• DREIM WILL NOT BE ON FF TEAM THIS THANKSGIVING •

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-It's official.

With the 2012 Feast Fest Official Roll Call of Chefs complete, Stephen Dreim will not be a member of the squad, and a virulent anti-Dreim movement among chefs could quell talks for a 2013 rehiring during the offseason.

Scouters fired off four separate deals Monday, the amounts of which were not publicly released, but Anna Milk, a scooter working on the Dreim case, said that the first two were 4-year deals, the third was a 5-year deal, and the fourth was a 6-year deal, and that one was staggered. Dreim rejected the first two deals, "contemplated" and then rejected the third, and was in the middle of "contemplating" a fourth when the roll call commenced and time ran out.

"We are extremely disappointed about the way negotiations with Mr. Dreim have gone, and we hope we will be able to come to a deal when the offseason recommences come December," so said Head Scouter Jim Dall. Dall added, "[Rehiring Dreim] will be the first task on our agenda when the next offseason begins."

But not if the chefs have their way. Chefs failed to get scouters to agree to a pact requiring Dreim to be placed on the barred list and threatening mass resignations and salary raise requests should this not occur. They can forget about the pact for the time being, as the chefs have scored a hollow-chocolate victory with the deadline passing and voiding negotiations, but the chefs will have to come back to the bargaining table with the scouters if they don't want negotiations with Dreim to rejuice themselves in 2013. "This is only half the battle," said Peter Dumas, who co-wrote the pact accusing Dreim of being rude, conceited, and threatening to his colleagues in his four years on the Feast Fest floor. 44 of the 65 chefs signed the pact.

A few of Dreim's allies on the Feast Fest squad were disappointed by the deadline passing. "Steve was a terrific chef and a great colleague who I loved working with on the Feast Fest floor, and it beats me where these totally unfounded accusations of threats and haughtiness are coming from," said one chef who declined to give his game for fear of being "chewed out" by the large anti-Dreim majority.

"While we support continued unemployment of Dreim in terms of Feast Fest," said Dumas, "we understand that a minority does exist in support of Dreim, and we must cooperate with and continue forging our positive relationships with those who do support Dreim in order to avoid a harmful splintering into factions and/or a polarization among our glorious body of Feast Fest chefs."

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Merrsff to Receive "Lifetime Achievement Award" from NCA at Feast Fest

-Setauket, N.Y.
-Lindbergh Merrssff will receive a special "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the NCA as part of Feast Fest opening ceremonies, Manager William Vanderbilt announced late Sunday. Merrssff claimed to be "ecstatic" here at his home in Setauket, a Long Island beach town.

Merrssff will be the Guest of Honor for Feast Fest 2012 and will be the recipient of the Ceremonial Turkey. Merrssff has received various accolades from Feast Fest and the NCA in his retirement. In addition, Merrssff was honored with a Feast Fest "Lifetime Achievement Award" during Feast Fest XV (2009), but this is the first time he will be honored with such an award by the significantly larger domain of the NCA.

"Mr. Merrssff is a spectacular and extraordinary chef whose life and whose work has embodied and continues to embody everything we here at the NCA stand for," said NCA President Al Green.

He will be presented with the award as part of Opening Ceremonies for Feast Fest.






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With Two Days Left, Saturday Is Day of Lost Time in Dreim Case

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-You might as well stick a fork in this one and serve it for dinner, because the negotiations with Stephen Dreim and Feast Fest scouters are about to be hunted down by the evil forces of, well, time.

Dreim and FF must reach a deal by midday Monday, when the official 2012 Feast Fest Roll Call will take place. The Roll Call will officially set out the roster for Feast Fest 2012, and once the roll call begins, no further chefs can be signed to the event. (Well, technically, they can be, but they wouldn't be able to serve in Feast Fest until Feast Fest 2013.)

Dreim rejected a $775,000 deal Saturday, making scouters realize they need to focus on time, rather than money, in their next offer, which they filed at $778,500 over three years late Saturday night. Dreim has yet to reply.

"It became clear that one big turnoff for Mr. Dreim in our offers was that they were all temporary, one-year deals, and the possibility of launching right back into intensive negotiations such as these after Feast Fest was clearly unappealing to Mr. Dreim," said Jim Roedde, the scouter heading the team of scouters tasked with working on Dreim's case. "Our newest deal will ensure we won't have to negotiate with Mr. Dreim again until 2015, and we hope this will illicit a better reaction from Mr. Dreim."

Scouters hope to engage in a back-in-forth with Dreim on Sunday, exchanging rapid fire offers and reactions in hopes of getting one to stick to the wall for a deal. However, if Dreim continues to take a long time to make up his mind about each deal, that setup could prove impossible.

Dreim resigned Oct. 18, enraged upon being implicated in a scouter bribery scandal for which he was later exonerated. Scouters set out to rehire Dreim, but ran into complications with a defiant, stubborn Dreim in negotiations and with a chef body who called Dreim haughty and conceited and which filed a pact recently to try to stop the negotiations.






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Crellas Wins Most Diverse

-New York
-The inaugural winner of a brand new NCA yearly award is a Feast Fest chef.

The NCA's new "Most Diverse" honor, created to dole out each year "to the chef who best exemplifies a spirit of global flavor and international incorporation in his/her cooking," was won Saturday night by FFer Laelech Crellas, a Hawaii-based World chef with Hawaiian, Polynesian, German, British, Japanese, Indonesian, and Irish ancestries. "I am ecstatic to receive the very first 'Most Diverse' honor," Crellas said in an email.






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Dreim Rejects $770K Offer, Scouters Offer $775K

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest scouters filed a $770,000, one-year, 2013-option offer for Stephen Dreim early Friday, which the resigned-on-Oct. 18 phenom immediately rejected.

Scouters then filed a $775,000 deal, and are awaiting word from Dreim on that offer.

"If increasing the amounts of the offers don't work, we're going to try increasing their length," said Jim Dall, Head Scouter of Feast Fest. The $775,000 offer is also a one-year deal with a 2013 option.

Dall Friday removed Stefanie McOneguew from the position as head of the team of scouters negotiating with Dreim. This is because Dall felt McOneguew was siding with the interests of the FF chefs, who do not want Dreim to return, and that she thus was purposely "failing to push the negotiations to their fullest possible extent." Dall said, "Ms. McOneguew does not understand that this is not about the chefs. Once Dreim resigned, I issued an ultimatum to my scouters: We need Dreim. Get him back. Disregard any and all other potential factors. Ms. McOneguew was failing to meet that ultimatum." Dall announced midday Friday that Jim Roedde, a former Head Scouter in 2009 who stepped down to become a regular scouter in 2010, had been designated as the official head of the team working with Dreim.

Chefs, who call Dreim "haughty, conceited, and barbarous" and "an absolute displeasure to have collaborated with" are on their way to victory: if Dreim has not been rehired by the Monday roll call of chefs for Feast Fest 2012, the official deadline to hire chefs for that very year, negotiations will automatically be voided.

"Time is running out," Dall said. "We need to make moves, serious, well-thought-out moves that emphasize the demands of the chef, and we need to make them now."






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Dreim Rejects $764K Offer, Scouters Plan to Issue New Offer

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Only three days remain to re-sign Stephen Dreim to an FF contract for 2012, and unravelings on Thursday zapped even more life out of the feasibility of the negotiations.

After eight days of silence on a $764,000 offer issued Tue., Oct. 30, Dreim finally came out and rejected the offer, as was expected. "There's a psychological pattern, where, if people are taking a long time to make a decision, they're more likely to say 'no' to it," said analyst Mike Vilshire. "Because if they like the offer, they'll usually say 'yes' enthusiastically and quickly." Dreim set no further request for an offer, which is both good and bad for the scouters. It's good in that it gives them more freedom to post their own amount in the next offer, not one dictated by Dreim, but the lack of an offer request, which Dreim has usually issued upon previous rejections, deprives the scouters of guidance in the form of a ballpark figure.

Head Scouter Jim Dall said he and his scouters had not yet figured an amount to offer Dreim, but he said that it "will not exceed $800,000." The offer will be formally issued on Friday. "Our battle plan is to see this offer off and away Friday, hopefully we get a response awfully quickly, and then we hope, if Mr. Dreim is responding quickly, to engage in a rapid-fire tennis-style back-and-forth of offers and responses over Saturday and Sunday until either we reach an agreement or until the Monday deadline passes. Hopefully, the former of those two scenarios will play out."

In other news, chefs met with scouters for five hours on Thursday in an attempt to break off talks between the scouters and Dreim, but with the deadline looming that's not a must-do in order for the chefs' goal of not rehiring Dreim to be achieved. "Time is on our side," said chef Peter Dumas Thursday.

However, if the chefs could get the scouters to agree to the pact, the pact's terms would involve having the scouting department place Dreim on the barred list. If the chefs drop the pact matter and just let the deadline pass, Dreim could still be negotiated with in the next offseason. While most chefs agreed that letting Monday come and go would be a victory for their cause, a few disagreed. "We must settle this matter now and get the scouters to agree with this pact," so said chef Alizone Jahschweich. "I don't know about the other chefs, but I can say that I don't want to be refighting this come December, January, February, 2013, 2014, 2015, ever. I want to get Dreim on the barred list. And I never want to have to refight that."

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Scouters, Chefs Break Off Talks Without Progress, Plan to Reconvene Thursday; Still No Word From Dreim

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest Head Scouter Jim Dall, Event Manager William Vanderbilt, and 19 other scouters met Wednesday with 27 of the 44 chefs who signed a pact threatening raise demands and walk-away should Stephen Dreim be rehired.

Entering the eighth day without word from Dreim on a $764,000 offer (he said on Tue., Oct. 30 that he was "contemplating" it and he hasn't issued a new statement to the public since), the two sides were unable to reach an agreement and the scouters were unable to shift the position of the chefs.

This is more of a problem for the scouters than it is for the chefs. Even if no ground is gained in the discussions between the two sides, the chefs will still come out on top if Monday, when the official roll call for Feast Fest XVIIII takes place (and after which no more chefs can be added or removed for that year's event), comes and goes without a deal betwixt Dreim and Dall.

"We're fast approaching a deadline," said Stefanie McOneguew, the scouter heading Dreim's case. "We're willing to move, we're willing to make some more concessions to Mr. Dreim, but we need a response from him before we can go forward."

