President's Message

I hope all of you had a wonderful and fulfilling Thanksgiving. As you know, we just celebrated the 107th anniversary of the ECB at our President's Ball, which was held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. The Ball is a very special event each year, as we honor and recognize our peers for their accomplishments. This year, the Club also proudly showed its support for our country with the evening's theme of stars and stripes. In addition, for the first time ever at a President's Ball, we held a very successful silent auction to raise money for the families of culinarians who lost their lives in September.

The auction raised $1080, which will be added to $1320, which is the designated portion of our ticket sales for the Ball. For a grand total of $2400. I would like to thank those who donated the incredible items to our silent auction, as well as the bidders and our Ball attendees. We would not have raised these funds without your generosity, as well as the generosity of the Royal Sonesta Hotel in reducing the cost of our Ball to help our fundraising efforts. I salute each and every one of you for contributing to this successful, as well as fun evening. This year I chaired our Ball Committee, and felt very fortunate to have such a talented group of committee members involved. Without their diligence and efforts, the Ball would not have been such a great success. Therefore, I would again like to recognize and thank Amanda Cuddy, Denise Graffeo, CEC, AAC, Anthony Graffeo, CEC, AAC, Jodi Goodman Kahn, Des Makredes, CCE, and Nick Schiarizzi. Recognition and thanks should also go to the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Executive Chef Ron Bonenfant, the Staff of the Hotel, Mirror Image Band, and to our sponsors: Araban Coffee Co., Dole & Bailey, Market Dynamics, Myllan-Carberry's Bakery, New Zealand Lamb Co., Sysco, Everett High School Culinary Dept., Katsiroubas Brothers Produce, Libby Glass Inc., Paul W. Marks Co., Sid Wainer Co., Stevens & Associates, Steve Connolly Seafood Co., T. F. Kinnealey Co., United Liquors, Ltd. and U. S. Foodservice.

At the Ball, as in years past, the Club presented some well-deserved awards and recognitions to some of our peer. I would Like to congratulate the following recipients: the Service to the Industry Award - Patrick Whitley; the Perpetual Purveyor Award - Paul W. Marks Co.; Purveyor Grants - Jeffrey Barr and Norman D. Myerow, CEPC, CCE, AAC; Special Recognition Awards - Denise Graffeo, Jeffrey Barr and Jeremy DiStefano, CSC; the Romeo Tolini Junior of the Year Award - Stephen Coe; and our highest award, the Edward S. Daly Chef of the Year Award - Edmund Wetterwald, CSC. Again, congratulations to all of you!

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Our November monthly meeting was held at Sid Wainer Co. in New Bedford and was well attended by our members. Those in attendance received a surprise from our Meetings Chair, Denise Graffeo. Denise had contacted the ACF National Office and requested continuing education hours for our meeting and as a result, the ACF awarded members in attendance with 4 hours of education points to be used towards becoming certified, as well as 15 hours of continuing education for re-certification! On behalf of our members, I'd like to express appreciation to Denise for her efforts, and to the ACF for these additional hours. The meeting started with our evening's host and featured speaker, Henry Wainer, who educated us on HACCP and the produce/specialty business. During the business portion of the meeting, our Election Chair Steve LaCount, CEC, AAC open the floor for nominations for election. From the floor, George Norton, CEC, AAC nominated Kevin Hanrahan, CEC for the Board of Directors. Kevin accepted and presented 10 signatures of active members in good standing to Steve LaCount, as required by our By-Laws for nominations in the month of November.

Please note that nominations are now closed for the upcoming election, and your ballot will be in the mail to you by December 1st. Remember, please return your ballot by the deadline for your vote to count.

For the second half of our meeting, we were treated to a tasting tour of many of Sid Wainer's specialty items. Then there was a tour of the facility, which concluded with a wonderful dinner served from their open kitchen. I would like to thank Henry Wainer for hosting and speaking at our meeting, and I'd like to add an extra thank you to our hosts for arranging special transportation for ECB members, a bus at no charge. Thanks to the entire staff at the Sid Wainer Co. for a fun and educational meeting,

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There will be no meeting for the month of December, so please mark your calendars for our next meeting scheduled for January 21st at 5pm. We will kick off our first meeting of the New Year with our annual Junior Fundraiser and a special food show at the Chelmsford Radisson Hotel. This year we will be sending our Junior Culinary Team to the NE Regional Conference in West Virginia, where they will compete against the best junior teams in the Northeast. This year, plans for the Junior Fundraiser so far include: free attendance for the meeting, a larger food show, more prizes, as well as raffles and silent auction items.

In addition, this year's keynote speaker will be the ACF National Junior of the Year, Alfred Mann. And of course you will have an opportunity at this meeting to meet this year's ECB Junior Team, so please try to make it to this event. We also welcome your colleagues and kitchen staffs to come along. With your help, we can make this year's event our most successful yet.

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In closing, I would like you to ask you to read about the Greater Boston Food Bank's latest fundraising event (later in this newsletter), and if you would like to lend a hand, as always it would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Holidays to all, and may we all look forward to a New Year, which will bring us peace and happiness.

Warmest regards,

Rico DiFronzo, CEC

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