{"id":18575,"date":"2020-03-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/?p=18575"},"modified":"2020-03-03T10:27:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T09:27:31","slug":"secret-ingredient-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/secret-ingredient-international-womens-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Ingredient:  Thoughts on International Women&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Guest post by Bea Tollman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone who loves&nbsp;cooking&nbsp;as I do will know what I have&nbsp;discovered, namely that having the right ingredients is essential.&nbsp; Having spent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.redcarnationhotels.com\/unique-experiences\/food-and-drink\/a-life-in-food\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a life in food<\/a>, I have&nbsp;found&nbsp;that&nbsp;recipes often call&nbsp;for a dash of something unexpected \u2013 a secret ingredient \u2013 that makes all the difference.&nbsp; This year, as we celebrate International Women&#8217;s Day and TTC&#8217;s first 100 years, I have been reflecting upon the secret ingredient that women bring to all that TTC does.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is, in a word,&nbsp;<em>passion<\/em>.&nbsp; A passion for welcoming guests, making them truly feel at home.&nbsp; A passion for serving meals that are both beautiful and delicious.&nbsp; A passion for helping travelers discover the world.&nbsp; And&nbsp;a&nbsp;passion for leadership that&nbsp;that makes&nbsp;everything else possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>This is the&nbsp;something the women of TTC bring to everything we do&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;<strong><em>the power of passion<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I was quite fortunate to discover my&nbsp;passion for cooking&nbsp;at a young age,&nbsp; shortly after meeting the love of my life, Stanley Tollman, whose lovely Valentines&#8217; Day&nbsp;posting,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/valentines-day-love-tollmans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">A Tale of Love and Oysters<\/a>,&nbsp;you may have read last month.&nbsp;The two of us shared a vision of running the finest and most welcoming hotels to be found anywhere in the world.&nbsp;We were married on March 6, 1954&nbsp;\u2013 this week, we are delighted to be celebrating our 66<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;anniversary.&nbsp;We&nbsp;put&nbsp;all the money we received&nbsp;as gifts&nbsp;toward the&nbsp;down-payment on our first hotel, The Nugget, in&nbsp;Johannesburg.&nbsp; Stanley&nbsp;greeted guests and ran the front desk, while&nbsp;I worked in the kitchen.&nbsp; My training to that point&nbsp;had been as&nbsp;a&nbsp;nursery school teacher&nbsp;and a competitive tennis player, so I knew only the basics of cooking, but set about teaching myself whatever I could.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED CONTENT:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/ttc-100-driven-by-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Celebrating 100 years of being Driven By Service (opens in a new tab)\"><em>Celebrating 100 years of being Driven By Service<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the foods we served at The Nugget&#8217;s restaurant were quite simple, even then I could feel the beginnings of&nbsp;what would become my&nbsp;deep love of cooking.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;following year we opened&nbsp;The Hyde Park Hotel, home to&nbsp;The Colony Restaurant. This&nbsp;was to be&nbsp;South Africa&#8217;s first world class restaurant.&nbsp; Of course, a world-class restaurant needs a world-class chef, but&nbsp;none&nbsp;were&nbsp;available. In those days it was&nbsp;unthinkable&nbsp;that&nbsp;a&nbsp;top&nbsp;chef&nbsp;would travel&nbsp;from Europe&nbsp;to&nbsp;work in&nbsp;South Africa, and so&nbsp;I took on the task.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was at The Colony that&nbsp;I truly discovered the abiding passion that has carried me through my life, the delight&nbsp;of&nbsp;deliciousness,&nbsp;the thrill of sending out magnificent dishes to our guests and having the plates return empty. While the kitchen staff all called me&nbsp;\u201cMommy\u201d, I was something of a secret to our guests.&nbsp; I can still recall&nbsp;hearing&nbsp;the waiters, responding to guests who had enjoyed their meal and wished to give their complements to the chef: \u201cWe are so sorry,&nbsp;<em>he<\/em>&nbsp;has gone for the evening.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"424\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2020\/03\/Review_Intro-clipping-424x1024.jpg\" alt=\"old newspaper clipping\" class=\"wp-image-18576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Review_Intro-clipping-424x1024.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Review_Intro-clipping-137x330.jpg 137w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Review_Intro-clipping.jpg 731w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Passion fuels&nbsp;a great deal of&nbsp;hard work, and we worked exceedingly hard in those early years, building our&nbsp;business&nbsp;as I gave birth to our four children. Each day I would be up early,&nbsp;get our&nbsp;children off to school, then work in the hotel kitchen,&nbsp;arriving&nbsp;home in time to serve&nbsp;the children&nbsp;dinner. After tucking them into bed,&nbsp;I would dress&nbsp;up for the evening and&nbsp;go&nbsp;back&nbsp;to&nbsp;the hotel, where&nbsp;Stanley and I would remain until the early morning hours, greeting guests and making sure each meal was cooked to perfection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2020-03-02-at-17.04.27.