The Mirabella Monthly
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MIRABELLA SEATTLE The Mirabella Monthly www.mirabellaliving.com/Seattle VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 4 APRIL | 2021 WHAT’S ON TAP NEWS FROM THE BACK OF THE HOUSE BY CINDY HALLGRIMSON 1 News from the Back of the House NTERVIEWING our Executive Chef, Johnny Loua, gave some by Cindy Hallgrimson interesting insights into the inner workings of the “Back of the 2 Works of Love: Volunteering at House,” as his staff is referred to by Dining Services. Johnny is Mirabella Seattle, by Sally Iin charge of thirty employees who work behind the scenes to plan Hayman and prepare our meals each day. Team members include six who 3 National Poetry Month, 2021 by comprise his management team and three who work in the Bistro Jared Curtis each day on a rotating basis. The team he has trained has the lowest 5 Who Does What at Mirabella staff turnover rate since Mirabella opened. Not only does he train 6 The Foundation Has Your Back by his own staff, he also has been working with PRS to mentor chefs Sandy Rensvold & Charlotte from other locations, an approach unlike his own experience when Lindsey he came to us from the independent restaurant scene. At Mirabella 6 WAACRA News by Nickie Askov 7 Barbara Porter on Using the Town he received no training and was simply introduced to the kitchen Car and left to create his own regimen. He describes the experience as 7 Health Services Clinics “finding a rock in the dark.” 8 Health and Wellness Talk Johnny came to us two years ago from Hawaii, where he worked 9 The Buddy System ◊ Golde in many fine dining establishments. After moving to the mainland, Memorial Lecture he worked in Bellevue and finally Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Course 10 Library News ◊ Lifelong Learning before joining the staff at Mirabella Seattle. He notes that in our 12 What’s in a Name? environment he must work under a very different business model. 13 Whoooo . Before, he would only see his clientele once except for a few 15 Outside Activities ◊ Programs regulars, but 18 Welcome Newbies here he sees 19 Book Club them every day. 19 Neighborhood News by Pat This requires Thenell listening to 22 Birthdays ◊ Poetry Corner feedback and 23 Next Time I’ll Do It Better by adapting to Connie Chaplin what residents 24 Guide to Mirabella Publications want. The Mirabella Monthly Cooking from www.mirabellaliving.com/Seattle scratch is [email protected] Chef Johnny with Cindy Hallgrimson MIRABELLA SEATTLE EAGER TO HELP 2 APRIL | 2021 important to Johnny, who revealed that his staff WORKS OF LOVE: VOLUNTEERS AT butchers all of our own meats, including grinding. All vegetables are house-prepared, and soups are MIRABELLA SEATTLE all made in house as are pastries. He also noted that BY SALLY HAYMAN before COVID travel restrictions, he was in direct OMETIMES it’s just little things like a Valentine contact with many of our suppliers, often visiting with chocolates left on the ledge by Jerry local farms in search of ingredients. In addition, all Roling, a floor captain for the eighth floor. new menu items are prepared and tested by his staff SOr the offer of a ride to a doctor’s appointment so that any changes or tweaks can be made before for a neighbor. But if you added up all the hours the item is served to residents. of committee work that residents contribute to When asked what he would like to see in Dining our common life, it would be staggering. The once the virus is under control, Johnny mentioned production team for The Mirabella Monthly the Chef’s Forum. Many residents will remember numbers fourteen residents, with nine proofreaders it as a popular monthly event. He initiated the and six writers and editors. And the Re-Store has Forum when he first came to Mirabella as a way for kept going virtually and now in person all through residents to meet staff and an opportunity to try out the pandemic with a dozen or more helpers. new menu options. He would also like to resume Residents in this community bring with them the occasional lunches he had with his staff, taking talents and skills and a lifetime of volunteering them to local restaurants to see what else is out through faith groups and community service groups there and to look for possible additions to Mirabella like Rotary. And they’re not hiding them under a menus. bushel. As restrictions loosen up many are itching As we move to remodel the tenth floor and all of its to get back to hands-on work that is in the wider dining venues, there may be some challenges during community. construction. Johnny stressed that flexibility will Matt Jamin wants to get back to in-person team be key and that the staff will need to have menus teaching at Seattle World School, a school run