Although he has indicated interest in rejoining, Dreim, who resigned Oct. 18, infuriated at false implication in a bribery scandal and who at that time said he would NOT seek reemployment with Feast Fest if he was found innocent (which he was hours later), could be using silence as a method of saying he never really wanted to rejoin in the first place.

"It's possible Dreim wants FF out of his life," says Mike Vilshire, an analyst. "He very well could have entered into rehiring negotiations with the event just because they badgered him so much about it, and now he's using his silence on the latest offer to let Monday come and go and to let the deal void. That, of course, is assuming he doesn't want to go through with it."

Lyle Lilbridge, an agent for Dreim, said Wednesday that Dreim had hoped for a $1,000,000 offer but that he knew such an offer had "slim to none" chances. Still, he acknowledged that his client was trying to get Feast Fest "to run up the numbers on the contract offer, in the thought process that when they refused to go higher, if Mr. Dreim still doesn't think he's being offered enough, he could issue a pocket veto of sorts...for lack of a better term."

The chefs and scouters will reconvene Thursday, but with every day passing without deals on any sides of this now three-sided series of negotiations, it's looking less and less likely that Dreim will be rehired for 2012--which is exactly what the chefs want.

"He was very belligerent, very rude," an unidentified chef said of Dreim. "I'd prefer not to have to work with Dreim again if I can possibly help it."

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Purists of Organization Senate Complete Successful Filibuster of '14 Expansion Measure

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-A group of four purists on Feast Fest's Organization Senate Wednesday again filibustered a 2014 expansion measure that, if passed, would have put two Feast Fests on Thanksgiving Day and which would have given chefs a 17-hour workday on Thanksgiving and which would have had the official score announcement coming at Midnight.

Although the proposal was projected to be defeated by a slim margin, the four OS members who conducted the filibuster didn't think it was safe enough to let a vote go through. And, because the OS broke session Wednesday and won't reconvene until after Feast Fest, the band of antiexpansion purists can now take a huge breather.

"We were elated when the gavel was struck today indicating adjournment," Lois Jenks, one of the filibustering members, said. "We now can approach this from a new angle when we reconvene and we can figure out how to halt such ludicrous expansion proposals before they even get to a vote."

The Organization Senate will not reconvene until Feb. 4.






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Time Running Out for Dreim: Scouters, Chefs to Meet Weds. to Set Terms for Rejoining

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-As the time for rehiring Stephen Dreim to Feast Fest 2012 continues to run out, Feast Fest and 27 chefs will meet on Wednesday to discuss the terms of a pact the chefs signed opposing and threatening raise requests and possible cases of resignation and walk-away in the event the flashy, yet haughty, former chef who resigned in October due to being false implication in a bribery scandal, is re-signed.

According to Feast Fest rules, if a chef is not signed to the event by the roll call at the beginning of the week-and-a-half-long convention period preceding Feast Fest--in this case, by Monday--the chef will have to wait until the following year to be signed.

"The roll call is the official rundown of all of the chefs for a particular year," said Scouter Jon Maguw. "Once it has been held, everything is concrete: nope, sorry, too late, try again next year. That's what we're trying to avoid."

The chefs take on a completely separate position. Andrew Cgrewnyr, a representative for the 44 chefs who signed the pact, said, "The strategy here is to take the juice out of the movement to sign Dreim until and through Monday. I represent chefs who believe Dreim has personally aggrieved them and who believe that a rehiring of Dreim has the potential to dramatically and drastically alter the atmosphere on the Feast Fest floor towards the worse. And we know this is an ugly fight. This is precisely why we want to keep the scouters' negotiations with Dreim stifled until Monday. Doing so will guarantee that Dreim will NOT be a member of this event in 2012, and it guarantees that we will have the entire offseason to hash this battle out in 2013. To work against the clock is stressful and is unfair to everybody involved, especially the chef body I represent."

The chefs' goal is to convince the scouters to drop negotiations until the offseason sometime tomorrow or Thursday, so that they won't be left holding their breath until Monday.

Dreim himself has indirectly helped the chefs' cause. His indecisiveness, wherein he has been "contemplating" a $764,000 offer for over a week with no word back, is delaying the negotiations significantly. Some believe that's a quiet way of saying "no". Mike Vilshire, an analyst, says that "I believe that Dreim wants to scare the scouters into upping the offer, but he doesn't want to alienate or turn off the scouters by coming out and saying that sharply and directly. That, I believe, is why we're seeing Dreim lingering. He's waiting for the scouters to give him a new offer. And they may soon as time is running out."

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Kelley Courted by FF

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Another in a stream of former chefs looking to rejoin Feast Fest has popped up with positive preliminary negotiations with FF for 2013, Scouter Roderick Auld-Asmee said Monday.

John Kelley, an All-American culinary master from Denver, was a member of the Feast Fest team from 1999 to 2004, and resigned in front of Feast Fest 2005 when contract negotiations failed. Kelley also negotiated with FF in July 2006 and February 2010, but nothing could materialize.

The mixture in the bowl finally was right, though, as Auld-Asmee said his team of scouters "could come to an agreement with Mr. Kelley as early as Friday."

Currently, it is rumored that the deal will be for Kelley to sign for 2013 on a seventh-line-of-power slot for $303,455, though those figures could change before an official announcement is made.

"Wicked excited about the potential to be a part of the Feast Fest team yet again, starting Thanksgiving 2013," Kelley wrote in an email.

Negotiations with Kelley will break Tuesday but will resume Wednesday.






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Vanderbilt-Dall-Ayeiy Trip Finally Ends

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-They're home.

After a whirlwind, 12-day, 30-city world tour, Feast Fest's Executive Manager William Vanderbilt, Executive Assistant Arthur Ayeiy and Head Scouter Jim Dall have returned to Feast Fest headquarters in Los Angeles, finishing off the trip with stops in Phoenix and San Francisco before coasting home to Southern California.

The tour was scheduled to end Sunday, but was extended by a day when stops in Philadelphia and Washington were rescheduled. The threesome was unable to visit those two cities on the originally scheduled Oct. 30 due to Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy.






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OS Successful in Filibuster of 2014 Expansion Measure, But Easy Breathing Not Guaranteed

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-The Feast Fest Organization Senate was unable to pass a proposal to expand to a two-Feast Fest, 14-hour Thanksgiving event in 2014 on Monday as purists successfully filibustered the event.

Pete Wilco, Lois Jenks, Dana Rethaulia, and Mike Leary discussed Tuesday's Obama-Romney election, California Proposition 30, turkey recipes, baseball, reality television, weather, fishing trips with Leary's sons, the Christmas cards Jim McAllister sends to all the OS members, and other such irrelevant topics in the successful all-day attempt.

But they might have to do it all over again Tuesday and Wednesday.

Jana Vaarhas, head of the movement in favor of the expansion proposal, said he would attempt to bring the proposal back to the floor Tuesday, and, if unsuccessful, Wednesday. On Wednesday, the OS will adjourn and will not reconvene until Feb. 4.

"We're glad we got this filibuster slammed down today," Leary said, "but by no means are we totally out of the woods quite yet."






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OS Members Plan to Filibuster Another Expansion Measure

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-They just won't go away, will they?

Yet another in a string of ridiculous, logistically unwieldy proposals to add a second Feast Fest event to Thanksgiving Day, making for a Thanksgiving for FF chefs that would have them cooking for nearly fourteen consecutive hours and which would approximately have the official score come at midnight, is planned to be filibustered by event purists when it comes to a vote Monday.

Mike Leary, Lois Jenks, Pete Wilco, and Dana Retheaulia will spearhead the filibustering efforts. Jenks was part of a filibuster effort for an extremely similar proposal in November 2011, which was successful. That proposal would have had the change made in 2013; if this one passes, the expansion will come in 2014.

Although recent polling showed opposition to the proposal to be holding a slight lead, that's not enough for the purists filibustering it. "This is too close of a call," Wilco said. "We can't risk it going to a vote. We must take action now.". Wilco, however, seemed to be ignoring the fact that even should it pass the 50-member, Organization Senate, it would then have to clear the 10-member Executive Board, and while support is more or less split among the Organization Senate, the EB is much more likely than the OS to vote against the proposal.

"We need to send a message," Wilco said. "A strong message saying we need to get rid of these sorts of proposals."






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Wholehreh Wins NCA's Best All-American

-New York
-Keith Wholehreh has won his first NCA's Best All-Americsn Award.

Wholehreh claimed first with 23% of the vote. Fellow Feast Fest chef Johnny Stevenson, who has a long record with this honor, having won it six times, including in 2011, was relegated to third. But he wasn't holding any grudges: "Knowing and working with Keith, I am ecstatic to see the torch of this award passed down to him," Stevenson said.

In 2011, the two chefs' placements were reversed: Stevenson won, with Wholehreh at third. Wholehreh placed fourth in 2010 and did not podium in 2009.

Wholehreh's win Saturday was an upset. It was predicted that Stevenson would win his seventh, with Wholehreh being the runner-up at second.

Stevenson got 12% of the vote.






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Mansfield, Avi Have Power

-New York
-As the recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy continued, two Big Apple-based FF chefs had power restored Saturday. Michelle Mansfield, FF chef since 2008, had power restored to her Tribeca eatery Saturday, as did Feast Fest tigress Lynn Avi to her Lower East Side restaurant.

"We just want to get back on our feet, get back to making good food," Avi said. "The best way to heal will be to return to our normal returns.

Avi plans to reopen her restaurant Sunday; Mansfield's is slated to reopen Monday.






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Moore Wins Flashiest

-New York
-FF chef Ashton Moore has cradled his fourth NCA Flashiest Award.

Moore won this honor in 2005, 2008, and 2011. "I feel absolutely thrilled to have won 'Flashiest' for a third time," Moore said in an email.

Another Feast Fest chef podiumed: Lynn Avi came in third.






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Executive Board Passes Resolution for 2013 to Have Chefs Prepare Ham

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-"It would be exclusive to not have America's secondary Thanksgiving entree at Feast Fest."

So read the concurrent opinion passed by the Feast Fest Executive Board Friday in approving a measure to have the chefs prepare a ham, widely considered to be the second most-consumed meat-based food on Thanksgiving.

Beginning in 2013, one ham will be prepared. Feast Fest guests will have an option to bid to be served the ham; if nobody bids, as is possible, the ham will go to a local homeless shelter. The ham will be a symbolic FF food and will not be NCA scored.







