Beard Foundation: Cooks' Books?

[ronnie_suburban]

More information, reported by Corie Brown in today's L.A. Times.com (free subscription required):

Some of the worst fears about the scandal at the James Beard Foundation were confirmed Wednesday, when the country's most prominent food and wine group released an audit showing more than $1 million had been misappropriated, and some of its leading members demanded the immediate resignation of the board of trustees.

Members of the restaurant awards committee and others, including chef Charlie Trotter, called for the immediate resignation of the board, and the separation of the awards committees from the rest of the foundation. "Two or three holdouts refuse to resign," Trotter said.

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[tanabutler]

Looks like the dam of denial has finally broken.

From today's New York Times (by Julia Moskin):

A journalist who is helping to separate the James Beard Foundation's prestigious restaurant awards from the troubled organization said yesterday that the group's chairman had told him that all of its 11 trustees would soon be replaced.

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FYI, those people are:

Board of Trustees

George P. Sape, Chairman

Diane D. Kern, First Vice Chairman

Robert W. Jones, Second Vice Chairman

Anne Byrd, Treasurer

Kathleen Perry, Secretary

Arthur Abelman

Nina Griscom

Paul R. Lovejoy

Marcie McNelis

Albert H. Nahmad

Jacques Pépin, Trustee Emeritus

Caroline Stuart

I bet they don't bump Pépin, though.

The thing is a not-for-profit, right? In that case, Pickell did a great job.

[lamb]

see story below

Board Fired over accusations of financial impropriety

[ronnie_suburban]

AP reports (via Newsday.com) that the current board will step down on January 6, 2005:

The 11-member board will step down Jan. 6 after appointing three interim board members to keep the foundation running, chef Charlie Trotter told The New York Times for Thursday editions. Trotter heads a committee overseeing the foundation's reform.

The three new members would resign once permanent board members were appointed, he said.

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[madziast]

wow! the way they were distancing themselves from him, i thought they were just going to let pickell take the fall. whatever went wrong, they empowerd or allowed him to get away with it.

[Vikas Khanna]

Even with all the controversy, the fact remains that James Beard would always be remembered as the GOD of American Cuisine. I read in the newspaper that their donations have really gone down and that many companies are withdrawing their support from it. I am also writing to many companies and chefs to be generous and keep this Legandry Org alive and going forever.

[emhahn]

The Beard Foundation is having many of the same problems that some restaurant associations are experiencing. One of the things that have happened, is that many of these organizations or trade groups have become more wrapped up in making money, then sticking to principle.

For example, my company is a member of 4 state restaurant associations. There's a huge difference in the way they go about business. For one, two of these associations offer nothing about what is going on in the business. Rather, we get tons of mail, e-mail, etc. that are promotions for events. Sure, we could all go to more golf outings, fundraising dinners, or sponsor some other event. But at the tune of $500 a year or more, I'd rather have information from the groups that are lobbying our state legislatures on the changes that are important to restaurant operators.

A state restaurant association should be able to provide you with details that are important to your business. This is why people join them, right?

By this, I can see why the Beard Foundation would be having a difficult time. It makes sense to me in many regards.

Eric

RestaurantEdge.com

[ronnie_suburban]

Julia Moskin reports in today's New York Times:

Plans to remove the board of the James Beard Foundation immediately and replace some members with food professionals have stalled.

According to Charlie Trotter, the head of a committee of chefs and other food industry leaders helping to reorganize the group, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York said the plan to transform the board posed a potential conflict of interest, because the trustees would be overseeing annual awards for which they would be eligible.

James Beard Foundation Board Stays, For Now

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[ronnie_suburban]

A new, Interim Executive Director was named today:

The James Beard Foundation, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting and recognizing excellence in the culinary arts, today announced the selection of Edna Morris as the new Interim Executive Director. Ms. Morris is a highly respected restaurant industry veteran with more than 25 years of foodservice expertise.

