-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Jeffrey Bigelow wants to launch negotiations with Feast Fest as he may be the next entry in a recent trend of former Feast Fest chefs returning to the event.
Bigelow, 44, was a Feast Fest chef for four "wonderful years", from 2003-2006. He resigned in front of Feast Fest 2007 because no viable contractual agreement could be reached during that offseason.
Bigelow is a core All-American chef, based in St. Louis. "I am very interested in reinstating my Feast Fest career.". Bigelow claimed to be interested in rejoining when he heard about the contract signings this offseason of Gerald Bartlett and Rina Shelstinnia, both former chefs.
"Bigelow was a great contributor to the all-American culinary atmosphere in his four Feast Fests," Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt said. "We'd be much more than ebullient to welcome him back."
Feast Fest and Bigelow will meet come December.
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The NCA Feast Fest lives here
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Lala Remains Shuttered
-New York
-Lynn Avi returned to her Manhattan eatery Lala from a three-day Florida trip Tuesday night and announced it would remain closed.
The European-style restaurant is without power, along with almost the whole of Lower Manhattan after the city and much of the East Coast was pounded by Hurricane Sandy on Monday.
However, Avi reported "no structural damage" at Lala. "Lala is just fine aside from the power being out. But I am in shock. Some parts of the city are absolutely ravaged." Avi announced that she would be staying temporarily in the Upper West Side apartment of a friend, as power is also out in her own Lower Manhattan apartment.
Other Feast Fest chefs have restaurants in the Big Apple, but Avi's was the only without power, as most others are in Midtown or Upper Manhattan, where power for the most part has been restored.
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-Lynn Avi returned to her Manhattan eatery Lala from a three-day Florida trip Tuesday night and announced it would remain closed.
The European-style restaurant is without power, along with almost the whole of Lower Manhattan after the city and much of the East Coast was pounded by Hurricane Sandy on Monday.
However, Avi reported "no structural damage" at Lala. "Lala is just fine aside from the power being out. But I am in shock. Some parts of the city are absolutely ravaged." Avi announced that she would be staying temporarily in the Upper West Side apartment of a friend, as power is also out in her own Lower Manhattan apartment.
Other Feast Fest chefs have restaurants in the Big Apple, but Avi's was the only without power, as most others are in Midtown or Upper Manhattan, where power for the most part has been restored.
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Caccicci, Scouters Meet in Middle at $626,000
-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-A team of scouters has negotiated with Italian master Armando Caccicci to come to terms on a $626,000 for two years starting 2013, with a 2015 option.
Caccicci set an offer minimum of $650,000 Oct. 20, but scouters refused to go that high, instead offering a $602,000 contract which the Rome-based culinary paragon rejected. Caccicci met in the middle Wednesday by lowering his offer minimum to $626,000, and Feast Fest, impatient with the ping-pong back-and-forth of recent negotiations, decided to jump at that offer a mere 45 minutes after it was announced. Of course, because it is not officially the offseason, the deal can't be formally inked until it begins on Mon., Dec. 3.
This does not, however, mean that the deal is wholly settled. There will be several other talking points to burrow through come the next offseason on minor issues, mainly to do with the payment of minor benefits, such as how much Feast Fest is willing to pay for transportation, how much Feast Fest will provide support for passport obtainment and lodging, and how much share Feast Fest will be responsible for in medical benefits.
"We have the meat of the deal with Mr. Caccicci agreed upon," said Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Paris. "But we still have to negotiate with Mr. Caccicci on potatoes and carrots issues such as transportation tabs and medical benefits."
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-A team of scouters has negotiated with Italian master Armando Caccicci to come to terms on a $626,000 for two years starting 2013, with a 2015 option.
Caccicci set an offer minimum of $650,000 Oct. 20, but scouters refused to go that high, instead offering a $602,000 contract which the Rome-based culinary paragon rejected. Caccicci met in the middle Wednesday by lowering his offer minimum to $626,000, and Feast Fest, impatient with the ping-pong back-and-forth of recent negotiations, decided to jump at that offer a mere 45 minutes after it was announced. Of course, because it is not officially the offseason, the deal can't be formally inked until it begins on Mon., Dec. 3.
This does not, however, mean that the deal is wholly settled. There will be several other talking points to burrow through come the next offseason on minor issues, mainly to do with the payment of minor benefits, such as how much Feast Fest is willing to pay for transportation, how much Feast Fest will provide support for passport obtainment and lodging, and how much share Feast Fest will be responsible for in medical benefits.
