Food Service News In Brief
McDonald’s announced that it will raise wages at the roughly 1,500 restaurants it owns in the U.S. beginning July 1. The new policy, which guarantees that the company will pay at least $1 an hour more than the local minimum wage, only applies to company-owned locations, not franchises. The pay increase will lift the average hourly rate to $9.90 on July 1 and to more than $10 by the end of 2016. In addition to the wage increase, McDonald’s said it will enable workers after a year of employment to accrue up to five days of paid time off annually. The company also plans to make subsidies for some education costs available to all 750,000 U.S. workers, including employees at franchisees…
Several professional chefs associations including the ACF, AAC, ECB and the Culinary Institute of America family are mourning the passing of Chef Noble Masi, who recently died at 76. Chef Masi retired as a professor in baking and pastry arts at the CIA in 2001 as one of the three longest-serving professors in the history of the college. Chef Masi was named Chef of the Year by ACF in 1999. He earned the ACF’s Professionalism Award in 1996, and was the organization’s Educator of the Year in 1982. In 2008, he was presented with the ACF’s first-ever Joseph Amendola Award honoring master bakers and pastry chefs who have dedicated their career to their profession and mentoring future baking and pastry professionals. Chef Masi was also chairman of the Retail Bakers Association’s Master Bakers’ Exam and a former advisor to the University of British West Indies…
The Taste of The North End, a festival of food, charity and the history of Boston’s North End neighborhood, will be held May 1 at the Steriti Memorial Rink. The event draws more than 35 North End eateries.
