Rafael: The beginning so don’t worry about it. So, you know, I just want to say hi introduce myself First of all, my name is Rafael Frias and we’re here doing a podcast for us older folk coming back to school and and just talking about what comes up to in our minds and just You know start from there today Lolitha Jones, right? That’s right. She came here last week and she did a little session here at the booth and you know There’s a lot to say.

Lolitha: Yes, right that was pretty amazing.

Rafael: Want to take some time and introduce yourself once again.

Lolitha: Sure. My name is Lolitha Jones. I am a culinary arts major student I just turned 65 last week December the 11th and I came to culinary after my mom passed away to kind of do something rather than do nothing.

Rafael: Yeah keep busy and and I’ll get out of that out of that depression now. We were talking a little bit about How do we react when I mean because I believe those are some kind of like attacks spiritual attacks that might might affect you in a negative way. So people don’t come out of it, but Since Lolitha you you’re telling me you’re a Christian, right? You believe in God?

Lolitha: I am and I do.

Rafael: So, how do you think did God have a anything to do with you coming out of your your depression?

Lolitha: Absolutely. Absolutely. He did. In fact, I’ve been at one church for 10 years Freedom City Church in Whittier and I’ve been there. I have an amazing pastor Pastor Lozano and he’s Mexican I love that church. And yes, I went there, but I was already going there when my mom passed away. So, of course, I doubled down on it when she passed away because I was struggling. I was struggling just to see the next day like my mom was my everything.

Rafael: Yeah, I am sorry to hear that

Lolitha: To lose my mom from COVID unexpectedly it it almost took me down a whole different path that had nothing to do with Christianity

Rafael: Wow What do you mean by that?

Lolitha: Like I I was super suicidal.

Rafael: Oh Ok.

Lolitha: like I had to go and confess that and I had to ask like what? What do I do? Because I know if you that’s a sin if you could if you commit suicide from what? I’ve always been taught. Well, you’re not going to heaven. So I had to go and ask for help and they helped me through it I was by myself on the altar like bawling Like bawling my eyes out and I was screaming louder than the choir was singing and if you’ve ever been to Freedom They can sing and they sing really loud and really beautifully.

Rafael: Yeah

Lolitha: I was above that so someone came and got me and hugged me and walked me out and told me like we love you you’re gonna get through this. We’re gonna help you through this and I go to a women’s prayer group every week my daughter host of prayer group every week. So yes, that has definitely helped me to sustain being over here in culinary arts.

Rafael: Nice. Yeah, I was looking for a Bible verse regarding depression, but I don’t know if I didn’t punch it in right, but the first one that came out of Psalms Chapter 34 verse 10. I don’t know if it applies but that’s one of the things that I want to do again, you know because I used to be able to I had to all the Bible verses fresh in my mind

Lolitha: Well, read that one while you have it up

Rafael: but this one says the Lord is close to the broken heart and save those who are crushed in spirit.

Lolitha: Absolutely He is.

Rafael: So if you you know, and that’s one thing I do know that because of you could call, you know Death is part of life right now But if you believe in God, you know that you’re

Lolitha: I’m gonna see my mom again

Rafael: that you’re gonna see them again all your loved ones Yes, so so right now, but you know as long as you have that you God the Holy Spirit in you

Lolitha: I have faith and I have trust in God and you have to have faith to be a Christian in this world and to like right now the whole country is seemed like it’s on the downward spiral and you have to have faith just to make it another day You have to know where you stand in the Lord.

Rafael: Do you know that everything that’s going on is not only prophesied? But it’s it’s it’s almost seemed like it’s scripted because I mean, but it’s just playing out. So so so fast, I mean,

Lolitha: oh Yeah Right before your eyes like for example, you know what I was doing to right now when when

Rafael: right before you came out I was looking at the Sun and you know what the Bible says about the the end days where the the sun is not gonna do its thing and the moon and all these kind of celestial events were gonna be happening and I was looking at the sun and that’s why I told you when you came out Look up.

Lolitha: You told me to look up.

Rafael: I’ve never seen a white sun. It looks like an LED bulb

Lolitha: Yeah, you showed me that and I could barely even see it and

Rafael: it’s so strong that it’s that it’s not even so so see you know, it all comes down to that. So, you know, like I just lost my dad and you know,

Lolitha: My condolences to you.

Rafael: I also, I also you know, I mean it hurt but then I I’ve been through a lot of stuff where God showed me his power God showed me that You know, there is an invisible realm that we do not see right now, but they’re angels the Holy Spirit that goes within your temple and all that is so real that nothing nothing there’s a lot of thing a lot of attacks those spiritual attacks that’ll that’ll that’ll try and and and and weaken my defenses, but every day I pray and I have a personal conversation with my maker God Almighty and and it seems to work out that way rather than going to some kind of psychology.

