Nathan’s April 2021 Newsletter
Culinary Storytelling.
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” – George Lucas
Over the past two months, I’ve described two lenses on which we focus at the GCI. Since we have a total of three, I figured this month would be a good time to talk about Culinary Storytelling.
Today more than ever, branding and marketing are crucial to any culinary success. You might have the greatest dish, technique, business, restaurant, the culinary area, but if you are not on social media, you will quickly become a thing of the past. Today it is extremely hard to capture people’s loyalty, let alone attention for more than a few seconds.
Culinary Storytelling includes items such as marketing, branding, media production, and more. It is about the concise and effective use of communications and marketing to connect each other through history, heritage, food, and community.
People connect to stories. What is more important, is the genuineness of the stories. An untrue story can only be told for so long, but the ones that are true and come from the heart, enter the heart.
I was reading about a public project called StoryDoing and the project looks at performance differences between companies that just tell stories through marketing, PR, etc, and the ones that are doing this based on founding principles. You can take a look at the site, but it is quite obvious that the companies that are actively telling their story and living the values behind the story are much more successful. This is why companies like Trader Joe’s, Toms, and others have customers for life, and people today more than ever before, purchase based on emotion. Companies that are actually living up to their stories are actually the ones succeeding.
Our program will see culinary through this storytelling lens. It could be telling the story behind a specific dish, culture, or creating a how-to video on a specific technique. Students will get first-hand experiences with food photographers, videographers, and writers. Since students have a choice in their learning, they are able to work on the angles of stories they love most while working with some of the best in the industry. The goal is for our students to be extremely well-rounded, and no matter where they go in culinary, they can utilize storytelling or understand the importance of storytelling in a world where it is hard to get people’s attention.
It would be pretty hypocritical if we did not focus on our story at the GCI by JNF, hence the reason we are so focused on creating a one-of-a-kind institute. We will be capturing content 24/6, telling our community members’ stories, creating programs online, videos, and much more soon. We are finishing up a marketing roadmap and cannot wait to tell you about all that we are doing to build and live our brand daily.
Other updates, our curriculum for our flagship program is looking great. We might have a big announcement next month on the length of the program and some more details, but stay tuned for that. We are working on admissions, strategy and looking at working with potential game-changing partners. The JNF National Conference will be here in Israel this year, and we are working on an event that will be awesome, so hopefully, I’ll see a lot of you here in Israel now that some travel restrictions have been lifted.
Two very meaningful days have just occurred in Israel. Remembrance Day, where we remembered our soldiers and terror victims, immediately after with no break in between, we celebrated Israel's Independence Day. Over the years, there have been many discussions over this matter, and it is part of Israel's story. We hope to find the right way to tell GCI's story that will become something significant and meaningful in the culinary storytelling world, just as these oh so different days tell the story of such a fascinating country.
I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I am looking forward to some beautiful weather and sun here in Israel.
L’chaim (To life)
Nathan