James Beard Foundation Selects Restaurant Industry Veteran Edna Morris as Interim Executive Director

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[nyfood]

Some questions and observations about the new James Beard Exec Director.

She lives in Orlando and intends to stay there but she will be spending a significant amount of time here. Her background is Red Lobster. Can she know the white tablecloth constituency of James Beard? (She does serve on the Board of CIA).

In an interview she told me that her primary concern is to restore fiscal responsibility and institute a ethics policy.

Also, she wants to broaden the impact of the organization and increase educational outreach.

Danny Meyer thinks she's the bees knees and he is "especially heartened that the Foundation selected someone from outside the fine dining community."

Is her appointment an "enlightened move" that brings "instant credibility, competence and presence to an institution that needs and deserves healing and superior leadership," as Meyer says.

[ronnie_suburban]

More about Ms. Morris from today's Orlando Sentinel.com:

. . . Take, for example, the story announcing her appointment in one of the foundation's hometown newspapers, The New York Times. The headline read "A New Leader for Beard Foundation," and, just below in large letters, "Resume includes Red Lobster."

In a town with such restaurants as Daniel, Nobu, Per Se and Alain Ducasse, the Red Lobster reference seemed to be a not-so-subtle dig. 'The Crab Lady' . . .

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[mstillman]

unbelivable

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...DDGT9CGU161.DTL

[Moderator's note: News article links on the web tend to be short lived. Links go cold quickly and posts with nothing but a link to a news story without summary or short citation within the boundaries of our copyright and fair use policy may be deleted in the future. It's also unfair to ask members to pursue a link without offering some details of what might be found at the end of the link.

Please see the next post for a brief quote from "Recipe for Scandal," an article by Mike Weiss in the May 4, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle to be found at the link above. The article details Len Pickell's handling of the Beard foundation's business affairs as an unsalaried vice president for finance. "Cooking of the books" is a phrase used by Weiss in his account.]

[tanabutler]

Completely believable. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

From the article, which is titled "Cooking Books Like a Gourmet":

Last spring, the board was notified by the charities bureau of the New York state attorney general's office that it had missed its tax-filing deadline. Beard's longtime accountant, Bert Cohn, who was 73, wrote the trustees that he had delayed filing because he could not substantiate undocumented expenses and American Express bills. . . . Pickell explained to the trustees that the problem was poor record keeping. . . .

"He postured, said everything would be fine, there would be explanations, " says Sape. The auditors' report, received in October, went back only three years but found unsubstantiated expenditures of $373,251 in fiscal 2002; the figure was $371,907 in 2003 and $284,915 in 2004. More than a million dollars. A thousand dollars a day.

[Moderator's note: The citation from the SF Chronicle article was shortened to bring it within the guidelines of our fair use policy. We expect all members to abide by our policy.]

[mstillman]

Completely believable. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

i agree. just shocking in how blatant it was.

sad for him and the organization. i look forward to reading the next two articles.

[NulloModo]

I don't get why this is putting the organization as such risk though. From the way I read it, the foundation was practically bankrupt when he came onto the scene, and he managed to start pulling in tons and tons of income. So, perhaps he embezzled 1,000,000 over the years, but if he brought the foundation for practically no earnings to over 5,000,000 a year, that should more than offset what he took.

I mean, not that embezzling is right or anything, but still, it sounds like he did more good than bad there.

[mstillman]

I don't get why this is putting the organization as such risk though.  From the way I read it, the foundation was practically bankrupt when he came onto the scene, and he managed to start pulling in tons and tons of income.  So, perhaps he embezzled 1,000,000 over the years, but if he brought the foundation for practically no earnings to over 5,000,000 a year, that should more than offset what he took. 

I mean, not that embezzling is right or anything, but still, it sounds like he did more good than bad there.

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i hear what you are saying but this type of thing is bad for fund raising in the near future because corporations/wealthy individuals don't like to be perceived to be throwing their money into a hole with a bad reputation.

when the stink started to rise off of enron everyone jumped and made it sink faster.