{"id":102,"date":"2015-10-26T06:51:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T06:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.gcc.edu\/insider\/?p=102"},"modified":"2015-12-08T22:10:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T22:10:41","slug":"2-cups-creativity-1-cup-opportunity-and-a-hearty-pinch-of-determination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gcc.edu\/insider\/2015\/10\/26\/2-cups-creativity-1-cup-opportunity-and-a-hearty-pinch-of-determination\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Cups Creativity, 1 Cup Opportunity, and a Hearty Pinch of Determination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good chefs follow recipes. Great chefs create their own.<\/p>\n

When it comes to finding your calling, there\u2019s not always a recipe for success. As 2002 alumna Anna Watson Carl can attest, sometimes you have to start from scratch. Though she now enjoys a successful career in food and journalism, it\u2019s been quite a journey for Carl\u2014one full of excitement, uncertainty, and a few tossed crepes.<\/p>\n

As her passport will reveal, Carl’s world has certainly gotten bigger since graduating from the Grove. Still, she was glad to return to her alma mater to kick off this year\u2019s Communication Pathways speaker series hosted by the Department of Communication & Visual Arts<\/a>. As Carl whet the appetite of every foodie and aspiring creative professional in the room, her story proved to be one worth sharing.<\/p>\n

\"AWC<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Nate Poekert<\/p><\/div>\n

Before she could even spell cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e<\/em>, Carl learned to see cooking as a \u201cway of life.\u201d Back in the seventies, her mother bought a yellow table that became the hub of family life in the Watson household, where little Anna developed a homegrown appreciation for good food, conversation, and hospitality. At the ripe young age of ten, she tried her hand at chefery, whipping up an impressive four-course Valentine\u2019s Day dinner for her parents that \u201cbirthed a lifelong passion for dinner parties.\u201d This culinary curiosity didn\u2019t come to full boil, however, until her college years.<\/p>\n

When she joined the Grover fold in the late \u201990s, Carl\u2019s knack for writing led her to enroll as an English major. But when junior year rolled around, this southern-bred belle\u2019s wanderlust whisked her away to France where she \u201cfell head over heels in love with food.\u201d While abroad, Carl\u2019s eyes were opened to a vivid world of new flavors, fresh ingredients, and rich food culture in which \u201ceach meal was treated as an occasion to be relished\u2014never rushed.\u201d She also gained independence and an ability to thrive in uncertainty, both of which would come in handy down the road.<\/p>\n

\"AWC

Photo courtesy of Nate Poekert<\/p><\/div>\n

After returning to the Grove with a kindled passion for food, Carl picked up a French major and Communication Studies minor with hopes of pursuing some sort of creative career that combined cooking and writing. Through an independent study with Professor Betsy Craig, Carl took advantage of the opportunity to explore cuisine as woven through the cultures of Belize, France, and Portugal. She also started a restaurant review column in The Collegian<\/a><\/em> and leveraged her work to land food writing jobs right out of college. The next few years brought a smorgasbord of formative experiences, from working in restaurant kitchens to starting her own catering company, writing restaurant reviews, editing cookbooks, hosting dinner parties, and eventually moving back to France to earn her Grande Diplome Culinaire in professional culinary studies.<\/p>\n

Though a self-proclaimed Francophile with a weak immunity to the travel bug, Carl eventually \u201cput down roots\u201d in New York City, where she\u2019s been soaking up the metropolitan excitement since 2007. After starting her blog The Yellow Table<\/a> in 2011 as a platform to share recipes, inspire gatherings, and nourish stomach and soul, Carl set out to write a cookbook. But as a \u201cmedium-size blogger\u201d without an established following, did she stand a chance? Maybe not in the opinion of the agents and publishers she first called up. But that didn\u2019t stop Carl.<\/p>\n

In a leap of faith, she began developing content with a small team of designers and wrote a blog series called \u201cThe Cookbook Diaries\u201d<\/a> to document the publication process and garner support. After daringly deciding to self-publish, she launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for the first print run. Knowing this \u201cwould require some unconventional tactics,\u201d Carl set out on a month-long road trip, partnering with Whole Foods Market, Volkswagen, and GoPro to throw dinner parties in the homes of fellow bloggers and designers in eight cities across the country, from Raleigh to Seattle. When she reached the finish line, Carl surpassed her $50,000 goal by close to $16,000. Stunned but grateful, she realized afresh that seeking the impossible can be a worthwhile endeavor. \u201cAll you need is some creativity and elbow grease\u2014and the courage to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AWC<\/a>Since publishing The Yellow Table<\/em> cookbook in 2014, Carl has continued to let her creative juices flow, generating recipes for Delish<\/a>\u00a0and sharing her insight on hospitality through her latest project, The Yellow Table Supper Club<\/a>. Now living in Brooklyn with her husband Brandon, two cats, and a baby on the way, Carl hopes to keep making memories around the Yellow Table as she inspires others to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cCooking is deeply important to me, but it\u2019s community that I crave,\u201d says Carl. It\u2019s no wonder, then, that Grove City was the right choice. Though a cosmopolite at heart, Carl is thankful to have been a part of Grove City\u2019s unique community, affirming that it was \u201ca wonderful, wonderful place to grow in my faith and develop key friendships\u201d with people of \u201creal depth and sincerity\u201d before taking on the real world full throttle.<\/p>\n

For current Grovers who have yet to do so, Carl\u2019s advice was encouraging: \u201cYou don\u2019t need to have your whole future planned \u2026 Instead, try out different things to see what you like (and don’t like), ask questions, work hard, build relationships, find mentors, travel, and don’t be afraid to take risks.\u201d Even if a dream seems too grand, Carl says, \u201csometimes when you stick with it long enough, doors will end up opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good chefs follow recipes. Great chefs create their own. When it comes to finding your calling, there\u2019s not always a recipe for success. As 2002 alumna Anna Watson Carl can attest, sometimes you have to start from scratch. Though she now enjoys a successful career in food and journalism, it\u2019s been quite a journey for Carl\u2014one full of excitement, uncertainty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,18,20,21,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-careers","category-communication-studies","category-english","category-international-experiences"],"yoast_head":"\r\n2 Cups Creativity, 1 Cup Opportunity, and a Hearty Pinch of Determination -<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gcc.edu\/insider\/2015\/10\/26\/2-cups-creativity-1-cup-opportunity-and-a-hearty-pinch-of-determination\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2 Cups Creativity, 1 Cup Opportunity, and a Hearty Pinch of Determination -\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Good chefs follow recipes. 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