Floridian Feast Festers' Eateries Bombarded by Tropical Storm Isaac

-Miami
-Feast Fest Chefs Ivan Peterman, Peter Dumas, and Moore all put service at their highly acclaimed South Florida restaurants on hold Monday as Tropical Storm Isaac bombarded the region.

A heavy squall band of thunderstorms, lightning, and even a couple tornadoes ravaged the area, breaking glass at Peterman's Spanish Wishingwell and knocking out power in Dumas's El Everglade and Moore's Lakeland.

"Yeah, well, hurricanes are a part of life here in Miami, but this one did a particular number on us.  Not that it cuts into business that much--people aren't gonna be going out to restaurants in a storm like this anyway," Peterman remarked.

The flashy FF chef Moore evacuated Lakeland when the power went out, though a measly four customers were in the 150-seat eatery during the height of the storm.

Lakeland was closed down about 9 a.m. Eastern, and Wishingwell and El Everglade held off any lunch rush there might have been by closing down at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, Florida, a frequent site of FF exhibitions and which will play host to an exhibition on October 28, suffered heavy rain and winds but was reported to be undamaged.

Logo released

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Official Feast Fest Logo Designer Remunne Tchaikov released the official Feast Fest 2012 logo Monday.

It was quite the test for the new addition Tchaikov, after longtime logo designer Andris Petrys, who designed thirteen FF logos from 1999-2011, left the event following FF 2011.

Tchaikov seems to have followed Petrys's pattern of a large, bold, colorful, display of the event's roman numerals (this year, XVIII, for 18, or the 18th Feast Fest), flanked at the top and bottom by smaller lines of text saying "Feast Fest" on top and the year on the bottom.

A few differences popped up, however.  One of these was that in addition to the "2012" line below the roman numerals, Tchaikov added a second line of text giving the more precise dates of "November 21-25, 2012."  Petrys would either amalgamate the dates and year into one line or leave the dates out altogether, just putting the year. 

Another difference of note is Tchaikov's use of three different fonts in the logo--Petrys typically stuck with only two.

Tchaikov follows Petrys's lead in the color schemes used in the logo.  Petrys almost always included reds, golds, oranges, or greens, to "emphasize fall and harvest color," so he explained during a 2009 interview, and it was also common for Petrys to include colors of the sea, blue, green, teal, and aquamarine, to emphasize the event's Marina del Rey location.  The new designer Tchaikov followed this pattern to a tee.

Tchaikov's first logo is being generally considered not quite as appealing to the eye as Petrys's 2011 entry, but it still has received positive reviews.

Of the thirteen logos Petrys designed, all were viewed favorably, with the exception of one--his Feast Fest 2002 logo, intended to follow a "cuisines from around the world" theme, was considered "nausea-induc[ing]."

Exec've. Assistant Arthur Ayeiy spoke on behalf of Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt, saying, "Mr. Vanderbilt and our entire team is absolutely ebullient at the revelation this morning of the 2012 Feast Fest logo.  We would like to extend our sincerest plaudits to our new logo designer, Mr. Remunne Tchaikov, for a job spectacularly done."

But not everyone is so wowed by the logo.  Feast Fest Chef Patrick Kermell tweeted, "just saw new ff logo for '12.  thing looks UGLY! he blundered it up like '02 again"

Kermell was reportedly unaware that a new logo designer had been chosen and thought the old designer Petrys had drafted the 2012 logo, likening it to his one failed logo design of ten years ago.  An agent for Kermell apologized on his behalf to the new logo designer.

Jurrjens Honored

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Chef Jawroldy Jurrjens has been honored for helping Feast Fest break a scoring record after he helped the event ward of a point docking of 0.1 to 0.3.

If he had come into the kitchen a second later, the thirty-second deadline for having less than 20 chefs on the floor would have been violated resulting in a major points docking.
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Friday is Official Feast Fest Day of Nothing

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-After ten months of hard work and prep, Feast Fest chefs will get their rest Friday, as they have no events assigned to them or even optionally set up for them. There will be several events for fans in the evening hours of Friday.

Saturday night will see the Official Feast Fest After Party from 9 p.m. through the wee hours of the morning. Guests are invited but only if they procure a special wristband needed for entry into the After Party.

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Accident in Kitchen During Cleanup Process

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-An overhead scoreboard fell and smashed seven cooking stations during cleanup from Feast Fest 2011 Thursday.

The scoreboard was being unscrewed from the wall as is procedure, but the cleanup workers doing this did not follow a rule stating to wait until all the excess cooking stations had been removed before removing the scoreboard.

The 6'x10' smashed eight cooking stations to oblivion. Miraculously and fortunately, no one was injured.

The incident is being investigated and the debris from it cleaned up.

The incident occurred about 10:20 p.m. Thursday. It caused a huge crash noise audible in the Dining Hall, garnering gasps and stirs from remaining fans and chefs.

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Point Docking Could Have Drastically Changed FF Outcome

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Feast Fest chefs are thanking Jawroldy Jurrjens for the 99.0 score at Feast Fest 2011 after he prevented a points docking by bursting into the Kitchen just before the thirty-second deadline Thursday when Feast Fest accidentally went under a requirement that there be at least 20 chefs on the floor at any given time.

Jurrjens entered the floor mere milliseconds before the thirty-second deadline, barely exempting Feast Fest from a points docking.

The docking was exempted when it was found that Jurrjens had entered 0.4 seconds before the deadline.

If this had not occurred, there could have been a point docking of 0.1 or as much as 0.3, which would have prevented FF from reaching its record-breaking 99 mark.

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Points Don't Matter As Much: Mason Duo Takes MVC

-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-Jumpin' Jimmy had 78, Lynn 76, but the Mason Duo, with NCA point values over the event of 64 and 53 respectively, were the ones taking home the Most Valuable Chef award Thursday.

Avi and McAllister finished third and second but it was the particular culinary spirit of the Mason Duo and their resilience through a Feast Fest strewn with difficulties and mishaps that brought home to them the MVC when everything was said and done.

It marks the first time since 2008 that an MVC winner has not had the most points. In 2009, the Mason Duo split values of 70 and 68, leading the pack, and won, and Jim McAllister led and won the MVC in 2010.

In 2008, Lynn Avi and Lindbergh Merrssff shared the MVC. Avi led with 71 points but Lindy only had 26.

"Points were expected to factor in more with the rehashed formula the critics had for figuring the MVC, but the Mason Duo still pulled through," said Alan Bryn, an analyst.

The lowest point value for an MVC chef came for Johnny Stevenson. When he won MVC in 2005, he had only racked up 24 NCA points over the course of his performance.




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