— Anna Marie Trotman

So one of the things that I didn't mention is that you have to be prepared for a couple of things, and I'm gonna give you a couple of basics where your building is, might not be where your parking is, so you need to have a wagon or some kind of device that you can throw things in, and then just pull it along the street to get where you have to go. The other thing is you need to have, uh, your food at proper temp. So aside from having a, uh, food thermometer, I use a i I use an electronic gun, which I find accurate. You've gotta have coolers to keep everything at temp. And I even have a cooler on wheels with a handle. So sometimes you may see me walking down a street in Philadelphia pulling a cooler and a wagon, and the wagon has multiple things in it. So I think that, uh, finding a way to take your, your, your things that you need from point A to point B is probably the most critical thing that most people don't talk about. And I can tell you that with a good heart, like I'm sure you did, you, you thought you were gonna be minimal about packing everything up, and then when you looked at your car, it may have looked like you were going to the shore for a week because you have food, you have your knives, utensils, bowls, et cetera, et cetera. I would suggest to this, to anybody who is looking to do demos is that check and see if your local library has a charlie cart. Because if your library has a Charlie cart, the charlie cart is equipped just like a kitchen. It has a portable stove, it has, uh, an oven top, um, it has a sink, it has a Vitamix, it has, uh, li say pots and pans. I mean, the list is endless, but even when I teach at a facility that has a Charlie cart, I'm still making lots and lots of lists. And, you know, it begins with creating a, a menu, a recipe, then going shopping to get everything that you need, trying to stay in budget. And then is your kitchen okay for pre-prep or do you have to do everything at the facility where you're going to teach? Do you have handouts to give them? Do you have recipes? Are there photos on your recipes? I mean, it just becomes very, very intricate.