Feast Fest Will Pay For Medvalaev Translator

-St. Petersburg, Russia
-Feast Fest will pick up the tab for a translator for the event's first ever non-English speaking chef following a lengthy dispute, it was determined Tuesday.

The $14,208 may seem like chump change to both Feast Fest and the chef, Konstaatyn Medvalaev, who signed a surprisingly high $634,142 entry-level deal in June. Medvalaev head chefs the most prominent five star restaurant in St. Petersburg, and was a highly sought addition. "Konstaatyn will be a great add-on that will help us get that much closer to the 100 NCA score that eludes us," Head Scouter Jim Dall said at the time.

But a controversy quickly arose over who would pay for a translator to come to Feast Fest as well as exhibitions, the first of which Medvalaev will appear at in October. Plans to have him appear at the Kitchen Stadium exhibition Sept. 5 in Tokyo were stymied by the dispute.

Although Feast Fest recruits culinary talent from throughout the world, and though Medvalaev is the event's 22nd European chef, he's the first to have not at least a rudimentary knowledge of English. It's expected he should pick up the language after a couple years with the event (he signed his deal through 2017), but it became clear during negotiations that he would need a translator in order to perform accurately on the floor. The same translator who helped him through the negotiating process has agreed to accompany Medvalaev to Feast Fest, but announced a $14,208 price tag that Medvalaev's camp refused to pay. Medvalaev's agent pointed to a part of his contract that stated that Feast Fest would be responsible for providing "rudimentary services" that include room, board, medical care, and other travel expenses, but it had to go to the Executive Board to determine whether a translator fell under the umbrella of "rudimentary services."

The Executive Board then voted 6-4 Tuesday that "rudimentary services" included basic translation, and ordered monetary officials and record keepers to list the $14,208 as a Feast Fest expense for 2014.

Analyst Mike Vilshire said, although neither the Executive Board nor Medvalaev would confirm, that Medvalaev's camp was prepared to take legal action over the funds. "They didn't want to get dragged into court and risk alienating their prized offseason acquisition less than two months before the big day, so they said, 'Aw, heck with it, let's just pay it for now.'" But, Vilshire said, "I think they're paying it graciously to placate Medvalaev. I think this issue will come up again, in greater ferocity, next offseason."

FF Wire Service