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From Prison Poet to Certified Chef
In prison for 27 years, Robert Counts read Shakespeare, Einstein and the Koran. In fact, he read almost anything he could get his hands on - - from politics and poetry to science and religion. Time, a terrible burden to people behind bars, was his only luxury. And so he began writing - - first, memories of the densely packed projects where he grew up, too crowded even for birds to visit; and of prisoners shackled by day and screeching at night. After a while, there were poems - - about the war between brute force and intelligence in the ghetto; about glorious nature and the power of love. He even wrote a poem to his Parole Board entitled “If Only.” It begins: if only human beings could traverse time I must have been crazy, he lamented, to think the Parole Board would get it. Of course, the Parole Board didn’t register this prisoner’s remorse for the pain he had caused. Nor was it impressed by his gifts as a poet. But others were. At least a dozen poems, signed Ishmael Shamsid-din, the name given to him at age nineteen by an Imam in New York, were published in local newspapers and in a few anthologies. In February 2008, when he enrolled in the FSTA, Shamsid-din (as he was known to his classmates and the staff) put poetry on the back burner. Cooking was front and center. In prison, he had cooked for staff and other inmates in the MCU (Management Control Unit, where prisoners are isolated for all but a few hours a week). No one ever complained about the food, he said. In fact, the guards smuggled spices into his kitchen and complimented him on his dishes. As a cooking student, Robert was single-minded. “I’m like the dog who knows the Frisbee’s goin’ to be thrown. I’m ready, watchin’ it,” he said. “Watchin’ nothing else.” One of the top graduates in the Class of June 2008, he was named a CA (Culinary Apprentice), a paid position assisting the chefs with the next class. When that assignment ended in October 2008, just as he was about to be released from his Half Way House, Executive Chef Paul Kapner offered him a position as Production Assistant. The job, mostly outside of the kitchen, involves overseeing inventory and packing frozen suppers for Kids Café and the Family Meals program. Among the skills needed for this work are muscle, organizational competence, and tolerance for routine. It’s a good day job for a poet, I told him after he accepted the position. Yeh, he agreed, happy for the stability it provided. Coming out of prison after a quarter of a century, Robert worried about catching up. For weeks his new cell phone mystified him. He rented a studio apartment with three big windows and a filthy refrigerator and scrubbed it clean. In the FoodBank’s Thrift Shop, he bought sheets, dishes and kitchen utensils. In time, he acquired an email address and a computer. * * * The letter dated June 5, 2009 begins, “Dear Chef Counts . . .I would like to congratulate you on successfully completing the ACF (American Culinary Federation) certification process.” Attached to the letter was a printed business card identifying Robert Counts - - a.k.a. Ishmael Shamsid-din - - as a Certified Culinarian. Now the initials C.C. (Certified Culinarian) appear next to his name on his white chef’s jacket. Robert is the first and only graduate of the FSTA to be certified by the ACF. Becoming a Certified Culinarian involved a practicum (hands-on cooking exam) and three written exams - - in Nutrition, Management, and Sanitation & Safety. As required, he logged in 300 hours of preparation and study. . During free moments at work, he could be found hunched over a computer, finding his way around the ACF website. At home, night after night, he took practice tests. Patient and determined, he aimed for perfect grades. In the end, he settled for high 80’s and 90’s. Asked about his success, he said, “I had the best mentor, Chef Lisa.” Production Chef Lisa Callison, C.E.C., (Certified Executive Chef) is Robert’s immediate boss in the kitchen. She is also his guide to the professional world of food. For a year now she has taken him to ACF meetings and to competitions where she is certified as a judge. Weekends, when she catered parties and special events, Lisa hired Robert to help out. Working with Lisa, he has been sharpening his knife skills and broadening his horizons. Speaking at the FSTA graduation in June of 2009, Robert urged the departing class to set high goals for themselves. “We don’t have to settle for being cooks,” he said. “We can be chefs.” At 49, Robert Counts knows that his future is his to create. He has to trust his intelligence and keep doing his part. In prison, he trained his mind by reading dictionaries. They took him out of his cell and all over the world. Now he reads dictionaries of culinary terms along with Escoffier, the grand master of traditional French cuisine. Robert gives recipes the attention he once gave to poems. “Recipes are roadmaps” he said. ”If you follow the map, you’ll do okay.” “Okay” is a wise man’s understatement. The road ahead is steep and exacting. Doris Friedensohn (Doris Friedensohn is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies at New Jersey City University. She writes about eating, education, feminism, and social change. A chapter in her food memoir, Eating as I Go: Scenes from America and Abroad, published in 2006 by the University Press of Kentucky, deals with the Food Service Training Academy.) Click here to read past stories in the F.S.T.A. Series
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