Monde Confirms in Interview He Threw Up, Had Panic Attack in Hotel Room in 2011 Before First Exhibition

-New York

-Aleck Monde has confirmed in the November issue of Competitive Cooking Monthly that he did indeed have a panic attack and throw up late in the night in his Punta Gorda, Fla. hotel room on October 31, 2011, hours before his Feast Fest debut at the annual Edelyn Cooking Arena exhibition.  Monde is the son of 1995-2004 Feast Fest fixture Marc Monde, and it was believed that the prospect of having to live up to expectations from other chefs that he would perform exactly like his father provoked the attack; the story went that he was heard mumbling, "They want me to be Dad.  I can't do this."

Monde, now a fixture at the event, told Yvette Bridges of Competitive Cooking Monthly: "Rumors swirled that I'd had this massive panic attack, was running around the hotel room at two in the morning pacing and saying, 'I can't do this, I can't do this,' and I denied those rumors at the time because I wanted to seem strong and I didn't want to let anyone in on any vulnerabilities, but now that I know my place here and now that I'm accepted for who I am and not just because of who my father is, I feel I can disclose that those rumors were true.  I did have a panic attack.  I did throw up.  I did pace around saying things to that effect.   I suppose it woke up the person in the next room and they complained."

The occupant of the next room placed a call to the front desk about 2:45 a.m. Oct. 31, 2011, complaining that her neighbor was retching, pacing, and mumbling things to himself.  The hotel maintained a record of the complaint.  The guest apparently wondered if the hotel should call police or an ambulance.  A hotel worker knocked on Monde's door at around 3:15 a.m. to find him lying in bed quietly, and Monde said he had had a panic attack but was feeling fine at that point, details Monde corroborated in the magazine interview.  The worker asked if Monde wanted medical attention and Monde declined.  Monde checked out of the hotel the next morning at 11 a.m., and there were no further reports of any incidents during Monde's stay.

"I didn't sleep at all that night, but after the manager came up and said someone complained, I just lay quietly," Monde said.

Monde admitted the incident was not unusual for him, saying he often has stomach issues when anxious.  

Co-Head Chef Jim McAllister, who has thrown up a couple times prior to major competitions, came to Monde's defense, saying in response to the interview, "We go through a lot of stress, a lot of nerves.  These things happen.  We shouldn't be judged for them."

FF Wire Service

Yiivitimaev, Olschmeire Both Signed Before Friday Night Deadline

-Marina del Rey, Calif.
-Feast Fest announced at 11:30 p.m. Saturday that they had successfully signed Ondrej Yiivititimaev and Kevin Olschmeire for 2014 before Friday night's 11:59 p.m. deadline a day earlier.

The Scouting Department was following policy that states a 24 hour waiting period must elapse before a signing is publicly announced.   Yiivititimaev was signed at 11:24 p.m. Friday, and Olschmeire was signed six minutes later.  The signings were announced jointly as scouters had been working with both chefs late into Friday night to get deals worked out.   The Scouting Offseason officially ended at 11:59 p.m. Friday night; Feast Fest still could've signed them afterward, but they wouldn't have been eligible to participate until November 2015. 

Head Scouter Jim Dall called the dual signings "a fantastic note with which to end our ten months of arduous work."

Yiivititimaev and Olschmeire become the eighth and ninth chefs signed to Feast Fest this offseason.  Four chefs left or resigned, making for a net gain of five chefs and a total roll call of 72 for Thanksgiving, the first time the event has cracked seventy chefs.

Olschmeire's signing was conducted "pleasantly," Dall said, with minimal arguments or rebuttals.  Olschmeire signed a $196,045, two-year contract for the eighth line of power, staggered in 2015 for $199,874 and a potential promotion to the seventh line.

Yiivititimaev, the more prized of the two chefs, held out more along with his persistent agent.  Negotiations nearly came to a halt over how to divide travel expenses, which will be heftier for the Russian-based Yiivititimaev than they are for most American chefs.  Feast Fest insisted that Yiivititimaev's camp pay 45% of the travel expenses, instead of Yiivititimaev's proposed 40%, and the two sides compromised by giving Yiivititimaev a $482,000 contract, the highest amount Feast Fest was willing to fork over.  The Russian will start out on the fifth line of power and is signed on a two-year deal through Feast Fest 2015.  He will receive anywhere from $482,000 to $496,000 in 2015; those details will be sorted out, and the travel expenses revisited, in December.  "This was about getting Ondrej signed for this November, and we have that done now.  He's happy, we're happy," Dall said.  "We have both agreed to return to the little details after Thanksgiving and to fine-tune this contract in a way that will make him eligible for many future years here."

Both Yiivititimaev and Olschmeire were declared rostered and eligible for the Oct. 26 cooking exhibition in Punta Gorda, Fla.