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L.A. Wild, FF Ink 5-Year Deal

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-L.A. Wild, whose farms provide 88% of the produce used for Feast Fest, inked a five-year contract with Feast Fest late Wednesday to take its relationship with the event through Feast Fest 2017.

Jan Jenkins, co-owner of L.A. Wild, leaked rumors of the deal, which was later confirmed by exec Beryl Shady.

Under the deal, 93% of produce will now come from L.A. Wild.




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In Paris, Ainenl and Vanderbilt-Dall-Ayeiy Incapable of Making Headway

-Paris
-William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy negotiated Wednesday in Paris with the French master Claudien Ainenl, but what hoped to be a good and productive day of talks instead crept to a halt.

Feast Fest had packaged a $677,505, 3-year staggered deal for Ainenl, slated to take him through 2015. However, the flip-floppy Ainenl, a mere two weeks removed from claiming he would happily accept any offer above $500,000, instead burst into indignation upon receiving the $677K deal and set another offer minimum, saying that he wants at least $725,000.

"It's a setback," Dall said. "We don't know why Ainenl was so suddenly uncooperative. We're going to have to talk to his agent about it tomorrow."

Dall was referring to a visit to Budapest, Hungary, where Ainenl's current agent is based, which is on Thursday's agenda.

"The problem with that avenue is that we don't know if his agent is encouraging this stubbornness in him," Dall remarked. "We need to be prepared for anything; Mr. Ainenl's agent could be wholly cooperative, or, if playing things stiff was his own idea, then the talks with the agent tomorrow could be a carbon copy of the talks we have just undergone today."

However, the agent of Ainenl's is a new one who "does not wish to stifle" Ainenl's own input into the process. When these two sides negotiated in 2011, his old agent forced Feast Fest to offer up at least $900,000 even when Ainenl himself was willing to go lower.






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Maintenance Scheduled

Maintenance on the FF ticketing hotline has been scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, November 1, 2012.  The routine maintenance will take place from 6 a.m. Pacific/9 a.m. Eastern to 12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern.

Apologies are issued for any inconveniences this may cause.

Maintenance was last performed on the hotline on Oct. 15.

Shady Trip Also Rearranged

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest executive Beryl Shady's around-the-world trek has also been rearranged.  Her stops in Phoenix and San Francisco, and consequentially her whole trip from Nov. 4, will be pushed back a day to Nov. 5 to coincide with the Vanderbilt-Dall-Ayeiy threesome moving this portion of their trip to accommodate rescheduled Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. stops on Nov. 4 which were scheduled for earlier this week and wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.

"The storm is causing a flummoxing reorganization of everybody's schedules," Shady said, reporting from Yellowstone, Wyo.

Vandy-Dall-Ayeiy add Day to Trip

-Paris
-William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy will add an extra day to their world scouting and contract negotiation tour.

Originally slated to end Nov. 4, the tour will now end Nov. 5.  This is because the threesome will visit Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. on Nov. 4, cities scrubbed for visitation by Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy.  They were scheduled to visit those cities on Monday, when Sandy was pummeling the East Coast.  The threesome's Nov. 4 schedule of Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles has been amended to Nov. 5 with Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  Houston has been removed from that day's itinerary because the threesome instead visited Houston on Monday to fill the void left by being unable to travel to Philly and D.C.

The three are currently in Paris, in the middle of the World Tour's European swing.  The tour has three individual swings through North America, separated by European and Asian swings.

Bigelow Interested In Rejoining

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Jeffrey Bigelow wants to launch negotiations with Feast Fest as he may be the next entry in a recent trend of former Feast Fest chefs returning to the event.

Bigelow, 44, was a Feast Fest chef for four "wonderful years", from 2003-2006. He resigned in front of Feast Fest 2007 because no viable contractual agreement could be reached during that offseason.

Bigelow is a core All-American chef, based in St. Louis. "I am very interested in reinstating my Feast Fest career.". Bigelow claimed to be interested in rejoining when he heard about the contract signings this offseason of Gerald Bartlett and Rina Shelstinnia, both former chefs.

"Bigelow was a great contributor to the all-American culinary atmosphere in his four Feast Fests," Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt said. "We'd be much more than ebullient to welcome him back."

Feast Fest and Bigelow will meet come December.





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Lala Remains Shuttered

-New York
-Lynn Avi returned to her Manhattan eatery Lala from a three-day Florida trip Tuesday night and announced it would remain closed.

The European-style restaurant is without power, along with almost the whole of Lower Manhattan after the city and much of the East Coast was pounded by Hurricane Sandy on Monday.

However, Avi reported "no structural damage" at Lala. "Lala is just fine aside from the power being out. But I am in shock. Some parts of the city are absolutely ravaged." Avi announced that she would be staying temporarily in the Upper West Side apartment of a friend, as power is also out in her own Lower Manhattan apartment.

Other Feast Fest chefs have restaurants in the Big Apple, but Avi's was the only without power, as most others are in Midtown or Upper Manhattan, where power for the most part has been restored.






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Caccicci, Scouters Meet in Middle at $626,000

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-A team of scouters has negotiated with Italian master Armando Caccicci to come to terms on a $626,000 for two years starting 2013, with a 2015 option.

Caccicci set an offer minimum of $650,000 Oct. 20, but scouters refused to go that high, instead offering a $602,000 contract which the Rome-based culinary paragon rejected. Caccicci met in the middle Wednesday by lowering his offer minimum to $626,000, and Feast Fest, impatient with the ping-pong back-and-forth of recent negotiations, decided to jump at that offer a mere 45 minutes after it was announced. Of course, because it is not officially the offseason, the deal can't be formally inked until it begins on Mon., Dec. 3.

This does not, however, mean that the deal is wholly settled. There will be several other talking points to burrow through come the next offseason on minor issues, mainly to do with the payment of minor benefits, such as how much Feast Fest is willing to pay for transportation, how much Feast Fest will provide support for passport obtainment and lodging, and how much share Feast Fest will be responsible for in medical benefits.

"We have the meat of the deal with Mr. Caccicci agreed upon," said Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Paris. "But we still have to negotiate with Mr. Caccicci on potatoes and carrots issues such as transportation tabs and medical benefits."





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Shelstinnia, Feast Fest Come to Terms on Deal

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest chef Rina Shelstinnia, who signed on to Feast Fest in February with a one-year contract, has come to terms with Feast Fest for an extension.

Shelstinnia and scouters Tuesday agreed to a 3-year, $301,422 staggered deal, with Shelstinnia to receive $301,422 in 2013, $304,551 in 2014, and $306,823 in 2015. Shelstinnia will receive $299,533 in 2012 under the one-year deal.

"We have everything set up," Shelstinnia said. "The offseason is not taking place, so we can't ink the contract now, but when the offseason starts in December it should be a quick and easy road to signing the extension because we've cleared out the heavy duty work."

Shelstinnia was initially signed only for one year because she had recorded a previous Feast Fest in her career, in 2006, but had gotten fired for punctuality failure. Since she has remedied this problem by showing up promptly and participating thoroughly in 2012 exhibitions, scouters announced in September they would renegotiate with Shelstinnia for a 2013-and-beyond extension.






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A.C.S.G. Melling, Avi, Stephans, Ruscoso Complete Sweep of NCA's Best European

-New York
-It's a sweep!

Feast Fest chefs have swept the podiums out of the NCA's "Best European" honor. A "sweep" occurs when all five podium positions for an NCA awards are inhabited by Feast Fest chefs.

Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling won the award with 32% of the vote, tigress Lynn Avi was second with 11%, Andruw Stephan came in third with 7%, Tony Ruscoso, a newbie to Feast Fest this Thanksgiving, slotted in fourth at 5%, and Andruw's twin brother Jan finished fifth with 3.2% of the vote. There were 3,454 votes for one of the biggest trophies of the NCA Award Season, which runs from mid-October through mid-November of each year, and 114 separate chefs were nominated.

"It is a fantastic to hear of this sweep of an NCA award, especially such a prestigious one, for our chefs," Event Manager William Vanderbilt said, elated.

Feast Fest averages about one swept award per year. This is their first sweep of the 2012 NCA Awards Season.






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Chefs Sign Pact Warning of "Severe Backlash" and "A Stream of Demands" Should Dreim be Re-Signed

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-44 Feast Fest chefs have signed a pact with the avowed aim of preventing the currently in-progress rehiring of former Feast Fest chef Stephen Dreim.

The pact warns of a "severe backlash" and a "stream of demands for compensation" and possibly even "multiple resignations, threats of walk-away, and actual walk-away" should the controversy-mired Dreim be re-signed.  Dreim announced Tuesday that he was considering a two-year, $764,000 deal that scouters had given to him earlier that day to look over, after he was silent on a one-year, $750,000 offer.

Dreim was found innocent of involvement of a scouter bribery scandal Oct. 18, but resigned mere hours before being exonerated, claiming his pride and ego had been badly bruised by the interrogations.  Many FF chefs breathed a sigh of relief at his resignation, having viewed him as a conceited and haughty chef will little to contribute, and many were infuriated when Feast Fest announced plans to attempt to re-sign him before Thanksgiving.

That unhappiness reached a boiling point Tuesday as 44 of 65 chefs signed a pact to engrave their displeasure in stone, and hopefully to throw off a movement to rehire Dreim which was initially murky but which has gained significant momentum in the past few days.  On Monday, one scouter said that he felt they were "days away" from reaching an agreement with Dreim.  "That's when we knew we had to take action," said Daniel Cheveneux, a lawyer representing the 44 chefs.  The five-page pact was written by Cheveneux and Feast Fest chefs Keith Wholehreh and Peter Dumas.

The pact was not signed by any of Feast Fest's seven "major" chefs--The Mason Duo, Jim McAllister, Lynn Avi, Joe Pasik, Jan Stephan, or Lisa Choi--for fear that doing so would cloud the air of impartiality they try to present because of being in the spotlight, regardless of how they may truly feel.  The most notable names of those who did sign included Daniel Mettling, Alexei Aiber, Laelech Crellas, Aleck Monde, Andruw Stephan, Guilliame Jacquetaine, Ivan Peterman, Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling, Jane Jockell, Thenoo Law, Wholehreh, and Dumas.  The most notable names, aside from the Big 7, who did not put their John Hancocks on the document included Janet Leaves, Jawroldy Jurrjens, Alan Rousswick, Ai Okoworth, or Lakeland Donavert, a close friend of Dreim's.

