My Friends,
October is moving forward and the Holidays loom just around the corner. (As if you didn't know….!)
It's been a while since my last letter, and some of you insist it took days to read. Well, where there's information to share, it is my "job" to bring it to you in this E-Newsletter (of sorts.) As you read, those of you who didn't make the convention, a whole lot of nothing went on of any monumental consequence, except good cooking demos and meeting long time and newly established friends…..Then there were the outstanding demonstrations by some of our very best people, from here and abroad. Many thought this to be an expensive vacation in Florida, including a great birthday party celebrating ACF's 75,^th,, a couple great meals and the opening of nominations for the up-coming IMPORTANT 2005 election to change the National Board. This election will place the winners on the National Board for 4 years. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. If we make a huge mistake in selecting officers, we suffer to lose the good ground we covered these last several years. If, on the other hand, we select good and honest, fiscally conservative men (and women) we will continue on the "high road." But please remember that the people we elect, have to be 100% ACF minded with their focus on the membership (and not themselves or their personal agendas.)
I received the E-newsletter from my distinguished colleague from New Jersey, 'JERSEY JOTTINGS.' There was, as usual, much information about what the chapters in New Jersey were doing, especially during this month of October: Childhood Hunger Month. It seems NJ is way ahead of us in Chef and Child activities. Chef Phil Craig has been appointed to the National CCF board and that added to his zeal for the program it continues going super strong in the state in a big way. It seems each chapter invites a major sponsor, either a food bank, children's camp, inner-city child focused feeding/nutrition program and the like and together with the sponsor do a smashing job of education and feeding children. There seems also to be programs that last for more than a day…because childhood hunger last for more than a day, even in New York State. I would like to see some more aggressive activities with the Chef and Child Foundation here in New York State. We can do it! After all, if we could get through 911, everything else is a walk in the park, Right? If such activities happen, I would like to know about them so I can share your pride.
Some of you might remember how it was back in the mid-nineties when this was a newly hatched program. The folks who "invented the concept" were so enthused it was an epidemic of "let's all pitch in and do this thing!" It was a matter of ACF pride…we pitched in and developed programs in our own chapters that contributed to the whole, and the ACF shone with an honest brilliance that it so badly needed. Time passed quickly and on Childhood Hunger Day, ACF members "Marched on Washington DC" (on the same day as the "million man march" which hoped to bring attention to the plight of our Black brothers and sisters in America.) Well, for those of you too young to remember, not yet ACF nearly a decade ago, we took the cameras away from Jessie Jackson and his march. We were the center of media attention! It was the initiative the ACF was focusing on that caught the attention of the press, radio and television cameras. Damian Martineau organized meetings with the congresspeople that day. Many of us from all over America went in to the Congressional Office Building and the halls of the Capitol Building and explained our being there and the programs we wanted them to concentrate on. What a day…what an organization. Results were forth coming, and then, puff, it evaporated…not because it wasn't a good program, but because we didn't follow through, lost interest. Ain't that just like it is in the NEW ACF? Loss of interest inn good and practical programs with meaning and heart This cannot be a "what will you do for me" organization, that's the selfish approach; it has to be "what can I do for the profession?" the organization?. So, once again, let's pick up the pieces and follow our colleagues from New Jersey and make a difference. We even had one chef, not a attention seeking guy, drive his Harley from the Atlantic (rear wheel in the ocean) to the Pacific, (front wheel into the ocean) to bring attention on the hungry kids nation wide. Dana Osterman is his name and he's a CEC AAC member of our great fraternity of cooks, bakers, pastry chefs and student culinarians. He believed in what we do, and demonstrated it big time just before the Anaheim ACF Convention!
We are all aware that the ACF has taken up with a sister organization…many sister organizations of late, the truth be known, but let me spend an Chef Don moment on the NRA. In a recent issue of the National Restaurant News they listed "The Seven Cardinal Sins of Foodservice!"

Chef Phil Craigg points out, quite aptly, the following scenario: He asks: Why can't the law simply read, for example?
John or Jane Doe makes $XX.XX an hour for the first 40 hours of a given 7 day week:
$15.00 x 8 = $120.00 a day [8 hours]
$120.00 x 5 = $600.00 a week [5 days]
$600.00 x 50 = $30,000.00 a year [50 weeks, 2 out for vacation or ACF business!]
or for the first 8 hours worked in any given day. After that time and a half. Everyone on salary must have their pay written based on a 40 hour week.
If you choose to work more than the average American 40 hour week for 50 weeks a year, it must be stated in a contract. Overtime will then be based on the contracted hours. if, again, you agreed to work:
60 hours a week and make $60,000.00 a year for 50 weeks work
You base pay is $1200.00 a week for 60 hours or $20.00 an hour
After 60 hours you are paid $30.00 an hour for your services, based on time and a half
Craig continues, the big problem is that some people just have a verbal agreement, so base agreements are not written down anywhere. Paychecks are almost impossible to read, most employees don't understand their paycheck and most of the time don't bring up apparent errors in calculation, etc. that they might see because they're afraid of losing their job! And the biggie: the ease of paying kitchen staff "under-the-table" in a cash based business. I hope you're not one of those cheaters! It hurts all of us.
