Award-winning restaurateur to address HRIM classes

4:49 p.m., May 10, 2004--Famed restaurateur Walter Conti will be on campus, Thursday, May 13, as the Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM) Paul E. Wise Executive-in-Residence. Conti will address two HRIM classes, “Introduction to Hospitality” at 2 p.m., in 103 Gore Hall and “Food Principles” at 11:15 a.m., in 102 Gore Hall. Limited space will be available for those in the campus community who want to attend.

Established in 2000 in honor of Paul Wise, professor and founding chairperson of HRIM, the Wise Executive-in-Residence program sponsors on-campus lectures, workshops, consultation and advisement sessions with HRIM faculty and staff by recognized leaders in the hospitality industry.

A former member of UD’s HRIM advisory board, Conti served as chairperson of the 100,000-member National Restaurant Association in 1981-82 and received the association’s Silver and Gold Plate award—the "Oscar" of the restaurant business. He was named "Diplomate" of the association's Educational Foundation and was awarded the 1982 "Hospitality Executive of the Year" from the Penn State Hotel Society.

Conti is past president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Association and the International Gold and Silver Plate Society and was honored as a distinguished alumnus of Penn State in 1994.

Conti’s restaurant, Conti Cross Keys Inn in Doylestown, Pa., has won many professional awards including the Gold Plate and Ivy Awards for excellence in cuisine and management, and Conti is in the National Restaurant Association's Fine Dining Hall of Fame.

For more information, call 831-6747.

Article by Barbara Garrison

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