Best Practices: Dana Cowin Knows What You Should Be Doing, and She's Not Afraid to Tell You

Editor's note: We could all use a little inspiration and light during these strange days. Enter Best Practices, anF＆W Pro采访系列，我们分享领导者和创意者如何在大流行期间面临前所未有的挑战，同时仍在个人和专业发展。

For 21 years, Dana Cowin was the editor in chief ofvwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰。在任职期间，Cowin将杂志从每月纸的杂志导航到新的数字空间。她监督了发射foodandwine.com，并帮助F＆W在社交媒体，视频，电视和面对面的活动中脱颖而出。德赢尤文图斯总而言之，她创造了我很幸运在2017年加入的动态品牌的足迹。

Since she left Food & Wine in 2016, Cowin—one of the country's leading tastemakers—launched a consultancy for brands, advising companies like "farm-fast" concept Dig. Once an editor, always an editor; she leans on her nearly 30 years of editorial expertise to guide business leaders.

"The strength of an editor is understanding the trends, the market, and having a strong sense of intuition," Cowin says. "What makes a great story? What are the elements of a story that are inside of this brand we're working with? Who is the consumer, and what do they care about? What does the brand look like, taste like, and feel like? Or how do I feel when I'm in that brand's space? Those are some of the questions that I, as an editor, would ask."

多年来，她一直在幕后静静地指导编辑和厨师。（她称建议“是专横的。”）Cowin将其中一些对话带到了她身上Speaking Broadly播客，以及她创建的教练业务，为酒店业的女性提供建议。在这个角色中，她帮助客户确定“锁定在自己内部的梦想，the devils that are holding them back。"

Her first job aftervwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰was as creative director for a restaurant group. It didn't go as planned. Now she references that setback when coaching others.

考恩说：“对于那些觉得自己的能力被压抑的人，我确实有很多同情。”“我也相信气球可以重新填充。因此，在与人合作时，我真的相信我可以成为某人的泵，因为他们会膨胀他们的信心。”

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Cowin是纽约市的一位本地人，对她的社区有着长期的承诺。她是热面包厨房和食品教育基金的董事会，以及款待联合和城市收获食品委员会的妇女。vwin德赢ac米兰

Recently, I had the honor to catch up with Cowin for a conversation about mentorship, creativity, and what's changed in the hospitality industry since she leftvwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰五年前。

The following interview is edited for length and clarity.

You're wearing several different hats right now professionally. What does a typical Tuesday look like for you?

每天都是混合物。它涉及大量时间在缩放和与人交谈上，因为我为公司和初创公司提供建议。我为快速休闲的食品品牌提供建议，并为创始人提供有关vwin德赢ac米兰从菜单开发到战略再到公关和营销的所有事物的建议。

我也指导个人。我是帮助人们的创意指南和合作伙伴。现在是100％的款待女性。我帮助人们弄清楚下一步该怎么做。有些人觉得他们有9,000个选择，他们如何选择？他们希望有创意的合作伙伴探索选择。而且有很多变化。

随着世界的开放，我的星期二也总是涉及某种类型的食物，冒险和探索。vwin德赢ac米兰

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And there's some amount of not-for-profit. I'm helping with thevwin德赢ac米兰食品教育基金。今天，我从Contento接触了Yannick Benjamin。他是一位超级鼓舞人心的侍酒师，在哈林开设了一家餐厅。他是轮椅使用者。我正在帮助他进行这个加速器计划。有一个女人想创建一辆可以使用轮椅的食品卡车，因为她也是轮椅使用者。vwin德赢ac米兰因此，我星期二的一部分将把这两个人放在一起，并说：“这里有很多智慧可以分享。”所以我认为这是这种混合。

I get to take a walk out in Central Park as a part of my day. I always try to get something like that in.

您在社论中的大部分工作都是将新数据与您的经验和肠道本能结合在一起。建议公司建议时，您是否也这样做？

The strength of an editor is understanding the trends and the market, and having a strong sense of intuition. At this point for me, in media of one kind or another for 30 years, it's drawing on that. What makes a great story? What are the elements of a story that were inside of this brand we're working with, who is the consumer, what do they care about, what does it look like, what does it sound like, what does it taste like, what does it feel like, how do I feel when I'm in that space? Those are the questions that I as an editor would ask.

