-Feast Fest fixture Stephen Dreim is still at odds with Feast Fest after four hours of talks.
Dreim was cleared of any involvement in a bribery scandal Thursday, but Dreim, infuriated with the tarnishings of his name during an independent investigation, resigned mere hours before he was declared innocent and the investigation concluded.
FF was able to coax a defiant Dreim back into talks Friday morning, but the former third-line-of-power chef remained stiff. "I will not return to this event unless I receive a formal apology and compensation for the emotionally scarring road this event has put me through this week," Dreim announced. Dreim is requesting a formal apology and $1,500 compensation, and that's before he's even willing to launch into talks.
The matter didn't get far Friday as some Feast Fest chef came forward and advised the event to let go of Dreim, complaining of "self-centeredness" and "haughtiness" on the part of the chef, two qualities deeply frowned upon in FF chefs. One chef even compared Dreim to the notoriously conceited Ashton Moore.
Others, however, stood up for Dreim. "Dreim is a great addition to Feast Fest, and I fail to understand those who call him selfish and haughty," Co-Head Chef Jim McAllister Chef. In addition, Co-Assistant Head Sous Chef Joe Pasik spoke up in favor of the fellow Brayton Hill alumnus.
A tally taken around 2 p.m. Friday showed that nine chefs had come to FF execs in support of Dreim and that eight had condemned him.
"This is something we need to look into further," said a Feast Fest executive who refused to provide her bame because she claimed to be unauthorized to speak on the issue. If Steve Dreim, she remarked, "is viewed negatively to the point where bringing him back would stir an uneasy or volatile atmosphere among chefs, or if he is viewed negatively to the point where chefs breathed a sigh of relief when he resigned...we don't want to put them in [that] sort of position."
Talks will break over the weekend.
For the time being, Dreim has been scratched from the chef list for Monday's Windows on the Water Exhibition because he was not re-signed to Feast Fest today as had been predicted.
"We're in not as good a place with talks with Dreim as we wish we were," said Feast Fest Executive Assistant Arthur Ayeiy. "Say we're driving up the California coast, we thought we'd be in San Francisco by now and we're only in, say, Santa Barbara. Dreim's defiance and stubbornness has been a setback for us in these negotiations."
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