Alakishi to Resign

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-2012 will be the last Feast Fest for Kiromi Alakishi, Feast fest was saddened to announce late Monday.

The Japanese master Alakishi will be leaving the event due to contractual disagreements and the fact that Alakishi's Feast Fest responsibilities "have been having adverse effects" on the running of his two culinary establishments, one in Osaka, and one in New York City.  Alakishi said he was "still loving but growing exhausted with" the fast-paced schedule for Feast Fest chefs, and said he would leave if negotiations didn't pan out for a 2013-and-beyond return.  Alakishi signed a $376,453 staggered three-year contract in 2010.  He makes $394,552 this year.  The contract expires January 4, 2013, the third anniversary of when it was originally signed.  Alakishi said Monday he would not come back to the bargaining table or try to respark negotiations with Feast Fest come January 5th.

"We will miss Kiromi deeply.  He was a phenomenal contribution to our event, and any chef who is a part of it will tell you that," so said Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Houston, Tex.

Choi Wins NCA's Most Fiery (With a Pan)

-New York
-Well, who'dja think was going to win it?

FFer Lisa Choi continued her absolute and total domination of the NCA's Most Fiery (With a Pan) award Tuesday, winning it for her eighth time.  Choi has now won in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.  And, fellow FF chef Lynn Avi, also noted for her "flare-ish" qualities, took home this honor in 2006 and 2008, meaning nobody other than Choi or Avi has won the Most Fiery trophy since 2002, a decade ago.  Oh, by the way, Avi was also second in this year's vote.

Choi swept away the competition as always, and by an even bigger margin this year.  In 2011, Choi had 73% of the vote, and Avi was second with 6%; this year, Choi washed over her fellow nominees with 86% of respondents marking her as the best chef with fiery and flaming foods in the NCA.  It's these superior qualities of Choi's that have her in line for a potential MVC at Feast Fest come Nov. 22; she's been simply monstrous (in a good way, of course!) at the exhibitions this year, and hasn't received an MVC since 2004, making her all but due.

"Very excited to hear about winning MFWAP yet again," Choi wrote in an email late Monday.  "There are so many other great culinary paragons deserving of this award, and the fact that this is the eighth time I have been honored with it makes me extremely grateful to the NCA for their consistent recognition of my culinary qualities."  And, she had a message to the NCA as well.  "Really! Give it to somebody else.  They deserve it, and, besides, I don't even know how on my shelf I'm going to make room for this one!"

Hurricane Sandy: Impacts on Feast Fest Are Lesser Than Expected: Pasik's Haul, Vandy-Dall-Ayeiy's Schedule to Remain Intact Tuesday

-Boston
-William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy were forced to strike Washington and Philadelphia from their itinerary of an 11-day, 30-city world tour Monday, courtesy of the fury of Hurricane Sandy. However, their Tuesday schedule, previously jeopardized, will remain intact, Vanderbilt announced late Monday, and Feast Fest chef's famed Halloween Haul cooking event, earlier slated to be cancelled to delayed, will take place on its originally scheduled Tuesday date, Pasik said.

"I think we really dodged a bullet here. I've been checking things around the Back Bay here and I think by this time tomorrow we'll be back to normal," Pasik said, speaking from Boston.

Vanderbilt, Dall, and Ayeiy scrubbed Philadelphia and Washington from Monday's agenda, maintaining a Chicago stop and rescheduling a Houston stop from Nov. 4 to Monday, for purposes of filling out the day. Tuesday's schedule, for Toronto, Montrèal, and Boston, where the threesome will attend Pasik's "Haul," was in limbo earlier Monday but will now remain intact. The three may add a twelfth day to their eleven day global recruiting and contract negotiation trek to make up for the lost capital and City of Brotherly Love stops.

Lynn Avi, speaking from Florida, said that flooding was not threatening and that damage was minimal in her Midtown Manhattan eatery. Johnny Stevenson, an FF chef based in Latrobe, Pa., said power went out and service stopped at his cafe, but otherwise there were no adverse effects. Jon Chu of Washington had less reassuring reports: high winds had caused a signpost to impale a poorly boarded window. Chi closed his restaurant early morning Monday, after breakfast service, just in front of Sandy.

"It's a huge storm," Stevenson said. "But I think, in a microcosmical sense, the effects this hurricane has on Feast Fest have been, thankfully, less so than what we anticipated."






