January 2005
FEATURES
Career track
Former DAYTIME manager, Alex Simon, runs successful catering firm
by A. H.-B.
Many teenagers spend their Friday and Saturday nights babysitting as a way to earn a little extra cash. But Alex Simon (a Day alumnus) and Will Levitt found another way to earn money, and enjoy themselves every step of the way. They began W&A Catering, their very own catering business.
The impressive quality of Levitt’s and Simon’s food leads many to assume that the two boys have been cooking as long as they have been friends, practically since birth. But in fact, they did not discover their passion and talent for cooking until about five summers ago, when the Levitt and Simon families rented a house together in France.
The following autumn, they were enrolled in a cooking class at the Whole Foods Market in Newton. In later years, the two attended more professional classes, including courses at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. In addition, they have used a visit to Levitt’s grandparent’s home in Montana to attend several sessions led by a caterer in Kansas City. Further recipes and techniques were acquired from various cooking shows on television, and an extensive collection of cookbooks.
Meanwhile, the two cooked constantly on their own, experimenting in the kitchen and preparing multiple-course meals for their families.
In 2003, when Levitt and Simon were only 13, they promoted themselves from two teenagers who loved to cook to the co-executive chefs of W&A Catering.
Although they aren’t “completely sure how the actual idea for the company came up,” says Levitt, “We both liked to cook and entertain, so it just seemed like a good idea to cater.”
Simon’s and Levitt’s first event was a dinner party for the Levitt family. “[W&A Catering] had no reputation yet,” said Levitt, and this first event was perfect advertising for their blooming business. Guests at the dinner party were immediately impressed by the quality of the food.
One even hired Levitt and Simon to cater an engagement party that she was planning, this became the boys’ first professional event.
W&A Catering set to work immediately, arriving several hours before the party was scheduled to begin. Accompanied by several others to assist with cooking, cleaning, and serving, the crew prepared all of the food that had not been cooked the previous day. When the guests arrived, they were presented with beautiful arrays of hors d’oeuvres, including crab cakes, small steak sandwiches, and chicken skewers with a peanut dipping sauce.
The complete W&A Catering menu (which can be viewed at their website, www.wacatering.netfirms.com) includes cuisines from all over the world.
The delicacies range from lobster bisque to sea scallops with lime gremolata and ginger beurre blanc. The “scallop tower,” crisp mustard potato cakes topped with fresh avocado, dill-crusted scallop, seared shitake fan and white truffle oil is an original W&A recipe, created by Simon and Levitt. Desserts include crepes, bread pudding, crême brulé, pear tart, and an assortment of homemade ice creams.
W&A Catering has exceeded most people’s expectations, including Levitt and Simon’s. “Alex and I started our catering business not really expecting anything,” says Levitt. But both boys are thrilled with the successful business that they have created.
Levitt and Simon have catered a variety of events with the help of business cards distributed at events and word of mouth. The largest event they have catered was for 120 people. Their website has also attracted many clients. Another great source of publicity was a featured article on W&A Caterers in THE BOSTON GLOBE this summer.
But running a business like professionals means that Levitt and Simon have to be treated like professionals. After the publication of the GLOBE article, Levitt and Simon were contacted by the Health Department and informed of many catering regulations of which they were previously unaware.
Despite such a successful business, delicious menu, and professional interaction with clients, Simon and Levitt are only 14 years old. In many ways, their age has been difficult for the business. Both too young to drive, they have to rely solely upon their parents for transportation.
When not chefs, Simon and Levitt are both hardworking students, Simon, a freshman at Newton North High School, and Levitt, a freshman at Belmont High.
“The most rewarding part of the business is seeing that other people really enjoy eating your food,” says Levitt. Running W&A Catering has been an extremely fulfilling experience for Simon and Levitt, and they advise other students to use age to their advantage, instead of being limited by it. “I do think that it is an advantage to be young,” Levitt says. “People really appreciate when young people share their talents. There are disadvantages …but it is still definitely fun!”
“It’s not just great food for [14] year olds,” shares a satisfied client of W&A Catering. “It’s great food.”
By J. R.
Baker’s Best is a popular cafe in the Newton Highlands more known for its take-out and catering. Its humble beginning was the result of an idea for a quality take-out food place. “There was no Star Market or Whole Foods back then to make good prepared meals”, says Michael Baker, owner of Baker’s Best. He wanted to emulate another store by providing the high-quality “on-the-go food” that there was little of when he was getting started. Originally Baker’s Best was a small take-out place with one showcase for food.
In a previous life his original store front had been a failing bakery on which the owner had been loosing money and on which he was willing to sell the lease. Since the lease was cheap due to the business’s lack of income he went ahead and bought it. “It cost $30 thousand to open,” claims Baker, while “...now it would probably take $100 thousand to open.”
Before the store opened Baker had been working for his parents’ business which made circuit boards. He never found it exciting, but always had an interest with food. Baker says that, “When my mother would send me out on an errand about food, I would not need the list because it was so in my mind, [for] anything else I needed [a list].”
Soon he started to travel a lot and got annoyed at the fact that there was no where to get a decent meal on the go. So he eventually left his job, packed up his his then wife, and traveled around the world, “We went to places like Australia and New Zealand for two months looking for ideas to put to use here.”
One of these idea that he thought might catch on here would be a restaurant where the customer would pick his/her own steak, cook it, and then eat it. As originally conceived would be employees to tell the customer if the steak was medium or well done, but the choice would belong to the customer. When he did come back, he and his wife took the chance and opened the store.
When asked about what it takes to create a successful place like Baker’s Best, Baker replies “...hard work, a little vision, and a lot of common sense.” People skills are needed in order to keep people working and improving at what they do.
