Food Management Magazine Announces 2009 Best Concept Award Winners
April, 2009

From spectacular restaurant and station concepts to novel special events and specialized menus, FM's annual awards program highlights the most innovative operations in onsite foodservice.

FM's BEST CONCEPTS AWARDS competition recognizes and celebrates innovative thinking and practice in noncommercial foodservice.

Each year, our editors evaluate entries for scores of nominees before settling on the winners. The entries themselves are judged on a variety of factors ranging from their creativity to their impact on a given program and their effectiveness in achieving targeted results.

At the end of the day, the Best Concept Awards are about IDEAS - great ideas, innovative ideas, think-outside-the-box ideas - that allow onsite operators to manage foodservices more successfully and more efficiently and to better meet customer expectations.

The goal of the Best Concepts Awards program is to recognize these innovations and the organizations and teams responsible for them.

BEST SPECIAL EVENT

At Trail's End, a Feast

WINNER: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

ENTRY: TRAILSIDE TASTE ALONG THE APPALACHIAN

Adam Rainville, U of GA's assistant manager who hiked the Appalachian Trail last year and was the main planner for the event.

PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS:

Adam Rainville
assistant manager, Appalachian Trail hiker and concept originator

Paul Oesterle
chef, menu support

Stacia Fink
assistant manager for décor

Anthony Howell, Jessica Fox, Art DiFrancesco
assistant managers

Janet Rawlings
manager

Jeanne Fry
director

J. Michael Floyd
executive director

THE BIG IDEA: With the famous Appalachian Trail terminating only about 80 miles from UGA's Athens campus, a theme meal celebrating the Trail is a natural. However, what sets this event apart is the meticulous preparation, the painstaking detail and the flawless execution. Not easy when you have to prepare for 8,200 meal plan customers

Held concurrently in four campus dining commons last February 29th, it featured a menu incorporating special dishes from the inns and cafes that dot the Trail from Georgia to Maine as well as examples of "campfire cuisine."

The event was designed to be educational, with informational materials and member of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club available to answer questions about hiking the trail. Also on hand was the Georgia Outdoor Recreation Program with information about upcoming outdoor trips and a local camping equipment retailer (Half Moon Outfitters) with displays and demos.

As for the food, the menu included unusual trail concoctions like "spambalaya" and Limas With Ramps