''Local, Sustainable, And Organic'' Panel At Western Food Service And Hospitality Expo To Be Led By Aaron Noveshen, Founder Of The Culinary Edge And President, Pacific Catch Restaurants

San Francisco, CA - The Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo, held Aug. 18-20 at the Los Angeles Convention Center will, for the first time, host a Foodservice Forum designed by Chef Ferdinand Metz, who served as top Chef of the Culinary Institute of America for 20 years. Pledging to "go beyond food" in the design of the forum, Metz has asked Aaron Noveshen, founder of The Culinary Edge and president of Pacific Catch Restaurants, to design and lead a panel on the sustainable foods movement on Saturday, August 18 from 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM.

The session builds on the standing-room-only panel discussion on organics, local food, and sustainability led by Noveshen at the NRA Show 07 in Chicago (May 20)., and features Laura Avery, farmers' market supervisor at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market; Michael Cimarusti, co-owner and executive chef, Providence; Andrew Hunter, vice president of culinary development at Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Express; and Anita S. Widmayer, director, food and nutrition services, Kaiser Permanente. Noveshen selected the speakers for their success in creating ambitious and/or wide-ranging sustainability implementations, including Wolfgang Puck's Eating, Loving, and Living program (WELL), which will positively impact an estimated 10 million customers, and Kaiser Permanente's Healthy Picks initiative which has incorporated healthful foods in over 1,000 vending machines and has sustainability initiatives in most of its cafeterias. On the agenda are discussions on the local resources available to California operators for proactively and profitably responding to these issues, across all dining segments of the restaurant business.

"This session features some of today's greatest innovators in the sustainable foods movement, and attendees will learn just how to make these issues a priority in foodservice to help keep customers healthy and happy and to help create some change for the future," said Aaron Noveshen. "We'll be discussing programs implemented on a truly grand scale to tens of thousands of people, and awesome smaller programs for all ranges of foodservice operations."

Noveshen also will be appearing at Restaurant Hospitality and Food Management Magazines' "Healthy Customers, Healthy Profits" seminar on September 27 in Baltimore www.hchpseminar.com, and at the 9^th Annual "Concepts of Tomorrow" conference presented by Restaurant Hospitality Magazine, in Las Vegas, at the "Ask the Experts" session.

More About the Panelists

Laura Avery - Laura Avery has been the Santa Monica Farmers Market manager since 1982 – one year after the market opened. The Santa Monica Farmers Market program currently consists of 4 markets that serve approximately 200 farmers and 20,000 customers each week. Laura also serves as President of the Board of Directors of Southland Farmers Market Association, a non-profit organization that serves the interests of farmers at southern California markets. She was instrumental in bringing the first school farmers market salad bar to the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, which observes its tenth year of operation this year, serving over 100,000 salad bar meals to Santa Monica and Malibu students last year. The Santa Monica Wednesday farmers market is a popular destination for local chefs who shop each week for the best local ingredients and who feature farmers by name on their menus.

Chef Michael Cimarusti – A co-owner and the executive head chef of Providence, Michael Cimarusti's passion and curiosity for food was ignited at an early age by his grandmother, Jo Cimarusti. In the great Italian culinary tradition, his grandmother, alongside his great-grandmother and aunts, made sure that every holiday meal was an event. Cimarusti can trace his reverence for ingredients and proper technique back to those Sunday family meals. Cimarusti knew early on that he wanted to be a chef. After a couple of apprenticeships, he attended the internationally acclaimed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Graduating with honors, his first job out of school was with celebrated New York City Chef Larry Forgione of An American Place. Wanting to hone his classical French cooking skills, Chef Cimarusti began working at Le Cirque where he rose to Saucier at the New York City institution. Chef Cimarustis' greatest influences were Le Cirques Chefs Sottah Khunn and Sylvain Portay. Their reverence for quality ingredients and refined technique can be seen in his menu at Providence.

Chef Andrew Hunter - As vice president, culinary development of Wolfgang Puck Express, Andrew Hunter translates Wolfgang Puck's fine dining culinary vision into great tasting food that appeals to a wide audience at the Wolfgang Puck Express fast-casual restaurants. He is responsible for the development and implementation of new products, menu design and the continual improvement of existing recipe items and ingredients. Before joining Wolfgang Puck Express, Hunter was president of a product development company that created menu concepts, innovative recipes and foodservice systems for chain restaurant groups, and packaged foods for retail food manufacturers. Andrew's culinary experience includes working as a fine dining chef and managing the culinary operations for the Olive Garden chain. Hunter earned an associate's degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America, and bachelor and master's degrees.

Anita Widmayer - Anita Widmayer was appointed Department Administrator for Food and Nutrition Services at Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center in 2004. Anita serves as a member of the Kaiser Permanente Healthy Picks committee. The Healthy Picks Program was created to make it easier for Kaiser members, employees, and the community to make good nutritional selections within the ever-increasing array of fresh food options. The Healthy Picks program was instituted at Anaheim Medical Center in Fall 2005. At that time, 50 percent of its vending machine items were converted to healthy picks. The program is now being expanded to the cafeteria with enthusiastic support from employees and members. Previously, Widmayer served as Director, Food and Environmental Services, for Hoag Memorial Hospital and Director, Food and Nutrition Services for Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach. She is a Registered Dietitian, with a BA in Dietetics from California State University Los Angeles and has 25 years of management experience in Health Care Food and Nutrition Service Administration.

Aaron Noveshen - Aaron Noveshen has over 20 years' experience creating leading edge products and concepts for the food and beverage industry. After 10 years of fine dining chef duties at top restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Aaron co-founded World Wrapps Restaurant Co, a Nation's Restaurant News Hot Concept Winner. His current company, The Culinary Edge, provides restaurants and foodservice manufacturers with integrated culinary, creative and operational solutions. He is also the co-founder of the award winning restaurant company, Pacific Catch Fresh Fish Grill.

SOURCE: Culinary Edge