CIA mainstay Amendola spread hospitality throughout industry

Nation's Restaurant News,  Feb 11, 2008  by Pamela Parseghian

Tags: CIA, industry

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The last time I spoke with Joe Amendola face to face was at Nation's Restaurant News' Culinary R&D conference in 2005. Flashing his signature smile, the "senior ambassador" of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., presented me with a copy of his latest book, "Tastes and Tales of a Chef, A Culinary Journey with Mr. A."

After a quick "thank you," I was about to make my excuses and run off to work when four words on the cover stopped me in my tracks and reminded me what the hospitality industry--and Joe himself--is really about. "Make time for people" was one of Joe's "10 Commandments" that he followed as well as preached.

Instead of sitting with me in that Orlando, Fla., ballroom, Joe could have been spending the afternoon playing golf, a favorite pastime. But he said he had come to say hello to me and the countless chefs who stopped by to pay homage to him as we talked. Joe always seemed to have a lot of friends around him.

That was apparent once again when he died recently at the age of 87.

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At the funeral, among a sea of mourners, many in chef's whites, Dr. Tim Ryan, president of The Culinary Institute of American delivered a eulogy, saying: "Central to the influence that the CIA has had is our 38,000 alumni holding leadership positions in every aspect of the foodservice industry, all over the world. And every stogie one of those alumni knows Joe Amendola."

"There is no question that Joe Amendola was one of the key figures in the history of The Culinary Institute of America," Ryan wrote in a memo notifying his staff that Joe had died.

Dubbed the CIA's official "Ambassador" in 1995 when he retired from the culinary school, Joe continued to attend dozens of industry events each year. Just last summer, he attended the American Culinary Federation's annual conference.

It was there that he took the time to meet my newest colleague, Catherine Russo Cobb, who after a brief visit referred to him as "a love." That was the way Joe treated everyone he met. He was equally cordial to support staff at conferences. Our special-events executive, Linda Quirk, who meets hundreds of individuals at the dozens of events each year, remarked, "That Joe Amendola is such a nice man."

"It seems every time I help people, I get back tenfold in other ways," he told me in a 1995 interview. Joe certainly helped me, beginning in 1979 when I was a CIA student and he was the interim president or dean of students.

Several years later, at an ACF conference when I was fishing for news about who was about to be named the school's next president, Joe said we could talk about it over ice cream--he had a sweet tooth. Without spilling the beans, exactly, he helped me by telling me as much as he could.

"I always learn so much when

I teach others," Joe said. "I'm constantly learning. Some people have money; I have knowledge."

He also loved the culinary profession, saying he would definitely recommend it to anyone. "I have been able to travel the globe and enjoy the best of everything," he said.

But Joe paid his dues too. During the Depression when he was 9 years old, he apprenticed in his uncle's bakery in New Haven, Conn. Later as a private in the army he credited an unsolicited offer to bake apple pies, which was beyond his call of duty, with an elevation in rank and entry into leading European kitchens. Then when he returned home, he worked his way on to the staff of the fledgling New Haven culinary school that eventually moved to Hyde Park and became the CIA.

Later, his contagious enthusiasm served him well as he worked to establish Fessel International, an Orlando-based consulting company. Through it all, though, he continued to donate his time and energy to raise funds and help support the CIA.

"If you wait for opportunities, they may never come; sometimes you have to make your own opportunities happen," Joe wrote in his memoir. Thank you, Joe, for sharing your time and teaching us your recipes for sweets and hospitality as well.

Pamela Parseghian

EXECUTIVE FOOD EDITOR

pparsegh@nrn.com

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