216. Journalist-Chef’s Experiences Lead to Stories She Is Meant to Write

From early in her childhood, Phyllis was clear about her abilities. “There are two things I can do and do well. One of them is that I can write. The other thing is that I can cook. I learned how to cook from my grandmother, hanging around in her kitchen. My first article was published when I was ten years old. I wrote a story about my brother that my mother sent to the Cleveland Press, which had a children’s section. Much to my shock and awe, they published it. So that was my very first article.

Phyllis was well into her career handling communications for a major law firm. After a brief check-in phone call with her mother who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, she realized how completely bored with her work she had become. “I walked to work, got into the elevator and went up to my office on the 31st floor, and I couldn’t get off. I absolutely couldn’t get off. I pushed the button to go back to the ground floor, got off the elevator, went home, called in sick and three days later I resigned and enrolled in culinary school.”

Always have a backup plan.  You may be going for the higher end job, but things happen. Recessions, political party changes, and so forth. “I think having a a backup plan is always a good thing to keep in your back pocket.  I always knew that I could get a job in a kitchen, and I have done when needed. You learn from each of those experiences.”

1. Never burn a bridge. At some point things turn around. You never know what those turns will be.

2. Diversify. Don’t put all your psychic energy into just one skill.

3. Take something you love and see if it might be a way of making a living.

4. Always have a backup plan.

Phyllis Gillis’ third book, Days Like This, about a young mother working the night shift in a restaurant kitchen while spending her days in court fighting for custody of her child, is based on the author’s own life.  This book made the New York Times “Best Books of the Year.”