But in helping brands, the structure of the question and the result is different because it is funneled through food that people can eat, or a restaurant that people can walk into, or a menu that's online. But so much of the storytelling and the rest of it is very similar.

You launched yourSpeaking Broadly播客将于2017年1月。这是#MeToo运动颠倒过来的餐厅行业的一部分之前进入世界的。现在，关于工作场所中的种族，性别和公平的估算和对话正在发生。现在，与您在播客中与您交谈的人或您可能正在建议或教练的人与四年前的人们，这次对话是什么样的？

对于播客，我就她的优势以及她们必须克服的成功，成功和挑战采访了妇女。有更多的意识和关注集中在性别平等，社会正义上，以至于我认为发生了变化的是公众对话。我认为公司没有尽可能多的改变。

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我采访的人达到了一定的专业知识。他们知道他们通常能够制定规则。因此，我觉得看到人们如何将议程设置为在工作场所拥有性别平等，种族平等，真是令人兴奋。

For the individual, everybody's story is different. If you've been subject to harassment, the way that you feel about the work probably hasn't changed from that moment. But the world is more open to it because people now realize that the problem is endemic. It's not just your problem.

我正在考虑我们用作讲故事的语言。当我作为餐厅厨师和媒体生涯的早期出现时，关注名人厨师和“摇滚明星厨师”，这是我们不再使用的语言。您是否看到在任期结束时的白话在vwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰？

我想我看到了一些变化，但是我觉得自从离开后的五年中，它发生了更多的变化。另外，这不仅仅是语言。是的，“我们感谢什么？”“烹饪食物的人最重要的是什么？”vwin德赢ac米兰而且我认为对话有很大的变化，无论语言与否。那个厨师，该个性会影响整个生态系统。他们如何在厨房里对待人们？他们为社区做什么？他们对可持续性的立场是什么？他们如何对待地球？ And in addition, how great is the food?

I think about this in the context of the Best New Chef accolade. If you trace the past decade of chefs who have earned the accolade, you can see thevwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰团队开始将他们的头从盘子上抬到餐厅，并开始望向世界，看看领导者的世界观是什么。领导力成为谁赢得荣誉的主要驱动力。

最初，我们考虑过烹饪。现在，我们过渡到厨师，他们意识到他们可以使用平台。他们是团队的领导者。他们是他们社区的领导者。他们是一次更大的对话中的领导者，通过他们的食物，他们可以表达希望和梦想，以及在这一点上像最好的新厨师一样有价值的衣服，因为它指出vwin德赢ac米兰了整个宇宙，而不仅仅是他们的玉米汤比其他任何人的玉米汤都要好。

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告诉我你的角色F＆W侦察兵在Instagram上。我喜欢您的热情和喜悦与观众分享一些新的东西，无论是一种味道，成分，才华。

I do have very genuine enthusiasm and it bubbles over. I go to these meals and I'm so excited to try something new, and I want to share it. I think that this quest that I've had for decades now to explore the entire world through food.

You have quietly mentored so many people behind the scenes. And now with your coaching, this mentoring is becoming more visible. Who is an important mentor to you? And what do you get out of the mentor mentee relationship?

I like giving advice. I'm kind of bossy and I kind of think I know what you should be doing. So I'm mentoring, but I'm also kind of bossy.

