Expert Commentator MIKE VILSHIRE
from Morro Bay, Calif.
-His is a commanding figure. He gathered the chefs Monday morning before they were to leave Morro Bay to rally their spirits after two botched exhibitions that have the FF chefs staggering into Thanksgiving fresh off of scores of 90.9 and 93.2.
He did not ask to be a leader, and he does not want to be a leader. But he is an orator. "We can't hang ourselves up on numbers!" he piped, staunchly decrying increased iterations Sunday night of the statistic that the score in the final exhibition has fallen within 1.0 of the actual Feast Fest score for the past seven years, and that no Feast Fest has fallen as low as Sunday's Morro mark of 93.2 since 2003. "Who says that trend will continue to an eighth year?" he asks. "I don't! If it happens, it's because we had our heads down and we let it come and happen! The same reason we botched this one! Mental association! You all thought we'd choke, and you let us choke! That can't be anybody's mindset! Focus always on the future, never dwell on the past!"
The uplifting speech Monday morning was delivered by the fiery newbie, Muskegon, Mich.-based Eric NacGnissecorp. NacGnissecorp is level-headed, affable, and easily delighted--except when you mention his name. "Don't slur it and make it sound like MacGnissecorp, people! It's an 'N,' not an 'M'!"
The hierarchical structure of Feast Fest usually makes it tough for newbies to break through significantly in any way in their first year. But here NacGnissecorp was Monday, making a rally-the-troops-esque speech usually reserved for the Mason Duo, Jumpin' Jimmy, or Lynn Avi.
"I knew coming into this that Feast Fest had their hierarchical setup, and I didn't care for one minute." While he says he nothing but the utmost expect for his superior chefs, he says he feels that "all of us can influence this event in just a big way as those up at the Head Chefs' table."
And NacGnissecorp has shown that on the kitchen floor through all but two exhibitions this offseason, having been signed on Mar. 7 to a 1 year, $99,534 deal. NacGnissecorp is the co-head chef at the only four-star European restaurant in Western Michigan, in nearby Grand Rapids. And his journey from literal unknown to Feast Fest wunderkind has truly been enthralling to watch. He wasn't even on the Feast Fest Scouting Department's list of 200 potential new chefs to sign (out of which only 6 were, keep in mind). It was the first time since 2006 that the Scouting Department took a risk by signing a chef not on their 200-list. (Appropriately, that chef was Lynn Avi, who also took Feast Fest by storm.)
Although his performance quieted, as did everybody's, in the two most recent exhibitions, with 18 NCA points at Edelyn and 14 in Morro, NacGnissecorp skyrocketed into the spotlight at the exhibition in June in Zurich, Switzerland, when he placed second with 56 points, just below Jan Stephan's 58. Stephan won the MVC honor in Zurich, but he's gotten so many and NacGnissecorp's rise was so unexpected that really the trophy ought to have gone to NacGnissecorp--and it did, unofficially. Stephan had the MVC trophy reading "Zurich Exhibition 2013" mailed to NacGnissecorp, calling him "the real reason" they had an exemplary 98.8 performance there.
Many believed he was just an anomaly. But in Boston in July, at Joe Pasik's Back Bay eatery, he did it again, this time tying for first with Daniel Mettling and garnering 57 NCA points. Neither Mettling nor NacGnissecorp got the MVC that time, however, as it is not all about points; rather, it went to an emotional Ronald Lays, who put 49 points on the leaderboard in his first appearance since Thanksgiving, having won a battle with skin cancer mere weeks earlier.
But NacGnissecorp's influence cannot be understated. "He's fast on the floor, and he has a bright personality all throughout," Jim McAllister says. "He's a great new addition to have."
And it perhaps makes sense why NacGnissecorp was the one to uplift the chefs after their lackluster performance Sunday. "The vets like Jim and Joe and the Mason Duo all know the patterns and nuances of the event, and that gets them down because they think of all the other times that a bad score in the final exhibition has led to a final score on Thanksgiving. They lack the capacity to think that it could be otherwise. But I'm this new, naive, fresh face, so I get to say, 'To heck with the numbers! We can still get 99 anyway!' And I'm certain we'll at the least come extremely close."
NacGnissecorp also says he just doesn't like a room full of long faces. "I could tell everyone needed a pick-me-up, myself included," he admitted, "so I tried to be the one to give it."
And we'll see soon just how well he took to that task.
