From Cutthroat to Community: Chef Holly Cox Inspires a More Compassionate Kitchen Culture - Line Check

Holly Cox: 00:00:02

I haven't been this great in a really long time, and I am so.

Holly Cox: 00:00:10

Shocked of how many people are saying like, congratulations and way to go.

Holly Cox: 00:00:17

Like, you know, you tell people that you're going to work at

Holly Cox: 00:00:20

a hospital and I, expected for there to be, oh man, I'm sorry.

Holly Cox: 00:00:25

Or Oh, you know but, nobody is like, this is like the biest.

Holly Cox: 00:00:35

It's great.

Holly Cox: 00:00:37

And you know, I've talked about Rodney before.

Holly Cox: 00:00:39

He's actually.

Holly Cox: 00:00:41

He's a chef at a care center in Denver, and he's, he did a, goose

Holly Cox: 00:00:48

lover, pat and cornerstones and the whole thing for his afternoon tea.

Holly Cox: 00:00:52

And the residents are loving it, and he's home by four 30 every day.

Holly Cox: 00:00:56

And he is like, I should have done this five years ago.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:00

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:01

And the reality is, that right now there is an arms race going on with not only

Adam Lamb: 00:01:05

hospitals, but Retirement communities where, like here in North Carolina on

Adam Lamb: 00:01:14

the East Coast, there are some that are spending millions of dollars upgrading

Adam Lamb: 00:01:20

their, infrastructure and their dining plan, because of course, that's one of the

Adam Lamb: 00:01:25

big focuses in these facilities, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:01:27

As everybody's focused on the food.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:29

So they're getting chefs from, you know, some of the biggest hotel chains

Adam Lamb: 00:01:33

and they're sparing no expense to make sure that people have an excellent.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:39

Excellent experience, which means that for somebody who's like maybe

Adam Lamb: 00:01:42

a little tired of hotel work, you know, quality's the same.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:46

It's just a little bit different.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:50

Kind of like emotional, energetic makeup.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:52

Like typically when we're on the street, there's this kind of mania about like,

Adam Lamb: 00:01:56

oh my God, every place gotta be perfect.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:59

And, yet when you go into a, healthcare environment, People

Adam Lamb: 00:02:03

are like, chill out man.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:05

Just relax.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:08

Everybody here is on your side.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:11

Nobody's going anywhere.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:12

Yeah, like that captured community really helps to really helps help me kind of

Adam Lamb: 00:02:19

settle into a, space where I, wasn't quite so manic and all over the place.

Holly Cox: 00:02:25

Yeah, and it, I mean, I haven't even like formally started yet,

Holly Cox: 00:02:29

and I'm like, every day I'm getting emails from, you know, the corporate

Holly Cox: 00:02:33

executive chef or the nutrition manager.

Holly Cox: 00:02:35

Hey, is there anything, you know, if you have any questions, please contact us.

Holly Cox: 00:02:39

Hey, here's a, you know, here's some training that went out today

Holly Cox: 00:02:43

that might be useful to you.

Holly Cox: 00:02:45

Some, HR information.

Holly Cox: 00:02:47

I'm not even, I haven't even stepped foot in a building and they're, I'm already

Holly Cox: 00:02:50

getting more support than I ever got.

Holly Cox: 00:02:53

From my last two employers and it's just, it's incredible and it's so

Holly Cox: 00:02:59

nice and I just keep saying eight to five, Monday through Friday to myself,

Holly Cox: 00:03:05

cause I can't really believe it yet.

Adam Lamb: 00:03:09

Well, there, there will be things that come

Adam Lamb: 00:03:10

up from time to time Chef.

Adam Lamb: 00:03:11

You know that, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:03:12

Oh, sure,

Holly Cox: 00:03:12

sure.

Holly Cox: 00:03:13

Yeah, Now tell I'll be bankrupt and stuff, but I'll be happy to do that.

Adam Lamb: 00:03:17

Now, tell us how you ended up in a position that you were at that this.