The statement attached to the pact alleged that Dreim had "threatened to have chefs fired or demoted" if they did not "paint anything but the most clean-cut, beautiful portraits of him" to executives, scouters, and the public.  The statement also said, in part, "Mr. Dreim is a person who is obsessed with his own personal standing and with elevating and forwarding it, without any regard for his colleagues and with such a deep obsession with it that he is willing to go to almost any length to achieve it.  For this reason, we feel that rehiring Dreim would deeply jeopardize the internal relations of Feast Fest chefs, that it would to an extreme degree polarize the currently strong and recently much improved relations between the chef body and scouters and executives, and that the action of bringing Dreim back to Feast Fest would be an unfair emotional and mental rollercoaster to foist upon the Feast Fest chef, especially when so many of them just two weeks ago breathed a huge collective sigh of relief upon learning of Mr. Dreim's resignation."  To avoid this from happening, the statement suggested that the Scouting Department "immediately close the case involving Stephen Dreim [e.g., Scouting Department of Feast Fest Events, Case Number 1046, Involvement of Mr. Stephen Dreim, Personal Case Number 0003, Negotiation of Calendar Year 2012 Number 0101, Opened the 19th of October, Year Two Thousand and Twelve, 07:32 PDT] and to promptly disband all communication with Mr. Dreim."

Stefanie MacOneguew, leader of the team of scouters tasked with rehiring Dreim, called the pact "a huge play at the plate" by the Feast Fest chefs.

"This is an enormous statement," McOneguew said.  "It's engraving in the recordbooks that this is a vital consideration to ponder when we move forward with negotiations with Mr. Dreim.  Previously, we were merely observant of the chef body's attitude toward Mr. Dreim.  Now, this is a legal statement proclaiming that swift and harsh action could be taken if the demands of the chef body are not put into serious and grave consideration."  She added, "We need to ensure the total contentment of all sixty-five individuals comprising the chef body at Feast Fest.  If rehiring Mr. Dreim will put into serious jeopardy that vital necessity, then we will need to either reapproach the stance we take in our negotiations or we will have to not negotiate with Mr. Dreim at all."  McOneguew summed the situation for she and her scouters up nicely: "It's going to make it hard for us to sleep tonight."

However, while McOneguew remains committed to seeing both sides of the conflict and ensuring both are sated, her own superior, Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Boston, called the pact "an egregious attempt and a terrible farce of a document."  Dall said that "nothing listed in this alleged 'document' has any truth in fact."  Dall acknowledged that the chefs were unhappy with the attempts to rehire Dreim, but he believes that the discontent comes from an entirely different source.  "The chefs are not unhappy with Dreim himself.  They are unhappy with the amount of money and the significant salary raise he is demanding.  And we understand.  He wants $200,000 more than he was slated to receive before he resigned.  How could they not be angered about that?"  However, Dall was swift to downplay the situation, saying that "if we can bring Stephen Dreim down to size and set up a viable agreement comparable to that which we had achieved with him before this ruckus presented itself, then the financial animosity surrounding Dreim will go away and he will be able to reintegrate himself into the chef body."

However, chefs quickly rebutted Dall's remarks.  As Peter Dumas commented, "Steve Dreim has been a scourge, a negative influence, on our chefs' body for years now.  He needs to finally get the message and hit the high road."  He admitted that chefs were lax on reporting Dreim's insolence previously, due to the threats he would make.  "I was scared of exposing the real Steve Dreim," Dumas said, "until today."

Dreim Says He'll "Contemplate" $764K, 2-Year Deal

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-After a $750,000, 1-year deal received no response from the embattled former chef Stephen Dreim, Tuesday morning Scouter Stefanie McOneguew and her team offered up a $764,000, 2-year deal instead, which Dreim promised to "contemplate."

After the $750K offer came and went without any word, on Monday night Dreim released a statement saying he wanted an offer that would have "at least $760,000" and which would be a multiyear deal, for three years at the least. FF scouters reached across the aisle on the one issue, but Dreim's reputation is on such rocky ground that Feast Fest wants to just patch up things for this Thanksgiving and go into in-depth negotiation in an offseason. This had led to the one-year only provision of the earlier offer, and made it such that scouters were unwilling to add more than one additional year to the revised offer, making for a $764K, 2-year deal. Dreim also wanted the offer to be staggered; Feast Fest said no to that.

"It's the best we can do for now," McOneguew said. "We can't give him everything he asks for. At this point, he might as well ask for a magical flying unicorn and it wouldn't be much more nonsensical than what he's demanding now. If Dreim wants to be rehired, he needs to realize that he has to meet in the middle someplace."

Dreim released a brief, emotionless five-word statement Tuesday: "I will contemplate this offer."







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Alakishi to Resign

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-2012 will be the last Feast Fest for Kiromi Alakishi, Feast fest was saddened to announce late Monday.

The Japanese master Alakishi will be leaving the event due to contractual disagreements and the fact that Alakishi's Feast Fest responsibilities "have been having adverse effects" on the running of his two culinary establishments, one in Osaka, and one in New York City.  Alakishi said he was "still loving but growing exhausted with" the fast-paced schedule for Feast Fest chefs, and said he would leave if negotiations didn't pan out for a 2013-and-beyond return.  Alakishi signed a $376,453 staggered three-year contract in 2010.  He makes $394,552 this year.  The contract expires January 4, 2013, the third anniversary of when it was originally signed.  Alakishi said Monday he would not come back to the bargaining table or try to respark negotiations with Feast Fest come January 5th.

"We will miss Kiromi deeply.  He was a phenomenal contribution to our event, and any chef who is a part of it will tell you that," so said Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Houston, Tex.

Choi Wins NCA's Most Fiery (With a Pan)

-New York
-Well, who'dja think was going to win it?

FFer Lisa Choi continued her absolute and total domination of the NCA's Most Fiery (With a Pan) award Tuesday, winning it for her eighth time.  Choi has now won in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.  And, fellow FF chef Lynn Avi, also noted for her "flare-ish" qualities, took home this honor in 2006 and 2008, meaning nobody other than Choi or Avi has won the Most Fiery trophy since 2002, a decade ago.  Oh, by the way, Avi was also second in this year's vote.

Choi swept away the competition as always, and by an even bigger margin this year.  In 2011, Choi had 73% of the vote, and Avi was second with 6%; this year, Choi washed over her fellow nominees with 86% of respondents marking her as the best chef with fiery and flaming foods in the NCA.  It's these superior qualities of Choi's that have her in line for a potential MVC at Feast Fest come Nov. 22; she's been simply monstrous (in a good way, of course!) at the exhibitions this year, and hasn't received an MVC since 2004, making her all but due.

"Very excited to hear about winning MFWAP yet again," Choi wrote in an email late Monday.  "There are so many other great culinary paragons deserving of this award, and the fact that this is the eighth time I have been honored with it makes me extremely grateful to the NCA for their consistent recognition of my culinary qualities."  And, she had a message to the NCA as well.  "Really! Give it to somebody else.  They deserve it, and, besides, I don't even know how on my shelf I'm going to make room for this one!"

Hurricane Sandy: Impacts on Feast Fest Are Lesser Than Expected: Pasik's Haul, Vandy-Dall-Ayeiy's Schedule to Remain Intact Tuesday

-Boston
-William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy were forced to strike Washington and Philadelphia from their itinerary of an 11-day, 30-city world tour Monday, courtesy of the fury of Hurricane Sandy. However, their Tuesday schedule, previously jeopardized, will remain intact, Vanderbilt announced late Monday, and Feast Fest chef's famed Halloween Haul cooking event, earlier slated to be cancelled to delayed, will take place on its originally scheduled Tuesday date, Pasik said.

"I think we really dodged a bullet here. I've been checking things around the Back Bay here and I think by this time tomorrow we'll be back to normal," Pasik said, speaking from Boston.

Vanderbilt, Dall, and Ayeiy scrubbed Philadelphia and Washington from Monday's agenda, maintaining a Chicago stop and rescheduling a Houston stop from Nov. 4 to Monday, for purposes of filling out the day. Tuesday's schedule, for Toronto, Montrèal, and Boston, where the threesome will attend Pasik's "Haul," was in limbo earlier Monday but will now remain intact. The three may add a twelfth day to their eleven day global recruiting and contract negotiation trek to make up for the lost capital and City of Brotherly Love stops.

Lynn Avi, speaking from Florida, said that flooding was not threatening and that damage was minimal in her Midtown Manhattan eatery. Johnny Stevenson, an FF chef based in Latrobe, Pa., said power went out and service stopped at his cafe, but otherwise there were no adverse effects. Jon Chu of Washington had less reassuring reports: high winds had caused a signpost to impale a poorly boarded window. Chi closed his restaurant early morning Monday, after breakfast service, just in front of Sandy.

"It's a huge storm," Stevenson said. "But I think, in a microcosmical sense, the effects this hurricane has on Feast Fest have been, thankfully, less so than what we anticipated."






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Florida Feast Sees Larger Turnout Thanks to FF Guest Chefs

-Weston, Fla.
-The struggling little culinary festival was a former powerhouse that had fallen hard on unfortunate economic times.

The annual Florida Feast in Weston, Fla. used to draw attendance in the thousands, all coming to sample gourmet foods from over one hundred countries. But economic cutbacks saddled the Labor Day weekend event, such that in 2011, a mere 700 people per day visited. "We thought we'd be shuttering extremely soon," said Micah Bulfoiszka, an event manager. Then came an intern.

As in, an intern who mistakenly forgot to renew the tented event's lease of a parking lot, delaying it from its usual date in 2012--and opening it up to a drop in from some of Feast Fest's top culinary masters.

The lease ballyhoo caused the three-day event to be moved to Oct. 27-29, and, with the Feast Fest chefs mere miles away in Punta Gorda for their final exhibition before Thanksgiving, well, a few decided to drop by.

Jim McAllister, Jan Stephan, Lynn Avi, Daniel Mettling, and Joe Pasik dropped in on Monday. Word leaked of their appearance, and attendance swelled to 5,000, the event's best in seven years. And the quintuple didn't ask any money of the event for appearing; they were just happy to help boost the faltering annual bash. "We need more events like this," McAllister said. "We need to keep them thriving, and we're glad we are able to help this one in any way."