Should we accept this legislation with out some fight, if not, we deserve what they dole out. We must join forces with other foodservice organizations and battle this to the end…or it will be the end.
Many of you chapter presidents should be thinking about hosting a Jr. Member Competition. Time is growing short and we need to have a quality Jr. Member team represent the North East at Conferences and the Convention. Solicit sponsors…anyone, in the industry or outside will do. Who refuses to help "kids", students go forward, learn and compete, develop technical skills and artistic prowess?
Now I remind all of you once again that the 2005 ACF National Board Elections are soon to be upon us. Our North East Region guys are tops in their fields…the "lead dogs" in this race. Let's not let them down….or we let our great federation down.
Jim Taylor for ACF President: OHIO, Educator
Mark Wright NE Vice Pres; BUFFALO, NY, Educator
John Minitti, Academy Chair: NEW JERSEY, Vocational Teacher, restaurant chef/owner
Tom Macrina, Academy Vice Chair: PENSYLVANIA, Hotel Chef
Bill Tillinghast, for National Secretary: PENSYLVANIA, Educator
Joe Aiello, CHICAGO, Chef, successful Caterer
Please look carefully at these candidates. They a good mix of working Chefs/Cooks, Educators, Administrators and not a one of them on TEAM USA…that's a great change for the ACF 2005 and beyond. We cannot all be international competitors, we need badly to focus on our affairs right here at home. It a good thing to be a competitor, but my friends, it goes far beyond that small. elite congregation of men and women. We're good at what we do everyday, in the real world and in the real, hot kitchens of America, pumping out a hundred ala carte meals in two hours. The practice kitchen is a fantasy world, granted long hard hours working on the same recipe and projects to perfect it, but a pipe dream for the rest of us… the never-never world for those hell bent on gold! Again, the focus need not be on platters and show pieces, it needs to come back to practicality and the hard working, dues paying ACF member working in a profit generating kitchen. The rift, spoken aloud or not, between "them and us" needs to come to an end. Cook, Educator, gold medalist or simple, humble cook in the trenches, we're all ACF, to some degree or another, and the leadership MUST reflect that diversity, man, woman, competitor or cook…the proverbial level ground scenario.
What a wonderful change it would be to have a grass roots leadership who really know and understand what WE encounter everyday in the real world as simple culinarians. It refreshes me just imagining the transition….and maybe the new, unfamiliar faces, newly appointed to major national and regional committees that impact all of us. There might even be a little relaxation for wanna-be-culinary judges, someone who has never earned a gold medal not a CMC or been on the TEAM USA or fit the "model" ACF judge stereotyped today. What says one who understands and appreciates good cooking, recognizes skill and aptitude would not be a good, constructive judge? Some things need to change, my friends and with the selection of solid culinary citizens at the helm, there will be change. Now, don't read this wrong. The judges we have are good at ir, but so would many others of us if given the opportunity with less rigorous criteria to meet.
No matter for whom: VOTE…one vote each, added up we will select the next leader who will be seated through four years of ACF business and history. This time we'll help write that history. I recommend that we retire the "old guard" you know the ones…those people who have been at the forefront for as many years as I can remember; sometimes adding to our greatness and as many times detracting from it. Many of their ideas have out lived the times, time now to move ahead. Understand, not to be gone completely, relegated to advisory seats with NO VOTE, just their experience with some peripheral in put. Then we will have a fresh look at the New World of ACF. This profile will certainly not make me "Chef Popular," but no one can dispute the honesty (and boldness) in these words! Besides, most of you know I say what I think….mostly right in my seldom to be humble opinion and you also know I am not afraid or intimidated by being thought of as unpopular. Someone needs to be on the "other side" of the fence, outside the circle, the person behind the telescope, eye to the microscope keeping a close watch for……..? (what ever)
Lastly, I urge as many of you and your chapter members who can to come to Philadelphia and the Desmond Conference Center for the 2004 Educational Forum hosted by Chef Tom Macrina. The "stuff" you'll take away with you is invaluable material for professional growth and development. The opportunities for interacting and networking with fellow culinarians is worth 10 times the cost. The food alone is worth coming for. And I suggest you talk with those candidates who will be in attendance and get their philosophies and thoughts, first hand, on how that would work for us. A novel thought, casual conversation with an officer with out being rushed. Lately, we're told what's going on rather than asking us what we need or want or should we or can we; is this good or bad for ACF? Find out from the candidates as often as you can. This is, after all, a Presidential campaign and should be look at as such! We need to return to the membership for advice and input, participation in government.
The week-end of NOV. 6 & (1/2 day) 7^th are the dates to set aside for this event. Look at the ACF Web Page to register…cheap, easy and worth ever nickel.
Happy Columbus Day, (don't forget Childhood Hunger Day) and a very Happy Halloween!
Chef Don in Rochester
YOUR NYS ACF Rep