Adam Lamb: 00:03:22

That this opportunity actually existed for you?

Adam Lamb: 00:03:24

Like, where were you at, say, six months ago versus where you're at right now?

Holly Cox: 00:03:31

I think the last year has been about humility.

Holly Cox: 00:03:38

It's been going back to the, very beginning and.

Holly Cox: 00:03:46

But in the same way, being able to use everything that you taught me and the,

Holly Cox: 00:03:52

number one, I guess you could say, buzzword about this whole thing is, was

Holly Cox: 00:03:58

the safe, was the, was finding out that's my gift and my need is for me to feel

Holly Cox: 00:04:05

safe and to make people feel safe and.

Holly Cox: 00:04:10

To teach young people from other countries about knives and, behind you.

Holly Cox: 00:04:17

And, the kitchen etiquette of this is all about to help you stay safe and everyone

Holly Cox: 00:04:22

else you know, the cooking will come but, let's focus on keeping everybody,

Holly Cox: 00:04:29

you know, happy and, emotionally safe.

Holly Cox: 00:04:33

And.

Holly Cox: 00:04:35

I tried my best to, prepare a, an environment like that, and I, had

Holly Cox: 00:04:45

a year to reset my priorities.

Holly Cox: 00:04:48

It wasn't about chasing a title anymore.

Holly Cox: 00:04:51

It wasn't about patting my resume anymore.

Holly Cox: 00:04:56

It was about rebuilding myself and focusing on what

Holly Cox: 00:05:00

I had learned and it worked.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:07

Imagine that.

Holly Cox: 00:05:09

Imagine that.

Holly Cox: 00:05:10

So when you, and this is the, like, when I found out that like, like.

Holly Cox: 00:05:15

Feeling safe and, creating a safe environment for other

Holly Cox: 00:05:18

people was my priority.

Holly Cox: 00:05:20

I was able to, put that in a box.

Holly Cox: 00:05:23

And by that I mean set priorities and set standards for it and, say this is

Holly Cox: 00:05:31

when I'm willing to, compromise on.

Holly Cox: 00:05:34

And this is these are things that are non-negotiable and you know, healthcare.

Holly Cox: 00:05:42

That's what it's all about, is providing safe food, making people feel

Holly Cox: 00:05:46

comfortable giving them nourishment.

Holly Cox: 00:05:50

And, you and I both know that food is a major part of, healing.

Holly Cox: 00:05:57

And that's one reason why they're providing better food now than they did

Holly Cox: 00:06:01

when, our parents were, you know, taking us to the hospital when we were kids.

Holly Cox: 00:06:06

It's, not all gray food anymore.

Holly Cox: 00:06:08

It's like people actually understand the benefits of good food and.

Holly Cox: 00:06:15

I've had a, I had a lot of peers over the last six months.

Holly Cox: 00:06:18

Tell me, well, the next logical step for a lot of people, you know, in

Holly Cox: 00:06:23

their, you know, their next phase of, their business is healthcare education.

Holly Cox: 00:06:29

So, And so I, applied for a, job at the University of Utah, but it was like a,

Holly Cox: 00:06:37

it was gonna be like a 45 minute drive.

Holly Cox: 00:06:40

And then, you know, I was just looking around on Indeed because

Holly Cox: 00:06:43

knew I wasn't gonna stay where I was it was gonna be a resume killer.

Holly Cox: 00:06:47

I couldn't continue.

Holly Cox: 00:06:50

It was a great place to stop and heal and kind of step out

Holly Cox: 00:06:54

of the rat race, but it wasn't.

Holly Cox: 00:06:57

It wasn't beneficial to me or to my spirit, right?

Holly Cox: 00:07:02

And so I found this on a, job site.

Holly Cox: 00:07:07

And I was like, what the heck?

Holly Cox: 00:07:09

You know what if I, got to lose?

Holly Cox: 00:07:11

This fits all the boxes and.

