WASHINGTON The National Restaurant Association will honor on Wednesday three restaurant operators and one industry corporation with its annual Faces of Diversity awards, which showcase the diversity and entrepreneurialism of the foodservice industry.
The NRA says the annual awards celebrate the rich diversity of the nearly 13 million employees that comprise the restaurant and foodservice industries. This year a total of 15 operators were nominated for this year’s awards.
The NRA, in partnership with PepsiCo Foodservice, focuses its Faces of Diversity awards on two different categories: The American Dream award honors individuals from diverse backgrounds who have succeeded in achieving the American dream. The Inspiration award honors a restaurant company that has exhibited leadership and vision as an advocate of diversity and inclusion.
The finalists were selected in February by a panel of foodservice industry experts and observers that included Sally Smith, chief executive of Buffalo Wild Wings; Lynne Breaux, president of the Restaurant Association of metropolitan Washington, D.C.; Fritzi Woods, president and chief executive of the Women’s Foodservice Forum; Julie Flik of Compass Group North America; Gerry Fernandez, president and founder of the MultiCultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance; Pete Popovich and Sumi DeBenedittis of PepsiCo; and editors from both QSR magazine Nation’s Restaurant News.
Award winners will be announced Wednesday at the NRA’s Public Affairs conference in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the NRA’s Faces of Diversity program, visit www.restaurant.org/diversity.
2010 Faces of Diversity finalists
Yuriy and Olga Abramovich – Olga’s Fine Dining, Jackson, Miss.
Yuriy and Olga Abramovich came to the United States in 1991, seeking medical care for their young son, Michael. They moved to Jackson, Miss., where they found jobs in the restaurant industry. Yuriy worked at a fine-dining restaurant while Olga worked at a country club. They learned English by watching television, studying the dictionary and listening to conversations.
As their English improved, so did their restaurant operation skills. The couple opened Olga’s Fine Dining in 2003, with Olga taking care of guests, and Yuriy overseeing the kitchen. They have become leaders in the community and participate with the Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, the Mississippi Firefighter’s Memorial Burn Center and other organizations.
Aurora De Leon – Pit Row Barbecue, Yucaipa, Calif.
Aurora De Leon started her own business to provide for her family, especially as her Vietnam veteran husband suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is disabled. She also has children that are challenged with disabilities, some of which require assisted-living care.
Undaunted by her lack of resources, De Leon forged ahead, and Pit Row Barbeque has become widely known. De Leon’s hard work, perseverance and unwavering commitment to her values made her a role model to her family and employees.
Taking care of her family hasn’t deterred De Leon from aiding others. She recently was recognized by the commander of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 185th Armor Regiment for sponsoring a farewell barbecue dinner for soldiers and their families before they deployed to Afghanistan.
Robert de Varona – Varona Enterprises of Florida Inc., Pensacola, Fla.
Robert de Varona fought for freedom and democracy in his native Cuba before he came to the United States. Born in Havana, de Varona was raised in a politically active family and at 18 years of age, Robert joined CIA-trained Cuban forces fighting against Fidel Castro. He was imprisoned, along with his brother and cousin for nearly two years and after his 1962, they came to the United States with $100 and clothes from the Red Cross.
De Varona, who spoke little English, struggled to find employment. He pumped gas and worked in a convenience store. He attended college part-time and found work as a draftsman. He started a retail business in 1972, the first minority-owned airport concession in Denver’s Stapleton Airport.
Known as Mr. D. among his employees, De Varona encourages them to pursue their educations by offering flexible work hours. He supports the Ronald McDonald House, Manna Food Bank and other organizations. He provides sponsorships, catering and meeting space for fundraisers.
Oscar Hernandez – La Oficina/Chile Pepper Inc., Eugene, Ore.
Raised by a single mother, Oscar Hernandez was the caretaker for his five younger siblings. In 1976, he left El Salvador for Los Angeles. For seven years, he worked odd jobs and sent money to his mother and siblings. Eventually he earned enough to bring his family to the United States. In 1982, Hernandez moved to Eugene for a GED program at the University of Oregon. He later was accepted to the university, despite his limited English.
He opened a grocery store that catered to Eugene’s growing Hispanic population. Unable to get a bank loan, he used his credit card to finance La Tiendita (the Little Store). By 1992, he moved the store to a bigger location and added a restaurant, Taco Loco. He expanded two years later, adding a full-service restaurant. In 1998, he bought an even bigger building and moved the restaurant. In 2003, he opened a second restaurant, La Oficina.
Hernandez brought two of his sisters into the restaurant business; one of them bought Taco Loco from him in 2006. Over the years, he has helped employees and friends, advising them on starting a business.
Marc Kagan – Boston Dogs, Avondale, Ariz.
Mark Kagan, whose mother died when he was 6 years of ago, learned to cook franks and chicken wings while at summer camp in Chelsea, Mass. Although the camp director encouraged him to one day open a hot dog stand, Kagan dreamed of flying. He joined the Air Force and spent 24 years as a medic — five years on active duty and 19 on reserve. Later, he became a registered nurse.
After 20 years as a paramedic, Kagan decided to open that hot dog concept. He was unable to get a loan in Phoenix, so he moved to Mexico, where his wife, Veronica Ruiz, was undersecretary of tourism in Baja California Sur. He cashed in his 401K to start the restaurant.
Kagan launched Boston Dogs in 2007 at the La Paz, Mexico, airport. The business has taken off, as plans are underway for three new units in San Diego, Las Vegas and Arlington, Texas.
