THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260502
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Frank J. Farello, a noted Hampton Roads chef, died Wednesday night. A certified executive chef, certified food executive and member of the American Academy of Chefs, Farello was 66.
Farello, born in Bari, Italy, began his career in Hampton Roads at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club in 1958. He worked as the club's executive chef until 1962, when he became food and beverage director at the Golden Triangle.
In 1967, Farello won first prize in the International Culinary Art Show in New York for sculpting a copy of Michelangelo's ``Pieta'' from 730 pounds of margarine. And in 1972 he held an ``art'' show of 52 pieces of food sculpture and paintings to benefit the American Cancer Society.
From 1970 to 1972, Farello ran the White Sands Country Club in Virginia Beach with partner Gus Riganto, and worked at the Lake Wright Motel from 1973 to 1975.
Before illness forced him to retire in the mid-1980s, Farello had held several more food management positions and gained a loyal following.
He was the founder of the Tidewater Branch of the International Food Service Executives Association, chairman of the board of the Tidewater Chef's Association, and a member of a national subcommittee appointed by the American Culinary Federation to work with military cooks and chefs.
Farello served on the Tidewater Region Board of Directors for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; he also was co-chairman of the St. Jude Gourmet Gala, an annual benefit for the hospital.
In 1994 he was appointed chairman of another American Culinary Federation committee, to increase the involvement of retired chefs. His first act as chairman was to change the term ``retired'' to ``senior'' chefs.
``They're an asset that hasn't been tapped yet,'' Farello said in an interview last September. ``We want to use these senior chefs as mentors to pass along their wealth of knowledge to the younger chefs, culinarians and cooks.''
On Wednesday afternoon, Farello was in the kitchen at Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk, advising Hampton Roads high school students competing for scholarships in the Careers in Culinary Arts Program. As coordinator of the program's Adopt-A-Chef program, Farello matched chefs with schools and tutored students himself.
Recently, Farello had begun expanding the Adopt-A-Chef program to the elementary school level, said Art Elvins, president-elect of the Tidewater Chef's Association.
Farello is survived by two daughters, Lydia Peterson of Long Island, N.Y., and Carreen Huffman of Gaithersburg, Md.; and a son, Frank J. Farello Jr. of Marathon, Fla.
Arrangements will be handled by Smith and Williams Funeral Home, Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Frank J. Farello
KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY by CNB