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Scouters Put Up $750K Deal for Dreim

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Scouters have put up $750,000 in the latest contract deal for the controversy-mired chef Stephen Dreim in a vain and desperate attempt to rehire the haughty culinary master who may have alienated too many of his fellow chefs to be welcomed back warmly.

Dreim set an offer minimum of $750,000 Thursday, and it took all weekend long for Feast Fest to determine whether they wished to respond or to simply drop the matter.

Very late Sunday, following extensive deliberation, scouters decided to offer up a contract for exactly that amount. Never mind it's $197,000 more than he was originally scheduled to make, and never mind that in a recent poll 81% of chefs viewed Dreim negatively; the scouters seem intent on snaring him back.

The deal, however, is only for one year, so that scouters and Dreim could revisit the situation in the offseason. "We're just doing this to patch up the situation for this Thanksgiving," an unnamed scouter said.

Dreim has yet to comment.






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Avi Wins NCA's Most Determined

-New York
-Lynn Avi has won her second NCA's Most Determined honor, an NCA official who did not give her game because she claimed to be unauthorized to announce award winners, said very late Sunday.

Avi won this trophy in 2008, and Jim McAllister took it home in 2009 and 2011.

Speaking of McAllister, he placed second in voting, with 14% of the vote, to Avi's 16%. "I feel absolutely thrilled to be receiving 'Most Determined' yet again," she said via a web chat.

Jan Stephan placed eleventh in the survey, and Lisa Choi placed twenty-second.





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98.4 at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-It's 98.4 here in South Florida.

That's 0.4 less than the mark achieved at the final exhibition before Thanksgiving last year, but it leaves the chefs feeling plenty confident.

"Not precisely what we wanted," said Jim McAllister, a furrowing frown breaking splitsecondly through his smile. "We feel we're in a good place, but we'll have lots of ground to cover come Nov. 22...more so than last year."

In 2011, Feast Fest scored 98.8 at the Edelyn exhibition and then 99.0 on Thanksgiving.

"We want to top that 99," McAllister said.

Lisa Choi swept home the Most Valuable Chef award; she also got the MVC at the second Edelyn contest in 2011. "A real rocking performance we had here today," Choi said, elated and hoisting her gold-plated MVC trophy. "I'm excited."

William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy, visiting Punta Gorda and watching the exhibition as a stop on their 10-day, 31-city tour, said through a spokesperson that it was "astounding to see the beauty of the collaborative effort put forth by our chefs here in this exhibition to attain a spectacular 98.4 rating."

The points leaderboard here at Edelyn:
Choi - 41 & MVC
McAllister - 41
Avi - 38
Wholehreh - 37
Jahswheich - 34
Pasik - 34
J. Stephan - 33
Pierce-Mulleone - 31
Mettling - 31
Law - 29





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DigIn Bell Rings Prematurely at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Ca.
-Cooking has concluded here at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla., with a projected score of 97.0, though that could vary wildly once the critics actually chow down on the food. It looks a tad bleak here, though, as last year, the chefs rammed down 98.8 here at Edelyn.

Jim McAllister and Lisa Choi are tied at the top of the leaderboard with 41 points each.

"Feel positive about our outcome today, a bit worried about how the score will turn out. If we get something comparatively low, it might make it seem as if we have a higher mountain to scale on Nov. 22," said McAllister. "So we'll see."

Choi felt "exceedingly confident" about how the score would come out, and Joe Pasik labeled himself as "relieved, ebullient, but a tad concerned scorewise."

The score announcement is scheduled for approximately 8 p.m. E/5 p.m. P.






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After 3 Hours, 96.8

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-A large spike in scoring has brought the projected here at Edelyn to 96.8 with a half hour remaining.

Lisa Choi has overtaken Jim McAllister in points, with 39 to Jimmy's 37.

Third in points is Lynn Avi (33).




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After 2 1/2 Hours, 95.7

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-It's 95.7 here after 2 1/2 hours, meaning the FFers still have a smidgen of work to do to get the score here at Edelyn up to last year's standards, when they scored a 98.9.

Jim McAllister leads with 35 points; Lisa Choi is second with 33.

Next update: 7E/4P





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After an Hour, 88.3

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-After one hour of cooking here in Punta Gorda, Jim McAllister continues to lead in points with 17, with Lisa Choi second with 16.

The score, 88.3, is rapidly rising. A few snags, such as a burned turkey and spilled stuffing, have held the score at an hour back a little bit, but those little incidents were mostly in the first twenty to thirty minutes, and it now seems that the chefs have regrouped and recovered.

"Had a couple mishaps," said Thenoø Law. "Got to put 'em behind us and rocket on. 'Sall we can do."

Next update: 6E/3P





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Cooking at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-We're underway! The cooking portion bell rang at 3:54 E/12:54 P, and we're now cookin' at Edelyn!

Jim McAllister has had a strong start, as usual, already leading in points.

Next update: 5E/2P




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Minutes Away at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-We're now mere minutes away from the start if the official cooking portion here in Punta Gorda's Edelyn Cooking Arena. The official start time was pushed forward from 4pmE/1pmP to 3:50pmE/12:50pmP. All introductions and pre-ceremonies have concluded, so we are now just waiting for the bell to sound.

The 3 1/2-hour exhibition has a scheduled DigIn time of 7:30pmE/4:30pmP. So far, the stands here at Edelyn look good and full.




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Final List for Edelyn Released

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-The final list has been released for the exhibition here in Punta Gorda, which will start in about forty minutes.

The Mason Duo will again not be participating due to prior commitments--to make up for the fact that they will have missed the last two exhibitions, they have announced plans to schedule an unofficial mock exhibition with some of the Feast Fest chefs in Los Angeles "sometime in early November." Stephen Dreim also will not participate due to his continually mired negotiations with Feast Fest scouters.

We know now the names of five other chefs who will sit out the exhibition:

Cook
Okoworth
Allworth
Jurrjens
Anders

Jawroldy Jurrjens, who missed Monday's Morro Bay exhibition, will also miss this one as he continues to recover from a bout of mononucleosis.

Patti Allworth is also too sick to attend, and Peter Cook is staying behind to board up his Maryland home and establishment for the impending Hurricane Sandy.






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Vanderbilt-Dall-Ayeiy Arrive For Edelyn Exhibition

-Punta Gorda, CA
-The William Vanderbilt-Jim Dall-Arthur Ayeiy threesome has arrived here in Punta Gorda to take a break from their week-and-a-half-long, whirlwind recruiting and contract negotiation tour to settle back, relax, and watch the final Feast Fest exhibition.

"I'm extremely pumped for this final exhibition, one that will set the stage for the performance the chefs ram down on Thanksgiving," Vanderbilt said.

The three could be seen mingling on the floor with chefs pre-exhibition Sunday, and seemed to receive a very warm reception. Some worried about the reception Dall would receive; the Head Scouter is sometimes on iffy terms with chefs, and, during the last exhibition he attended, at Notes in April, chef Patrick Kermell told him to "buzz off" when he "pestered" him on the floor mere minutes before the start of the exhibition.

"That was a mistake," Dall admits now. "You can't be on the floor too close to the start bell, it can shake the chefs up, and I was that time."

The exhibition starts at 4 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Pacific.





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Edelyn Seems A Big Friend to McAllister, Choi, Mettling

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-As we approach the start bell for the final exhibition at Edelyn Cooking Arena here in Punta Gorda, it is intriguing to note the recent surges that three big name chefs have seen here.

Jim McAllister, Lisa Choi, and Daniel Settling never seem to flail here at Edelyn. McAllister's been in all but one exhibition here at Edelyn in the eleven years it's been used as an exhibitional site. Of 17 appearances here in this pyramidic cooking arena, he has placed in the top three in NCA points all but once and in the top two 14 times. He's been first in points 7 times at Edelyn and has won the Edelyn MVC five times. Choi has also benefited at Edelyn. Of 15 appearances, she's been in the top three 11 times and also has five MVCs from Punta Gorda. And Daniel Mettling, while a relatively new Feast Fest chef compared to McAllister and Choi, has had Edelyn been extremely kind to him in his five exhibitions here. He's been in the top three in points here thrice, and led in points and won the MVC here at Edelyn back in January.

Watch for these three Feast Fest chefs to have another big impact on the exhibition here today!




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Pasik, Avi, Stevenson, Aiber, Other FFers Board Up for Sandy

-Boston, MA
-Feast Fest's large concentration of chefs located up and down the Eastern Seaboard is boarding up and readying to close up shop for their restaurants as Hurricane Sandy threatens to pummel the region.

The powerful cyclone is projected to make landfall Tuesday along the Delaware and New Jersey coasts and then travel westward into Pennsylvania.  New York City would certainly get a big, if not direct, hit from Sandy, and Boston will most likely see adverse effects from the 800-mile-wide hurricane as well.

Alexei Aiber and Johnny Stevenson, both owners of eateries in Trenton, N.J. and Latrobe, Pa., respectively, were seen putting planks of wood across their establishments and closing Friday.  Lynn Avi's midtown Manhattan will close Sunday night, once the weekend rush is over.   The storm will begin coming into the area on Sunday and Monday, with the worst effects scheduled for Tuesday.

Here in Boston, Joe Pasik was wavering about what action to take when asked about his restaurant No.  He originally said that No would be closed and his annual Halloween Haul feast cancelled.  Now that Sandy is projected merely to graze Boston, instead of plowing headfirst into it as was expected yesterday, Pasik has some misgivings about cancelling the extremely popular annual event, especially since William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy are scheduled to be in attendance as part of their 11-day, 30-city world tour on which they are currently embarking.

But, that tour could be rerouted as well.  The threesome is supposed to stop in Washington, Philly, and Chicago on Monday and in Toronto, Montreal, and Boston on Tuesday, but that itinerary could be mangled if the storm interferes.

WiFF: The Week in Feast Fest: Saturday, October 27, 2012 - Friday, November 2, 2012

Important Feast Fest dates this week:

Saturday, 10/27  -  No unique activities scheduled.

Sunday, 10/28 - The final Feast Fest exhibition before the real thing will begin at 4 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Pacific at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla., with an expected DigIn time of 7:30 p.m. Eastern/4:30 p.m. Pacific.  The score of this last exhibition is usually a reliable predictor of the score the FF chefs drive home on Thanksgiving, so it'd better be a high one this year!