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2020-03-02-at-17.04.27.png 900w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2020-03-02-at-17.04.27-330x272.png 330w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as my passion for cooking&nbsp;grew, I discovered another, as I set about to decorate The Colony.&nbsp; Again, though&nbsp;lacking&nbsp;training on interior design, I did have a sense of&nbsp;what was beautiful, and&nbsp;from there I&nbsp;taught myself.&nbsp; I absolutely loved it.&nbsp; I took over the interior design for all our projects, and my&nbsp;love of&nbsp;creating&nbsp;beautiful spaces has only grown over the years.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the same with&nbsp;my passion for&nbsp;hospitality.&nbsp;To this day, I&nbsp;wake up each morning to review&nbsp;faxed reports from&nbsp;each&nbsp;Red Carnation Hotel, reading and responding to every guest comment. I do it&nbsp;because&nbsp;I love it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>This is something I have discovered about passion. Far from fading&nbsp;away, true passion glows ever more brightly.&nbsp;Happily, women of today need no longer hide that glow, as I did in the kitchen of The Colony.&nbsp;Rather, we celebrate it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen-330x220.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/RCH_MrsTollman_in-the-kitchen.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, over half of TTC&#8217;s leadership positions are held by women.&nbsp;This distinguishes us from much of the travel industry, which,&nbsp;while hiring many women,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phocuswire.com\/Gender-diversity-in-the-travel-industry?oly_enc_id=5801F9490078A1Y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tends to promote fewer&nbsp;women<\/a>&nbsp;to positions of leadership.&nbsp; I see&nbsp;TTC&#8217;s&nbsp;many female&nbsp;leaders&nbsp;as a key to our&nbsp;ongoing&nbsp;success, precisely because of the passion&nbsp;we bring to our work.&nbsp;I recognize&nbsp;my own passion reflected&nbsp;in kindred spirits&nbsp;such&nbsp;as&nbsp;Ulla Hefel Bohler,&nbsp;CEO of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.insightvacations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Insight Vacations<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.luxurygold.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Luxury Gold<\/a>, and&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;Bettridge, CEO of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.uniworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Uniworld<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U River Cruises,&nbsp;with whom I have worked&nbsp;closely&nbsp;with&nbsp;over the years, developing the world&#8217;s&nbsp;finest&nbsp;river cruise line.&nbsp;Other impassioned kindred spirits include&nbsp;fellow ex-South African Lucille Sive who runs our North American-based African photo safari companies&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lionworldtravel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lion World<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/africantravelinc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">African Travel<\/a>,&nbsp;Melissa da Silva who leads&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trafalgar<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.costsavertour.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Costsaver<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brendanvacations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brendan Vacations<\/a>&nbsp;in the US,&nbsp;and whom I have seen grow and mature with TTC over the past several years. There are many more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The glow of passion that infuses our women leaders&nbsp;also&nbsp;runs through the many, many women who work for companies throughout TTC,&nbsp;guiding guests on journeys of discovery around the world, and in the many women who welcome guests and prepare&nbsp;such beautiful rooms for travelers at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.redcarnationhotels.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Red Carnation Hotels<\/a>,&nbsp;which&nbsp;I founded and&nbsp;continue to&nbsp;serve as&nbsp;president.&nbsp; I&nbsp;can feel the&nbsp;passion in the&nbsp;women&nbsp;who work&nbsp;in&nbsp;our kitchens&nbsp;too, many of whom I have had the&nbsp;privilege&nbsp;of mentoring,&nbsp;and&nbsp;our Executive Chef&nbsp;Jennifer Clifton, alongside whom I have worked for over 25 years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best thing of all about passion-driven leadership is what it inspires in others.&nbsp; For me, this has been true both as an executive and as a mother.&nbsp; Looking at my son, Brett, Chief Executive of TTC and founder of&nbsp;TreadRight, I see boundless passion and an unwavering commitment to excellence. My daughter Vicki, who works alongside me at Red Carnation Hotels doing operations, marketing, sales and public relations, has also become our impassioned spokeswoman for TTC \u2013 you will have seen her telling our stories so beautifully in the monthly videos celebrating our centennial.&nbsp; My other daughter Toni, a brilliant interior designer and much more, shares my passion for design, decorating and refurbishing Red Carnation&#8217;s Hotels and&nbsp;Uniworld&#8217;s&nbsp;ships.