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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