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OMAHA RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION | THE INSTITUTE OF CULINARY ARTS AT MCC
celebrating 25 years in 2016!
hospitality honors David Hayes David Hayes, 62, is well known in the Omaha restaurant industry. He has owned some of Omaha’s favorite restaurants beginning with The Winery, Monterey Café, Jams, Bebo’s, Gourmet & More, B & G’s and Block 16. He currently owns V. Mertz, four Egg and I’s, a restaurant in Chicago and Trio in Sterling Ridge. Hayes’ professional associations include the Omaha Restaurant Association, for which he has held the positions of board member, vice president and president. He is a member of the Nebraska Restaurant Association, the International Wine and Food Society, and Vin Nebraska. Hayes has has two sons, Noah and Dillon, and he and his wife Diane live in Omaha. They have one grandchild.
DAVID HAYES
Ron Popp Ron Popp, 59, has owned and run several of Omaha’s favorite restaurants. Popp is king of Omaha’s comfort food scene, having created and sold the Garden Café and FarmHouse Concepts. For the last 16 years Popp, with his wife and son have created and operated the WheatFields Eatery & Bakery. In addition, in 2015 they opened a new restaurant next to WheatFields in One Pacific Place called Andre’s Tortillery. Popp is a member of the Nebraska Restaurant Association and has been awarded the Restaurant Good Neighbor Award for WheatFields’ support of the Poor Clare Sisters dinner and auction. Popp has been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by the State of Nebraska. STEVE RON POPP VILLAMONTE SR.
He and his wife Ruth Ann have two children.
Steve Villamonte Sr. Steve Villamonte Sr., 54, first worked in a professional kitchen at the age of five. His dad brought him to the Happy Hollow Country Club and assigned him to an employee in the kitchen. This is when he learned to make his famed Thunderbird Salad. Many of us know Villamonte from the Omaha Press Club, where he has been the Executive Director since 2000. Villamonte is a Certified Executive Chef from the American Culinary Association. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Institute for the Culinary Arts at MCC. His company, Villamonte’s Cuisine, manufactures Thunderbird salad dressing and Blackstone Reuben dressing for commercial and retail sales and caters weddings.
CHEF LEO STEVE VILLAMONTE FASCIANELLA SR.
Villamonte and his wife Christine have four children and two grandchildren.
Chef Leo Fascianella GOLDEN TOQUE RECIPIENT 2016 Golden Toque means Golden Chef’s Hat and is the highest acclaimed recognition a chef can receive in America. Chef Leo Fascianella, chef owner of Pasta Amore, received this award in June in Orlando. He will be honored along with Jim Trebbien, retired Dean of the Institute for the Culinary Arts at MCC, for his induction in 2009, at the dinner in October.
2016 hospitality
HALL OF FAME HONOREES
CHEF LEO FASCIANELLA