Davis Knight's Ambitious Quest to “Turn The Page” On Today’s Diabetic Culinary Experience
Imagine waking up one morning with virtually no eyesight. The fear. The uncertainty. The trepidation of sharing the news.
This was the experience a few years ago of South Chicago native Davis Knight. Recounting that wake up call, he says that the culprit — a Type II uncontrollable diabetes diagnosis may have been one of the greatest things that could have happened to him.
Says Davis as we conversed over some light bites at a Mexican cantina in the Chicago North Shore community of Evanston:
“As you can imagine, it was so scary. But it has now given me a purpose that I’ve never had in my life. And I’m grateful for that.”
Just a little backgrounder on Davis — He and I first nearly 30 years ago when I was launching a career as a keynote speaker and consultant. At the time he was an ambitious, spirited business professional for a Chicago recruitment firm. Regrettably, when I left the area on January 1, 2001, to move out West we lost track of each other.
Fast forward to this September when we reconnected on LinkedIn. This was the catalyst for our recent socially distanced, face-to-face get together in Evanston where we reminisced and laughed about old times living life out loud in Chicago.
In recent months, his sole focus has been centered on launching his new business Diabetic Savvy, a site where he aims to inspire the diabetic community through great food and conversation. Curious as to where all of this was headed, I asked him to catch me up on the journey he’s been on since we last chatted:
“Probably the best way to sum up my life journey is I’ve always been involved in service to others in one way, shape or form. And for the last ten years of my life that has been in the culinary field.”
He says his inclination to get involved in the culinary field was largely the result of witnessing the experience his Mom went through in a nursing community, struggling with a health condition.
“I will never forget her first night there when we all sat down to have a meal. Sadly, it was everything you could imagine in terms of the terrible stereotypes nursing homes have around food. It was then that it really struck me — the idea that this is as good as it will get for my Mom after a lifetime of work and raising kids. And food was so incredibly fundamental to all of this.”
It was that horrible experience, he says, that led him to want to change the food in that industry. So he decided to pursue a culinary degree, eventually leading to a role in the field.
“So I became a full-time executive chef specializing in transforming food in medical institutions and retirement communities. My goal was to deliver a really great dining experience, which for many residents of these facilities is their ultimate experience of the day — being surrounded by really great food.”
His voice quieting, Davis then recounted the experience that sent his life into a bit of a spiral, leading him to re-evaluate his life plans:
“Its kinda odd to think that despite my involvement working with a lot of specialty diets in health care —- no salt, low carbohydrates, gluten-free, low sugar, and those kinds of things — I was diagnosed with Type II Uncontrolled Diabetes. That’s when things suddenly changed for me because it was now personal.”
With this diagnosis in hand, he then started to navigate what life would look like as one living with diabetes.
“First off, I worked really hard to manage my systems and manage my condition with no medication. I’ve worked really hard in continuing to do that over the past two years, which has been great. Through all of this, I started to envision and redefine what great, diabetic-friendly food would look like. My aim became to help anyone who is trying to manage their blood sugar eat really good, high-quality food.”
That led to his decision to leave his full-time culinary job behind and focus on advocacy and awareness around diabetic-friendly food.
“I now enjoy engaging in my passion for bringing conversations, programs, and quite frankly services to people that assist them in navigating their diabetic condition well. And obviously, one of the best ways to do that is online through video and my own podcast. And I have a cookbook that’s in the works, so stay tuned.”
He says the book will be targeted to those who want to cook great diabetic-friendly foods at home.
“So it’s obviously a cookbook. But instead of a regular style cookbook, I want it to be something that you’ll want to open up and even have on your coffee table to provoke conversation. My hope is that people with associate really great experiences with the foods we’ll help them create throughout the book.”
Davis says that the book when published will have a really nice sort of glossy, magazine-style look to it — something that you’re going to want to show off, not just have sit on a shelf.
Beyond the blindingly obvious (no pun intended), I then asked Davis what makes him uniquely qualified to deliver the message contained in his book. He espoused:
“I think there are a few things but probably the most concise answer s that I’m personally living with diabetes every day and am young from a diabetic perspective. And I think with my professional culinary background, all of this comes together from a creativity perspective.”
Davis says that he is not afraid to try new things in terms of developing new recipes. From things that he’s baking to trying new ingredients to sourcing out new ingredients, he believes that his youthful skill set helps him question things better.
