-Morro Bay, Calif.
-Feast Fest chefs have begun arriving in Morro Bay in preparation for tomorrow's final exhibition before Feast Fest, at Windows on the Water.
43 chefs arrived Saturday morning and afternoon through the nearby San Luis Obispo County Airport, being bussed to accommodations in Morro Bay. The tally of 43 adds on to 10 arrivals yesterday, for a total of 53 chefs out of FF's 67. More arrivals are expected later tonight and tomorrow morning. Feast Fest has many California-based chefs who have not yet arrived, apparently feeling safer at a late departure due to their proximity. One of these chefs was Co-Head Chef Jim McAllister. The Long Beach-based McAllister said he would be making the five-hour drive up early Sunday morning, not wanting to miss the Saturday night crowd at his restaurant. The exhibition Sunday is expected to begin around 5 p.m., with a small PrepFest scheduled for 3 p.m. McAllister said he would leave at 7 a.m., which should give him enough time to make it up to the Central Coast.
Another California based chef, Daniel Mettling, wasn't granting himself as much breathing room as McAllister. Mettling, based in Yosemite National Park, also about five hours away from Morro Bay, said he would drive through the night after ending evening service Saturday. Not that it's a tough drive--California State Route 41's eastern terminus is Yosemite, and its western terminus is in Morro Bay. "Just gotta get on 41 and stay there #FFWOTWExhibition," Mettling tweeted Saturday.
Of course, there are the matter of some chefs who won't make it at all. The Amsterdam-based Jawrodly Jurrjens said he wouldn't be able to make it to Morro Bay. Jurrjens said his mother was having heart surgery in nearby Utrecht on Monday morning. In addition, St. Louis-based Keith Wholehreh said he would be kept out of the WotW exhibition due to his wife giving birth on Thursday.
But the parent of another recent newborn WILL be making her way to WotW. After being unfairly lambasted by many for not showing up at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla. on Monday, having given birth to her third child only five days prior.
Avi said she had been medically cleared to travel to Morro Bay. She disembarked a chartered plane in San Luis Obispo around noon Saturday and was subsequently bussed to Morro Bay, about twenty miles to the northwest.
There is a wide variety of accommodations being used by chefs. Some are staying in beachside cottages in Morro Bay, others in more upscale hotels in nearby San Luis Obispo. One chef even booked a hotel in Paso Robles.
As many as eight chefs are staying at the large house of a Feast Fest benefactor, William Marbleton. Marbleton lives in Baywood-Los Osos, approximately five miles south of Morro Bay.
Feast Fest officials said tickets for Sunday's exhibition had been sold out as early as Friday night. 50 tickets were put on advance sale in June, and 136 others were put on sale Thursday.
FF Wire Service
The NCA Feast Fest lives here
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Tweets on Last Night's Edelyn Exhibition Reflect Chef Discontent
-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-Feast Fest chefs took to Twitter Tuesday to express their frustrations with a 90-minute-delayed, low scoring exhibition at Edelyn Cooking Arena here in Punta Gorda.
Lynn Avi answered catcalls about her not being present, which some believed may have contributed to the lowered score: "I feel it is the responsibility of a good mother to care for my newborn in these times. Will appear at #WotW," referring to the Windows on the Water exhibition in Morro Bay, Calif., on Sunday.
Jack Stillworth's reaction: "Delays held us hostage again at #FeastFest #Edelyn exhibition. Sorry to the great supporters in #SouthFla."
Jacqueline Pierce-Mulleone vented frustrations about burned pies: "WHO LEFT THE OVENS ON TOO LONG?!? #FeastFest #badexhibition #boneheadedness"
Patrick Kermell vocally criticized NCA President Al Green for not rescheduling the exhibition: "No exhibition should have #Digin! at 1 am. @A_Green_NCA, bad decision."
Jim McAllister responded in defense of Green: "@Patrick_Kermell: @A_Green_NCA made the right decision. I needed to get back to #NotesLBCA today. #misassignedblame"
And Wiley Anders said the chefs seemed slow: "We were tired and sluggish at #Edelyn exhibition."
And Laelech Crellas attempted to be the optimist: "Cheer up, guys! We still have #WotW :)"
But perhaps the tweet that best summed up the FFers' challenges Monday night came from Daniel Mettling: "Delays = lost focus = mistakes = bad score. Simple, really. #FeastFest #Edelyn #badexhibition"
FF Wire Service
-Feast Fest chefs took to Twitter Tuesday to express their frustrations with a 90-minute-delayed, low scoring exhibition at Edelyn Cooking Arena here in Punta Gorda.
