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SARTAIN
AT 2002 CORDON ROUGE CONFERENCE AT THE FOUR SEASONS
AVIARA IN CARLSBAD,CA. |
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SARTAIN
INTRODUCING ELLEN FLORA OF DOMAINE CHANDON AND THEIR
WINES |
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JESSE
SARTAIN WITH WIFE ROSIMAI SARTAIN AND CORDON ROUGE
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT NANCY SMITH. |
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Jesse
Sartain awoke in intensive care in the neurological wing of Kaiser
Hospital in Redwood City, California.
“I felt like
the world’s strongest man — revived, almost angelic,
clear-headed,” said Sartain. Quite a rebound considering
he had just survived a ten hour surgery to remove a massive tumor
from his brain which was, fortunately, non-cancerous.
The downside was that he was penniless, facing mounting bills
and on the verge of losing his business of ten years — the
American Tasting Institute. “Most of my staff had bailed,
thinking I was about to die. Of course, I don’t blame them,
but thankfully two assistants stayed on.
“So, remarkably, I was sent home in three days and miraculously
I traveled with my wife, Rosimai, to Chicago six days later to
host a thousand people at one of our tastings during the National
Restaurant Show. I was a bit grey and fragile,” Sartain
said.
The slow process of rebuilding Sartain’s health, life and
business began. “I was determined to make a total comeback.
I contacted my clients, slowly rehired a staff, paid my bills
and by the grace of the Lord, made it,” said Sartain.
Little did Sartain
know that within six years his culinary program would grow into
a network of 35,000 chefs, be hosting events all across America
and be rewarding Gold Medal product awards to over three hundred
companies.
“Our big break came when I hired a young sales executive
named Marc Oldham. He just knew how to translate my program with
a whole lot of chutzpah to the retail grocery world. We zoomed,”
said Sartain.
In 2001, six years after his near-death experience, Sartain was
approached by a business broker saying he had two potential buyers
for the Institute and its program. Sartain agreed to meet with
them and one emerged, John Parker, an entrepreneurial investor.
“He tracked us for six months, negotiating along the way,
and we finally settled on my original price tag of 5 million dollars,”
Sartain said.
Sartain returns with “an
international organization centered around wine education and
a domestic network of executives to focus on.”
Sartain has a lot to be thankful for. The business was transferred
over on September 7, 2001 — four days before the World Trade
Center disaster. “Boy, was the timing right. Once again
providence was on my side,” he said.
After taking a brief vacation, Sartain was restless. He had plans
sixteen years earlier to form an international organization centered
around wine education and a domestic network of foodservice executives
to focus on everything that is foodservice including wine, spirits,
equipment, tabletop and technology. Thus Cordon Rouge World
Society and the American Executive Leadership Conference
emerged.
Sartain started in the U.S. in late 2001, targeting quality purveyors
and matching them with multi-unit and high-volume companies nationwide. |