Meeting Minutes – May 6th, 2019

American Culinary Federation New Orleans Chapter Agenda

Date:5/6/2019

• Call to Order and Welcome by Chef Leon West, President, at 4:03.
• Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
• Culinarians Code – Chef Ruth Varisco, CCE, CEPC read the Culinarians Code.
• Attendance – Mary Bartholomew, Ruth Varisco, T Walden, Jay Sigl, Leon West, Mark Springfloat, Wesley Turnage, Dennis Dunn, Jon Petrie, Joseph Accomando, Chris Hayes, Val Hesse, Roland Joyer, Matt Grillery, Anatasia Joyer, Matthew Box, Kevin Belton, Shante Rickmon, Kerinesha Dupard.
• Reading and Approval of Minutes – Dr. Mary Bartholomew, CCE, read the minutes. They were accepted – by 1st Ruth Varisco, and 2nd T Walden, approved unanimously.
• Reports
  • President’s Report: The Best Chefs Event went very well this year. The food, band and emcees were great. Maybe use hashtags next year to promote more social media.
  • Treasurer Report: $56,123.00, in checking, $6060.00 in savings, and $15,186 in another acct. Roughly cleared about $3414.00 from the Cancer Society auction. The total auction amount was $5690.00. All thought that working with the Cancer Society was a good move for the Best Chefs auction.
  • Membership: Matthew made cards for the ACFNO that has a QR code. The code scans directly to the ACFNO web page for people to join our chapter.
  • Best Chefs comments – There was discussion that 2018 BCE sold more tickets than in 2019. It was probably due to other events that conflicted with BCE, such as French Quarter Festival and Hogs for Cause. There needs to be follow up with ticket sales in order to analyze our potential. It may be prudent to move the 2020 BCE to another date. On another note, the Cancer Society send an itemized spreadsheet with the amount of everything sold. It was agreed that the BCE should partner again next year with them. The chef coat and poster signed by the Best Chefs made $650.00. For next year, a procedure is needed for final checkout of auction items because some people did not know where to pay.
• New Business: A popup truck was discussed. We could maybe partner with the Community Market. The City is not helpful with this and ACFNO could help chefs with the obstacles. Other new business that was discussed was certification. Since many companies require certification this needs to be addressed at meetings by giving CEHs. There are 5 evaluators in the State. Certification workshops are an opportunity for recruitment. Certification workshops need to be planned with a specific curriculum.
• Old Business: no old business.
• Roundtable: Thanks from the Louisiana Spice band for letting us be a part of the BCE. Leon thanked Ruth for all the student help at BCE.
• Meeting adjourned at 5:09. 1 st by Jon and 2 nd by Matt.




Respectfully submitted by:
Mary P Bartholomew, PhD, CCE
ACFNO Secretary