Holly Cox: 00:07:15

I did a tasting, it was the first tasting I'd done in

Holly Cox: 00:07:17

probably, I don't know, 17 years.

Holly Cox: 00:07:20

Great.

Holly Cox: 00:07:21

It was great.

Holly Cox: 00:07:23

I, had to do one of my own dishes and then something from the hospital, so,

Holly Cox: 00:07:30

And they're like, you've got two hour, or you've got an hour to do two dishes.

Holly Cox: 00:07:33

I'm like, okay, well this is no big deal, you know?

Holly Cox: 00:07:36

And it turned out, out of all the applicants, I was the only

Holly Cox: 00:07:39

one that finished on time.

Holly Cox: 00:07:42

I'm like, wow.

Holly Cox: 00:07:43

Ok.

Holly Cox: 00:07:43

Four plates in an hour.

Holly Cox: 00:07:44

I think I got this.

Holly Cox: 00:07:46

Right.

Holly Cox: 00:07:46

Exactly.

Holly Cox: 00:07:46

And I, because I, you know, And I made risotto.

Holly Cox: 00:07:50

And it was just great.

Holly Cox: 00:07:52

And you know, I go in there and it's like the, quintessential

Holly Cox: 00:07:57

corporate firing squad.

Holly Cox: 00:07:58

I'm sitting at one six foot table by myself and there's like

Holly Cox: 00:08:02

eight people sitting in front of me nutritionists and corporate

Holly Cox: 00:08:05

executive chefs and the whole nine.

Holly Cox: 00:08:07

And I'm like, okay this is legit.

Holly Cox: 00:08:10

You know?

Holly Cox: 00:08:13

And they asked me, you know, just all the right questions and, it was just, I

Holly Cox: 00:08:17

just felt really comfortable about it.

Holly Cox: 00:08:19

And you know, the best part was I was, well, I was cooking, you

Holly Cox: 00:08:24

know all the, cooks were in there and most of them spoke Spanish.

Holly Cox: 00:08:29

And that was one benefit of this job that I just had was my Spanish got really good.

Holly Cox: 00:08:34

And so I'm, talking to these guys and I'm like, Hey where's the spoon?

Holly Cox: 00:08:38

Or whatever, you know what I mean?

Holly Cox: 00:08:39

And they're like, oh, this.

Holly Cox: 00:08:40

You know she can speak, to us, and she's respectful.

Holly Cox: 00:08:44

Right?

Holly Cox: 00:08:44

And then, you know, when I get ready to, take my food out the, woman who's

Holly Cox: 00:08:50

the food and beverage director for the hospital comes back and the guy

Holly Cox: 00:08:55

in the back that's been helping me, he says, She's gonna be my new boss.

Holly Cox: 00:09:03

And it was just that, again, making people feel safe.

Holly Cox: 00:09:08

I wasn't there to judge anybody.

Holly Cox: 00:09:09

I respected them on their level.

Holly Cox: 00:09:12

I was walking into their place.

Holly Cox: 00:09:15

I, and when I came back, my whole station was cleaned up and I was like,

Holly Cox: 00:09:18

oh man you didn't need to do that.

Holly Cox: 00:09:20

You know what I mean?

Holly Cox: 00:09:21

And he's like no, chef.

Holly Cox: 00:09:22

I got this.

Holly Cox: 00:09:22

You know?

Holly Cox: 00:09:24

And, it's whether people can put their finger on it or not, that's a hot

Holly Cox: 00:09:29

button for everybody, especially now.

Holly Cox: 00:09:34

And it's just, it has served me well and and to have spent the time with

Holly Cox: 00:09:40

you, and I've actually like put a label on it and put a, voice to it

Holly Cox: 00:09:49

has just been, it's been incredible.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:54

So I'm curious are, you still working at your old, job?

Adam Lamb: 00:09:58

I.

Holly Cox: 00:09:59

No my last day was Monday.