Lynn Avi answered catcalls about her not being present, which some believed may have contributed to the lowered score: "I feel it is the responsibility of a good mother to care for my newborn in these times. Will appear at #WotW," referring to the Windows on the Water exhibition in Morro Bay, Calif., on Sunday.
Jack Stillworth's reaction: "Delays held us hostage again at #FeastFest #Edelyn exhibition. Sorry to the great supporters in #SouthFla."
Jacqueline Pierce-Mulleone vented frustrations about burned pies: "WHO LEFT THE OVENS ON TOO LONG?!? #FeastFest #badexhibition #boneheadedness"
Patrick Kermell vocally criticized NCA President Al Green for not rescheduling the exhibition: "No exhibition should have #Digin! at 1 am. @A_Green_NCA, bad decision."
Jim McAllister responded in defense of Green: "@Patrick_Kermell: @A_Green_NCA made the right decision. I needed to get back to #NotesLBCA today. #misassignedblame"
And Wiley Anders said the chefs seemed slow: "We were tired and sluggish at #Edelyn exhibition."
And Laelech Crellas attempted to be the optimist: "Cheer up, guys! We still have #WotW :)"
But perhaps the tweet that best summed up the FFers' challenges Monday night came from Daniel Mettling: "Delays = lost focus = mistakes = bad score. Simple, really. #FeastFest #Edelyn #badexhibition"
FF Wire Service
90.9 at Edelyn -- Delays Again Rattle Exhibition
-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-Feast Fest's worst October performance at Edelyn Cooking Arena in eight years came on the heels of an accident on the cooking floor that delayed the start of the official cooking portion to 8:53 p.m. and led to DigIn! at an even later-than-expected 1:12 a.m. and the final score announcement of 90.9 at 1:46 a.m.
It was the first time ever since Feast Fest began visiting Edelyn twice a year that their January performance outweighed their October or November effort; their visit here on Jan. 21 garnered a 92.1 mark.
The 90.9 figure is worse than only an 88.4 mark achieved here on Nov. 2, 2005.
"We did have trouble here tonight," Acting Head Chef Jim McAllister said. "However, unlike most years, this is not our final exhibition before Thanksgiving, so we do have a chance to remedy this." In years prior, the final exhibition of the season would be held at Edelyn. This year, there is still one exhibition remaining, in Morro Bay, Ca. And McAllister's comment was appropriate--while Edelyn errors are rare, the chefs have typically fumbled the second-to-last exhibition before the Big Day, for reasons not entirely known.
But then again, maybe the chefs shouldn't feel so good about going to Morro Bay for the last exhibition, as the cooking venue there has been nothing short of a house of horrors for them. They cook in the Central California coast town this Sunday, Nov. 3.
Jim McAllister led the initial effort with 10 NCA points and a quadruple flip in the opening moments, and wound up with a personal-best-in-exhibitions 65 NCA points.
But his charges lagged behind. The second point finisher, Keith Wholehreh, sagged onto the board with a mere 29 points. Joe Pasik finished with 26, Alizone Jahswheich with 24, Lisa Choi with 21, and Jan Stephan, Andruw Stephan, and Tony Ruscoso with 20, rounding out the leaderboard.
The individual scores for the turkey suffered, as the birds became dry during the two-hour delay before the 9 p.m. start. The turkeys garnered a mark of 91.1, their lowest ever at Edelyn. The highest individual food score was a measly 96.3, for mashed potatoes. The average individual food score was 92.5. The lowest mark was for a usually nonchalant and undemanding Feast Fest food--the pie, which was rated a crushing 81.1. Not that it was unexpected, however; of 12 pies made for the event, seven--more than half--burned.
"The pies were tended to as they are normally and were not left in the ovens for a long amount of time, so we are powerless to speculate at this point as to why they would have burned through," McAllister said.
Some pointed fingers at Lynn Avi, who ruled out coming to Punta Gorda after giving birth only several days ago. But this was one of Feast Fest's classic flops, an exhibition that was headed for disaster and that would never have had its course righted.
"The delay rattled us, no doubt. And we have to get over the fact that we let delays like this one rattle us," Jan Stephan said.
Jim McAllister was awarded the MVP easily in a 10-0 vote by critics, but, really, nobody wanted to take credit for this awful excuse for an exhibition.
"Our love affair with Edelyn ended tonight," McAllister said. "We have to go into Morro on Sunday and hope we can clean things up so that we don't have a bad score hanging over our heads before Thanksgiving."
