Episode
The Talent You Were Trained to Throw Away
with Chason Forehand
“People-first” is the most overused, underutilized phrase on LinkedIn. Everyone says it. Almost nobody does it.
This week, Des and Ashley sit down with Chason Forehand — chef with 45+ years in the culinary world, founder of HR-4U Inc. (a four-time Platinum Seal of Transparency nonprofit), creator of Transformation Kitchen™ (now operating in Nicaragua with locations coming to New York, Beacon, and Australia), and co-host of the Time2CHANGE podcast.
But before all of that, Chason was a kid in an abusive home. A drug addict hiding in plain sight. Homeless. Incarcerated. Food-insecure. Until a Michelin-track chef put three piles in front of him and decided to pay it forward.
This episode is what happens when someone who has lived on every side of “unhireable” sits down with two recruiters who believe they can change the wealth gap without a single piece of legislation. It's a conversation about action over words, profits versus people, and the responsibility that sits in every job description, salary band, and “culture fit” decision recruiters make.
This is one to listen to twice.
What You'll Hear
- How one person's decision to pay it forward changed the trajectory of a life — and what that means for every hiring decision you make
- Why Transformation Kitchen™ is redefining workforce development for the people the system wrote off
- The real cost of "culture fit" screening — and who gets filtered out before they ever get a chance
- Profits vs. people: why the conversation doesn't have to be either/or
- What it actually looks like to change the wealth gap from inside the talent function
- Why "unhireable" is a label we created — and how we can uncreate it
- Action over words: what people-first looks like when it's actually practiced
Episode Transcript
Full conversation — searchable and screen-reader friendly
Desiree: Today we are joined by one of my favorite people on the planet — Chason Forehand. He's a chef with 45 years in the culinary world, founder of HR-4U, a nonprofit that's won the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar for four years running. He created Transformation Kitchen, a workforce development program now running in Nicaragua with plans for Beacon, New York and Australia. He's the co-host of the Time to Change podcast and founder of HR Consultations, a fractional HR consulting firm.
Desiree: The title of this episode is The Talent You Were Trained to Throw Away. It's a show about who hiring leaves behind, the people-first statements we always say but don't really mean, and what recruiters and HR professionals can actually do to change that. Chason, throughout your history and journey — what made you say, you know what, I'm gonna do the hardest thing there is to do, and start a nonprofit?
Chason Forehand: It starts with my background and the things I went through as a kid. The trauma. Being someone who was deep in drug addiction, hiding in the culinary world. Ending up homeless, incarcerated, food-insecure. And seeing how systems treated me — how the world treated me — and what was available. Even the people that meant well, the ones who were there to try to help break cycles — some of them were actually perpetuating the cycle. And I wanted to do better. For me, it all wraps around living wages. How we pour into people, what we pay people, and the means by which companies and hiring managers look at what a human life is worth.
Chason Forehand: I look at the entire pattern of my life from 15 to 61 and say — these are the things I know work. I believe this is part of the answer forward. And we learn as we grow.
About the Guest
Chason Forehand is a chef with 45+ years in the culinary world, founder of HR-4U Inc. (a four-time Platinum Seal of Transparency nonprofit), and creator of Transformation Kitchen™ — a workforce development program operating in Nicaragua with expansion underway in New York, Beacon, and Australia. He is also co-host of the Time2CHANGE podcast. His life's work centers on turning systemic barriers into pathways — and proving that the talent companies throw away is often the talent they need most.
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