尽管他不知道，但我是我的导师的人，因为我研究他的一举一动是莉莉亚和米西的联合创始人肖恩·菲尼。我们几乎每天都在与ROAR试图找出改善的生活方式restaurant workers. And we're also on the board of something thevwin德赢ac米兰食品教育基金这是一个非营利组织，支持纽约市食品和金融高中和其他以烹饪为重点的高中。vwin德赢ac米兰

有关的：为什么餐馆的指导仍然很重要

I love Sean's restaurants. We had my daughter's birthday at Lilia. So I studied this man. How does he get so much done? He has a green pen. In all my years in media, I was doing it with a purple pen. Sometimes Sean will be in a meeting in Zoom, his head is down, that green pen working. He's not necessarily participating. And then he picks his head up and he has a completely fully formed thought. He's thinking, 'What do I want to bring to this organization? Here's the five things I'm committed to. What are you committed to?" He always has time. The man has multiple businesses, but if you need Sean's time, he'll find time, which is a huge value and something that I pride myself on as well. If you need my time, I can find time for you.

I love the mentor-mentee relationship, and this is especially true now with coaching 100% women in hospitality. I have so much to learn from the people that I'm mentoring, because everybody knows about some piece of this world more than I do.

您在2008年写了一篇文章，您说您的一位朋友称您为“病理上积极”。您将用来形容自己的几个单词？

Pathologically positive is a pretty good one. I'm a cheerleader. I'm an empath. I'm a seeker and an adventurer. I have that restless sense of always wanting to try something new. So I think those are some. I can be incredibly critical and direct. Yeah.

在您的食谱中Mastering My Mistakesyou boldly admitted that you don't know everything. Because we're all supposed to be so fully formed and perfect whether it's in the kitchen or not. What's a big failure or setback that you had personally or professionally that you used as a major growth moment?

When I leftvwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰I was so ready to go, but I didn't want to leave without a job. That just seemed crazy to me. So I took a job as creative director at a restaurant group. The leaving wasn't a mistake, the job title wasn't a mistake, but once I was there I realized it was a big mistake. I had intended on leavingvwin德赢ac米兰食品和葡萄酒vwin德赢ac米兰to do things I hadn't done before because I wanted to see what my next phase could be like. What could I do that isn't being an editor, which was the only thing I really knew. That wasn't the failure either. Taking a risk wasn't the failure. And trying to do something I don't know how to do wasn't the failure.

但是这种经历很糟糕。我每天都会质疑我所知道的，而且我实际上有能力，然后我的建议就被忽略了。因此，这是一个自信的失败。我很久没有经历过这种经历。我一直坚持下去，直到我觉得不再是个人失败，更像是：“哦，这种情况不适合我。”所以，是的，我完全失败了，非常感谢能够继续前进并认识到我的责任的哪一部分，而且我并没有真正成功。

And is that something you've factored into your coaching and advice giving?

进入每件事。傲慢并不是我的核心品质之一，但我确实对那些觉得自己能力被压抑的人有很多同情。而且我还相信气球可以重新浮起。在与人合作时，我真的相信我可以成为帮助某人的泵，因为他们夸大了他们的信心。恢复的能力是如此重要。发现弹性很重要。而且不要批评自己。我可以回头说：“上帝，拿这份工作真是愚蠢。我应该知道。”而是上课，说明为什么这没有解决，以及我如何确保不复制前进的课程。

When you're starting with a new client in your coaching business what's one of the first questions you ask?

Well, the very first one is what's your aim? What's your goal here? What do you think the challenge that you would like to address is? And I love the answers because they're all over the map. I want to be sure that I'm not making assumptions about people.

您是纽约客。您现在与城市的关系状况如何？

我是一个天生的纽约人。我只在纽约郊外生活了四年。这是一件恋情。我早些时候谈论的是我对发现的热爱。有很多东西要发现。我喜欢步行社区。我喜欢认识块。我喜欢看到分钟的变化。这是纽约市的恋爱。

What are some of the cultural things that have sustained you and fed your soul and empowered you to really keep going during the pandemic?

在大流行期间，我开始绘画和绘画和阅读比多年来读的更多。我的早期工作之一是成为电影的读者，然后写书评论，但我已经停止了很长时间。我是纽约公共图书馆应用程序的忠实拥护者。

在大流行期间我开始画明信片。I've been drawing a self-help book. I'm now trying to teach myself to draw. How do you inspire others to keep going and what are the lessons that I've learned that I can share? I've translated those into things with paint and marker from the pandemic. I've loved having the time to do it.