Tia Angadicheril speaks for many when she says her job isn’t just a job. “For me, my career is about more than coming to work every single day. It’s about finding community and staying engaged,” says the Senior Data Management Analyst. She has found that sense of community in her six years with Aramark, first at our headquarters in Philadelphia, and now working remotely from her native Texas.
Employee resource groups (ERGs) have been a significant piece of that picture for Angadicheril — but she noticed there wasn’t one for employees who, like her, come from Asian backgrounds. So with the support of management and colleagues, she took the initiative to start a new ERG, called AMPLIFY.
“ERGs are such an important outlet for me,” shares Angadicheril, who is of Indian descent. “And the fact that my company cares to embrace all these different cultures is a huge win.”
Today AMPLIFY is creating impactful opportunities for our Pan-Asian talent to make their voices heard. The story of our youngest ERG is one of collaboration and cultural appreciation — and it lays the foundation for our next Chef Spotlight series, in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
A Community Is Born
What’s in a name? AMPLIFY was a conscious choice for the new ERG. As Angadicheril puts it, “Asian cultures are both uniquely different and uniquely beautiful,” but there is at least one common thread among them.
“Growing up in an Asian household, we learned to only speak up when we needed to. Our culture is not the loud crowd,” she further explains. “With this ERG, we wanted to represent and strengthen our voices here at Aramark — hence the name, AMPLIFY.”
Leaning on her experience as a member of Empower, our ERG for women leaders and their allies, Angadicheril began drumming up support for a Pan-Asian ERG in 2019. AMPLIFY was on the verge of launching when the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold. She and her co-founders revived their plans as soon as it became feasible again, and AMPLIFY was officially born in May 2021. Angadicheril earned an Empower Award in March 2022 for her accomplishments across both ERGs.
Each participant in AMPLIFY's Lunar New Year event received a curated ingredient box to make Longevity Noodles, which represent the wish for a long and happy life in Chinese culture.
In its first year, Angadicheril and her co-chairs have established AMPLIFY as a resource for members and a visible presence within the company. The Workforce and Workplace Committees focus on people and the work environment, respectively, through the Asian American lens. In December 2021, they collaborated with the Impacto ERG on various community service projects, from collecting holiday toys for the Children’s Burn Foundation in Southern California, to assembling meal and toiletry kids for a Dallas food bank, to collecting blankets and winter wear for Philadelphians in need.
To celebrate the Lunar New Year this past February, AMPLIFY hosted a virtual event where attendees learned to make traditional Longevity Noodles. And AMPLIFY’s plans for May’s AAPI Heritage Month include a leadership panel discussion, a virtual escape room, and a cocktail-making class (made possible by our Munch Mail personalized gift box delivery service).
This past holiday season, AMPLIFY partnered with Impacto on several community service projects around the country, including collecting items for a Dallas food bank.
The ERG’s offerings are bound to grow with time, especially with generous guidance from other groups. Through it all, Angadicheril is intent on preserving AMPLIFY’s original mission: “The power of an ERG comes from listening to your members and what they want from their work experience. It’s critical that we provide content that’s specific for them.”
Meet a Few of Our Chefs
It can be difficult to characterize the culture of a continent that’s home to dozens of countries and 4.5 billion people. Food — not only ingredients and flavors, but also its role in everyday life and special occasions — provides a useful starting point.
This is the essence of our Chef Spotlight program, which tells the diverse stories of our culinary talent and how their personal identities influence their professional work. “Our chefs have been working their whole lives to get to where they are. It’s nice to be spotlighted, to be represented, to be seen,” Angadicheril adds.
Here are a few of the chefs whose recipes will be featured across our locations throughout AAPI Heritage Month.
Chef Masahiro: Food for a New Generation
Masahiro Yamashita was raised in a multigenerational Japanese household. He knew he wanted to become a chef, a decision influenced in part by his grandparents’ tales of how hard it was to find food after World War II. “My grandparents wanted me to always be surrounded by food and never go hungry,” he recalls. “Hearing about their postwar experiences gave me great respect and interest in preparing food.”
Chef Masahiro attended culinary school in Japan before coming to the United States, kicking off a 30-plus year career in the hospitality industry. His ongoing education has included getting to know American history and cuisine, which is itself a melting pot of international influences. Now our Southeast Regional Culinary Director, Higher Education, he remains interested in finding new ways to prepare and enhance food.
He enjoys sharing his culture and culinary knowledge with others — such as his recipe for karaage, or Japanese Fried Chicken. This childhood favorite is a hit with younger generations, including our guests in campus dining and Chef Masahiro’s own daughter, Amy.
Want to see more like this?
Chef Bernard: Focus on Fusion
Bernard Foster didn’t set out to be a chef at first. He was studying aerospace engineering and interning at NASA when his mother fell ill with cancer, prompting him to leave school to care for her. During this period of reflection, he realized the food and beverage industry — where he had long worked — was his true love.
Having grown up in a Cuban and Puerto Rican town with an Asian mom and an Italian stepdad, Chef Bernard knows firsthand how shared food experiences can help you understand other cultures. From an early age, he learned how to both make pasta and ferment cabbage for kimchi. “I’m a direct result of how the amalgamation of cultures and an ever-shrinking world has sparked the advent of fusion cuisines,” he says.
Chef Bernard’s culinary journey continues today in his role as Executive Chef at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. His Traditional Pho Broth is a recipe made at home with family.
Chef Vera: Cooking from the Heart
Vera Tambunan’s mother was one of those cooks who never followed a written recipe. As a young girl, Chef Vera knew she had a lot to learn from her Indonesian family’s oral traditions, food included. Thanks to those years cooking alongside her mother, she felt very comfortable working with food. She chose to enter the culinary field and, to this day, her philosophy is to cook from the heart, with recipes as guidelines.
Now a Sous Chef at the Lake Crescent Lodge in northwest Washington State, Vera seeks to expand the influence of traditional Indonesian food and culture in her culinary community. Her Pacific North West Nasi Goreng is a distinctly Indonesian take on an Asian classic, fried rice.
“I grew up eating Nasi Goreng for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This dish is so versatile and enjoyable — just as I want to be as a chef,” she tells us.
Learning Through Immersion
We’re proud that AMPLIFY has joined our network of ERGs, carving out a space for our Asian American colleagues and contributing to our vision of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. Angadicheril acknowledges that cultural appreciation is an ongoing journey for everyone, herself included — which is why our ERGs welcome participation from all who are interested.
“There’s so much to learn. I’m still learning, even about my own Asian culture,” she says. “Go try the delicious foods, and attend events like Lunar New Year, Holi, or Diwali. Immerse yourself in other cultures whenever you can.”
