-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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The NCA Feast Fest lives here
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012
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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-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.
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.
-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.
-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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-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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-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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-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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-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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-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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