Galen-Ames, Ainenl, FF Scouters Plan Summit

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest's Scouting Department announced Sunday that a summit would be planned between scouters, Brianna Galen-Ames, and Claudien Ainenl.

Galen-Ames is a former FF chef who is contemplating re-joining Feast Fest in 2012, and Ainenl is a French master considering joining in 2012.

The summit will be held Nov. 2-3 in Columbus, Oh.

Reasoning Explained for Edelyn Exhibition Move

-Marina del Rey, CA
-"Thanksgiving, meet Halloween."

That's what Feast Fest Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt joked to laughs early Sunday, confirming about 12 hours of rumors that the final FF exhibition of the season at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, FL, would be moved from Tuesday, November 8 to Monday, October 31.

Vanderbilt said that a nearby office building would be undergoing "heavy construction" that would begin October 24 and require usage of the Edelyn parking lot and the Edelyn kitchen floor to house over a thousand construction workers. The project will end November 15 and the only weekday that the project will not take place is October 31. The project will take place Saturday, October 29, and not Sunday, October 30, but Vanderbilt explained why the Oct. 30 date would not work.

"They [officials at Edelyn] will need at least a day to convert the cooking arena from its hostel-like state to its normal cooking state, so that eliminated the possibility of the Oct. 30 date being used. They offered up a Nov. 17 date also, but this will not work because it is too close to Thanksgiving and all the exhibitions need to be over and all the chefs here in the Marina by that time."

So Halloween it must be.

"We know this throws a monkey wrench into the personal agendas of all the chefs, and we apologize to them for that," said Vanderbilt. "But I'm afraid it's our only option."

Some chefs said they would consider bringing their children to the exhibition, not wanting to not be with them on the holiday.

Final FF Exhibition (Edelyn Cooking Arena, Punta Gorda, FL) Moved

-Marina del Rey, CA; also reports from Punta Gorda, FL
-We interrupt your wee hours of Sunday morning to bring you this new development:

Thanksgiving Dinner, meet Halloween candy.

It has been confirmed after several hours of swirling rumors that the Feast Fest exhibition at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, FL, the final of the season, scheduled for Tuesday, November 8 at 7p Eastern/4p Pacific, has been MOVED, to the same time of day on Monday, October 31st... Halloween.

This will mark the first time ever that an FF exhibition has been staged on Halloween.

Jim McAllister was awoken early Sunday morning to be told of the news. "So, Halloween, eh? Masks and turkey. Candy and NCA critics. Ghouls, witches, and vampires along with pumpkin pie and cranberries. That'll be interesting!"

The official reasoning for the date move is currently uncertain; all that is known is that the managers of Edelyn Cooking Arena contacted Feast Fest late Saturday about a "logistical and mechanical emergency", saying that the Nov. 8 had to be canceled and that two dates were available for relocation of the exhibition: Oct. 31 and Nov. 17.

It is speculated that the Oct. 31 date was picked because Nov. 17 was considered too close to Feast Fest.

William Vanderbilt is expected to speak about the issue to reporters later today.

Scouter Fired

-Los Angeles
-Feast Fest Events, Inc. has hired a scouter who worked in the Scouting Department for eleven years, said Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt very late on Saturday.

Daved Leineken was fired Saturday afternoon after it was revealed that he bribed Brianna Galen-Ames with $1 million to simply "consider" re-signing with Feast Fest.

"This will reopen the whole matter of Galen-Ames, which we thought had been closed by now for the most part, and we will be forced to ask ourselves if she really wished to contemplate a return or if it was the money that prodded her on," said Vanderbilt.

Leineken's bribe becomes the first reported case of Feast Fest Scouting Department corruption since 2006.

"This has not happened in five years, and we will have to investigate heavily its roots," Vanderbilt said.

Galen-Ames could not be reached for comment.

Ainenl is in Good with Scouters, Sources Say

-Marina del Rey, CA
-Feast Fest Meeting & Conference Week from Monday through Friday allowed Claudien Magnifique Ainenl to work up a potential deal with Feast Fest scouters for the 2012 event.

The Paris-based Ainenl, recognized as a top French chef, has been courted by Feast Fest as far back as 1997, but the logistics never worked out to include the 40-year-old master of cookery in the event. In turn, Ainenl was always fascinated with the holiday of Thanksgiving and with Feast Fest, but was seen as a perpetually picky chef who made several demands that could not be met. For one, he would demand that he be able to show up in California on the very eve of the event and that he be able to fly back to Paris immediately following the Official Score Announcement.

"He was very involved and dedicated to his Parisian restaurant and never wanted to leave it for more than 24 hours," says Managerial Assistant Arthur Ayeiy. "He was frequently told that the logistics would be too difficult to work out and that such a rigorous, jetlaggish schedule would wreak havoc on his internal systems, diminishing his performance. At the same time, he never wanted to be present for any exhibitions. And he cooked French so often we feared that if he didn't come to an exhibition once in a while to break those habits with the Americana styles used at Thanksgiving, he would have a sort of gastronomical all-systems-failure out on the floor."

In 2009, Ainenl hired an assistant head chef for his restaurant, General & Classical, and purchased a villa in Southern California in the hopes that these moves would take care of some of the "logistical" problems.

FF scouters were always interested in Ainenl, and agreed that from a logistical standpoint his chances looked much healthier, but over the past two offseasons contractual and monetary disagreements popped up.

But over the course of last week, Ainenl met repeatedly with Jim Dall, head of the FF Scouting Department, who devised a personalized plan that would fit the needs of both sides. Now all that is needed for the plan to be set in motion is for the next offseason to begin and for a price tag to be set down.

"He's much easier to work with now," comments Ayeiy. "We feel very optimistic about adding him to the Feast Fest Team in 2012.

Ainenl announced Friday that he would be able to attend "probably at least four exhibtitions per year," and received a "yes" reply when he asked if that amount would be enough.

Ainenl "could be signed as early as December," Ayeiy forecasted. "Look for Ainenl to become the chef that's heavily pursued and discussed in the early months of the offseason, over the winter," Ayeiy told Feast Fest buffs. "He could pop up in talks as early as the Feast Fest Post-Feast Meeting on the very Monday after Thanksgiving."