Lolitha: Yeah, and they just gonna take your money and and tell you whatever they probably told the last person exactly I don’t believe in that either because I was offered that when my mom passed away my doctor said hey would you like to go see a therapist? I’m like, oh, no. Thank you. I can go see my therapist Jesus

Rafael: Exactly. Exactly. Now you did come in You know, I didn’t even keep track of the time but it doesn’t matter Before we would forget you want to say hello to a few fellow students and Let’s consider like we’re in the in the workplace

Lolitha: So in culinary What I’ve noticed is in the beginning of culinary when everyone is in the classroom and we you know, we’re just there for a lecture Everyone is so happy and happy to speak to one another and pretty poised and pretty quiet and then once they get into the laboratory or the kitchen they become like ants and What are they doing going to or worker bees to feed the Queen?

Rafael: Like worker bees?

Lolitha: Yeah, and they run into you and they don’t even say excuse me and they just go and go and go and go and go and Sometime I dude you almost made me fall. You’ll drop me on the ground like come on, right?

Rafael: Yeah Pretty chaotic sometimes.

Lolitha: and not only that what I’ve noticed is a lot of them They love to dictate and tell you what to do as if they are the chefs themselves

Rafael: Exactly

Lolitha: the chef turns his or her back Oh They become the chef and they want to tell you every little thing to do and dictate your whole day Do this do that do that do this next after you do that do that I’m like, dude, are you are you a student? Are you a chef and you can’t even say that because it’s offensive, right?

Rafael: yeah,

Lolitha: I just keep it in and keep it in just to keep the peace and Just to get through because I know that my time here is pretty much near and it’s in I have one more semester to go. So I’m just trying to I’m just trying to stay under the radar and just trying to stay here, right? But I have but in my brain,

Rafael: I’m sure it takes a lot of Inner strength

Lolitha: But in my brain, I am clocking everything, clocking everything.

Rafael: It takes a lot of inner strength to keep your you know, your peace to hold your peace, right?

Lolitha: Yeah, and another thing too is They curse a lot.

Rafael: Mm-hmm.

Lolitha: I don’t but I can’t tell someone else what to say out of their mouth and how to say it because they have freedom of Speech right free will for so I just even today today. We were Doing something for the graduation for tomorrow for the students that are advanced students And we were all over there and I heard so many curse words. I just want to just put some some

Rafael: the earmuffs

Lolitha: Yeah, I want to put some cotton in my ears But again, they’re adults and they get to say what they want to say and I didn’t even realize the chefs talk the way they Do yeah, they have some filthy mouths But hey, I who am I to I can’t say anything to anyone I just have to pray a little harder and I do believe in a prayer closet And I go in and I talk to Jesus and I noticed that when we don’t have to wear are you are Culinary arts uniform. I will rock my I love Jesus hat

Rafael: Aww nice

Lolitha: That Itself those who believe in Jesus and know about Jesus they always compliment my hat and then Those that don’t they want to attack me right away and I could see it and I can feel it and I know it

Rafael: Let’s get the shout outs to the students that okay. There’s a naughty list and there’s a good list

Lolitha: For me so first is chef Amanda Aiton now, she’s not on campus She’s in Florida, but she was my chef. I took an online liquor class in the summer and then I took Another class with her. She was Amazing so shout out to chef Amanda Aiton. She’s good yes, yeah, she will come on zoom with you and if you go, you know having difficulties or anything She’ll be right there to help you do it. And I appreciate that chef Z is a phenomenal woman if Anyone comes to culinary and they have the opportunity to sign up and you get to choose what chef you want to go to? I would highly recommend Chef Z. Her name is chef Zimbrano But okay people she said hey call me chef Z because a lot of people can’t pronounce chef Zimbrano Phenomenal woman I tell you if it wasn’t for her I would have bowed out of gracefully a long time ago I would have been done with this and say, you know what? This is not for me.

Rafael: She’s a motivator She brings you back up

Lolitha: She is and I saw her walking the campus in the summertime and we just embraced each other. She gave me the biggest encouragement and she was like, I’m glad to see you and it was genuine It was it almost made me cry because it was so genuine and I just shout out She’s one of them one of the best. chef Perini he’s an awesome guy like he is really awesome And I’m gonna really find out how awesome he is next semester because I will have him for my final semester.

Rafael: I mean, you’re gonna get A

Lolitha: I mean, you don’t know yet, but For an A and I’m gonna do the best that I can do and I hope he doesn’t change because right now

Rafael: I’m all for an F for fantastic

Lolitha: But I want an A for awesome. So he is the leader of the pack over there and He he teaches the advanced students He’s not gonna be here that much longer because he’s struggling with some knee issues as I am So a lot of people are not gonna be able to Learn from him because he’s gonna be online, but he calls me sunshine every day that he see me Hello sunshine, and I go home and I tell my family. Hey chef Perini called me sunshine today And that just it just warms my heart because I know that He’s coming from a good place And I appreciate that and then he goes how your knees today because he’s struggling with the same thing. I’m struggling. Yeah Once your knees start going out, that’s it.

