-Feast Fest enthusiasts will have many reasons to watch Aleck Monde as he enters his first ever FF exhibition Monday.
Monde will have heavy expectations weighing him down as he is the son of former Feast Fest fixture Marc Monde, who dazzled on the floor from 1995 to 2004 and who has a place in the hearts of chefs like Jim McAllister and Johnny Stevenson as a fellow "Original 7" chef.
"Some vet chefs know how [Marc] Monde operated and are expecting the same thing from his son Aleck," commented McAllister, "but we have to remind ourselves that he could have a different style. We have to take a step back and observe tomorrow."
Monde himself says he knows what people are expecting. "My father knew how to put on a show while he was cooking. And I know I have to go out Monday and do the same thing to get in good with these great vet chefs, so that'll have to be my primary focus in this exhibition. If I can slamdunk a good exhibition here, then I think I'll relax a bit and be able to settle into my more natural culinary self when Thanksgiving comes around."
Marc Monde was expected to be in attendance at Feast Fest Nov. 24th, but he abruptly announced Saturday he was catching a plane from his Ottawa, Ontario, Canada home to Punta Gorda, not wanting to miss his son's first exhibition.
"Knowing that he'll be watching, some might say it would heighten the pressure on me, but I think it'll take some off and help me just enjoy things more," explained an anticipatory Monde late Sunday.
Chefs met for about two hours of culinary refresher training sessions Sunday afternoon at Edelyn, and fellow FF chefs said he looked "very fluid" and "crisp, fearless, and smoothly moving."
"I think he'll have a well above satisfactory breakout performance on Halloween," Lynn Avi wrote by email Friday.
Lindbergh Merrssff, another Original 7 chef who retired from FF in 2008, said, "Marc's kid will do awesome. The genes he has in him, he may feel anxious now but once he gets out there and gets into his natural groove, I know he'll shine."
Monde has two other NCA competitions under his belt coming into Edelyn: the 2010 All-Canada Cook-off and the 2011 Torontonian Chefs' Mastership, over which he amassed 56 NCA points.
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