Friday, November 4, 2011
The Week in Feast Fest: Friday, November 4, 2011 - Thursday, November 10, 2011
Friday, 11/4 - The FF Scouting Department will release the Official Results Report of the Scouting Summit in Montreal Nov. 1-2.
Saturday, 11/5 - No unique activities scheduled.
Sunday, 11/6 - No unique activities scheduled.
Monday, 11/7 - Daved Leineken, the Scouter accused of bribing Brianna Galen-Ames, will face Feast Fest Events, Inc. in court in an unfair dismissal suit.
Tuesday, 11/8 - A meeting will be held among FF executive officials regarding possible expansion of the event in 2012 and 2013.
Wednesday, 11/9 - Writers' Wednesday: First drafts of the 2011 Feast Fest souvenir program and guest's guide will be released.
Thursday, 11/10 - Brianna Galen-Ames will have remarks of about an hour via webcam from her central Illinois home to address the controversy surrounding her potential return as well as her recent accusations of accepting bribes and contractual indecency.
Birthdays!
11/9 - William Vanderbilt (Manager of Feast Fest and the Beachview Resort)
11/10 - Aleck Monde (chef)
Next WiFF - Friday, November 11, 2011 - Thursday, November 17, 2011
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Thursday, November 3, 2011
Mason Duo, McAllister, Held Back from Practice
-The Mason Duo and Jim McAllister did not show up at a practice for Feast Fest at the Beachview Thursday in which all major chefs were wished to be present after some prominent chefs missed recent exhibition.
However, the Mason could not make it "due to feeling under the weather" and McAllister claimed he had "pressing familial issues."
"We assure everyone, the Masons and I are not trying to shirk our FF responsibilities. We just keep getting slammed with unfortunate circumstances."
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Maintenance
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Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Ainenl, Galen-Ames, Scouters, Still at Stalemate
-On the final day of a Scouting Summit here in Montreal, it is looking less likely that Claudien Ainenl and Brianna Galen-Ames may join and rejoin, respectively, than it did before the Summit began.
Ainenl lowered his contract demand to $700,000, but still would not budge any further than that. "He can switch from stubborn to flexible and back in a matter of minutes," said Head Scouter Jim Dall.
Brianna Galen-Ames, participating via webcam due to a broken ankle, still is pressing hard for the maximum potential contract offer to be raised from $1.5 million to $2 million.
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Talks with Ainenl Shudder to Halt
-Talks with Parisian master Claudien Ainenl at the Scouting Summit in Montreal in attempts to add him to the Feast Fest team in 2012 have come to a shuddering halt, Head Scouter Jim Dall says.
Dall reports that Ainenl will settle for no more than $800,000. FFers had prepared for Ainenl a $550,000 contract to present to him upon the beginning of the next offseason in December.
"Ainenl had given us the impression that he was willing to come to the table and be flexible with his pay amounts," commented Dall. "We weren't prepared for a demand of $800,000. It hit us like a ton of bricks."
Dall said that top-tier chefs such as Lynn Avi, Jim McAllister, and the Mason Duo rake in anywhere from $750,000-$900,000 a year for their participation at Feast Fest, but, "due to his commitments to his restaurant, we assumed he would have less time to practice Americana styles for Feast Fest. Because of this, we placed him in our minds on a lower line of power than a top-tier chef. And, although Ainenl accepted this and did not demand his position with the event be raised, he is demanding a salary amount wherein we would have to give him a higher position to meet his demands."
"We're sort of at a stalemate right now."
Brianna Galen-Ames' negotiations have also fallen apart, as she is unsuccessfully trying to worm her way through the lawbooks of the event to raise the maximum salary from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000.
Dall says, "We just raised the maximum amount from 1 million to 1.5 million a couple weeks ago. We've been through that whole rigmarole. We're not ready to jump back into that again, not this soon."
Ainenl and Scouters Meet for Summit
-Scouters and Claudien Ainenl are meeting and Brianna Galen-Ames is participating via webcam here at the first day of a two day scouting summit in Montreal.
The summit could be groundbreaking, as it could potentially result in adding Ainenl's talents to Feast Fest 2012, and it could make or break the possibilities to re-add former FF chef Brianna Galen-Ames to the event.
"Our negotiations with Ainenl have gone very well so far. We seem to be in agreement on most of the most vital contractual facets and details," said Head Scouter Jim Dall. "We are also participating with Brianna Galen-Ames by webcam and we are finding contractual agreements with her as well, but we need to discuss with her a way to make sure she gets accepted should she be re-signed, because she was treated pretty badly by some of the chefs."
And as a matter of fact, it was her unpopularity with the chef body that is preventing her from attending the summit in person. She slipped on a wax floor after being forced out of a conference room by her former fellow chefs Oct. 20, and she ended up breaking her ankle.
Galen-Ames Confirms Webcam Participation
-Brianna Galen-Ames has confirmed she will participate via webcam at the Scouting Summit Tuesday and Wednesday in Montreal.
She must participate via webcam from her Illinois home due to the broken ankle she suffered Oct. 20 when she was forced out of a conference room by an angry crowd and slipped on a wax floor.
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