HISTORY OF CHEFS IN

AMERICA AWARDS FOUNDATION

The Chefs In America Awards Foundation was inaugurated in 1989 to bring much needed recognition to working Chefs throughout the United States.

The first Awards Ceremony was held in the basement of La Reserve, a well-known French restaurant in New York. The movement was truly underground as legendary Chefs like Christian Rassinoux, Alain Sailhac, Alfred Portale and Linda Bastianich were just emerging in the public eye in the late nineteen eighties.

They were joined later by Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Patrick Clark, Jean-George Vongerichten, Gray Kunz, David Burke and a host of others as early Awardees.

For years founder Jesse Sartain™ traveled tirelessly across multiple time zones in the U.S. to convey Culinary Excellence Awards  to Chefs in 16 cities – to men and women of all ethnic cuisines, including both restaurant and hotel Chefs alike. He was certainly a pioneer in this regard and in those early days of the eighties and nineties.  “We thought he was a madman – rushing from city to city to conduct Chef events featuring these awards presentations,” commented Pascal Oudin of Pascal’s on Ponce (Boca Raton, Florida). 

“But remember in those days, very few Chefs were in the limelight. Sartain was an early pioneer of Chef recognition, even pre-dating the now famous James Beard Awards,” added Scott Cohen, now Executive Chef of the Mansion Del Rio in San Antonio, Texas. “We all knew the awards were like fireworks – simply a flash in the night – but certainly a much appreciated spotlight for our labors and our profession,” commented the legendary Executive Chef of the Ritz Carlton, Chicago, Fernando Gutierrez (who now resides as a consultant in Mexico City).

As the program grew, the awards became a national phenomenon with annual ceremonies at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Great Chefs like Jeremiah Towers, Fritz Sonnenschmidt, Jean Banchet  and Jean-Louis Palladin were honored as U.S.A. Chefs of The Year  as the music played and champagne flowed into the night at  after-awards parties at the Rockefeller Penthouse of the New York Hilton.

Later, awards for foodservice products were added to the program to honor the efforts of quality producers from the North American marketplace.

In all, 2,000 Chefs were honored over 14 years and 150,000 products were tasted in weekly product judgings while the organization grew into a network of 10,000 Chefs.

Certainly something had to give -- in this case it was Jesse Sartain™’s health that faltered. In 2001, suffering total exhaustion, Sartain sold the American Tasting Institute, the organization that had funded the Awards Foundation and its many activities for so many years.
 

Still, his indefatigable spirit was soon to rebound. After open heart surgery only 20 days after the sale and nine days after the events of September 11, 2001, Sartain was back. With a new aortic valve implanted, Sartain went back to work within five days and with newfound energy, re-built the Chefs In America organization and a new funding organization called the American Academy of Taste.

Now, five years later, he leads a staff of ten in offices in both Northern California and Las Vegas. Data tracking the 10,000 Chefs has been re-created and a National Board has been reappointed. Four national tasting events are conducted each year and the annual awards ceremony has shifted to Chicago, prior to the National Restaurant Show.

Yes, of course some things have changed. Now some 20 years after that humble beginning in a New York basement, the Chef awards have evolved into the highly selective Masters of Taste accreditation program.

The product awards are now billed as the U.S.A. Taste Championships with weekly judgings in both California and Nevada. And new initiatives have been launched, focusing on SuperfoodsUSA™ supporting a deeper “kitchen consciousness”; Labor Savers, touting more productive kitchen equipment and Precious Commodities, encompassing “better practices” seafood, highly prized cheese products and exquisite gourmet items.

Founder, Jesse Sartain™ is still crisscrossing the U.S.and the globe, searching for worthy products and honoring accomplished Chef professionals, celebrating two decades of Awards perpetuating culinary excellence in the United States of America and globally.
 

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