At University of California-Santa Barbara, a new 46’-long mobile kitchen is serving soccer fans, college students and, if need be, disaster refugees. Best of all, it’s serving more and better food at lower cost than before.

Six suppliers and 10 member dealers were honored at Allied Buying Corp.’s spring conference, May 3-6 in San Diego.Suppliers recognized for Outstanding Sales Achievement-Volume Growth were Candle Lamp Co., Nor-Lake and Vollrath Co. Supplier Awards of Merit-Sales Effort were presented to Cambro Mfg., Nemco Food Equipment and Vita-Mix Corp.Four dealers received honors for Outstanding Supplier…

Summer is not yet officially here, but dealer sales people, sales managers and key management can kick off the hot-weather selling season with a June 8 teleconference sponsored by the Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association. The program, at 10 a.m. CST, focuses on how salespeople can differentiate themselves from the competition by positioning themselves as trusted…

Charles “Chuck” Fadel, retired CEO of Fadels Inc. Foodservice, Equipment and Supplies, Charlotte, N.C., passed away May 18. He was 86. After serving in the Marines in World War II in the Pacific Theater, Fadel joined his mother and brothers, Ted and Sam, in the restaurant business. They operated Chuck’s Lunch, Fadels Grill, Biltmore Dairy…

Two senior-level appointments have been announced by Middleby Corp. James Pool has been named president of TurboChef, the Carrollton, Texas, oven manufacturer. He’ll oversee day-to-day sales and operations. Pool succeeds Paul Lehr, who has retired. Pool joined TurboChef in 1995, and has been the company’s principal engineer for the past decade. Karl Doyon has been…

The Certified Food Service Professional program has recently undergone two changes that should streamline the application and updating processes. First, the point-earning/recording requirements have been simplified and the North American Food Equipment Manufacturers Association no longer differentiates between advancement and maintenance points. To maintain certification, participants pay dues ($50 every two years) and earn one…

First of all, I want to thank all of you who helped us with data for our new FER Top Dealer listings. The data will appear in our June issue, which you should receive any day. I especially want to thank the 31 brave dealers and two broadliners that provided us with independent verification of…

More dealers made the trip to Chicago’s McCormick Place for the 92nd annual National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show last month. The association released attendance numbers that showed a 6% rise in attendance among dealer/distributors, as well as a 4% increase in the restaurant/foodservice category of attendees. The May 21-24 show attracted nearly 58,000 registrants,…

Maines Paper & Food Service is the sole E&S distributor among the eleven companies recognized this year by Darden Restaurants with its annual William B. Darden Distinguished Supplier Award. Named for the company’s late founder, recipients are chosen from among more than 1,500 global suppliers. Maines, a third-generation, family-owned company, is headquartered in Conklin, N.Y.…

California Pizza Kitchen will be acquired for $470 million by private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital. The deal was announced May 25. San Francisco-based Golden Gate said it would begin its tender offer for the publicly traded CPK by June 8 and expects to close the deal in the third quarter. The deal comes a little…