Presidents Message - February- 2005

Hope you all are surviving this challenging weather pattern! That's New England for you.

The ECB held two events in January.

The first was the Hot Food Culinary Competition, held on Sunday, January 9th at Boston University. Thirty-nine chefs and juniors from 8 states traveled to BU to compete for ACF Gold. In addition, the ECB secured five of the ACF's top judges to be at this event. The ECB awarded 4 Gold medals, 14 Silver, 9 Bronze, and 3 culinary diplomas. We were fortunate to have a large turnout of spectators from several New England chapters of the ACF.
I would like to congratulate all of the competitors on a job well done, including ECB members Kevin Doherty, CEC, CCA, who was awarded a Silver Medal and Jojhar Tamber, who was awarded a culinary diploma. I would also like to thank our Culinary Show Chair, James Palmariello, for all of his dedication and efforts in putting together such a great competition. In addition, appreciation goes out to the following ECB members who worked to make this competition a great success: Jeffrey Barr, Anthony Graffeo, CEC, AAC, Denise Graffeo, CEC, AAC, Des Makredes, CCE, Carolynn Parmenter, Gregg Dyer, Kevin Doherty, CEC, CCA, Jay Vello and Al McPhee. We also express sincere thanks to our ACF judges: Lead Judge Nobel Masi, Mickey Beriau, Nick Zakharoff, Tom Recinella, Daniel Dumont, as well as Boston University and its staff.
On Monday January 24th, the ECB held its 6th annual New Food Product Showcase and Fundraiser at the Bay Side Expo Center in Boston. The proceeds from this event will be designated to funding future culinary scholarships, as well as to support a future Junior Culinary Team. On display at this year show were several terrific new food products and equipment. In keeping with the theme of a new food product show case, several companies unveiled these brand new products, giving ECB members the advantage of a first look and taste. The show featured 55 different tables of food products and equipment, a huge silent auction table, a 50-50 raffle and a membership raffle. In addition, attendees received 3 hours of continuing education. We were also fortunate to have the Greater Boston Food Bank in attendance to promote their great work and to do a food rescue at the end of the show. I would like to thank the follow committee members for their hard work in putting together and conducting this event: our Co-Chair Anthony Graffeo, Co-Chair Jeff Barr, Denise Graffeo, Jay Vello and Carly LaConte. Additional thanks goes to the Bay Side Expo Center, the Staff of the Bay Side, including their snow removal crews and electricians, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and of course, all the purveyors for their participation. A special thanks to all of you who attended the show.

Speaking of that, I know that some of you may have not been able to attend the show due to the weekend snowstorm, or many have thought that it was canceled. I realize that having this event in January always brings with it the chance of maybe a little to moderate amount snow -- not 30 plus inches!! On that note, I have asked the committee and the board to plan a "snow date" for next year's show in the event this happens again. Also, please keep in mind that you may always call the ECB phone number at 781-231-1115 to check on the status of any meeting should there be any question.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 15th at Everett High School. The ECB is extremely fortunate to have 3 of our members working at this location. For those of you who have been to this special meeting in the past, you know that the evening and of course, the menu, will be outstanding! Always the icing on the cake is that attendees will receive 3 hours of continuing education for attending this meeting.

Speaking of meetings, please note that our March meeting will be on a Thursday night! Yes, that's right. For many years, our long time member, Chef Brendan Cronin, has requested to host an ECB meeting on a Thursday night to showcase La Chanterelle Restaurant at Endicott College. To entice you further, this meeting will also offer 3 hours of continuing education. So if you were able to attend the first 3 meetings of the year, you would then have accumulated 9 hours of CEH by the March meeting. Please note that we are still in need of meeting locations for the months of April, May and June. If you would like to host a meeting, or obtain information about how to go about it, please call Denise Graffeo at 781-231-0074. We thank you in advance for your participation in this important aspect of our Club.

In closing, I would like to send our congratulations to Anthony Graffeo on his nomination for the ACF Hermann Rusch Chef's Achievement Award. Best wishes, Anthony!

Warmest regards,

Rico DiFronzo, CEC, AAC
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