News & Events
College to Salute Restaurateur David Emil and City Harvest
at Best of New York Award Dinner on May 22
Restaurateur David Emil
Pastry Chef Sherry Yard '89
City Tech will salute restaurateur David Emil, City Harvest, alumna and award-winning pastry chef Sherry Yard and Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals at its 2003 Best of New York Award Dinner on May 22 at Tavern on the Green. The annual event honors individuals, corporations and organizations that are making outstanding contributions to the economic, educational or cultural life of our city, state and nation.
David Emil's Windows on the World was the country's highest grossing restaurant before the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center decimated it. In the aftermath of that tragedy, Emil and celebrity chefs Tom Valenti (Ouest), Waldy Malouf (Beacon) and Michael Lomonaco (Noche), also a City Tech graduate, established the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, a national charitable effort that has raised some $20 million to benefit the families of the food-service workers who lost their lives at the Twin Towers. Noche, Emil's new Latin-theme nightclub/restaurant located in the heart of the city's Theatre District, has reunited scores of former Windows employees who were not at work atop the World Trade Center on 9/11.
From its origins as a volunteer-based organization
connecting a handful of neighborhood restaurants and agencies, City
Harvest now distributes 16 million pounds of food annually
to more than 800 local emergency food programs and helps provide
healthy meals to some 200,000 New Yorkers each week. Established
in 1982, it is America's oldest and largest food rescue operation
in a nation in which 96 billion pounds of food go to waste each
year.
Sherry Yard, a 1989 graduate of City Tech's hospitality management
program, was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2002 by the James
Beard Foundation. Her formal culinary education at City Tech and
the Culinary Institute of America first took her to several of New
York City's top restaurants, including the Rainbow Room, Montrachet
and Tribeca Grill. Yard joined Spago Beverly Hills as pastry chef
in 1994 and quickly made her mark on the Los Angeles restaurant
scene using locally grown ingredients from neighborhood farmer's
markets in her innovative desserts. In addition to creating the
dessert menu for Spago, she is also involved in pastry menu development
for other Wolfgang Puck restaurants.
Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals is recognized by the global business community as the source of information on finance and technology for the hospitality industry. Its roots stem from a number of state-centered accountant associations that joined together in 1952 to create a national network. Prior to then, accountants were the only important segment of hotel executive personnel not represented by an association.
The Best of New York Award Dinner is hosted by the City Tech Foundation. Proceeds help fund City Tech's student scholarship programs and faculty development initiatives. For more information, call 781.260.5025.
Photo Credit: David De Silva
