PEBBLE BEACH Calif. About 125 foodservice operators, suppliers and their guests flocked here March 10-13 to support hospitality and wine industry scholarship funds by participating in the Ted J. Balestreri Leadership Classic.
The event benefited the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and Monterey Wine Educational Foundation.
Click here to see a slide show of photos from the event.
Named after and hosted by former National Restaurant Association chairman Ted. J. Balestreri, co-owner of the Sardine Factory restaurant in Monterey and head of the Cannery Row Co. development organization, the Leadership Classic combined individual and team golfing at Pebble Beach-area courses, as well as winery tours and spa treatments for non-golfers. Hospitality suites, exploration of local restaurants and live entertainment also were on the agenda, as was the Monterey Wine & Lifestyle Auction Dinner held March 12 in the ballroom of the Inn at Spanish Bay, the event’s headquarters hotel.
Officials of the NRA Educational Foundation, or NRAEF, said the Leadership Classic raised approximately $600,000 for scholarships, excluding monies from the live auction.
Around $138,000 was raised through the auction sponsored by the NRAEF and the Monterey Wine Educational Foundation, or MWEF. Proceeds will benefit multiple MWEF scholarship funds for students pursuing careers in the hospitality and wine-making fields. Those MWEF funds are administered by the NRAEF.
Pacific Grove High School in Pacific Grove, Calif., near Pebble Beach, has a culinary team that competes in ProStart events and has benefited from scholarship funds or grants. Some of the school’s students aided the Inn at Spanish Bay’s professional food-and-beverage staff in the preparation of the auction dinner.
NRAEF vice chairman Carlton Curtis of The Coca-Cola Co. characterized the work of the foundation in helping to train young people as analogous to being part of a track relay team. As does a member of a relay team, the NRAEF, along with the institutions it supports, runs with the next generation of hospitality worker until it is ready to “receive the baton and move forward,” he said.
The 28 items put up by auctioneer Glenn Hammer, a former restaurateur and MWEF founding board member, ranged from a single three-liter bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to a seven-night stay for seven at an Italian villa.
Pierre and Marietta Bain, co-owners and operators of Fandango restaurant in Pacific Grove, were among the restaurateurs bidding generously for a good cause. For their $8,000, the Bains will golf at Pebble Beach in April with acclaimed chef-restaurateur Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se and took home a five-liter bottle of 2007 Pessagno Winery Four Boys Vineyard Pinot Noir and tickets to the Third Annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine event.
Auction dinner speakers included National Restaurant Association chairman Michael Gibbons of Mainstreet Ventures Inc., and Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, Calif.
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].
