Thank you so much to all who have expressed their interest and enthusiasm to join us at our Chef’s Table. This group has been in some ways the linchpin of our entire vision for the Lace on Race Café: a space where dedicated, committed, and demonstrably relentlessly reliable walkers can grapple with more profound, more difficult topics, and do so for longer, go deeper, and work harder than is possible for our larger cohort, where lurking and churn limit how much we can do. In Chef’s Table, much, much more will be expected of all of us. For that reason, we want to lay out here what we will expect of you, and what you can expect from us.

Expectations and Explanations

In many fine dining establishments, the “Chef’s Table” is a privileged dining experience, but at Lace on Race Café, ours is a sturdy work table in the center of a busy teaching kitchen. Under the supervision of Executive Chef Lace, we will strengthen our skills with praxis, applied relational ethics, kind candor, and more.  We will not be privileged diners; we will prepare and serve our fare in the Café Bistro, our various Café dining rooms, and at tables in our homes, workplaces, and communities. As well, we will support and challenge each other to always improve and increase our skills in greater service to our North Star. In the words of Pádraig Ó Tuama, we will all be a place for our tired feet to rest when it’s been a rough day in the Bistro.

Speaking less figuratively, Chef’s Table will soon show up as a group in the Cafe that all will be able to join at an entry level, and engagement there will be visible to all comers, whether they are members or Lace on Race registrants. There is no secret to our sauce! No decoder rings will be necessary to know what we’re about. This group will be moderated by Lace, Admin Staff, and Leadership Team in accordance with our Community Guidelines and our Café Etiquette (available in the Café for your review). In all of this, you can expect our dedicated guidance and support.

Now for what we will expect of you. 

Those accepted to Chef’s Table will have demonstrated relentless reliability; resilience with lumpy crossings; dedicated financial engagement (of any capacity); high levels of community participation, and a willingness to both mentor and be mentored. For this, we need to know we can rely on you; while the Café is an opt in/opt out space we have set an expectation that those who wish to join Chef’s table need to commit to this deeper engagement for at least twelve months.

If this sounds good to you, let’s get started!

Next Steps

First, find and join the Chef’s Table group, now live along with our complete new website! Note that until you are promoted, you will be able to read any material posted, but will not yet be able to engage.

Second, complete and submit our Chef’s Table Self-Evaluation, affirming our expectations and letting us know more about you and your expectations for us. This is not meant to be an onerous task; in fact we feel it will be of great benefit to you as you examine who you were before you started walking with, and who you are now. Done well and with intention, this exercise will give us, and you, a sense, a baseline that will allow Lace, her staff, and Leadership team a way to locate and get to know you–and for you to better know yourself. 

Third, we will need to take a quick glance into your history with us, as a guide for what we can expect from you. It is important to stress here that this is not a backdoor way of saying ‘no’ to you. It is a way to ensure that you are indeed ready. This is important both for the health, safety, and longevity of Chef’s Table, but also it is for you. We want your walk here to be strong. If, after review, the (temporary) answer is ‘not yet’, we will meet with you, and, fully and with kind candor, detail why. This opportunity to reassess and recommit is important. We want you to feel you are up to the task here. If there are elements of your walk which need confronting and course correcting, this meeting will create a clear path for you to do so. 

Fourth, we will be in touch using the email you registered with so we can find time to set up a personal Zoom chat, so we can get to know you beyond just your words on our screens. 

The Chef’s Table will be a place where being New People Doing New Things In New Ways will be our standard.

Finally, when we’re confident you are ready, we will promote you within the Chef’s Table group and let you know you are now able to fully engage. You will find people whom you know, and also new people as well, all of whose are focused unwaveringly on our North Star, and also our Western Star.

It will be of the utmost importance that Lace is satisfied that you are ready for this level of both work and community.  As noted above, she’ll never say no, but you may hear, “not yet”; if that’s the case, be assured that she’ll let you know what needs a bit more cooking.

A Note from Lace

I am so grateful that you are considering walking, stirring, and serving with me in this enhanced way. This is where our lab will be located. We will be tackling deeper versions of what is being served in the Cafe, as well as sometimes even workshopping new material Lace is currently steeping. 

But more than instruction, even more than workshopping, this is a place to take what we have learned about applied relational ethics, Hesed Love, and reliable presence to an entirely new level. 

The commitment to a year is important.

 We want to know and be known, see and be seen, love and be loved in ways rarely seen in online spaces, where lurking and churn truncate, and even sabotage, a truly safe-ish space where a more expansive and authentic abiding and cleaving can occur.

 Part of creating a safe space where we can talk about unsafe things is in knowing that there will always be someone at the Chef’s Table to abide with you; that you are never alone in this self-selected journey. Knowing that there are people to the left and right of you, slurping the same soup; holding the same mugs, and crucially, meeting you eye to eye as we partake together, will provide the safety to truly exhale. 

To know that the person next to you and across from you will be here regularly, allow themselves to be known, will laugh then the orangeade pitcher spills, and will always pass the biscuits will, I dearly hope, make this space a place where you are not just willing, but eager to come to and to abide with your fellow walkers day after day.

I have often said to my staff and Leadership Team in our Chat that I wish everyone could have what we have co-created together. 

Welp. We can get to that level of trust, cleaving and Hesed here too. I’m betting my Chef’s Toque on it!

Let’s settle in!