You are learning public speaking at the highest level: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (tricolon and anaphora: rhetorical structures for speeches), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
The James Beard Foundation Awards, Pier 81, Hudson River
The James Beard Awards are the Oscars of the food world, and this year's ceremony was held on a boat docked at Pier 81 on the Hudson River. The room was full of chefs, writers, and restaurateurs — the establishment and the insurgents, side by side in formal attire.
The keynote speaker was a chef from the Bronx. She had grown up in a bodega family, worked her way through culinary school, and opened a restaurant that the Times called 'essential.' She stood at the podium and began without notes.
'This industry was built by immigrants,' she said. 'Sustained by immigrants. Transformed by immigrants. And yet, when we hand out awards, we so often celebrate the interpreters rather than the originators.' The room went silent.
'We came to this country to feed people. We came to build community. We came to change the conversation about what American food is. Tonight, I don't accept this award for myself. I accept it for every cook whose name never appeared on a menu, whose recipe was borrowed without credit, whose labor made someone else's dream possible. With gratitude, with humility, and with fire — I accept.' The standing ovation lasted two full minutes.