&nbsp; And what a joy it is to work with her daughter, Alexandra, who is an outstanding senior sales executive with Red Carnation hotels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"656\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2020\/03\/Toni-Beatrice-_-Vicki-Tollman-1024x656.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Toni-Beatrice-_-Vicki-Tollman-1024x656.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Toni-Beatrice-_-Vicki-Tollman-330x211.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Toni-Beatrice-_-Vicki-Tollman.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, when speaking of the passion of my family, I must mention my nephews, Gavin and Michael, who are like sons to me.&nbsp; As CEO of TTC&#8217;s most valuable brand,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Trafalgar<\/a>, along with&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.costsavertour.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Costsaver<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brendanvacations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brendan Vacations<\/a>, Gavin&#8217;s inspirational leadership is legendary in the world of travel. Michael oversees our businesses in Southern Africa and is also highly respected and renowned in the industry there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking forward at&nbsp;the dawn of our&nbsp;second century, I am&nbsp;more&nbsp;optimistic&nbsp;than ever about the future of travel&nbsp;in general and of TTC in particular. This is&nbsp;due, in part, to the respect&nbsp;and opportunities&nbsp;we give women.&nbsp;As study after study has shown, the key to addressing so many of the world&#8217;s&nbsp;problems&nbsp;is to invest in and empower girls and women.&nbsp; In a world that too often focuses on what keeps people apart, travel builds bridges.&nbsp;So many of those who&nbsp;book holidays&nbsp;are women,&nbsp;playing a crucial role in&nbsp;building those bridges.&nbsp;I invite you to do so today, either with your travel&nbsp;advisor&nbsp;or&nbsp;by visiting us at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ttc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TTC.com<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My optimism about the future grows when I&nbsp;see the passion of&nbsp;youth for travel. The next generation&nbsp;seeks&nbsp;to&nbsp;<em>make travel personal<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>make travel matter<\/em>, both of which are so beautifully served by our youthful&nbsp;brands,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.contiki.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Contiki<\/a>,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ubyuniworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">U River Cruises<\/a>, and&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.busabout.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Busabout<\/a>. These are, indeed, exciting times ahead.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In last month&#8217;s post,&nbsp;Stanley suggested that the romance of Valentine&#8217;s Day should extend through the year, and I quite agree.&nbsp; I feel the same about&nbsp;the world&#8217;s recognition of&nbsp;the contributions of women, which&nbsp;I believe&nbsp;should&nbsp;also&nbsp;celebrated&nbsp;year round.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is what we do&nbsp;throughout&nbsp;TTC,&nbsp;supporting&nbsp;and empowering women,&nbsp;every day,&nbsp;and it is what makes us strong.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We look forward to sharing our passion for travel with you,&nbsp;your children, and your grandchildren, from generation to generation.&nbsp; Travel is a gift, meant to be&nbsp;passed on, and it is&nbsp;my family&#8217;s&nbsp;privilege&nbsp;to do so,&nbsp;from generations of our family to generations of yours.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"729\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2020\/03\/Bea-and-children-1024x729.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Bea-and-children-1024x729.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Bea-and-children-330x235.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Bea-and-children.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post by Bea Tollman Anyone who loves&nbsp;cooking&nbsp;as I do will know what I have&nbsp;discovered, namely that having the right ingredients is essential.&nbsp; Having spent&nbsp;a life in food, I have&nbsp;found&nbsp;that&nbsp;recipes often call&nbsp;for a dash of something unexpected \u2013 a secret ingredient \u2013 that makes all the difference.&nbsp; This year, as we celebrate International Women&#8217;s Day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":18589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/secret-ingredient-international-womens-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret Ingredient: Thoughts on International Women&#039;s Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year, as we celebrate International Women&#039;s Day, I have been reflecting upon the secret ingredient that women bring to all that TTC does.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/secret-ingredient-international-womens-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Real Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-03T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-03T09:27:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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