The restaurant’s success has allowed Marc to help others in need. He supports the Yes Foundation, which feeds 4,800 children every day in Baja California Sur. He also sponsors two youth baseball teams and provides lunch and food for children’s parties at an orphanage.
Willie Mills – Hope Haven Inc., Charlotte, N.C.
After a life of poverty, drug addiction and prison, Willie Mills spends his days encouraging the residents of Hope Haven., a recovery program that serves 300 homeless men and women.
As kitchen manager, he mentors more than 130 people a year, teaching culinary skills, work ethic, and life and recovery skills. Mills empathizes with those at Hope Haven because he came there 10 years ago for help. Raised by a single mother and poorly educated, Mills became addicted to drugs. Hope Haven helped him turn his life around and later hired him to run the kitchen.
Working at Hope Haven for the past nine years enabled him to raise his family of four, maintain his sobriety and contribute to society. Mills shares his story to encourage donors to support Hope Haven s and help its clients achieve their dreams.
Fernando Salazar – Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Parsippany, N.J.
Salazar was 14 years old when came to the United States from Ecuador with his family. His father worked in a factory and his mother was a maid, and they needed Fernando to work to help make ends meet. Salazar went to school during the day and worked in a restaurant at night. He spoke no English when he arrived in the U.S., but learned quickly.
Salazar found a mentor at the restaurant, who pushed him to succeed, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Queens College in New York. Today, he is the mentor. He counsels employees by MENTORing- Motivating, Empowering, Nurturing, Teaching, Observing and Rewarding.
His leadership extends beyond his professional career. After winning a $5,000 professional award, he donated the money to the San Antonio campus of the Culinary Institute of America for minority student scholarships. He is a member of the International Food and Beverage Forum, which raises money for scholarships to the Cordon Blue Culinary School of Las Vegas.
Ronald Smith – Lipscomb-Smith Enterprises Inc., dba McDonald’s, Las Vegas, NV
Ronald Smith grew up in a New York housing project. His father, a Harlem native, stressed the importance of working hard, and his mother, an immigrant from Trinidad & Tobago, insisted education was the key to success.
Despite the financial strain on the family, Smith attended private schools where he was often the only black student in a class where he sometimes faced discrimination.
Although challenging, his upbringing prepared him for success in the corporate world and then the restaurant industry. As president of Lipscomb-Smith Enterprises Inc., Smith owns 12 McDonald’s restaurants in the Las Vegas area. The business employs more than 500 and books about $26 million annually in sales.
Smith spearheads scholarship fundraisers with McDonald’s operators and the local newspaper, and the business works to distribute more than $250,000 a year in scholarships to outstanding high school seniors.
Klaus Tenbergen – California State University, Fresno, Calif.
After becoming a master baker in Germany, Klaus Tenbergen worked a year in Africa and then opened a bakery and coffee shop in Pretoria, South Africa. He sold his business a few years later to move to Peoria, Ill., where he was supposed to become a partner in retail bakery. He packed up his family and headed to the United States with a vision of becoming well educated and well off.
In a misunderstanding with customs officials, Tenbergen had to forfeit more than $10,000 in cash as he tried to enter the United States. He arrived at his new employer with only $38 to feed his family of three. More misfortune followed as his employer reneged on promises to make Tenbergen a full partner. He quit after receiving only $123 for four months of work.
Without a job or work permit, Tenbergen spent months collecting empty soda cans and bottles to survive. He found he could stay in the United States if he started his own business and he worked to open a fine-dining restaurant in an old tugboat permanently docked at Peoria’s downtown waterfront.
After a family death, Tenbergen stopped working even though he says his “American dream” never died.
He eventually took a job as a chef instructor at Kendall College in Chicago, and went back to school to pursue a doctorate in educational leadership. He moved to California to become an assistant professor at California State University, Fresno. There, he directs the culinology program, which feeds 21,000 students a day.
Amporn Vasquez – Pizza by Elizabeths, Wilmington, Del.
Amporn Vasquez was born to a wealthy and powerful, but abusive, family in Thailand. She was forced to marry a boy she didn’t know at 14 year of age, and when she objected, she was severely beaten. She ran away from home, and eventually met an American who helped bring her to the United States.
Vasquez worked wherever she could once in the U.S. She cleaned, sewed curtains and tended bar. She learned that she loved cooking, so 16 years ago, she enrolled at Delaware Technical and Community College and began to work as a kitchen manager at Pizza by Elizabeths.
Now 64 years old, Amporn is like a mother to the restaurant’s kitchen staff. She shares her knowledge, often showing the right way to use a knife or teaching proper food safety practices.
James Young – Abuelo’s, Lubbock, Texas
As a child in Taiwan, James Young started a business that hand-coated tin cans to make extra money. In 1974, he came to the United States on one-way ticket with $500 in his pocket. He began to pursue a graduate degree in engineering from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he met his wife, Margaret, who also is from Taiwan.
Young worked two jobs, as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant and at a McDonald’s. During summer break, Young and his wife decided to open a small Chinese restaurant near the Texas Tech campus, paying $150 in rent for a vacated taco stand. They opened the Chinese Kitchen as a fast-food concept, and in three months, the restaurant was turning a profit.
He brought his parents to the United States to help him run a second Chinese Kitchen location and by the mid-1980s he had 16 units throughout West and Central Texas and eastern New Mexico.
Recognizing an opportunity in Mexican casual dining, James partnered with industry veteran Charles Anderson in 1987 in a new concept, Abuelo’s, a Tex-Mex eatery. Today there are 39 Abuelo’s in 15 states and the company has nearly $120 million in annual sales.
Finalist information was provided by the National Restaurant Association.
Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].