"We have the meat of the deal with Mr. Caccicci agreed upon," said Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Paris. "But we still have to negotiate with Mr. Caccicci on potatoes and carrots issues such as transportation tabs and medical benefits."
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Shelstinnia, Feast Fest Come to Terms on Deal
-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest chef Rina Shelstinnia, who signed on to Feast Fest in February with a one-year contract, has come to terms with Feast Fest for an extension.
Shelstinnia and scouters Tuesday agreed to a 3-year, $301,422 staggered deal, with Shelstinnia to receive $301,422 in 2013, $304,551 in 2014, and $306,823 in 2015. Shelstinnia will receive $299,533 in 2012 under the one-year deal.
"We have everything set up," Shelstinnia said. "The offseason is not taking place, so we can't ink the contract now, but when the offseason starts in December it should be a quick and easy road to signing the extension because we've cleared out the heavy duty work."
Shelstinnia was initially signed only for one year because she had recorded a previous Feast Fest in her career, in 2006, but had gotten fired for punctuality failure. Since she has remedied this problem by showing up promptly and participating thoroughly in 2012 exhibitions, scouters announced in September they would renegotiate with Shelstinnia for a 2013-and-beyond extension.
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-Feast Fest chef Rina Shelstinnia, who signed on to Feast Fest in February with a one-year contract, has come to terms with Feast Fest for an extension.
Shelstinnia and scouters Tuesday agreed to a 3-year, $301,422 staggered deal, with Shelstinnia to receive $301,422 in 2013, $304,551 in 2014, and $306,823 in 2015. Shelstinnia will receive $299,533 in 2012 under the one-year deal.
"We have everything set up," Shelstinnia said. "The offseason is not taking place, so we can't ink the contract now, but when the offseason starts in December it should be a quick and easy road to signing the extension because we've cleared out the heavy duty work."
Shelstinnia was initially signed only for one year because she had recorded a previous Feast Fest in her career, in 2006, but had gotten fired for punctuality failure. Since she has remedied this problem by showing up promptly and participating thoroughly in 2012 exhibitions, scouters announced in September they would renegotiate with Shelstinnia for a 2013-and-beyond extension.
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A.C.S.G. Melling, Avi, Stephans, Ruscoso Complete Sweep of NCA's Best European
-New York
-It's a sweep!
Feast Fest chefs have swept the podiums out of the NCA's "Best European" honor. A "sweep" occurs when all five podium positions for an NCA awards are inhabited by Feast Fest chefs.
Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling won the award with 32% of the vote, tigress Lynn Avi was second with 11%, Andruw Stephan came in third with 7%, Tony Ruscoso, a newbie to Feast Fest this Thanksgiving, slotted in fourth at 5%, and Andruw's twin brother Jan finished fifth with 3.2% of the vote. There were 3,454 votes for one of the biggest trophies of the NCA Award Season, which runs from mid-October through mid-November of each year, and 114 separate chefs were nominated.
"It is a fantastic to hear of this sweep of an NCA award, especially such a prestigious one, for our chefs," Event Manager William Vanderbilt said, elated.
Feast Fest averages about one swept award per year. This is their first sweep of the 2012 NCA Awards Season.
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-It's a sweep!
Feast Fest chefs have swept the podiums out of the NCA's "Best European" honor. A "sweep" occurs when all five podium positions for an NCA awards are inhabited by Feast Fest chefs.
Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling won the award with 32% of the vote, tigress Lynn Avi was second with 11%, Andruw Stephan came in third with 7%, Tony Ruscoso, a newbie to Feast Fest this Thanksgiving, slotted in fourth at 5%, and Andruw's twin brother Jan finished fifth with 3.2% of the vote. There were 3,454 votes for one of the biggest trophies of the NCA Award Season, which runs from mid-October through mid-November of each year, and 114 separate chefs were nominated.
"It is a fantastic to hear of this sweep of an NCA award, especially such a prestigious one, for our chefs," Event Manager William Vanderbilt said, elated.
Feast Fest averages about one swept award per year. This is their first sweep of the 2012 NCA Awards Season.
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Chefs Sign Pact Warning of "Severe Backlash" and "A Stream of Demands" Should Dreim be Re-Signed
-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-44 Feast Fest chefs have signed a pact with the avowed aim of preventing the currently in-progress rehiring of former Feast Fest chef Stephen Dreim.
