Bob Evans Restaurants - Bob Evans' Homestyle Pork Chop Roaster
Award: 2000 Best Single Product Rollout
Accepting: Merl Beery, Senior Vice President of Purchasing and Technical Services
Profile: Created in a homestyle tradition, Bob Evans' new Roasters evoke memories of your favorite home-cooked meals. The Pork Chop Roaster is served with fresh-roasted potatoes, baby carrots, pearl onions, a mild barbecue gravy and roasted corn on the cob. This is presented to the customer in a traditional roasting dish, reminiscent of what Mom used to make.

Chili's Grill & Bar - Lettuce Wraps
Award: 2000 Best Healthy Choice Menu Selection
Accepting: Brian Kolodziej, Vice President of Culinary Operations, Brinker International
Profile: Grilled Asian-spiced chicken with water chestnuts, carrots, green onions and almonds. Served with crisp Bibb lettuce and sesame-ginger & peanut sauces for dipping. This dish is served plated, allowing the customer to wrap, dip and eat.

Country Kitchen International - 60th Anniversary Skillet Menu
Award: 2000 Best Menu Promotion
Accepting: Donette Beattie, Director of Product Development and Purchasing
Profile: Country Kitchen celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 1999 with a special "Skillet Days" menu including Baja Tortilla, Chipped Beef, Kielbasa and Country Fried Steak Skillets. Reminding customers about weekends at the cabin, no phones, no TV…just an old stove with a cast iron skillet simmering. The sound, the aroma and ultimately the taste are the things that live in the mind, long after the senses have forgotten.

Denny's - Enhanced and Expanded Denny's Menu
Award: 2000 Best Menu Revamp
Accepting: David Groll, Senior Director, Product Development
Profile: Denny's new menu highlights Denny's Greatest Hits which are customers' all-time favorite menu items, as well as a new signature sandwiches menu, including Big Bad BBQ Sandwich, Hail Caesar Chicken Sandwich, The Dagwood, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Peppered Moons and Moons over Milwaukee.

Domino's Pizza - Italian Originals Meatsa Trio Pizza
Award: 2000 Best Menu/Line Extension
Accepting: Al Rose, Director of Product Development
Profile: Domino's Pizza captures the essence of the Italian countryside with Italian Originals, a new line of specialty pizzas with savory flavors borrowed from Italy. Combining a selection of authentic Italian meats, vegetables, herbs and cheeses, Domino's has created three new pizzas with unique appeal of Italian cooking. The first item of three, "Meatsa Trio," is made with a combination of prosciutto ham, Italian sausage and pepperoni, a delicious blend of asiago and mozzarella cheeses, herbs and spices on a special crust.

Jacques Pépin
Award: 2000 MenuMasters Hall of Fame
Profile: Jacques Pépin's first exposure to the foodservice industry was as a child in his parents' restaurant, Le Pelican, where he worked with his mother in the kitchen developing recipes. At age 13, he began his formal apprenticeship at the distinguished Grand Hotel de L'Europe and subsequently worked in Paris, training under Lucien Diat at the Plaza Athenee.

After serving as personal chef to the French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle, Pépin moved to the United States where he was a chef at New York's historic Le Pavillon before accepting a position as Director of Research and New Development for the Howard Johnson Company, where Jacques learned about American food tastes, mass production, marketing and food chemistry over the course of 10 years.

Jacques' most recent work in the foodservice industry includes working with United Airlines where Pépin collaborated with United's Executive Chef Gerry Gulli and Culinary Design Team to create business and first-class menus that reflect United's commitment to customer comfort and enjoyment.

In addition, Jacques writes a quarterly column for Food & Wine, he is a founder of the American Institute of Food and Wine, on the Board of Trustees of The James Beard Foundation, an adjunct professor at Boston University as well as the Dean of Special Programs at the French Culinary Institute (New York).

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts - Winter Feast Festival
Award: 2000 Best Limited Time Offer
Accepting: Patrick Colombo, Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage
Profile: The Winter Feast Festival embraces the hearty foods and robust wines that provide both sustenance and comfort during the rigorous Winter months. The menu included items such as Meat Loaf, blended with pine nuts and Italian spices, served with homemade red bell pepper ketchup, basil whipped Yukon Gold potatoes, spicy fried yellow onions and wild mushroom gravy; Savory Peppered London Broil served on field green salad, tossed with cabernet herb vinaigrette topped with Tuscan white beans, grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted red, green and yellow bell pepper and slices of marinated flank steak, sprinkled with basil aioli; Winter Garden Vegetable Soup, Spicy Beef Panini, Spinach Gnocchi, Country Beef Pot Pie Tuscan Style, hot apple tart, warm chocolate chip bread pudding.