that allow for different types of preparation. He also by the Seattle Public Schools for immigrants and mentioned planning barbecues in warm weather as refugees, ages eleven to twenty. In 2017 he and well as occasionally relying on the Bistro for relief two others set up a foundation, SWSFund.org, to from construction pressure on the tenth floor. take the place of the benefits the P.T.A. brings to Finally, Johnny’s work schedule runs from Tuesday other public schools. During this time when food, through Saturday with Sundays and Mondays off. In rent, and services usually provided by the school his free time, he helps with homeschooling his third are curtailed, World School students and families in and sixth graders and tending to two little ones in need of help can apply to this fund for help. the mix. He, like each of us, will welcome the re- Charlotte Lindsey wants to get back with a group opening of schools. of Mirabella residents who help prepare and serve For the Dining Committee, lunch to thirty to fifty guests who drop in at the chaired by Mandy Wertz Orion Youth Center, just a few blocks from here. Charlotte says, “It’s a fabulous program. The kids are MIRABELLA SEATTLE A MONTH FOR POEMS APRIL | 2021 3 so polite and appreciative.” The program was started NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, about six years ago by Charlotte Merritt and Sue Lane. Meanwhile, fundraising goes on. Many of you APRIL 2021 may have contributed to the Christmas Tree Gifts for BY JARED CURTIS YouthCare clients. HIS APRIL is the twenty-fifth anniversary Alice Arrington, who is a certified resident advocate of National Poetry Month. Introduced in and former long-term care ombudsman, wants to 1996, this thirty-day poetic extravaganza is get back to her visits to the Memory Care facility Ta celebration of poetry organized by the Academy and Skilled Nursing. Meanwhile, Alice posts to of American Poets as a way to increase awareness the Resident Google Email Group her thoughtful and appreciation of poetry in the United States. The memorials of residents who have passed away. We Academy of American Poets’ website Poets.org have Alice to thank for these good memories. serves as a hub for information about local poetry John Pehrson has been active for several years events during the month. On visiting this site, one designing a pedestrian corridor, Market to MOHAI, can search for poets by name, individual poems, which enriches a 1.4 mile walk with “history blades,” poems on a particular subject, listen to poets read metal signs attached to light poles that bring their work, read about poets and their poems, and historical context to this fast growing neighborhood. sign up for a “daily poem” that will arrive in your The project has raised $400,000 in private funds and mailbox each morning. grants from The Department of Neighborhoods. In the last decade the Academy of American Poets There are many other outside volunteer activities to has swerved from its original more traditional online support in this neighborhood including Fare Start, presence to include a greater diversity of voices Recovery Café, Mary’s Place, LIHI (Tiny Houses), and many different communities. But the Academy, and Medic One. Mirabella makes a difference in all founded in 1934, remains true to its mission, “to these places. support American poets at all stages of their careers Then there are the ad hoc activities of those who and to foster the appreciation of contemporary see something that needs doing and just do it. On poetry.” Through the Poets.org website, teachers at a recent dry afternoon Marilyn Campbell and Jean all levels can take advantage of extensive resources Hall were spotted heading down Denny Way armed for the classroom, find poems for kids and teens, with rubber gloves and paper bags to pick up litter. lesson plans, essays, and more. For example, of There is not even a committee for that! interest to residents here since “naming” has been The author would like to update this column from so live an issue at Mirabella Seattle, there is a lesson time to time to continue the story of community plan for teaching this poem by Linda Hogan. volunteers at Mirabella. Residents eager to MAP resume their volunteer activities may contact Sally Hayman (#828; x 1640) to describe their plans for This is the map of the forsaken world. the time when volunteering will again be possible. This is the world without end where forests have been cut away from their trees. Editor These are the lines wolf could not pass over. MIRABELLA SEATTLE POETS SPEAKING THE TRUTH 4 APRIL | 2021 This is what I know from science: that a grain of dust dwells at the center of every flake of snow, that ice can have its way with land, that wolves live inside a circle of their own beginning.