Holly Cox: 00:10:03

So

Adam Lamb: 00:10:03

are you taking some time to emotionally finish there

Adam Lamb: 00:10:08

before you begin your, new job?

Adam Lamb: 00:10:10

Yes.

Holly Cox: 00:10:11

Yep.

Holly Cox: 00:10:11

I have about, I'm in the middle of about a week.

Holly Cox: 00:10:13

Yes, I am.

Adam Lamb: 00:10:15

And so what are you gonna do in order and in order to honor all that

Adam Lamb: 00:10:20

effort and work that you put in downtown and kind of tie that up neatly in a bow?

Adam Lamb: 00:10:29

Before you enter into your new workplace are you spending any

Adam Lamb: 00:10:33

time doing things that you love?

Adam Lamb: 00:10:35

Are you I

Holly Cox: 00:10:37

am, I've had, I've been taking care of myself.

Holly Cox: 00:10:42

I got a really nice massage yesterday.

Holly Cox: 00:10:44

Right on.

Holly Cox: 00:10:45

I've been cooking at home.

Holly Cox: 00:10:50

I'm gonna take my niece to go do the Aspen coaster today.

Holly Cox: 00:10:53

Something really fun that I haven't got to, I didn't get

Holly Cox: 00:10:56

to do any of this last summer.

Holly Cox: 00:11:00

Just, you know.

Holly Cox: 00:11:01

Spending time out in my yard, you know, putting in a new

Holly Cox: 00:11:04

flower bed, things like that.

Holly Cox: 00:11:06

Just taking care of my house.

Holly Cox: 00:11:09

That's a big thing is I, you know, you look around and you're like, oh,

Holly Cox: 00:11:12

I gotta do that and I gotta do that.

Holly Cox: 00:11:13

And I've got, kind of got this mental list of things that I need

Holly Cox: 00:11:16

to do to take care of my house.

Holly Cox: 00:11:18

And it, and now it isn't like a, oh man, I gotta do this.

Holly Cox: 00:11:21

It's like, oh, I finally have time to take care of, my home, you know?

Holly Cox: 00:11:25

And Man, it's just like, and it isn't even just about leaving this last job.

Holly Cox: 00:11:34

I just walked away from 29 years of tourism.

Holly Cox: 00:11:38

Yeah.

Holly Cox: 00:11:38

And it's, I don't have a single regret.

Holly Cox: 00:11:42

I did some pretty amazing stuff and, cooked for some

Holly Cox: 00:11:48

beautiful people and I'm done.

Holly Cox: 00:11:51

And I'm happy with what I did.

Holly Cox: 00:11:53

Yeah.

Holly Cox: 00:11:55

And it's time to take care of me and, just have a hell of a lot of fun.

Holly Cox: 00:12:00

And I'm, really looking forward to that.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:03

Well, I imagine that you're still gonna cook

Adam Lamb: 00:12:05

for some really cool people.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:06

It's just gonna be in a different environment.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:07

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:08

Yep.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:09

Yep.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:10

And having to spent quite a bit of time in a hospital about

Adam Lamb: 00:12:14

three months ago yeah, man.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:16

Oh man.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:17

Is that really, it really is a gift to the folks that are in there.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:23

I can tell you that I was in a rehab hospital for about a week and it was.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:30

Nothing, was on a plate that didn't come out of a box.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:33

And I'm like, they must not have anybody in the kitchen right now, because it was

Adam Lamb: 00:12:37

like the lowest possible hanging fruit.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:39

And about a week after I got home, there was an ad in the, there

Adam Lamb: 00:12:42

was ad in the paper for, a chef for this particular hospital.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:48

Because I literally was eating like a, quarter to a third of everything.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:52

Not only that, you know, you're on opioids, you don't want to get

Adam Lamb: 00:12:54

constipated, but that's another story.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:55

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:56

Anyway I.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:57

Just wanted to say how proud I am of you and the work that you've done.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:01

You know, you and I worked together.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:04

But hopefully there's, hopefully you're clear that you're the one

Adam Lamb: 00:13:07

that made this happen, not me.

