Shakedown?

[bourdain]

FROM THE TIMES: "When Bob Lape, a restaurant critic for Crain's New York Business and a host of "Bob Lape's Dining Diary" on WCBS-AM, married Joanna Pruess, a food writer, in September, they persuaded 20 celebrated New York chefs, including Wayne Nish of March and Christian Delouvrier of Alain Ducasse, to contribute food to a potluck reception at the Central Park Boathouse. D'Artagnan shipped over complimentary foie gras, a point made clear on little cards on the tables. Paramount ponied up the caviar."

Hey! Sounds perfectly ethical to me! I'm sure they're all just really really good friends! In the meantime I'll be hanging on to Lape's every disinterested utterance.

Edited January 13, 2005 by bourdain (log)

[rich]

And who says one hand doesn't wash the other? - and together they could certainly wash more than the face.

Edited January 13, 2005 by rich (log)

[chefzadi]

This is the most bizarre scheme I've heard of to get free food for a Wedding reception.

[chefzadi]

And who says one hand doesn't was the other? - and together they could certainly wash more than the face.

←

One hand washing the other. Yes and one ass kissing the other in expectation of something similar down the road, preferably in the form of a favorable review or mention.

[Rebel Rose]

I wonder if they reviewed it. I can just see the bride in her lacy dress, notebook and pencil in hand.

[Chris Amirault]

On a related topic, I would just like to remind everyone that I'm having a baby shower this weekend, and if any of you want to get on my good side (and you DO want to be on my good side; the chumps who weren't are pushing up daisies, if you get my gist), you'll be making like D'Artagnan and doing some overnight FedExing tomorrow. You scratch my back, I can make a call or two, dig?

[Blondie]

In addition to being clearly unethical, it's just downright tacky.

[chefzadi]

On a related topic, I would just like to remind everyone that I'm having a baby shower this weekend, and if any of you want to get on my good side (and you DO want to be on my good side; the chumps who weren't are pushing up daisies, if you get my gist), you'll be making like D'Artagnan and doing some overnight FedExing tomorrow. You scratch my back, I can make a call or two, dig?

←

Especially the "potluck" part. It's too funny. I just can't picture some of old French Chefs I worked under when I was younger bringing a potluck dish anywhere.

[bandregg]

I envision wedding programs with credits on the back, product placements in the best man's speech, and for something truly nice, the name of a first born child.

"Have you met my son Cirque?"

Edited January 13, 2005 by bandregg (log)

[Al_Dente]

Didn't one of the icons of empowered womanity, Starr Jones, start this trend?

[bilrus]

Did the happy couple get to keep the Pyrex Portables that the chef's brought their dishes in?

[bloviatrix]

Blovie and I discussed this over breakfast. His comment was that everyone knows that writers for business publications such as Crains are more "industry cheerleaders" than serious journalists and that they don't follow the same ethical rules that newspapers follow.

But if you think that bit's bad, this part of the article made my hair stand up:

Mr. Trump claimed at least six top chefs threw their toques in the ring to provide the reception dinner. But Mrs. Trump-to-be called Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose four-star restaurant is a tenant in Trump International on Columbus Circle. The chef will whip up, and pick up the tab for, filet mignon with green peppercorn sauce (steamed shrimp for the calorie-conscious) for some 500 guests. With a typical prix fixe dinner at Jean-Georges hitting $87 (without wine), that's a comp worth some $43,000.

(my emphasis)

In addition to providing the food gratis, he also has to provide the chefs -- will they get paid? And what about JGV's investors? How do they feel about this freebie? How does it expensed?

The entire article is here: At Celebrity Nuptials to Die for, Vendors Give Themselves Away

[chefzadi]

Blovie and I discussed this over breakfast.  His comment was that everyone knows that writers for business publications such as Crains are more "industry cheerleaders" than serious journalists and that they don't follow the same ethical rules that newspapers follow.

But if you think that bit's bad, this part of the article made my hair stand up:

Mr. Trump claimed at least six top chefs threw their toques in the ring to provide the reception dinner. But Mrs. Trump-to-be called Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose four-star restaurant is a tenant in Trump International on Columbus Circle. The chef will whip up, and pick up the tab for, filet mignon with green peppercorn sauce (steamed shrimp for the calorie-conscious) for some 500 guests. With a typical prix fixe dinner at Jean-Georges hitting $87 (without wine), that's a comp worth some $43,000.

