.
In working as a personal chef, Young said, "You have so much more freedom to experiment and work with food because there are no constraints to what you do; you have the space to create. It also helps you hone your service skills because you are interacting with the customer one-on-one rather than just staying in the kitchen." Simultaneously, Young worked at Cafe du Midi in Bucktown, first as a weekend tournant and then as chef.
Happy in Chicago, Young hatched a plan to persuade her parents to move to her new hometown. Finding the perfect location for an antique store, she developed the business plan for a Chicago branch of the Iowa antique store and presented them with what she believed would be a fait accompli. Unfortunately, they chose to stay in Iowa, so Young decided to use the Lincoln Park bungalow she found for her own antique cookware shop and cooking school. It was from that original plan that the Chopping Block was born.
"Over the years, the Chopping Block has really developed based on customer need. Originally, we just offered a few antique cookware items and some nice kitchen things. As the classes got under way, I found that our customers didn't understand which pots and pans to use for the recipes we were cooking. We started to develop almost mentoring relationships with them, showing them in classes the right tool for the job and selling those tools in the store for the sake of convenience. Even the ethnic ingredients grew out of customer needs: They just didn't have the time to drive up to Devon Avenue and search for authentic ingredients so we started carrying them here," Young explained. "I suppose that sharing and growing together is one of the elements that makes the Chopping Block a bit of a home as well as a school and store."
It is this simple and practical philosophy that has brought Young such success. Today, the Chopping Block is a Chicago institution. With two locations, a growing cadre of professional cooking instructors, and retail stores carrying the ingredients and tools that they teach students how to use, the schools bustle with activity seven days a week. And Young takes pride in her creation. "Our generation is really the first to grow up without home cooking as part of the fabric of life. Many of our students haven't seen someone just getting dinner on the table every night so they simply don't know what to do," she said. "We teach them the basic skills of cooking, from soup to nuts. But what they really learn at our school is that not only can they cook, but that it will soon be a rewarding part of everyday life."
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IACP 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year
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05 января 2012Hi, Shelley- I've been in your shop on a couple of occasions, ferreting out an item or two that I needed immediately and knew you'd have (and did!). I love your shop and you have extremely fine courses available for folks who want to 'learn more'. I am delighted to find you on this site and wish you were a bit more active - you have so much to offer. I hope we can be in touch. very best regards - Amos