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Florida Feast Sees Larger Turnout Thanks to FF Guest Chefs

-Weston, Fla.
-The struggling little culinary festival was a former powerhouse that had fallen hard on unfortunate economic times.

The annual Florida Feast in Weston, Fla. used to draw attendance in the thousands, all coming to sample gourmet foods from over one hundred countries. But economic cutbacks saddled the Labor Day weekend event, such that in 2011, a mere 700 people per day visited. "We thought we'd be shuttering extremely soon," said Micah Bulfoiszka, an event manager. Then came an intern.

As in, an intern who mistakenly forgot to renew the tented event's lease of a parking lot, delaying it from its usual date in 2012--and opening it up to a drop in from some of Feast Fest's top culinary masters.

The lease ballyhoo caused the three-day event to be moved to Oct. 27-29, and, with the Feast Fest chefs mere miles away in Punta Gorda for their final exhibition before Thanksgiving, well, a few decided to drop by.

Jim McAllister, Jan Stephan, Lynn Avi, Daniel Mettling, and Joe Pasik dropped in on Monday. Word leaked of their appearance, and attendance swelled to 5,000, the event's best in seven years. And the quintuple didn't ask any money of the event for appearing; they were just happy to help boost the faltering annual bash. "We need more events like this," McAllister said. "We need to keep them thriving, and we're glad we are able to help this one in any way."





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Scouters Put Up $750K Deal for Dreim

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Scouters have put up $750,000 in the latest contract deal for the controversy-mired chef Stephen Dreim in a vain and desperate attempt to rehire the haughty culinary master who may have alienated too many of his fellow chefs to be welcomed back warmly.

Dreim set an offer minimum of $750,000 Thursday, and it took all weekend long for Feast Fest to determine whether they wished to respond or to simply drop the matter.

Very late Sunday, following extensive deliberation, scouters decided to offer up a contract for exactly that amount. Never mind it's $197,000 more than he was originally scheduled to make, and never mind that in a recent poll 81% of chefs viewed Dreim negatively; the scouters seem intent on snaring him back.

The deal, however, is only for one year, so that scouters and Dreim could revisit the situation in the offseason. "We're just doing this to patch up the situation for this Thanksgiving," an unnamed scouter said.

Dreim has yet to comment.






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Avi Wins NCA's Most Determined

-New York
-Lynn Avi has won her second NCA's Most Determined honor, an NCA official who did not give her game because she claimed to be unauthorized to announce award winners, said very late Sunday.

Avi won this trophy in 2008, and Jim McAllister took it home in 2009 and 2011.

Speaking of McAllister, he placed second in voting, with 14% of the vote, to Avi's 16%. "I feel absolutely thrilled to be receiving 'Most Determined' yet again," she said via a web chat.

Jan Stephan placed eleventh in the survey, and Lisa Choi placed twenty-second.





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98.4 at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-It's 98.4 here in South Florida.

That's 0.4 less than the mark achieved at the final exhibition before Thanksgiving last year, but it leaves the chefs feeling plenty confident.

"Not precisely what we wanted," said Jim McAllister, a furrowing frown breaking splitsecondly through his smile. "We feel we're in a good place, but we'll have lots of ground to cover come Nov. 22...more so than last year."

In 2011, Feast Fest scored 98.8 at the Edelyn exhibition and then 99.0 on Thanksgiving.

"We want to top that 99," McAllister said.

Lisa Choi swept home the Most Valuable Chef award; she also got the MVC at the second Edelyn contest in 2011. "A real rocking performance we had here today," Choi said, elated and hoisting her gold-plated MVC trophy. "I'm excited."

William Vanderbilt, Jim Dall, and Arthur Ayeiy, visiting Punta Gorda and watching the exhibition as a stop on their 10-day, 31-city tour, said through a spokesperson that it was "astounding to see the beauty of the collaborative effort put forth by our chefs here in this exhibition to attain a spectacular 98.4 rating."

The points leaderboard here at Edelyn:
Choi - 41 & MVC
McAllister - 41
Avi - 38
Wholehreh - 37
Jahswheich - 34
Pasik - 34
J. Stephan - 33
Pierce-Mulleone - 31
Mettling - 31
Law - 29





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