Monday, 10/29 - Jim McAllister, Ivan Peterman, and Jan Stephan are guest chefs at the Floridian Feast, Weston, Fla.  This event will be graced by Feast Fest chefs for the first time due to its proximity both on the map and the calendar to the final exhibition in Punta Gorda the day before.

Tuesday, 10/30 - Joe Pasik is scheduled to host his annual Halloween Haul cooking event at his Boston, Mass. restaurant with William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy in attendance, but with Hurricane Sandy scheduled to pummel the region on this day, these plans are likely to be cancelled or rescheduled.

Wednesday, 10/31 - *Happy Halloween!*  Vanderbilt, Dall, and Ayeiy will be in Paris to meet with Claudien Ainenl to sort out contractual disagreements.

Thursday, 11/1 - No unique activities scheduled.

Friday, 11/2 - No unique activities scheduled.

Birthdays!
10/30 - Alga Ross (scouter)
11/2 - Jarolde James (chef), Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling (chef)

Apologies - Error

Due to a technical error, entries intended to be posted Friday failed to be published.  Some of these entries will be posted Saturday.

Dreim Sets Offer Minimum, Obliterating Forward Pace of Talks

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Stephen Dreim has obliterated the progress of talks the haughty former FF chef was having with Feast Fest.

Dreim Thursday rejected a Wednesday offer of $631,221--$78,000 above what he would've made this Thanksgiving anyway if he hadn't resigned in a fit of rage and if Feast Fest hadn't tried to lure him back--and instead set a jawdropping offer minimum of $750,000.

That sum is not unheard of; Lynn Avi, Jim McAllister, and the Mason Duo make well over $900,000 each; however, it is a shocking minimum to set because it is $197,000 above what he was making before his resignation. Dreim's position is not lowly, but it is average, and scouters had thought that the $631K offer was "well above what we'd define as 'generous'," so said Scouter Stefanie McOneguew.

The average salary for an FF chef is $544,000, close to what Dreim used to make.

Dreim issued a statement along with the setting of the offer minimum, saying, in part, "I wish to reinstate my status as a part of the wonderful Feast Fest team, but I am setting this offer minimum because I feel I was cheated and violated by the scouters in the past. I feel the best way to remedy this strained relationship is to have me signed to Feast Fest with an ACCURATE amount of money that correlates to my talents."

"Mr. Dreim's comments are completely devoid of credence," said McOneguew of the statement. "His actions today constitute greed...pure greed...nothing other than."

Dreim, who already had a virulent response from his fellow chefs, had that reaction magnified upon his actions.

Before his setting of an offer minimum today, 44% of chefs held a negative view of Dreim, with 42% holding a positive view, 10% being neutral, and 4% refusing to say. But today, the "half love him, half hate him" trend for Dreim had shattered, with the percentage of chefs viewing him negatively swelling to 71%, with 27% viewing him positively, 1% being neutral, and 1% refusing to say.

"These are numbers which must be taken into account," McOneguew said. "We will continue negotiations, but the last thing we will agree to do is to give that chef all that money and then put him in a hostile environment where everyone will want him out anyway."

McOneguew was short and blunt to make her point: "I think these negotiations, now that Mr. Dreim has done this, will fizzle out quickly and severely, with little hope for realistic, collaborative revival."

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Correction

An article about the re-signing of Thenoø Law through 2013 and beyond incorrectly quoted Assistant Head Scouter Benjamin Leiften as Head Scouter Jim Dall.

In fact, Dall is in the middle of a worldwide contract negotiation and recruiting trip, and as such was unavailable for comment.




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Law, Scouters Come to Deal

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Thenoø Law is one signature away from extending his Feast Fest career for three years.

Law and scouters came to terms Wednesday with a staggered 3-year deal that will start in 2013 with the 15-year fixture receiving $501,336 (up from the $482,267 he'll receive this Thanksgiving), with 2014 pay between $505,000 and $508,000 and 2015 pay between $512,000 and $515,000 (with the exact amount for those years to be determined at a later date).

The deal should take Law through Feast Fest 2015.

"We have reached a preliminary agreement with Thenoø," said a pleased Scouting Department Head Jim Dall.

The claps and hugs and uncorking of champagne can't go around yet, though; because Feast Fest chefs cannot sign deals unless it is the offseason, and because the next offseason will not begin until after Thanksgiving, Law will have to wait until Dec. 3 to put his signature down and make the deal official.

"I'm happy, though," Law said, "because it's a very good deal and because now I know that all I need to do is sign the paper come December and then I can forget about it, have the work of it behind me, for the rest of the offseason."

In 2009, Law signed a four-year deal taking him through 2012. That deal expires after this year's Feast Fest next month.






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Vanderbilt, Dall, Ayeiy Set Off

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt, Head Scouter Jim Dall, and Executive Assistant and Vanderbilt Second-in-Command Arthur Ayeiy have left the Marina in the middle of Feast Fest Meeting & Conference Week for the start of a 30-city, 11-day global trek.

Vanderbilt ironically was not able to stay through the entirety of "Managerial Thursday", rather making a short 8 a.m. opening speech and a 10 a.m. commemoration of former chef Mei Okoworth before setting off with Jimmy and Arty.

The threesome was about an hour and a half of the way through a flight to Honolulu, their first stop, at 1:20 p.m. Thursday. They visit Honolulu only tonight before progressing to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagano and Manila on Friday, then catching a red-eye back to North America for business in Vancouver on Saturday.

"Very excited to go on this journey," Vanderbilt remarked. "We'll get to work on some important contracts with overseas chefs and scout out new ones that we can begin negotiations with when the offseason flares back up in December."

One of the biggest items on the menu will be an intense round of negotiations with France-based chef Claudien Ainenl, whom scouters have been attempting to sign to the event for well over a year, when Vandy, Dall, and Ayeiy park it in Paris Oct. 31.





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Correction

An article about Alexei Aiber winning the NCA's Best of the Rest Award falsely stated that he has won the honor seven times; he has only won it four times.

Rather, FELLOW FFer Thenoø Law has won the award seven times: in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, and 2010.



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Aiber Wins BotR Again

-New York
-For the third time in the last four years and for the seventh time in the last eleven years, Alexei Aiber, a longtime Feast Fest fixture, has won the NCA's "Best of the Rest" Most Overlooked/Underestimated Chef Award. The award honors a chef who puts in just as much effort or has just as much talent as his or her more famed, well-known colleagues, but who does not get recognized for his/her efforts often.

Aiber's 7th award in the category may be the last for him as a Feast Fest chef, however, depending on whether or not he exercises a 2013 option on his contract.

However, Aiber may soon be disqualified from the award because he has won it so many times that it has pulled him out of his obscurity and made him much more renowned and well-known than when he first received the honor.




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Leineken Calls Feast Fest "A Horrendous Employer" in Interview

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-You thought you'd seen the last of him, didn't you?

Well, you were wrong. Daved Leineken, the scouter who made huge waves about this time a year ago for accusations that he bribed former chef Brianna Galen-Ames and was subsequently fired, called Feast Fest "a horrendous...downright tyrannical employer" in an interview.

"We'd work hours and hours on end...with no breaks, the benefits were completely disproportionate to the workloads we were taking on."

In fact, Leineken now spends his days eating caviar and Godiva chocolates in front of a personal home movie theater thanks to the $51 million he made on commissions for signing a whole smorgasbord of now-superstar Feast Fest chefs in his 12 year career from 1999-2011: Galen-Ames, the Mason Duo, Lynn Avi, Joe Pasik, Jan Stephan, Andruw Stephan, Daniel Mettling, Danyela Harris, Laelech Crellas, Jon Chu, Petr and Andri Jones, Guilliame Jacquetaine, and many more. Of the 66 chefs in the event, Leineken signed or was part of a team of scouters which signed 32 of them--almost half. In 2010, Head Scouter Jim Dall announced Leineken as a potential successor to his position.

But the Galen-Ames matter, coupled with his reputation as a ruthless, greedy scouter, led to his fall from glory.

"There is no truth to the comments Mr. Leineken made" in a Feast Fest Press interview, Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt.

The interviewer himself, one Donald Virkenn, said he was "aghast at the falseness" of what Leineken was saying to him during the interview.





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Piscot To Sit Out at Edelyn

-Phoenix
-Arizonan Feast Fest newcomer Lillian Piscot will sit out the Edelyn Cooking Arena exhibition in Punta Gorda, Fla., on Sunday, due to a broken leg she suffered Monday.

Although the leg "should be healed sufficiently" for Feast Fest, the Edelyn exhibition is "a definite no" as she is still in the initial stages of recovery.

"We wish Piscot the best and the speediest recovery and hope she will be recovered in time for Feast Fest on Nov. 22," said Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt.





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Breakthrough in Dreim/FF Talks

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest gave in to Stephen Dreim's demands of a formal apology and $1,500 compensation in order to coax him back to the bargaining table Wednesday.

"We believed that Mr. Dreim's demands were unjust," admitted Scouter Phillip Alex, "but when Mr. Dreim held out and we were unable to get him to relent, we gave in to his demands in order to move along the constipated process of getting him re-signed."

Scouters presented Dreim with a $631,221, staggered 3-year deal, with Dreim receiving $631,221 this year and having his annual salary upped by $5,750 in the two successive years. The deal also includes a 2015 option.

The $631K-and-up deal is $87,000 above what Dreim was originally scheduled to receive this year.

"It's an effective raise to lure him back," Alex said.

However, a fellow Scouter, Stefanie McOneguew, remained her colleagues that the sentiment of the chef body as a whole towards Dreim "must be factored in toward our decision.". McOneguew noted that a significant portion of the chef body called Dreim haughty and conceited and said they were "relieved" at Dreim's resignation. "We are further studying Mr. Dreim's relations with fellow chefs throughout the years. If the claims of these chefs are largely true, we would reexamine Dreim." Because, as McOneguew said, "Those qualities are unacceptable among our chefs. We wouldn't hire the best chef in the world if he/she was belligerent to our chefs. Attitude and commitment come first, talent second."

Dreim has yet to respond to the new deal, but claimed to be "thankful" for the apology the event issued, saying that he and an agent were "reviewing the case and the recent offer received."