The pact warns of a "severe backlash" and a "stream of demands for compensation" and possibly even "multiple resignations, threats of walk-away, and actual walk-away" should the controversy-mired Dreim be re-signed. Dreim announced Tuesday that he was considering a two-year, $764,000 deal that scouters had given to him earlier that day to look over, after he was silent on a one-year, $750,000 offer.
Dreim was found innocent of involvement of a scouter bribery scandal Oct. 18, but resigned mere hours before being exonerated, claiming his pride and ego had been badly bruised by the interrogations. Many FF chefs breathed a sigh of relief at his resignation, having viewed him as a conceited and haughty chef will little to contribute, and many were infuriated when Feast Fest announced plans to attempt to re-sign him before Thanksgiving.
That unhappiness reached a boiling point Tuesday as 44 of 65 chefs signed a pact to engrave their displeasure in stone, and hopefully to throw off a movement to rehire Dreim which was initially murky but which has gained significant momentum in the past few days. On Monday, one scouter said that he felt they were "days away" from reaching an agreement with Dreim. "That's when we knew we had to take action," said Daniel Cheveneux, a lawyer representing the 44 chefs. The five-page pact was written by Cheveneux and Feast Fest chefs Keith Wholehreh and Peter Dumas.
The pact was not signed by any of Feast Fest's seven "major" chefs--The Mason Duo, Jim McAllister, Lynn Avi, Joe Pasik, Jan Stephan, or Lisa Choi--for fear that doing so would cloud the air of impartiality they try to present because of being in the spotlight, regardless of how they may truly feel. The most notable names of those who did sign included Daniel Mettling, Alexei Aiber, Laelech Crellas, Aleck Monde, Andruw Stephan, Guilliame Jacquetaine, Ivan Peterman, Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling, Jane Jockell, Thenoo Law, Wholehreh, and Dumas. The most notable names, aside from the Big 7, who did not put their John Hancocks on the document included Janet Leaves, Jawroldy Jurrjens, Alan Rousswick, Ai Okoworth, or Lakeland Donavert, a close friend of Dreim's.
The statement attached to the pact alleged that Dreim had "threatened to have chefs fired or demoted" if they did not "paint anything but the most clean-cut, beautiful portraits of him" to executives, scouters, and the public. The statement also said, in part, "Mr. Dreim is a person who is obsessed with his own personal standing and with elevating and forwarding it, without any regard for his colleagues and with such a deep obsession with it that he is willing to go to almost any length to achieve it. For this reason, we feel that rehiring Dreim would deeply jeopardize the internal relations of Feast Fest chefs, that it would to an extreme degree polarize the currently strong and recently much improved relations between the chef body and scouters and executives, and that the action of bringing Dreim back to Feast Fest would be an unfair emotional and mental rollercoaster to foist upon the Feast Fest chef, especially when so many of them just two weeks ago breathed a huge collective sigh of relief upon learning of Mr. Dreim's resignation." To avoid this from happening, the statement suggested that the Scouting Department "immediately close the case involving Stephen Dreim [e.g., Scouting Department of Feast Fest Events, Case Number 1046, Involvement of Mr. Stephen Dreim, Personal Case Number 0003, Negotiation of Calendar Year 2012 Number 0101, Opened the 19th of October, Year Two Thousand and Twelve, 07:32 PDT] and to promptly disband all communication with Mr. Dreim."
Stefanie MacOneguew, leader of the team of scouters tasked with rehiring Dreim, called the pact "a huge play at the plate" by the Feast Fest chefs.
"This is an enormous statement," McOneguew said. "It's engraving in the recordbooks that this is a vital consideration to ponder when we move forward with negotiations with Mr. Dreim. Previously, we were merely observant of the chef body's attitude toward Mr. Dreim. Now, this is a legal statement proclaiming that swift and harsh action could be taken if the demands of the chef body are not put into serious and grave consideration." She added, "We need to ensure the total contentment of all sixty-five individuals comprising the chef body at Feast Fest. If rehiring Mr. Dreim will put into serious jeopardy that vital necessity, then we will need to either reapproach the stance we take in our negotiations or we will have to not negotiate with Mr. Dreim at all." McOneguew summed the situation for she and her scouters up nicely: "It's going to make it hard for us to sleep tonight."
