American Dream Award Finalists
| Angie K. Anderson Clifford Branson Miguel Diaz |
Desmond Fannin Jelynne Jardiniano Jahangir Kabir |
Fernando Salazar Peter Tabibian Francisco “Paco” Vargas |
Angie K. Anderson
Angie K. Anderson
Blue House Bistro
Holland, Mich.
Anderson began cooking in New Orleans, where she learned to make her dishes as flavorful as possible. She and her partner Sara Fiorenzo were visiting Fiorenzo’s father in Holland, Mich., when Katrina hit. Rather than return to the devastated city, the pair opened the Grass Cup Café on a shoestring budget. The kitchen started with only a microwave, a toaster oven, a George Foreman grill and a used espresso machine. Still customers loved Anderson’s food and eventually the Grass Cup Café outgrew its location.
Blue House Bistro opened last May and it too, was a labor of love. Anderson traded with the contractors, offering catered events for their work on the restaurant.
In the new location, Anderson continues to reach out to the community. She volunteered her culinary skills for a month at Evergreen Commons, a local senior center. She is also involved in the local chapter of the March of Dimes and has participated in the “Signature Chef” auction and fundraiser, donating two catering packages valued at $2,200.
Clifford Branson
Clifford Branson
Yellow Brick Bank
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Clifford Branson is the unofficial mayor of Shepherdstown. Born and raised here, he knows the town’s history and just about every resident. And people know him. They line up early on those special occasions when he cooks his “Clifford’s Fried Chicken” at the Yellow Brick Bank restaurant.
Branson has worked at the restaurant for 30 years. He started out in the kitchen but was too much of a people-person to stay there, so he became a server. Over the years he’s waited on regulars and famous visitors, including Nancy Reagan, columnist George Will and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.
Now in his late 70s, Branson can remember a time when, as an African-American, he couldn’t dine at the type of restaurant where he has worked for decades. He has lived through segregation, the Great Depression, several wars, and the Civil Rights Movement. He’s lived to see a black man elected president of the United States, something he admits he never thought to witness.
A religious man and very active in his church, Branson has always had a positive attitude about life and opportunity in America. As he has said, “I can’t find bad people; to me, people are the same.”
Miguel Diaz
Monroe’s Restaurants
Albuquerque, NM
From an early age, Miguel Diaz learned that working hard can lead to success in America.
Born in Puerto Rico, Diaz was six when his family moved to Spanish Harlem in New York. By age eight, he was running his own shoeshine business with regular hours and customers. He was always a good ballplayer (he was a first string shortstop in the minor leagues), but the restaurant business was his true love beginning when he got a job in a deli at the age of 14.
Diaz has worked nearly every position, from prep-cook to chef, to assistant manger and eventually owner. He started a snack bar in a bank building when he moved to Albuquerque in 1975 and then bought Monroe’s drive-in restaurant the next year. He turned the restaurant, which was a bit of a dive, into a successful business that now has two locations. Monroe’s chile sauces and salsa can be purchased online. Diaz has even shipped thousands of jars of green chile and salsa to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Diaz has quietly contributed both money and his time to help children in the community, from sponsoring school events and sports teams, to giving to the children’s hospital and individual children in need. He was New Mexico’s Restaurateur of the Year in 2007.
Desmond Fannin
Desmond Fannin
Sodexho, Inc.
Covington, Ga.
Desmond Fannin never let discrimination or other peoples’ attitudes deter him from achieving his own goals. There have been times when the Atlanta native was called a token, or the inexperienced “young guy,” but Fannin ignored the labeling and continually demonstrated his knowledge and skill in the foodservice industry.
Although he pursued fine arts in high school, Fannin discovered his love of cooking while working at Ryan’s Steakhouse and the International House of Pancakes. In 2001 he graduated with an associate degree in culinary arts from the Art Institute of Atlanta and began his career as a personal chef, starting Desmond’s Culinary Services. He was later hired by Sodexho and is now the executive chef for food services for Atlanta Public Schools.
Community involvement is high on Fannin’s list of priorities. He has participated in Real Men Cook for Charity, Habitat for Humanity and the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Hunger Walk. Fannin was a member of the team providing food services at the funeral service of Coretta Scott King. In 2010 he was a featured chef at the Chefs for the Cause benefit for Haiti’s earthquake victims.
Jelynne Jardiniano
Jelynne Jardiniano
LITM
Jersey City, NJ
Possibility, probability and passion define the American Dream for Jelynne Jardiniano, a native of Manila, Philippines who grew up in Jersey City, N.J.
