-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."
-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."
