Shep in action at the Daily Grill in Washington. “Their meatloaf is perhaps the best I have ever had,” he reports. “If you arrive too late, they will be sold out.” Photo: Dr. Jim Sargent
If you’ve ever had the good fortune to attend a presentation by, or be part of a conversation with, Mark “Shep” Sheperdigian, BCE, you know he’s not always one to follow the road most traveled — just the one most interesting.
Shep’s different-drummer trait shines through right down to his choice of eating utensils. The vice president of technical services for Troy, Mich.-based Rose Pest Solutions has been eating most of his meals with chopsticks instead of a knife and fork. While expert theories abound about how using chopsticks helps you lose weight because you eat more slowly and carefully, that’s not the reason for Shep’s habit.
“In the late 1990s, I was with Gene White at a Chinese restaurant,” he recalls of his former Rose colleague, who is now a regional technical director for Rentokil and a fellow chopsticks devotee. “It just seemed right at the time, and I dug it. I ended up buying a pair to use at home.”
White and Shep often made their lunch-hour rounds to local Thai, Japanese, sushi and other Asian restaurants. After Shep had his chopsticks epiphany, he decided to buy White a pair of travel chopsticks for his birthday.
“They were Japanese chopsticks, which are pointed at the end,” he says. “They were made of brushed stainless steel and teak, and unscrewed in the middle to store in a nylon case. I bought them for Gene because, while I’d never buy something that expensive for myself, it made a great gift.”
Needless to say, when Shep’s birthday rolled around a month later, he received his own pair of travel chopsticks from White.
Always room for Jell-O
Two decades later, Shep says he continues to use chopsticks for almost every meal because he finds it to be a more elegant way to eat.
“You’re far less likely to drop something,” he says. “Think of how salad jumps off your fork. You have more control over it with chopsticks.”
His diet isn’t limited to noodles and rice, either. He eats cottage cheese, Jell-O, pudding, ice cream, cake and even yogurt with chopsticks.
At home, a vase in the kitchen contains many chopsticks. Shep also has several pairs of travel sticks. His wife, Nancy, and grown sons, Ara and Zach, all know their way around a pair of sticks but prefer the fork as a rule.
“I came home the other day and found Nancy on the couch, painting her nails and using a pair of chopsticks with a bag of Cheetos,” Shep says. “Evidently, they’re good to use while a manicure dries. Plus, your fingers don’t get greasy.”
Shep realizes the practice sets him apart in public, which is why he keeps the chopsticks in his coat pocket and picks up a fork if he is in a social setting where he doesn’t know anyone in the room.
“It would be a violation of good manners to call attention to myself,” he says.
As for keeping the chopsticks clean, he discreetly swishes them in a glass of water before putting them away. Then, once he’s home (or back in the hotel room, if he’s on the road), he washes them by hand.
Another reason why Shep says he is drawn to chopsticks is their uncanny resemblance in motion and feel to using forceps. For an entomologist used to using forceps to pick up specimens, it’s a natural feel, he says.
Shep has picked up insects with chopsticks from the ground, always using a pair retired from meal service. He has yet to catch a fly in mid-air with a pair, as seen in “The Karate Kid” — although he has done so with forceps. Perhaps this will be his year.
You can reach Heather Gooch at hgooch@northcoastmedia.net, 330-321-9754.
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