FF Wire Service
-Feast Fest's worst October performance at Edelyn Cooking Arena in eight years came on the heels of an accident on the cooking floor that delayed the start of the official cooking portion to 8:53 p.m. and led to DigIn! at an even later-than-expected 1:12 a.m. and the final score announcement of 90.9 at 1:46 a.m.
It was the first time ever since Feast Fest began visiting Edelyn twice a year that their January performance outweighed their October or November effort; their visit here on Jan. 21 garnered a 92.1 mark.
The 90.9 figure is worse than only an 88.4 mark achieved here on Nov. 2, 2005.
"We did have trouble here tonight," Acting Head Chef Jim McAllister said. "However, unlike most years, this is not our final exhibition before Thanksgiving, so we do have a chance to remedy this." In years prior, the final exhibition of the season would be held at Edelyn. This year, there is still one exhibition remaining, in Morro Bay, Ca. And McAllister's comment was appropriate--while Edelyn errors are rare, the chefs have typically fumbled the second-to-last exhibition before the Big Day, for reasons not entirely known.
But then again, maybe the chefs shouldn't feel so good about going to Morro Bay for the last exhibition, as the cooking venue there has been nothing short of a house of horrors for them. They cook in the Central California coast town this Sunday, Nov. 3.
Jim McAllister led the initial effort with 10 NCA points and a quadruple flip in the opening moments, and wound up with a personal-best-in-exhibitions 65 NCA points.
But his charges lagged behind. The second point finisher, Keith Wholehreh, sagged onto the board with a mere 29 points. Joe Pasik finished with 26, Alizone Jahswheich with 24, Lisa Choi with 21, and Jan Stephan, Andruw Stephan, and Tony Ruscoso with 20, rounding out the leaderboard.
The individual scores for the turkey suffered, as the birds became dry during the two-hour delay before the 9 p.m. start. The turkeys garnered a mark of 91.1, their lowest ever at Edelyn. The highest individual food score was a measly 96.3, for mashed potatoes. The average individual food score was 92.5. The lowest mark was for a usually nonchalant and undemanding Feast Fest food--the pie, which was rated a crushing 81.1. Not that it was unexpected, however; of 12 pies made for the event, seven--more than half--burned.
"The pies were tended to as they are normally and were not left in the ovens for a long amount of time, so we are powerless to speculate at this point as to why they would have burned through," McAllister said.
Some pointed fingers at Lynn Avi, who ruled out coming to Punta Gorda after giving birth only several days ago. But this was one of Feast Fest's classic flops, an exhibition that was headed for disaster and that would never have had its course righted.
"The delay rattled us, no doubt. And we have to get over the fact that we let delays like this one rattle us," Jan Stephan said.
Jim McAllister was awarded the MVP easily in a 10-0 vote by critics, but, really, nobody wanted to take credit for this awful excuse for an exhibition.
"Our love affair with Edelyn ended tonight," McAllister said. "We have to go into Morro on Sunday and hope we can clean things up so that we don't have a bad score hanging over our heads before Thanksgiving."
FF Wire Service
Monday, October 28, 2013
Avi Should Make WotW
-New York
-Lynn Avi told a rapidly-thinning Feast Fest chef hierarchy that she would show up for Sunday's Windows on the Water exhibition after missing Monday's due to recent pregnancy.
"I will be present for Sunday's exhibition," she tweeted Monday.
FF Wire Service
-Lynn Avi told a rapidly-thinning Feast Fest chef hierarchy that she would show up for Sunday's Windows on the Water exhibition after missing Monday's due to recent pregnancy.
"I will be present for Sunday's exhibition," she tweeted Monday.
FF Wire Service
First Bell Rings at Edelyn
-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-In an attempt to make up a 90-minute delay, the cooking start bell has rung here at Edelyn Cooking Arena at 8:53 p.m., seven minutes earlier than the rescheduled start time of 9 p.m.
Once all chefs had declared themselves ready, Acting Head Chef Jim McAllister asked that the bell be rung "immediately."
The 3 to 3 1/2-hour exhibition, in which 124 Thanksgiving-style meals will be prepared, could end as late as 12:30 a.m. local time.
McAllister satisfied the delay-ridden crowd at ECA early, with a quadruple flip and 10 NCA points racked up in the opening minutes.
Of the 124 turkey meals, 10 are expected to be consumed by attendees and critics. The other 114 will be donated to food banks and other charities.
FF Wire Service
-In an attempt to make up a 90-minute delay, the cooking start bell has rung here at Edelyn Cooking Arena at 8:53 p.m., seven minutes earlier than the rescheduled start time of 9 p.m.
Once all chefs had declared themselves ready, Acting Head Chef Jim McAllister asked that the bell be rung "immediately."