FF Wire Service
from Morro Bay, Calif.
-His is a commanding figure. He gathered the chefs Monday morning before they were to leave Morro Bay to rally their spirits after two botched exhibitions that have the FF chefs staggering into Thanksgiving fresh off of scores of 90.9 and 93.2.
He did not ask to be a leader, and he does not want to be a leader. But he is an orator. "We can't hang ourselves up on numbers!" he piped, staunchly decrying increased iterations Sunday night of the statistic that the score in the final exhibition has fallen within 1.0 of the actual Feast Fest score for the past seven years, and that no Feast Fest has fallen as low as Sunday's Morro mark of 93.2 since 2003. "Who says that trend will continue to an eighth year?" he asks. "I don't! If it happens, it's because we had our heads down and we let it come and happen! The same reason we botched this one! Mental association! You all thought we'd choke, and you let us choke! That can't be anybody's mindset! Focus always on the future, never dwell on the past!"
The uplifting speech Monday morning was delivered by the fiery newbie, Muskegon, Mich.-based Eric NacGnissecorp. NacGnissecorp is level-headed, affable, and easily delighted--except when you mention his name. "Don't slur it and make it sound like MacGnissecorp, people! It's an 'N,' not an 'M'!"
The hierarchical structure of Feast Fest usually makes it tough for newbies to break through significantly in any way in their first year. But here NacGnissecorp was Monday, making a rally-the-troops-esque speech usually reserved for the Mason Duo, Jumpin' Jimmy, or Lynn Avi.
"I knew coming into this that Feast Fest had their hierarchical setup, and I didn't care for one minute." While he says he nothing but the utmost expect for his superior chefs, he says he feels that "all of us can influence this event in just a big way as those up at the Head Chefs' table."
And NacGnissecorp has shown that on the kitchen floor through all but two exhibitions this offseason, having been signed on Mar. 7 to a 1 year, $99,534 deal. NacGnissecorp is the co-head chef at the only four-star European restaurant in Western Michigan, in nearby Grand Rapids. And his journey from literal unknown to Feast Fest wunderkind has truly been enthralling to watch. He wasn't even on the Feast Fest Scouting Department's list of 200 potential new chefs to sign (out of which only 6 were, keep in mind). It was the first time since 2006 that the Scouting Department took a risk by signing a chef not on their 200-list. (Appropriately, that chef was Lynn Avi, who also took Feast Fest by storm.)
Although his performance quieted, as did everybody's, in the two most recent exhibitions, with 18 NCA points at Edelyn and 14 in Morro, NacGnissecorp skyrocketed into the spotlight at the exhibition in June in Zurich, Switzerland, when he placed second with 56 points, just below Jan Stephan's 58. Stephan won the MVC honor in Zurich, but he's gotten so many and NacGnissecorp's rise was so unexpected that really the trophy ought to have gone to NacGnissecorp--and it did, unofficially. Stephan had the MVC trophy reading "Zurich Exhibition 2013" mailed to NacGnissecorp, calling him "the real reason" they had an exemplary 98.8 performance there.
Many believed he was just an anomaly. But in Boston in July, at Joe Pasik's Back Bay eatery, he did it again, this time tying for first with Daniel Mettling and garnering 57 NCA points. Neither Mettling nor NacGnissecorp got the MVC that time, however, as it is not all about points; rather, it went to an emotional Ronald Lays, who put 49 points on the leaderboard in his first appearance since Thanksgiving, having won a battle with skin cancer mere weeks earlier.
But NacGnissecorp's influence cannot be understated. "He's fast on the floor, and he has a bright personality all throughout," Jim McAllister says. "He's a great new addition to have."
And it perhaps makes sense why NacGnissecorp was the one to uplift the chefs after their lackluster performance Sunday. "The vets like Jim and Joe and the Mason Duo all know the patterns and nuances of the event, and that gets them down because they think of all the other times that a bad score in the final exhibition has led to a final score on Thanksgiving. They lack the capacity to think that it could be otherwise. But I'm this new, naive, fresh face, so I get to say, 'To heck with the numbers! We can still get 99 anyway!' And I'm certain we'll at the least come extremely close."
NacGnissecorp also says he just doesn't like a room full of long faces. "I could tell everyone needed a pick-me-up, myself included," he admitted, "so I tried to be the one to give it."
And we'll see soon just how well he took to that task.
FF Wire Service
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