Maintenance

More maintenance will be scheduled on the FF ticketing hotline for tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1, 2011, from 6 am Pacific/9 am Eastern to 11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.

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Ainenl Attended Feast Fest Exhibition at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-On the way to Montrèal for the Scouting Summit Tuesday and Wednesday, Parisian master and potential 2012 Feast Fest chef Claudien Ainenl took a detour here to Punta Gorda to take in the final FF exhibition before Thanksgiving.

"This was thrilling to see," said Ainenl. "There's such electrifying fast-paced energy at this event, I so hope the scouters and I can work something out to make me a part of it."

Ainenl had the opportunity to meet such FF fixtures as Jim McAllister, Lynn Avi, and Joe Pasik.

Pasik called Ainenl "unlike the average French chef."

"He has the free spirit of a chef from outside France. He's not restrictive like the French culinary instructors I had," Pasik elaborated.

Avi said it "was a pleasure to meet Ainenl."

"He's pleasant and professional and easygoing. If he gets signed, I'll look forward to working with him."



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98.8 at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-The FF chefs were paving the way for a fantastic performance all night long at Edelyn Cooking Arena and got rewarded for this with a 98.8 NCA score, the highest of the 2011 exhibitional season. The MVC for Edelyn was Lisa Choi, who contributed 47 NCA points. It's the first MVC she's received at either an actual Feast Fest or an exhibition since 2008. "She [Choi] was in the groove all night long and really slammed it home for an MVC," commented Lynn Avi.

Aleck Monde, whose debut performance was highly anticipated, actually made the leaderboard in terms of NCA points, coming in fourth with 41.

"I loved seeing him out there tonight, he performed even better than I thought he would," said his father, Marc Monde, who was a popular FF chef from 1995 to 2004.

"I do admit now I had a heck of a lot of nerves beforehand!" Monde commented. "But there was something, something that surged through me when I took to the floor that melted my jitters and just made me feel like I could perform naturally."

And that's exactly what Monde did, garnering high praise from his fellow chefs, especially the "Original 7" chefs whose impressions were most vital to him.

The crowd remained throughout the night at Edelyn, dispersing only after the announcement of the official score. "They stayed all night long, on Halloween night, from 7 to Midnight they were in their seats, they loved every minute of it," said a grateful Joe Pasik. "Awesome crowd we had tonight."

This Halloween exhibition is the final of the year before Thanksgiving and will likely set the tone for Feast Fest on November 24th. "We had perfect chemistry tonight," gushed Jim McAllister. "You could feel everything was going the right way. Unlike back in Morro Bay on October 16th when we were messing up everything we came into contact with. I was awfully afraid that would carry over into tonight. But no, not at all, this was one of the best exhibitional performances I think we've ever had, and, heck, if we can carry this over to Feast Fest and bump up our performance levels just a bit, we might be able to get that coveted 99 rating."

McAllister's comments are statistically plausible. In ten of the last twelve years, the score of Feast Fest has been within 0.5 higher or lower of the score of the final exhibition.

The DigIn Bell Sounds at Edelyn

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-It's 11 p.m. here in Florida and the horn has sounded for the end of the Official Cooking Portion here at Edelyn Cooking Arena.

Lisa Choi stuck to her points lead the whole way through and finished off with 47.

Aleck Monde, though nervous to start, really has shone through here in his debut exhibition.

The projected score is 98.6, but that will likely differ from the score handed down when all the tasting is said and done. The festivities are expected to end by Midnight Eastern/9 p.m. Pacific.

"This was an awesome exhibition. We really rocked this one," Choi said happily.

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After 3 Hours, 96.7

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-The score continues to shoot up here in Punta Gorda with only an hour remaining.

Lisa Choi still leads the points board with 38, and debutee Aleck Monde is third with 32.

"He's having an awesome debut performance, I'm definitely liking him," said Jim McAllister during a quick break in action.

The crowd in attendance is still strong as the 10 o clock hour approaches.

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After 2 Hours, 94.4

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-The NCA projected scores continue to rise as a very well-performed Halloween exhibition here at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Fla.

Halfway through the four hour exhibition, the projected score is 94.4.

Aleck Monde continues to shine in his debut performance, racking 23 NCA points so far.

Lisa Choi continues to be the points leader, so far with 27.

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After an Hour, 92.7

-Punta Gorda, Fla.
-With cooking here in Punta Gorda nearly a quarter of the way done, FF chefs have worked up a 92.7 projected NCA score so far.

In their past 20 exhibitions, FF chefs scored above 98.0 six times out of seven the score after an hour was above 91.5.

The rookie prospect Aleck Monde has had a strong showing thus far, seeming to shake off his pre-debut jitters and scoring 12 NCA points already. Matter of fact, so far, Monde has the second most points of all the chefs present, the top slot belonging to Lisa Choi, who has racked up 14 in her first hour.

All of the turkeys for the exhibition had begun cooking in the roasters by 7:37 p.m (ET).

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