-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."
-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."