However, while McOneguew remains committed to seeing both sides of the conflict and ensuring both are sated, her own superior, Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Boston, called the pact "an egregious attempt and a terrible farce of a document." Dall said that "nothing listed in this alleged 'document' has any truth in fact." Dall acknowledged that the chefs were unhappy with the attempts to rehire Dreim, but he believes that the discontent comes from an entirely different source. "The chefs are not unhappy with Dreim himself. They are unhappy with the amount of money and the significant salary raise he is demanding. And we understand. He wants $200,000 more than he was slated to receive before he resigned. How could they not be angered about that?" However, Dall was swift to downplay the situation, saying that "if we can bring Stephen Dreim down to size and set up a viable agreement comparable to that which we had achieved with him before this ruckus presented itself, then the financial animosity surrounding Dreim will go away and he will be able to reintegrate himself into the chef body."
However, chefs quickly rebutted Dall's remarks. As Peter Dumas commented, "Steve Dreim has been a scourge, a negative influence, on our chefs' body for years now. He needs to finally get the message and hit the high road." He admitted that chefs were lax on reporting Dreim's insolence previously, due to the threats he would make. "I was scared of exposing the real Steve Dreim," Dumas said, "until today."
-44 Feast Fest chefs have signed a pact with the avowed aim of preventing the currently in-progress rehiring of former Feast Fest chef Stephen Dreim.
The pact warns of a "severe backlash" and a "stream of demands for compensation" and possibly even "multiple resignations, threats of walk-away, and actual walk-away" should the controversy-mired Dreim be re-signed. Dreim announced Tuesday that he was considering a two-year, $764,000 deal that scouters had given to him earlier that day to look over, after he was silent on a one-year, $750,000 offer.
Dreim was found innocent of involvement of a scouter bribery scandal Oct. 18, but resigned mere hours before being exonerated, claiming his pride and ego had been badly bruised by the interrogations. Many FF chefs breathed a sigh of relief at his resignation, having viewed him as a conceited and haughty chef will little to contribute, and many were infuriated when Feast Fest announced plans to attempt to re-sign him before Thanksgiving.
That unhappiness reached a boiling point Tuesday as 44 of 65 chefs signed a pact to engrave their displeasure in stone, and hopefully to throw off a movement to rehire Dreim which was initially murky but which has gained significant momentum in the past few days. On Monday, one scouter said that he felt they were "days away" from reaching an agreement with Dreim. "That's when we knew we had to take action," said Daniel Cheveneux, a lawyer representing the 44 chefs. The five-page pact was written by Cheveneux and Feast Fest chefs Keith Wholehreh and Peter Dumas.
The pact was not signed by any of Feast Fest's seven "major" chefs--The Mason Duo, Jim McAllister, Lynn Avi, Joe Pasik, Jan Stephan, or Lisa Choi--for fear that doing so would cloud the air of impartiality they try to present because of being in the spotlight, regardless of how they may truly feel. The most notable names of those who did sign included Daniel Mettling, Alexei Aiber, Laelech Crellas, Aleck Monde, Andruw Stephan, Guilliame Jacquetaine, Ivan Peterman, Alue-Charlote Ste-Germaine Melling, Jane Jockell, Thenoo Law, Wholehreh, and Dumas. The most notable names, aside from the Big 7, who did not put their John Hancocks on the document included Janet Leaves, Jawroldy Jurrjens, Alan Rousswick, Ai Okoworth, or Lakeland Donavert, a close friend of Dreim's.
The statement attached to the pact alleged that Dreim had "threatened to have chefs fired or demoted" if they did not "paint anything but the most clean-cut, beautiful portraits of him" to executives, scouters, and the public. The statement also said, in part, "Mr. Dreim is a person who is obsessed with his own personal standing and with elevating and forwarding it, without any regard for his colleagues and with such a deep obsession with it that he is willing to go to almost any length to achieve it. For this reason, we feel that rehiring Dreim would deeply jeopardize the internal relations of Feast Fest chefs, that it would to an extreme degree polarize the currently strong and recently much improved relations between the chef body and scouters and executives, and that the action of bringing Dreim back to Feast Fest would be an unfair emotional and mental rollercoaster to foist upon the Feast Fest chef, especially when so many of them just two weeks ago breathed a huge collective sigh of relief upon learning of Mr. Dreim's resignation." To avoid this from happening, the statement suggested that the Scouting Department "immediately close the case involving Stephen Dreim [e.g., Scouting Department of Feast Fest Events, Case Number 1046, Involvement of Mr. Stephen Dreim, Personal Case Number 0003, Negotiation of Calendar Year 2012 Number 0101, Opened the 19th of October, Year Two Thousand and Twelve, 07:32 PDT] and to promptly disband all communication with Mr. Dreim."
Stefanie MacOneguew, leader of the team of scouters tasked with rehiring Dreim, called the pact "a huge play at the plate" by the Feast Fest chefs.
