View on Johnboos.

I managed a not-for-profit restaurant in West Philadelphia where there was a lot of donated food.When I started working there, I brought on a chef who's a friend of mine and there were Quaker grits already there, we used them up.

Then I wrote to Glenn and he just said, "OK, just tell us what you want, how much he wants.We'll send it to you."He did that for two years.. How did you educate your cafe diners about how special the rice was?.

When we got Carolina Gold rice, Mike told me in the heyday of Carolina rice, the planters shipped away all of the whole-grain rice and they kept for themselves the cracked rice, the broken rice.Every once in a while I might get whole-grain rice for something special, but for the most part that's what I would use, I put it in a dish that was like a North African chicken that had citrus fruit in it and kind of a cumin rub.

I made a warm salad that was like couscous that had currants in it.

I would have people say, "I don't usually like couscous."I love that because you're making people feel heard, you're making them feel important and valued and you're also acknowledging them for anything that they've done and it's simple.

It's just the simple truth.Another one that I love is from my magical Jewish brilliant uncle Ted who said your word is worth gold.

Never commit to something you can't deliver and he taught me to never spend more than I made and that is one of the things that really sustained us in the early days when I had nothing but myself..I never spent more than I made and I reinvested every penny back into the business so instead of hitting a big account and going out and splurging, I tightened up even more and I would just put the dollars into the organization and that helped us get a little nest egg, little by little, brick by brick.MAKES ABOUT 4 1/2 DOZEN MENDIANTS.