“We have been very lucky to have so many good people stay on over the years,” says Baker “You need to have social skills because work is like a cocktail party without the drinks [for me].” A business sense is also an integral part of making a store like Baker’s Best successful, Baker states, “You hire people with the best intentions, but sometime you have to know when to let them go.”
When the store first opened, catering was not even thought of as a possibility, but it has now become the fastest growing part of the store.
Baker’s Best usually get the call for catering jobs ranging from marriages to funerals and Bar/Bat mitzvahs to corporate luncheons.
As for specialties, Baker feels that they do a great job with hors d'oeuvres, but usually gets orders for sandwiches from people hosting corporate lunches. “We actually just got an order from a competitor for a lunch… we’re a little skeptical of the order, weather or not they like the food or if the company wants to see how we do things here,” Baker says.
In the store he feels that “...we do a great job with a rack of lamb, fish with an Asian twist, and our sauces, like the Bolognese.” He also says that they still do a great job with turkey, which was one of their first items on the menu went they first opened “We go through 5,000 pounds of it a month”.
When asked if it’s a job that is complicated, he acknowledges that sometimes its “...certainly aggravating,” but, “I love going to work… its all part of doing what you like.”
When asked about what he would say to someone interested in starting up in the food business, Baker says, “I would discourage them unless they had a love of it, like me.” He says that he would also remind the person that most new food store-fronts “...have a 90% fail rate within the first two years.”
Obviously Baker’s Best is in the remaining 10% because it has survived now for near 20 years and has stayed on the same street the entire time with only one move to the other side of Lincoln Street in the Newton Highlands.
Regarding the future of Baker’s Best, Baker think that, “...there is always the opportunity to expand when a new mall opens up. We have been asked to be the anchor store and even offered money to build a nice place with.” He says that expansion would have to be with the right people and at the right time in order to work “I would rather have less money with less aggravation than more money with more aggravation.”
If Baker’s Best were to expand the probability of another café is slim. Baker thinks that a commissary would be a good investment since they could do a lot of corporate catering out of it because “...retail is a pain.” He says that he doesn’t need to have headaches while constantly running from store to store, so the chance of expansion at this point is slim.
State police use many means to keep the public safe
by R. G. and G. T.
Just before vacation, on December the 22nd, a Massachusetts State Police helicopter made an overhead visit to F. A. Day Middle School after completing its mission of transferring a dangerous criminal. The state police were here to take an aerial photo of Day, but also hoped to educate people about the role of the State Police.
The Massachusetts State Police is the oldest statewide law enforcement agency in the nation. It employs almost 3,000 people who work in many different divisions all around the state. Among these are the Canine Search and Rescue Unit, the Mounted Unit, the Marine Unit, and the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section.
State trooper Mike Basteri works in the Air Wing section traffic which has five helicopters that do everything from patrolling highway to transporting criminals. “Everything about it is fantastic,” he says.
“You’re flying and working in law enforcement. Both of those things are probably the specific reasons I like my job.”
Helicopters aren’t the only equipment the state police use to keep the public safe. One of the newest and most high-tech tools is a mobile command/communication center that was custom-made for the state police just in time for the Democratic National Convention last July. It took 7 months to build, and is a whopping 80 feet in length! The command center is so big that the police are constructing a garage especially for it.
On the inside, the command center can seat 16 officers in two different work areas. One room is a conference room. To allow up to 200 people to see what is happening at a conference, a white board on the inside is connected to a huge plasma screen on the outside. Each of the conference tables has integrated power, telephones, data, and radio connections that are permanently installed.
The command/communication center is not used on a daily basis. It often supports local police departments with the Super Bowl, World Series, and other large events.
The Command/Communication Center was made by AK Specialty Vehicles (AKSV) of Illinois. It needs so much upkeep and its technology is so complex that AKSV has assigned one of its employees, field service engineer Greg Twombly, to be on site in Massachusetts full time. Twombly is on call around the clock.
Another important state police facility is the 911 communications center located at the state police headquarters in Framingham. It handles 911 calls as well as *77 calls from cell phones- all told, some 1,500,000 phone calls per year. To manage all these calls, 37 people work in the department.
Using very advanced equipment, police operators can tell the general area from which the call is being made, even if the caller is unable to tell them. People are located using longitude and latitude. However, this equipment does have its flaws. If someone were to call *77 (the old version of 911) the police don’t have the ability to receive general information about the caller. State police computers keep a detailed record of all the calls made to 911 in the last year.
Tom Keville, dispatch supervisor at the 911 communications center loves helping people out. The one thing Keville hates is when kids make prank calls. Kids are also the source of some of the most memorable phone calls he has received, for example, kids calling when parents are in trouble.
F. A. Day has its own connection to the state police. Sergeant T. L. is the parent of A. L., a 6th grader on the Copper Team. T. L. works in the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section. “I’m assigned to find people who have been accused of crimes who refuse to go to court,” T. L. says. “I enjoy doing investigations and locating bad people.” T. L. explained that the worst part of his job is the paperwork.
T. L. always had respect for the state police as a child, and joined them after working as an iron worker. At the time, T. L. had not been to college, which he later regretted. He later went to college. T. L. ’s advice to a kid wanting a job in the state police would be to do well in school and go to college.
“I think the work is very challenging because of the situations that happen. You know if there’s a blizzard we have to go out and get people off the highway and conduct accident investigations. If there is a missing person, we have to help search for the missing person. If there is a wanted person, we help search for the wanted person. So I guess the most challenging part of my job is that it changes daily,” T. L. told THE DAYTIME. |
