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Ron Ruggless
CHICAGO Sally Smith, president and chief executive of Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., on Monday night was bestowed with the Gold Plate Award by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association.
The Gold Plate, selected from among Silver Plate winners, recognizes the outstanding and innovative talent in foodservice operation.
Click here for a slideshow of photos from the event.
Smith was honored for helping Buffalo Wild Wings, a 580-unit company based in Minneapolis, achieve “phenomenal profit and sales growth with integrity and creative business savvy.” The company has full-service restaurants in 40 states and has total annual sales of $1.2 billion.
"I can say to my team: ‘Woo hoo!,’” Smith said after receiving the award at the annual IFMA banquet in Chicago. “I was shocked to be announced as a Silver Plate [award winner]. My team should be up here tonight. I may be the face of Buffalo Wild Wings, but they are out there building restaurants.”
Smith said: “I’m blessed to be a part of truly wonderful restaurant industry."
"I’m always amazed when food gets to the table at any restaurant be it at McDonald's or Dunkin’ Donuts or Blue Ginger, because of everything that it takes to get it there,” she said. “Someone had to order the food -- well, first someone had to go to the restaurant -- and then there are the training people, and you have the phenomenal general managers who are running their own small business ... And they have to treat the guests like they are the only people in the restaurant.”
The Gold and Silver Plate awards are voted on in a secret ballot by a panel of trade press editors and previous award winners in nine categories.
Silver Plate winners honored Monday night included:
Independent category: celebrity chef Ming Tsai, chef-owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass.
Fast-service category: McDonald’s chief executive James Skinner.
Health care: Betty Perez, director of food and nutrition services at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.
Education: Marcia Smith, director of foodservice for the Polk County School Board in Bartow, Fla., won among elementary and secondary schools; and Stuart Orefice, director of dining services at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., won for colleges and universities.
Business and industry-foodservice management: Robert Whitcomb, chief executive of Whitsons Culinary Group in Islandia, N.Y.
Hotels and lodging: Ed Mady, vice president and area general manager for the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco.
Specialty foodservices: Tim Ryan, president of The Culinary Institute of America.
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