Holly Cox: 00:13:11

Right on.

Holly Cox: 00:13:12

And that's, the.

Holly Cox: 00:13:16

To look back and say, wow, I was really, I was miles away from where I am now.

Holly Cox: 00:13:24

Miles.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:25

The first blog post, the first blog post I ever read of yours was

Adam Lamb: 00:13:29

some of the darkest shit I've ever read, and I've written some dark shit, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:13:35

It's like, holy fuck, who is this person?

Adam Lamb: 00:13:38

And I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna drop in their DM and just say, hello.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:41

Hi.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:42

How are you?

Holly Cox: 00:13:47

Yeah, it wasn't very nice to vegetarians for a while.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:53

No, it's just like this overall sense of like you being

Adam Lamb: 00:13:58

like done and at the end of your, at the end of your wit, like you had.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:06

Well, my interpretation of it was is like you're self-medicating with alcohol.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:10

You didn't know how you were gonna get up the next day.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:12

You didn't know how you were gonna get through that day, and it just

Adam Lamb: 00:14:15

seemed like a, treadmill of despair.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:20

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:20

Would you say that was accurate?

Holly Cox: 00:14:23

Absolutely.

Holly Cox: 00:14:24

And, it never dawned on me.

Holly Cox: 00:14:27

That there was an, that there was an outlet as far as getting

Holly Cox: 00:14:32

out of restaurants, but still being able to be a chef.

Holly Cox: 00:14:36

Yeah, I applied Adam, I applied to every chef to cuisine, a sous chef position in

Holly Cox: 00:14:42

this town, and I just, I asked the Lord.

Holly Cox: 00:14:46

You know, start shutting doors.

Holly Cox: 00:14:49

If I, you know, it used to be like, I really wanna do this for the food,

Holly Cox: 00:14:53

I wanna do this for this and that.

Holly Cox: 00:14:54

And I was like, I need to take care of my brain.

Holly Cox: 00:14:57

I need to take care of my brain and my mental health.

Holly Cox: 00:15:01

And I have never gotten so many nos in my life.

Holly Cox: 00:15:07

And that, and the hospital was the only thing that, that, that came out of this.

Holly Cox: 00:15:12

And.

Holly Cox: 00:15:16

It's a lifesaver and it, like I said, it fits all the bills about.

Holly Cox: 00:15:21

Nourishment and making people feel safe.

Holly Cox: 00:15:23

And there's that little bit of structure of the, you know, the patient food has

Holly Cox: 00:15:27

to be a certain way and I like structure.

Holly Cox: 00:15:31

And I, and because it is, what it is.

Holly Cox: 00:15:35

It's, not just because someone's saying, because this is what I like and

Holly Cox: 00:15:38

I told you, so this is about people's health and it's paramount to have

Holly Cox: 00:15:43

this structure and I respect that.

Holly Cox: 00:15:48

And to ha having had a son who was in the hospital for so long, and the surgeons

Holly Cox: 00:15:53

and the people that took care of him.

Holly Cox: 00:15:55

For me to be able to kind of pay back in a sense and to be feeding surgeons and

Holly Cox: 00:16:02

doctors and all those people that, that and you and took care of you and Yeah.

Holly Cox: 00:16:07

You know what I mean?

Holly Cox: 00:16:08

The, people that sacrificed their families for the rest of us,

Holly Cox: 00:16:11

and to be able to give them some nourishment that's, Man, that's it.

Holly Cox: 00:16:16

That's, what I was made to do.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:18

Well I'm glad you said that because we'll be checking in the next

Adam Lamb: 00:16:21

couple months to see how, if the promise is actually laying up to the reality.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:29

You don't mind, do you?

Adam Lamb: 00:16:32

No, not

Holly Cox: 00:16:32

at all.

Holly Cox: 00:16:33

No.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:33

Good.