Another value proposition he hopes to bring to the book is his deep interest in where the global diabetes community is going. Like what’s happening at the forefront of medicine as well as natural cures and support
“For me, nothing is off the table. I’m not afraid to challenge convention if it means giving someone a better experience when they sit down and have a great meal. I believe that my experiences as well as the way that I’ve always worked with food and my own condition I think help me push those boundaries further. It certainly drives everything that I am now doing.”
Life’s Next Chapter
Davis says that books have long been a part of his life, holding great significance in terms of his personal and professional success. Asked to share about his experiences with books, he had this to offer:
“In terms of books, a great place to start is my early childhood. We were originally a military family before my father became affiliated with the University of Chicago. Needless to say, we moved every couple of years based upon where his university grant work would take him. We were constantly on the go — just about the time we would settle in, we’d pack up and move again to someplace else.”
Over the years as he and his family moved around, Davis said that books became a constant mentor to him:
“I grew up with the idea that you can learn whatever you need from books because there may not be someone available to teach you if you move around a lot as I did as a kid. So books taught me how to speak French when I was young as well as how to relate to other cultures. They have taught me every skill set I have known, or at the very least drastically enhanced it. Therefore I have a very deep relationship with books.”
Davis says that he enjoys a number of different genres with several books he returns to over and over again.
I’m a huge fan of historical fiction. And while I love history, I don’t particularly like reading about history. It’s a bit too dry for my taste. But when you set those historical events into fictional characters and situations that one can relate to, history suddenly becomes incredibly relatable.
He counts author John Jakes and his historical fiction books as among his favorites.
“These books have really helped round out my understanding of history. And they really prompted me to read more true history books as a result because I was curious about so many things that the characters were dealing with in their stories.”
Davis says that motivation and self-improvement books have also been of major appeal to him. Here’s what he had to say when asked to offer a favorite:
“I would probably have to say Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy. He was one of the first speakers in the motivation and self-improvement arena that I was ever exposed to. I will never forget the first program I went to where he was speaking and it was like I was hit with a ton of bricks.”
The great thing about Tracy’s books according to Davis is that they’re really meaty versus a lot of self-improvement fluff.
“His books, he says, specifically Maximum Achievement taught him about vision, goal setting, and real specific habits and processes. Literally, that book gave me the confidence and ability to do what I am doing now. It allowed me to reinvent myself. So his work has been really, really profound to me”
Davis also cited “Awakening The Buddha Within” as another book that has had a profound impact on his life. He notes:
“I have a lot of history with Buddhism. There are so many tenets to that way of life that I relate to because my life is so crazy and there's a lot of noise and chaos always going on. So there are a lot of things about Buddhism like slowing down and sort of trusting that things are working out the way that they are supposed to be. I find it to be a really good contrast to so much of what I do which is go, go, go.”
In terms of his mode, of reading, Davis had this to say:
“I am actually into all three mediums (hardback/paperback, e-books, and audiobooks) and I use them all in very different ways. If I want to just get to the heart of a book, ebooks are typically my go-to just because I don’t like carrying anything that I don’t have to. If I can read a book while I’m standing in line waiting to pay for groceries, then great, I’ll take in a couple of paragraphs or a page or two. Or I can read on my tablet. So e-books are my first go-to.”
“But if that book really impacts me, I want to reward the experience as well as the author by purchasing a hardback or paperback copy. In these cases, I like some sort of physical book because I do have this little fear with digital books that something might happen, either technologically or with the license going away [laughter].”
Finally, in terms of audiobooks, Davis had this to say:
“I’m really selective about them. I listen to a lot of podcasts but I will tell you that because I don’t drive as much as I used to I don’t listen to as many. But if I’m going to be on the road for a half-hour or more, I’ll typically take in either a book that I’m reading or I’ll go back to one that I purchased in the past.”
Davis also offered a few thoughts on local libraries
“One of the worst things about the pandemic has been the shuttering of our libraries. I love being surrounded by books. I am such a tremendous fan of libraries so thankfully we have digital libraries that can use. I still leverage a whole lot of borrowed books whenever I can.”
Davis says that he s concerned about the libraries in Chicago which he believes are vastly underfunded.
“I wish we spent more time investing in them and promoting them as an integral part of our communities and culture. I’m a huge fan and I would support a library anytime that I could.”
In terms of his own forthcoming book, Davis offers a few closing thoughts:
“With respect to my greatest hope in terms of what people walk away from the book with when it’s released, I would say three things. One, diabetic-friendly food is just food. In other words, you don’t have to label it. Secondly, it can be a beautiful thing to eat healthily. This will be conveyed through the book’s visual appeal and creative recipes. Finally, if the book can empower someone to feel better about living with diabetes by just making a good meal, then we’ve done our job.”