The 3 to 3 1/2-hour exhibition, in which 124 Thanksgiving-style meals will be prepared, could end as late as 12:30 a.m. local time.
McAllister satisfied the delay-ridden crowd at ECA early, with a quadruple flip and 10 NCA points racked up in the opening minutes.
Of the 124 turkey meals, 10 are expected to be consumed by attendees and critics. The other 114 will be donated to food banks and other charities.
FF Wire Service
Edelyn Exhibition About to Commence
-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-The latest Feast Fest exhibition ever will officially commence with the ringing of the official "Start" bell here at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla., at 9:00 p.m. EDT.
The exhibition, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT, was delayed due to an injury incident wherein an NCA critic slipped and fell on the cooking surface around 6:00 p.m. EDT, causing a chain reaction which damaged several cooking stations, which needed to be hastily repaired or replaced.
"It was a freak accident," said NCA Head Al Green. Green said that the critic did not require medical attention and would continue to critique the event. The critic was not named and so could not be reached for comment.
"As we understand it, a critic of the NCA slipped and fell, at which point his foot spasmed and kicked a cooking station, damaging it, and causing that cooking station to fall over onto two other cooking stations, and mildly damaging a third."
The Feast Fest chefs, already without their full oomph due to the absence of critical chefs such as the Mason Duo and Lynn Avi, seemed disheartened and shaken up by the delay. "But we have to maintain our focus and not turn this into another 2011 Morro Bay," Head Chef Jim McAllister said, citing an incident at the 2011 Windows on the Water exhibition wherein a water main broke and flooded the cooking floor, delaying the exhibition for 24 hours. It ended at 12:30 a.m. on a Monday morning, having been scheduled to end around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
It is likely that the exhibition could see DigIn! coming as late as 12:30 a.m., and with a final score coming as late as 1:00 a.m.
"We will work harder than ever to make up the lost time," McAllister said.
Delaying the exhibition to Tuesday was briefly discussed, but then called off. "Many of the chefs are expected to be back at work at their restaurants as soon as possible, and we would not want to delay them further," Green said.
McAllister criticized the original placement of the event at 7:30 to begin with. "No reason to schedule these things so late."
FF Wire Service
-The latest Feast Fest exhibition ever will officially commence with the ringing of the official "Start" bell here at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla., at 9:00 p.m. EDT.
The exhibition, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT, was delayed due to an injury incident wherein an NCA critic slipped and fell on the cooking surface around 6:00 p.m. EDT, causing a chain reaction which damaged several cooking stations, which needed to be hastily repaired or replaced.
"It was a freak accident," said NCA Head Al Green. Green said that the critic did not require medical attention and would continue to critique the event. The critic was not named and so could not be reached for comment.
"As we understand it, a critic of the NCA slipped and fell, at which point his foot spasmed and kicked a cooking station, damaging it, and causing that cooking station to fall over onto two other cooking stations, and mildly damaging a third."
The Feast Fest chefs, already without their full oomph due to the absence of critical chefs such as the Mason Duo and Lynn Avi, seemed disheartened and shaken up by the delay. "But we have to maintain our focus and not turn this into another 2011 Morro Bay," Head Chef Jim McAllister said, citing an incident at the 2011 Windows on the Water exhibition wherein a water main broke and flooded the cooking floor, delaying the exhibition for 24 hours. It ended at 12:30 a.m. on a Monday morning, having been scheduled to end around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
It is likely that the exhibition could see DigIn! coming as late as 12:30 a.m., and with a final score coming as late as 1:00 a.m.
"We will work harder than ever to make up the lost time," McAllister said.
Delaying the exhibition to Tuesday was briefly discussed, but then called off. "Many of the chefs are expected to be back at work at their restaurants as soon as possible, and we would not want to delay them further," Green said.
McAllister criticized the original placement of the event at 7:30 to begin with. "No reason to schedule these things so late."
FF Wire Service
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Monde Moved Up To Highest Non-Hierarchical Line of Power
-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-Rising star Aleck Monde, only in his third year with Feast Fest, will move up to the third line of power, the highest line of power that does not contain hierarchical positions. Monde started on the seventh line of power in 2011, leapfrogged to fourth in 2012, and it was announced today that at Edelyn he will take third.
FF Wire Service
-Rising star Aleck Monde, only in his third year with Feast Fest, will move up to the third line of power, the highest line of power that does not contain hierarchical positions. Monde started on the seventh line of power in 2011, leapfrogged to fourth in 2012, and it was announced today that at Edelyn he will take third.
FF Wire Service
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)