-TOKYO
-After two days of waiting and watching, the news is in from halfway around the world. The reports are in from Tokyo on Thursday, and they're not good, some say dismal.
It wasn't all that bad in the end, but the chefs were lucky to escape with as good a rating as they did--that of 96.4.
"96 is a very, very good rating, and we should be happy, but we were aiming for so much more than that," said Jim McAllister.
The main blow? The exhibition had the chefs preparing a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and the turkey--the star of the dinner--got its lowest rating since 2002.
NCA critics gave the turkey an 87.1 rating, the lowest at any exhibition or the real event since the 2002 Feast Fest, when the bird garnered an 86.9 mark.
Fortunately, other foods add up to the average score, and other dinner components got some of their HIGHEST ratings ever--the stuffing earned 99.6, the cranberries 98.7, the pie, which was apple for the exhibition instead of the usual pumpkin, a solid 100.
It was only the second 100 for any Feast Fest food, the other being the 100 mark in 2008 for the giblet gravy, which helped that year's Fest achieve a 98.9 NCA approval rating.
The scoresheet was laid out as thus:
Turkey 87.1
Stuffing 99.6
Gravy 96.5
G'beans 96.9
C'berries 98.7
Rolls 93.2
M.P. 98.2
Peas 98.2
Pie 100
The blunder spread to other foods, too; rolls/biscuits received their lowest rating since 2005. The rolls and biscuits have consistently been the highest rated FF food.
The mash potatoes and peas split even at 98.2.
Several prime chefs--the Masons, Lynn Avi, Jan Stephan--were absent from the Tokyo exhibition, giving the showcase a little less zip. Jim McAllister was appointed head chef of the exhibition in place of the Masons; Joe Pasik played Head Sous-Chef, McAllister's real position in the event; and Lisa Choi and Andruw Stephan played Assistant Head Sous-Chefs in place of Avi and Pasik. 1,267 flocked to the exhibition. 90% of attendees were Japanese.
"I hope they enjoyed it, but I wish we could have given them just a little bit of a better show to see," said Pasik of the first ever Feast Fest exhibition outside North America. "Everyone in the audience got a little sample of the dinner. The NCA critics said the turkey was bone dry. I heard some people in the crowd saying the same thing in a sort of halting English. 'This is their traditional feast?' I heard one say."
Pasik was optimistic about the pie and stuffing, but remorseful about the turkey.
"We had it imported from the U.S. to Japan. I guess all that pressurized air on the plane dried it out. They didn't keep it moist. We were practically drowning this turkey and we couldn't get it moist at all," he explained.
"We could've done better."
The next exhibition will also be the last exhibition before Feast Fest--November 2nd, at Kitchen Stadium USA in New York.
"Higher hopes there, definitely," Pasik remarked.
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