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EB unanimously rescinds "Halfgiving" Measure

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-A proposal to introduce a second Feast Fest per year that would have taken place in June and which surprisingly caught fire in the event's Organization Senate and was passed up to the Executive Board by a 26-24 vote was unanimously destroyed by that Board Tuesday.

The Executive Board, which includes Event Manager William Vanderbilt, Executive Assistants Arthur Ayeiy, Beryl Shady, and seven others, voted 10-0 against the proposal.

The proposal, after repeated attempts to introduce a second Feast Fest into November fizzled out due to logistical hurdles, called for a proposed second Fest to be positioned in June, halfway between two Thanksgivings, and to call it "the Halfgiving Feast Fest."

Shady called it "totally out of our event's spirit" and condemned it.




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Aiber, Scouters at Odds

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-As if the whirlwind of contract offers and panicked scouters swirling around Feast Fest tigress Lynn Avi's "1%" possibility of leaving before Thanksgiving 2013 weren't enough, scouters also struggled with contractual deals for Alexei Aiber.

Aiber's contract is not up yet, but it is at a critical hinging point. In 2008, Aiber was signed to a five-year deal with an option for 2013.

Now, the big question is whether Aiber will allow scouters to exercise that option. Aiber is a Feast Fest fixture (2012 will be his 15th Feast Fest) and a fan favorite, but the aging Aiber is considering "slowing down" and "caring for my ailing mother and my wife, who is battling MS." The comments sound uncannily similar to those of a fellow FF fixture and "Original 7" chef Marc Monde before he announced his choice to leave Feast Fest following the 2004 event.

Aiber says he "is 50/50" currently on whether he will leave or stay in 2013, but the scouters are pressing him hard to accept an offer. They slid toward Aiber a $21,447 bonus if he signs the option.

Aiber, however, says he won't be putting his John Hancock anywhere yet. "This is a decision I might not even make until next summer," Aiber said, and somewhat annoyingly added, "I think it's immature and unbusinesslike for the scouters to pressure me into making a decision so soon. Bonus or no bonus, I'll exercise the option only if it feels right."

Aiber refused a request from scouters to hold a private meeting between the two which would have been scheduled for Thursday morning.




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Avi Offers Elevated

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest tigress Lynn Avi had two additional offers thrown her way by Feast Fest Tuesday here in the middle of Fall Meeting & Conference Week.

Avi has been expressing "only an extremely slight consideration" toward dropping out of Feast Fest for 2013, as her contract expires, in order to return full-time to her restaurant Lala and also to potentially take up a television offer.  Avi has said, "I don't quite know how I'll juggle all three at once if I accept that TV offer.  I may not, but if it looks really appealing then I'd have to figure out how to make all three commitments work."  Although she says that "the probability of me leaving Feast Fest is only about 1%", these comments mortified scouters when they were released Sept. 7.  Thus, they rammed down two new contract offers on the heels of one issued Sunday night.

Avi, who will receive $887,463 this year, received a 5-year, $903,455-deal Sunday (all monetary figures are per-year figures, for example, $903,455 every year for five years, not $903,455 over five years).

Feast Fest followed up Tuesday afternoon by dishing out (no pun intended) $909,456, 6-year and, two hours later, $912,973, 5-year deals, the latter deal having options for both 2018 and 2019.

Avi has not yet formally responded to any of the offers,but she said Tuesday that "I don't want people to think that my lack of responses means I'm being greedy and waiting for the scouters to up the offer even more.  Rather, I'm carefully taking time to think all this over."

The two sides cannot officially make a deal until the offseason in December, but reaching an agreement now would mean "we'd just have to sign the papers in December and then it'd be done with," so said Head Scouter Jim Dall.

2013 Exhibition Schedule Released

The official schedule for the Feast Fest exhibitions for 2013 has been released, and, as expected, it includes the addition of a second international exhibition, and the first in Europe.

In October 2011, Lynn Avi signed a document saying she would agree to give up the annual exhibition at her restaurant Lala in 2013, in hopes of implementing European expansion. It is possible that the three Feast Fest chefs who currently hold exhibitions at their own restaurants--Avi, Jim McAllister, Joe Pasik, and (beginning in 2013) Daniel Mettling--would rotate relinquishing their own exhibition to conform with the European expansion. All of those four chefs say they agree with this plan.

The schedule is as follows:
*new venue
*Mon., Jan. 21 - The Dining Room, Yosemite, Ca.
Sun., Jan. 27 - Edelyn Cooking Arena, Punta Gorda, Fla.
Fri., Apr. 12 - Notes, Long Beach, Ca.
Tue., Jun. 4 - Myskvåard Cooking Arena, Zurich, Switzerland
Tue., Jul. 2 - Nø, Boston, Mass.
Sat., Aug. 31 - Kitchen Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
Mon., Oct. 28 - Edelyn Cooking Arena, Punta Gorda, Fla.
Sun., Nov. 3 - Windows on the Water, Morro Bay, Ca.

Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla. will keep its position as the only venue hosting two separate exhibitions, but it will no longer open and close the exhibitional season. Instead, Daniel Mettling's "The Dining Room" in Yosemite National Park will open the season, with Edelyn's first exhibition coming six days afterward.

In addition, Windows on the Water and Edelyn's second exhibition's traditional positions -- WotW in Morro Bay hosting the second-to-last exhibition and Edelyn in Florida hosting the last, a system used every consecutive year dating back to 2004 -- will be switcharooed, with Windows closing out the exhibitional season, on Nov. 3, for the first time ever.





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94.4 at WotW

-Morro Bay, Ca.
-The results are in, and the official score is 94.4 here at Windows on the Water in Morro Bay, with the turkey scoring a 93.8 for slight dryness.

"Not the best score we wanted to ram down," said a slightly defeated Jim McAllister.  "It's average.  We wanted something a little higher so we wouldn't have to face such a mountain at Edelyn."  McAllister's comments are apt: in the last 10 years, the final exhibition has always been within 1.5 percentage points of the actual Feast Fest score.

Still, 94.4 is a huge improvement on last year's 87.4 here at WotW.

The MVC went to Jan Stephan for his flawless taking on of the Head Sous-Chef position, into which he was forced after an injured Lynn Avi was demoted on the line of power to reduce her tasks and responsibilities and thus her chance of reinjury, and for his 73 NCA points.  McAllister led in points overall with 75.

All eyes were on Tony Ruscoso, the Italian-American Vermont-based newcomer chef who wanted to dispel rumors that he was only "experimenting" with his culinary career by joining Feast Fest and as such not taking the event seriously.  The rumors stemmed from a gaffe in which he used the aforementioned word, coupled with a surprisingly low $91,000 contract offer, which was upped to a $231,000 deal last week.

Ruscoso didn't shine like a toptier chef, but definitely turned in a quality performance, with 36 points, ranking 24th on the board out of 57 participating chefs.  "Ruscoso was a great addition," Avi commented.  Lisa Choi said that she believed Ruscoso was "a good find" and "a quality chef" who demonstrated his ability out on the floor here tonight "very well."

"He reminds me of Patrick and Wiley in his style," praised Peter Dumas, referring to Patrick Kermell and Wiley Anders, both Feast Fest fixtures.

573 were in attendance here at WotW, up from 251 last year.  The maximum capacity at WotW is 787.  The exhibition's coincidence with Monday Night Football, Game 7 of the NLCS, and a Presidential Debate, coupled with the exhibition's lateness (DigIn was not even sevred until 9:45 p.m.), helped to hold back attendance from its full potential and even led to a few people leaving midway through the Official Cooking Portion.

Speaking of the Debate, FF chef Pete Willis was somewhat criticized for wearing earbuds during a significant fraction of the Official Cooking Portion, which some believed distracted him from the task at hand.  It was discovered afterward that he had been listening to a livestream of the Obama/Romney debate.  Observers noted that Willis removed the earbuds about an hour and a half through the cooking, which is precisely when the debate ended.

When pressed for an explanation, Willis joked back: "I'm an undecided."

Cooking at WotW

-Morro Bay, CA
-The official cooking portion bell has rung! The starting projected NCA score is 50.0, and it is already rapidly rising.

Jan Stephan started things off quickly in the scoring, doing a double flip to get on the individual chef points scoreboard in the first minute.





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Minutes Away in Morro Bay

-Morro Bay, CA
-We're mere minutes away from the start of the official cooking portion here at Windows on the Water in Morro Bay, and everything looks good to go timewise.  The chefs have already been introduced, the anthem sung, and preparations are complete.  We're just waiting for the first turkey in the oven and for the cooking portion start bell to be officially rung.

The projected time of the exhibition is about 3 hours, 30 minutes.  FFers hope to up their score here at WotW from a paltry 89.0 showing here in 2011.

Avi Demoted on Line of Power for WotW Exhibition, Stephan to Serve as HSC

-Morro Bay, Ca.
-Jan Stephan will serve as Head Sous-Chef tonight at Windows on the Water in Morro Bay, as Lynn Avi has been demoted to the lowly seventh line of power.

The demotion is a temporary one for Avi's own safety.  Avi wanted to participate even after a severe ankle sprain she suffered after a slip-and-fall on Saturday.  It was uncertain how that would be accomplished, until now.

As one goes down on the lines of power, each descending line of power has less power and responsibility than the one above it.  Placing Avi on the lowest line of power will allow her to participate while reducing the amount of work she will have to conduct, which will hopefully ease any strain on her ankle.

Another key element of the relocation on the line of power is the fact that Avi's role of Head Sous-Chef requires much mobility due to one of its main facets of acting as a messenger role between the Head Chefs' Table and the chef body as a whole.  This requires much running and dashing around, which could further strain Avi's injury.

Avi sustained the injury after slipping and falling Saturday on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk.  "Just clumsy me being clumsy me," she joked of the injury earlier Monday.

Ruscoso Should Bring a Strong Performance

-Morro Bay, Ca.
-Tony Ruscoso, the Vermont-based Feast Fest newcomer, should have a breakout performance this evening at Windows on the Water in Morro Bay.

Ruscoso was signed in June, but he was held back from the Jul. 2 Boston exhibition due to work commitments (despite its proximity to Vermont), and illness kept him from participating in the next and most recent exhibition, Tokyo on Sept. 16.

Ruscoso's two failed attempts to participate in Feast Fest exhibitions made some wary, especially since there had been confusion during his contract negotiation process as to how long he planned to stay with the event, gaffing by using the word "experimentation" and making many think that Feast Fest was just a little fling that the American-born Italian chef at a Vermont mountain resort was unlikely to take seriously.