(my emphasis)

In addition to providing the food gratis, he also has to provide the chefs -- will they get paid? And what about JGV's investors? How do they feel about this freebie? How does it expensed?

The entire article is here: At Celebrity Nuptials to Die for, Vendors Give Themselves Away

←

J.V. can't expect or ask his chefs/cooks to work for free. With these publicity games what you see is not always what's happening. J.V. is a tenant in one of Trump's buildings. It behooves the Donald to get extra publicityfor J.V. and it behooves the Donald to make himself look "special" to have all these top notch vendors competing to see what big ticket item they offer him. (Am I the only one that has noticed that the Donald is an attention-seeker?)

A little paperwork shuffled here and there and maybe someone gets a month or so of free rent to offset the cost of the "donation", then someone it off as a loss and so on...

[Toliver]

I wonder if anyone at the IRS is adding up these gifts on the old Tax abacus. All these freebies are an "income" of sorts and Uncle Sam will want his fair share.

[Jensen]

In addition to providing the food gratis, he also has to provide the chefs -- will they get paid?  And what about JGV's investors?  How do they feel about this freebie?  How does it expensed?

←

I would suspect that the whole shebang would be written off as promotion. The investors should be happy, as it gives the JGV a captive audience made up of their target demographic.

I don't have an issue with anyone comping their goods or services. *Asking* to be comped for a wedding is just tacky though.

[chefzadi]

In addition to providing the food gratis, he also has to provide the chefs -- will they get paid?  And what about JGV's investors?  How do they feel about this freebie?  How does it expensed?

←

I would suspect that the whole shebang would be written off as promotion. The investors should be happy, as it gives the JGV a captive audience made up of their target demographic.

I don't have an issue with anyone comping their goods or services. *Asking* to be comped for a wedding is just tacky though.

←

Can you write it off as a "promotion". Maybe as a business expense. I don't think it can even be written off as an advertising expenditure. But I'm not a CPA. So there you go. My worthless 2 cents.

[bloviatrix]

I wonder if anyone at the IRS is adding up these gifts on the old Tax abacus.  All these freebies are an "income" of sorts and Uncle Sam will want his fair share.

←

I've always wondered this question. To me it reeks of imputed income. But according to the article "from an IRS standpoint, they are unlikely to have major tax consequences."

[thezippy]

...In related news, Haliburton CEO David Lesar and Clear Channel Chairman Lawry Mays were spotted turtle-waxing Dick Cheney's Jaguar in central D.C. last weekend...

[chefzadi]

I'm not so much concerned with the "free gifts" being taken. I'm more concerned with the "gift givers." As a chef and an LA resident I can imagine what the "invitations to contribute to the potluck reception" stated directly and implied. Some shit about "great press!!!!" I'd give them the finger and bare my ass if I had time during my smoking breaks. They were a$$holes for asking for sure. But the chefs gave it to them knowing it was a cheap ass attempt at getting free food with promises of pretty PR later.

[bloviatrix]

I have been saying for years that the IRS should be looking into these arrangements between celebrities and the purveyors of high-end goods/services. I'm not a tax lawyer, but I sincerely believe that there is imputed income when a celebrity agrees to wear a certain frock or jewelry in exchange for a mention to the press members that call out "What are you wearing?" on the red carpet. These loans are not de minimus gifts; if celebs had to rent that stuff for the evening, it would set them back a pretty penny. Likewise, JV's catering service, depending on what is really going on behind the scenes, seems to be either (a) a personal gift to Donald and thus a non-deductible business expense; or (b) barter for a rent concession and therefore imputed income to the Donald. Moreover, assuming Donald and JV have partners, respectively, in the hotel and the restaurant, it also seems that at least one set of partners might be getting shafted here by the use of partnership assets for personal business.

~bloviator

Edited January 14, 2005 by bloviatrix (log)

[Bux]

In terms of a restaurant's largess, I don't think there's a need to write off any of this as advertising or promotion. All of the costs involved are probably written off as part of the normal overhead of operating a dinner. The cost of each dinner is not matched against the check for that table.

At any rate, now I know why celebreties get married and remarried so often. It's cheaper than going out for dinner.