"This is an enormous statement," McOneguew said. "It's engraving in the recordbooks that this is a vital consideration to ponder when we move forward with negotiations with Mr. Dreim. Previously, we were merely observant of the chef body's attitude toward Mr. Dreim. Now, this is a legal statement proclaiming that swift and harsh action could be taken if the demands of the chef body are not put into serious and grave consideration." She added, "We need to ensure the total contentment of all sixty-five individuals comprising the chef body at Feast Fest. If rehiring Mr. Dreim will put into serious jeopardy that vital necessity, then we will need to either reapproach the stance we take in our negotiations or we will have to not negotiate with Mr. Dreim at all." McOneguew summed the situation for she and her scouters up nicely: "It's going to make it hard for us to sleep tonight."
However, while McOneguew remains committed to seeing both sides of the conflict and ensuring both are sated, her own superior, Head Scouter Jim Dall, speaking from Boston, called the pact "an egregious attempt and a terrible farce of a document." Dall said that "nothing listed in this alleged 'document' has any truth in fact." Dall acknowledged that the chefs were unhappy with the attempts to rehire Dreim, but he believes that the discontent comes from an entirely different source. "The chefs are not unhappy with Dreim himself. They are unhappy with the amount of money and the significant salary raise he is demanding. And we understand. He wants $200,000 more than he was slated to receive before he resigned. How could they not be angered about that?" However, Dall was swift to downplay the situation, saying that "if we can bring Stephen Dreim down to size and set up a viable agreement comparable to that which we had achieved with him before this ruckus presented itself, then the financial animosity surrounding Dreim will go away and he will be able to reintegrate himself into the chef body."
However, chefs quickly rebutted Dall's remarks. As Peter Dumas commented, "Steve Dreim has been a scourge, a negative influence, on our chefs' body for years now. He needs to finally get the message and hit the high road." He admitted that chefs were lax on reporting Dreim's insolence previously, due to the threats he would make. "I was scared of exposing the real Steve Dreim," Dumas said, "until today."
Dreim Says He'll "Contemplate" $764K, 2-Year Deal
-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-After a $750,000, 1-year deal received no response from the embattled former chef Stephen Dreim, Tuesday morning Scouter Stefanie McOneguew and her team offered up a $764,000, 2-year deal instead, which Dreim promised to "contemplate."
After the $750K offer came and went without any word, on Monday night Dreim released a statement saying he wanted an offer that would have "at least $760,000" and which would be a multiyear deal, for three years at the least. FF scouters reached across the aisle on the one issue, but Dreim's reputation is on such rocky ground that Feast Fest wants to just patch up things for this Thanksgiving and go into in-depth negotiation in an offseason. This had led to the one-year only provision of the earlier offer, and made it such that scouters were unwilling to add more than one additional year to the revised offer, making for a $764K, 2-year deal. Dreim also wanted the offer to be staggered; Feast Fest said no to that.
"It's the best we can do for now," McOneguew said. "We can't give him everything he asks for. At this point, he might as well ask for a magical flying unicorn and it wouldn't be much more nonsensical than what he's demanding now. If Dreim wants to be rehired, he needs to realize that he has to meet in the middle someplace."
Dreim released a brief, emotionless five-word statement Tuesday: "I will contemplate this offer."
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-After a $750,000, 1-year deal received no response from the embattled former chef Stephen Dreim, Tuesday morning Scouter Stefanie McOneguew and her team offered up a $764,000, 2-year deal instead, which Dreim promised to "contemplate."
After the $750K offer came and went without any word, on Monday night Dreim released a statement saying he wanted an offer that would have "at least $760,000" and which would be a multiyear deal, for three years at the least. FF scouters reached across the aisle on the one issue, but Dreim's reputation is on such rocky ground that Feast Fest wants to just patch up things for this Thanksgiving and go into in-depth negotiation in an offseason. This had led to the one-year only provision of the earlier offer, and made it such that scouters were unwilling to add more than one additional year to the revised offer, making for a $764K, 2-year deal. Dreim also wanted the offer to be staggered; Feast Fest said no to that.
"It's the best we can do for now," McOneguew said. "We can't give him everything he asks for. At this point, he might as well ask for a magical flying unicorn and it wouldn't be much more nonsensical than what he's demanding now. If Dreim wants to be rehired, he needs to realize that he has to meet in the middle someplace."
Dreim released a brief, emotionless five-word statement Tuesday: "I will contemplate this offer."
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