Chef Don Pintabona Advises Innovation

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Food Innovations, Inc., founded by Joe DiMaggio, Jr., announced today that Chef Don Pintabona has joined their Culinary Advisory Board. Food Innovations, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovative Food Holdings, Inc., (Pink Sheets: IVFH), is a specialty foods distributor. Don has had an illustrious career. Not only has he worked under some of the world's greatest chefs including Daniel Boulud and Charlie Palmer, Georges Blanc, and Kiyomi Nishistani and has run Tribeca Grill, part of Drew Nieporent's Myriad Restaurant Group, but he also headed up "Operation Chefs with Spirit" campaign to feed over 600,000 hot meals to the relief workers at the World Trade Center site after the September 11th attacks. Newsweek magazine described Don & Co.'s 9/11 relief efforts (also described by Daniel Boulud and Charlie Palmer in Super Chef, Chapter 2 "Charlie Palmer," pp. 73-5). Chef Joe DiMaggio, Jr., Food Innovations, Inc., founder and CEO, noted that from a business perspective Don "brings to our company a buyers perspective that will provide tremendous help with sales and growth channels." Joe knows what he is talking about, if one judges only by his clients: Douglas Rodriguez, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Trump International Group, Harrah's Casinos, Marriott Hotels, Wolfgang Puck Properties in Las Vegas and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Innovative Foods just added Emeril's Delmonico and Emeril's Atlanta restaurants to its client roster. Since leaving Tribeca Grill in 2003, Don launched Trina Restaurant and Lounge at the Atlantic Hotel, a Starwood Luxury Property, in Ft. Lauderdale in mid-2004. He has also been working with the Alexis Group (which I could not find online but which Food Innovations claims is "a New York-based company focused on hospitality management and consulting"). He has also penned Tribeca Grill Cook Book, with a second The Shared Table, whose publication date is March 2005 and whose co-author is Judith Choate, a regular collaborator with Don's mentor Charlie Palmer.