Rafael: And he’s been here for quite a while

Lolitha: Like 40 something years. Okay.

Rafael: I did not check in to the staff, but that’s awesome to hear that there’s still a good teacher professors that care about their students and not just you know, like like treat them like they’re just passing through

Lolitha: His name is Ernest Lou I had I taken a I took a class with him before COVID But it wasn’t in the kitchen. It was hospitality so that was all in the classroom and I’ve got a good grade and now he’s he’s teaching advanced cooking so I was with him today and he’s very soft-spoken But I watched his work and he’s a master chef He is a master chef and I’ve never heard him say anything bad I’ve never heard him use profanity just good. Good. So that was chef Ernest Lou now we have chef Cat She’s not with us every day. I think she comes two days a week because she teaches at another school I think she teaches in Los Angeles and she has her own restaurant. It’s called the belly Hangry Belly and Long Beach.

She’s a nice chef. Oh, that’s it right here locally.

Rafael: So got somewhere to go today.

Lolitha: I was so excited to tell her something one day. So I was on the other side of her and I was like, hey chef Look at this and her face turned so red and she started cracking up laughing. She goes did you just call me? Hey chef, oops my bad.

Rafael: Drop down drop down and give me 50.

Lolitha: That’s oh, I’m so I apologize to you. I said, you know, I’ve never done that before I said I was just so excited and I wanted to call you over here to show you what I what I created and I just got way You know, yeah another chef wouldn’t have laughed they would have probably said something to me

Rafael: Exactly.

Lolitha: Okay, we have chef Amber. She’s not my chef, but she is a chef over there and she calls me Miss Lolitha Miss Lolitha, that’s what I call you. Yes, and she pretty much I think the only one it really caused me Miss Lolitha and I just feel like she put respect on my name and I love that and I bought her a gift

Rafael: Can’t say it now, I don’t know when it’s gonna come out It’s not a surprise anymore.

Lolitha: There’s no surprises with me I already told her I have a gift for you And so it was on the list. That’s it last one All right, I could tell you who’s on the naughty list, but I’m just gonna know we’re not gonna do that We’re gonna keep it if you’re not on this list, then you know, you’re on the night

Rafael: Exactly.

Lolitha: I had high expectations when I came to this school I used to see some of the students with culinary uniforms on and I would be like, that’s me one day that’s me one day. I am going to wear a culinary uniform and I am going to be in there just like them but what I didn’t realize is I was signing myself up for Hell’s Kitchen

Rafael: That’s a good one yeah You know what if we can do it anybody can do it but it just takes a lot of dedication and effort and to go the extra mile, right? I mean, that’s what it isn’t in. I mean that industry I’m telling you I mean, I never did it like a commercial side of thing like in restaurants,

Lolitha: You have to kiss a lot of frogs I will tell you that

Rafael: but Yeah, exactly my mom had a restaurant and so I know How it how it is and you know what running a restaurant is? Is a thing that’s a that’s like your life. It becomes your life because you gotta be there I mean when it comes to like a small owner, you know, you have to be there before It opens. I don’t know how many hours before to get You know start prepping the food so I could be fresh

Lolitha: It’s a lot and I’m an SAS student and one of the chefs over there. He’s new over there He told me I don’t know what SAS student is. He told me that he hollered at me in front of everyone oh, yeah, and I called him to the side. I said don’t holler at me and then I told him I said I’m an SAS student because I don’t know what that is He goes what is that? I’ve never heard of that and I said well in order to be a chef over there and teach the students you should have students are because there’s a lot of SAS students in this culinary program Yeah So if you don’t know what that is Maybe you should go to get trained and then I saw him last week like they don’t even let us take our phones out because it’s dirty right? They if they catch you with your phone, which I can have my phone out to take pictures because of my accommodation But right away the chef see you go wash your hands. Yes, chef. I’m on my way So the other chef Patrick I saw him blow his nose because he had a cold the other day and I was just watching him I said I’m gonna go wash his hands like they are on us to wash our hands Yeah, I just watched him and watched him and watched him and he never went toward no water to wash his hands he just stuck that he blew his nose

Rafael: Oh well we don’t want to know all that.

Lolitha: Well I am keeping it real

Rafael: Well, we’re gonna end it we already went a little bit over but still you know that you’re always gonna have a spot here

Lolitha: Can I say one thing before we end.

Rafael: Oh sure. Go ahead

Lolitha: because you keeping it to to you confounded me to pretty much Christian at Christian culinary but you also want me to keep it real so I would like to say something and it’s not gonna be so Christian and that’s okay because I can ask for repentance and I can ask God But I would like to say this just in case you don’t invite me back oh, so I feel like some of those chefs have their head so far up there, but they need to go to the gynecologist to say hey can you deliver my head out of my butt.

Transcribed and edited by Rafael Frias