DEAFCHEFS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR CULINARY ARTS

A PROPOSAL TO OBTAIN PATRONAGE

AUTHOR OF PROPOSAL::

Yann Walter Spindler,

Age: 26
Nationality: Brazil, France, United States
Deaf chef residing in New York, USA and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVE:

To create, initially in Sao Paulo, a restaurant-school for the formation of young chefs
and restaurant workers with hearing deficiencies. If this first endeavor proves successful,
to consider the hypothesis of implanting the same model in the principal cities of Brazil,
such as Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Porto Allegre. ET als.
The long-term plan , a concept called “DeafChefs International”, is to create a truly
global enterprise, with DeafChefs restaurant-schools established in the principal capitals
of the world.
The idea is to promote a world-wide exchange of deaf kitchen apprentices and chefs. A
young deaf-person from Paris, New York or Peking would come to Brazil to learn brazilian
cuisine, and a deaf Brazilian would be sent abroad for the same purpose. Or a Greek goes
to Bombay, etc, etc.
.
In addition to teaching the deaf to cook, and exchanging students around the world, the
school would also be a practical and hopefully lucrative “showcase” , with dishes prepared
by the students and offered to clients for dinner in the restaurant, at competitive prices.
Being international in scope, the client might be able to choose from various dishes made
by DeafChef students from other parts of the world, with the authentic recipes from their
respective countries.
Parallel to this “final product” (the daily restaurant dinner), a catering service would be
created for public and private events, and also a side-business for the sale of pastries and
frozen dishes. In fact, the idea of catering and direct pastry and frozen-dish sales could
well offer the most promising future opportunities for graduates of the DeafChefs
International Institute of Culinary Art.
JUSTIFICATION OF THIS PROJECT:

I am 26 years old, profoundly deaf since birth, and have spent my life in intimate contact
with deaf communities on three different Continents. I was born in Brazil, lived several
years in Paris (my mother is French) and later in the USA (American father). In New York
I studied gastronomy and received a chef’s diploma.

As a deaf person, I can personally attest to the precarious situation of the deaf in the many
places where I have lived. And I can honestly affirm that, even whilst being perhaps more
“comfortable” places to live in, countries of the “first” world unfortunately offer very little
more than Brazil in terms of worthy job prospects for the deaf.
Basically, throughout the world, a deaf person is barred from work corresponding to his
or her true intellectual capacity, by the one simple fact of being deaf; and he or she is
almost inevitably condemned to live in a subworld without true expression or contribution
to “normal” society as a whole.

Very early in life I became interested in cooking. I think it is obvious that someone like
myself, who was born missing one of the five senses, would naturally be led to compensate
that loss by developing the remaining senses to a higher degree. For the deaf, the
remaining senses of sight, touch—and inevitably, smell and TASTE become more acute.
My intimate contact with the deaf community in various parts of the world has corroborated
that fact. I have found that the majority of deaf persons I have known are more interested
and expert in the art of cooking than normal hearing people. It is a basic law of Nature:
“Something lost, something gained”. So then, accepting my observations about the “taste
superiority” of the deaf, then why are professional deaf chefs so rare?

In fact there exist in the world very few deaf kitchen helpers, and even fewer chefs, and
the reason is the same one that bans the deaf from other jobs: the deaf person does not
hear. Only this. Obviously, in the kitchen of a restaurant, which functions in peak hours
with a flurry of activity and shouts, a deaf person is at a distinct disadvantage.
Unfortunately, even for someone with superior “taste”, time is money.

PRACTICAL IMPLIMENTATION OF THE PROJECT:

The first Deafchefs International Institute of Culinary Arts will be established in Sao
Paulo, in the molds of a family restaurant not unlike the many small Italian restaurants
installed in converted two-story dwellings that I have frequented near where I live, in
Pinheiros. The dining room does not have to be very big—on the order of perhaps 5 tables
to be used for the dinner service. But the kitchen must be ample and functional, with all the
necessary equipment: stoves, refrigerators, freezers, and standard restaurant utensils and
machines.

I think it important to locate the restaurant-school in either the west or south part of Sao
Paulo, to take advantage of a more cultivated (and richer) clientele for the restaurant, but
not too far away from principal means of transport (metro, bus) which the future students
will need.
Vila Madalena would perhaps be ideal.

The restaurant-school would either be bought outright or rented on a long-term basis.

In this indicial project, I propose to start with from 10 to 15 deaf students, with ages
starting at 19 years of age (this is the average age a deaf person in Sao Paulo finishes high
school—if he finishes at all)

The staff would consist of:

One master chef (most probably a hearing person)
One assistant chef (also probably hearing)
Two translators to interpret from the speaking chef to the deaf students, and the reverse
One deaf manager
One financial accountant (preferably deaf)