Realizing she didn’t have the passion to achieve an earlier dream and become a lawyer, Jardiniano took a year off from college. After working in restaurants in New York City, she returned to Cornell University to major in hospitality management. But when she graduated, she was not content to just become a manager. A year out of school, in 2003, she opened her own place with the help of family. LITM (Love Is the Message) is a gallery/restaurant concept in downtown Jersey City that has introduced several artists to the community.
Passion to grow her business motivated Jardiniano to successfully petition the city council to revoke a district zoning law that restricted restaurant alcohol sales after 11 pm. After that, her business took off and more restaurants have opened in the neighborhood. Jardiniano is now a board member of the Special Improvement District, an organization that supports local business development in downtown Jersey City.
So many people sought out Jardiniano’s business advice that she began hosting entrepreneur classes in her restaurant. She recently published a book, Restaurant From Scratch, and is now pursing multiple film projects.
Jahangir Kabir
Jahangir Kabir
White Castle System, Inc.
Long Island, NY
Coming to America gave him the opportunity become the person he was meant to be, says Jahangir Kabir, a district supervisor for five White Castle fast food restaurants in Brooklyn.
The ninth of 10 children, Kabir grew up in Bangladesh and came to the Untied States in 1990. He arrived in New York with little money and speaking no English. Kabir was able to land a job at a White Castle’s in Elmhurst. He quickly realized if he was going to be successful, he had to learn English. With the help of his employer, he enrolled in English language classes and quickly became fluent. Four years later he became a general manager and in 2000 was promoted to district supervisor, overseeing 150 employees and managing $8 million in revenue.
White Castle stepped in again with tuition assistance for Kabir to attend college. He has obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a master’s in organizational management, and finally an MBA from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn.
Kabir’s success has made it possible for him to help others. He is actively involved in a non-profit organization in his hometown of Barlekha, Bangladesh, which raises money to help children stay in school. Kabir was instrumental in getting White Castle to sponsor the 75th Precinct Community Council Spelling Bee and the East New York Urban Youth Corp that supports young scholars.
Fernando Salazar
Fernando Salazar, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts,
Wyndham Hotels and Resorts
Parsippany, NJ
Fernando Salazar did not speak a word of English when he arrived in the Untied States from his native Ecuador at the age of 14. A dozen years later he taught English as a second language to Latino immigrants.
Salazar had worked in restaurants as a teenager to help his family make ends meet. A mentor pushed him to work hard but also taught him how to succeed in the industry and now every chance he gets, Salazar pays it forward.
Vice president of food and beverage for Wyndham Hotels and Resorts in Parsippany, NJ, Salazar has mentored dozens of employees in his career. He made it a policy that all Wyndham F&B directors mentor at least one employee. He was named FTA & Associates North America Operator of the Year recently and donated the $5,000 award to the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio campus to fund scholarships for minority students, so they too can pursue their American Dream.
Peter Tabibian
Z-Burger
Washington DC
Peter Tabibian was a young child when he and his family were smuggled out of Iran during the Iranian-Islamic Revolution in 1979. They came to America where Tabibian soon realized he was free to pursue his dream to become a successful businessman.
He worked at a Burger King restaurant while in high school in Minnesota. When the family moved to the East Cost, Tabibian continue to work after school in restaurants and even took a graveyard shift in a convenience store. He studied marketing classes at a community college and then started his own restaurant company.
Z-Burger quick service restaurant now has three locations in the Washington DC/Baltimore area. As the business has grown, the restaurants have sponsored several community oriented events, including sponsoring a fundraising drive to purchase backpacks and supplies for school children of incarcerated parents and a free Thanksgiving Day meal for the residents of a local recovery shelter in Baltimore. To show his appreciation to those willing to help their community, Tabibian offered free burgers to those who volunteered on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.
Francisco “Paco” Vargas
Francisco “Paco” Vargas
Rudy & Paco
Galveston, Texas
Francisco “Paco” Vargas was never one to give up.
He left his home in Nicaragua in 1978 during the Sandinista Revolution for a job offer in Houston. When he got there, the job fell through and Vargas had little money, but he found other work and within a year had saved enough to send for his fiancée.
Vargas didn’t give up 30 years later when Hurricane Ike flooded his successful business, Rudy & Paco’s Restaurant and Bar in Galveston, Texas. Vargas was among the first to rebuild. He did not wait for the insurance money but took out a loan and used his savings to reopen his seafood and steakhouse as soon as possible. His quick action encouraged others to start restoring their businesses.
Vargas greets all of his customers with a hearty “Welcome home baby!” and “Tranquillo!” And he is well known locally for his community service. When he became a U.S. citizen in 2000, the town designated a special “Paco Vargas Day” in his honor.
“To me, the American Dream is achieved when you take advantage of the opportunities that this great country has to offer and never give up, even when everything is taken from you and you have to start over,” Vargas said.