Ruscoso, however, wants to dispel those rumors.  "There have been some nasty things said," commented Ruscoso midday Monday.  "There have just been an unfortunate series of extenuating circumstances, wherein I gaffed once, and then there were two sets of extenuating circumstances which disallowed me from attending the first two exhibitions for which I was eligible for participation."  And the combination of those two, Ruscoso says, "led to me having a bad image, a bad reputation.  That's something I want to set straight, tonight, on that floor."

The first exhibition of a Feast Fest chef is critical in determining their performance levels.  One chef in 2007 never even saw Feast Fest that year because he performed too poorly in the exhibitions.  Alan Rousswick bumbled in three consecutive exhibitions and was fired three weeks before Thanksgiving.  (Rousswick, however, was rehired in 2009 and has performed flawlessly since.)

"I'll take it easy to get my feet wet, but I want to concentrate and make some sort of impression, something that will eliminate or at least chop down to size some of these scathing rumors questioning my commitment that have been swirling around."

Ruscoso says he has been personally wounded by the comments that he has no sense of commitment.  "I've been an avid follower of Feast Fest from its beginnings in the mid-1990s.  I know the commitment these chefs put into this event.  I want to prove to myself and to them that I can uphold such a commitment."

After all, he says, "it's one of the main reasons I joined."

Final List for WotW Released

-Morro Bay, Ca.
-The final list has been released for the exhibition here in Morro Bay, which will be starting in about one hour.

The Mason Duo will not be participating, as previously announced, and we now know the names of seven other chefs left out for personal needs, prior commitments, or other reasons:

Pasik
Chu
Wholehreh
J. Rousswick
Styler
Jurrjens
Dreim

It was believed that Stephen Dreim might not be able to participate here at WotW due to his resignation, but his name was kept on the list in hopes that FF would shake up a deal with Dreim in time for him to shoot up the 101 to here in Morro Bay.  However, Dreim and Feast Fest are still at odds, so he will not be participating.  (Note: Although Dreim has resigned, because Feast Fest is attempting to re-hire him, he is still being included in the chef count of 66.  That number will only be lowered to 65 if talks between the two sides break off and Dreim is not re-signed in time for this year's Feast Fest, which is only a month away on Nov. 22.)

In addition, Jawroldy Jurrjens was sidelined by a bout of mononucleosis, which could cause him to sit out Sunday's Edelyn exhibition as well, Jon Chu was detained by "a family crisis" involving "an aging aunt," and Joe Pasik is committed to attending a wedding of a cousin today.

Joan Styler, Jane Rousswick, and Keith Wholehreh had little to no explanations for their dropouts.  Ongoing pregnancy is one possible cause for Styler--although she gave no explanation this time around, pregnancy was the listed cause that kept her out of the Sept. 16 Tokyo exhibition.

Readying for WotW

-Morro Bay, Ca.
-Kicking off a huge week for Feast Fest, chefs have arrived here at Windows on the Water in San Luis Obispo County's Morro Bay, for the seventh of eight Feast Fest offswasin exhibitions. Less than a week from today, on Sunday, Feast Festers engage in the final exhibition before Feast Fest 2012 at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla.

But for now the focus is on WotW. Chefs want to avoid a repeat of a tarnished performance here in The Town by the Rock after scoring 87.5 overall and garnering a 79.0 turkey individual score. That exhibition was delayed twice due to water main breaks under the kitchen floor, and most of the exhibition--intended for a Saturday afternoon--took place late on a Sunday night.

FFers also wish to improve on their performance at their last exhibition, at Kitchen Stadium Japan in Tokyo on Sept. 16, which saw a lukewarm 90.9 overall score and a disappointing 85.7 turkey rating, primarily due to exceptionally dry birds that saddled Feast Fest's lone overseas exhibition for the second time in three tries (the 2010 Tokyo birds had those in attendance given samples of the turkey asking, "This is their traditional feast?").

The schedule for the evening is for the Official Cooking Portion, which is about half as long as that of the actual Feast Fest, to commence at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET and for DigIn to (hopefully) take place around 9:30 p.m. PT/12:30 a.m. ET.

Of this year's 66 chefs, 57 will be present. The Mason Duo will not be present due to a prior commitment. Because they will be gone, Jim McAllister will serve as sole head chef.




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Feast Fest Pre-Event Chefs Schedule 2012 RELEASED

The schedule has been released for what will occur once the Feast Fest chefs arrive in Marina del Rey for Feast Fest XVIII on Monday, November 12.  They'll be in the Marina continuously for two weeks straight.  Here's the breakdown:

Times are PST

Monday, November 12th
Feast Fest Chefs Arrive Throughout the Day
8:00p.m. -- Roll Call in the Grand Ballroom to Ensure All 66 Chefs have Arrived

Tuesday, November 13th
8:30a.m.-3:00p.m. -- Opening Deliberations in the Grand Ballroom
4:00p.m.-6:00p.m. -- Mock Practice #1

Wednesday, November 14th
10:00a.m.-12:00p.m. -- Practice: Kitchen Equipment Runthrough
1:00p.m.-3:00p.m. -- Practice: Flare Skills Runthrough
4:00p.m.-6:00p.m. -- Practice: Core Skills Runthrough
7:00p.m.-9:00p.m. -- Practice: Innovative Ideas Workshop

Thursday, November 15th
8:00a.m.-3:00p.m. -- Official Pre-Event Chefs-Scouters Meeting
5:00p.m.-7:00p.m. -- Practice: Core Skills Runthrough

Friday, November 16th
9:00a.m.-11:00a.m. -- Practice:Kitchen Equipment Runthrough
11:30a.m.-1:30p.m. -- Practice: Flare Skills Runthrough
2:30p.m.-4:30p.m. -- Innovative Ideas Workshop

Saturday, November 17th
10:00a.m.-11:00 a.m. -- Practice: Turkey Roasters Rundown
11:00a.m.-1:00p.m. -- Tribute to Chefs who Left During the Offseason
1:00p.m.-3:00p.m. -- Welcome to New Chefs who Joined During the Offseason
3:00p.m.-5:00p.m. -- (New Chefs Only) NEW CHEF ORIENTATION SESSION, ALL CHEFS WHO JOINED ON OR AFTER DECEMBER 1, 2011 MUST BE PRESENT

Sunday, November 18th
8:00a.m.-10:00a.m. -- Practice: Flare Skills Runthrough
10:00a.m.-1:00p.m. -- Feast Fest Football Party

Monday, November19th
8:00a.m.-10:00a.m. -- Practice: Flare Skills Runthrough
10:00a.m.-12:00p.m. -- Practice: Core Skills Runthrough
2:00p.m.-4:00p.m. -- Practice: Turkey Roasters Rundown
4:00p.m.-6:00p.m. -- Practice: Kitchen Equipment Runthrough

Tuesday, November 20th
9:00a.m.-12:01p.m. -- ANNUAL MOCK "DRESS REHEARSAL" PREPFEST
12:02p.m.-7:04p.m. -- ANNUAL MOCK "DRESS REHEARSAL" FEAST FEST -- ALL 66 CHEFS MUST BE PRESENT

Wednesday, November 21st
--Day of Rest for Feast Fest chefs--

Thursday, November 22nd
--FEAST FEST XVIII!--

Friday, November 23rd
--Day of Rest for Feast Fest chefs--

Saturday, November 24th
9:00p.m. -- Feast Fest Chefs After Party!

Sunday, November 25th
10:00a.m.-1:00p.m. -- Feast Fest Football Party

Monday, November 26th
7:00a.m.-1:00p.m.--Annual Closing Meeting and Closing Deliberations
1:00p.m.--Chefs leave Fest Fest

FF Moves Negotiations with First Offer to Avi

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Tigress Head Sous-Chef Lynn Avi could jump over Co-Head Chef Jim McAllister in salary terms in a latest offer made by Feast Fest scouters.

The offer was not to be publicly announced until Monday morning but was leaked Sunday evening by sources familiar with the situation.

Avi, who will enter her seventh Feast Fest this Thanksgiving, will rake in $887,463 this year, having cradles $884,372 last year. Avi's contract expires December 31 and must be renewed in the upcoming offseason, which begins in December. Re-signing the glamgirl Avi for 2013 and beyond will be one of Feast Fest's biggest priorities post-Nov. 22.

This is Avi's second contract renewal negotiation. Originally signed for a two-year, $733,000-deal in 2006, she renegotiated in 2008.

The current proposal is for a 5-year, $903,455 deal.



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A. Hulckackamp Cleared

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Adam Hulckackamp has been cleared as the possible fifth scouter who took a $25,000 bribe from Anah de Vri and Peter di Vris in order to get the Dutch duo an unauthorized $469,000 salary upping.

Hulckackamp had been under investigation as a possible still-unidentified fifth scouter, aside from four now-fired others.

Hulckackamp had been implicated earlier this week in the scandal, because a cousin of his, Stan, was one of the condemned four scouters.

However, an independent investigation found Adam Hulckackamp wholly innocent. Hulckackamp claims to have had "no knowledge" of the incident before it was exposed earlier this month, saying he was "shocked and appalled" when he learned that his cousin was involved.





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Vanderbilt Wins Managerial Award

The NCA's Managerial Award, given to the best manager of a restaurant, culinary institution, school, or event, went to William Vanderbilt for the second straight year Sunday.

Vanderbilt's fifth nomination led to his second victory in the category, with an outstandingly unanimous 1,533 votes, more than half of all those cast. 103 people were nominated.

"I am so touched and deeply moved to have been honored in this manner yet again," he said, emotionally stricken, at a press conference late Sunday.

"We are elated," Arthur Ayeiy, Vanderbilt's second-in-command, said when asked to describe the feelings of the FF chefs and other staff upon the announcement.

When he won this honor in 2011, some chefs disapproved and even booed at the announcement. This was because Vanderbilt's approval ratings among chefs had dipped sharply the week before the announcement due to his perceived support of reviled former chef Brianna Galen-Ames. However, there seemed to be no such dissension at Vandy's cradling of the award this time around.

Henry Lilton, manager of the New York Thanksgiving Spectacular, the largest Thanksgiving event similar to Feast Fest, placed fifth in the voting. Lilton's "Spectacular" has 34 chefs, about half of the amount Feast Fest has.





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