John Metz, Jr., Wins IFMA Gold Plate

John Metz, Jr., president/CEO of Sterling Spoon Culinary Management, was revealed as the winner of the 2013 IFMA Gold Plate Award during the Gold And Silver Plate Awards Banquet in Chicago on May 20th during the NRA Show. (You can view a video of the award ceremony presentation here).

Metz had been one of the winners of the 2013 Silver Plate Awards, in the Independent Restaurateurs/Multi-Concept category. However, his company also has a substantial contract foodservice business serving the B&I segment, which accounted for almost half of revenues last year and placed it 41st in FM's 2013 Top 50 Contract Management Companies listing.

The Gold Plate Award winner each year is chosen from among the Silver Plate Award winners and revealed at the Gold and Silver Plate Awards Banquet on the closing night of the NRA Show. Last year, Mary Molt of Kansas State University won the Gold Plate after winning the Silver Plate in the College/University category.

Metz is the son of John Metz, Sr. (himself a Silver Plate Award winner, in 1979), founder and chairman of Metz Culinary Management, where his brother Jeff currently serves as president/CEO. Sterling Spoon is a completely independent company not affiliated with Metz Culinary Management.

John Metz, Jr., co-founded Sterling Spoon in 1997 and grew it into a substantial commercial restaurant operator in the Southeast market. Recently, it has been the contract foodservice side that has been growing, more than doubling from $8 million to $17 million in annual revenues between 2011 and 2012.

In his acceptance speech, Metz lauded his fellow 2013 Silver Plate winners as "spectacular...one better than the other, one more deserving than the other." He also thanked those who nominated him for the Silver Plate, accepted the honor "on behalf of the 859 employees of our company in Florida and Georgia" and acknowledged and thanked his brother and sister and his parents, who were all present. "My father made me or gave me a job when I was 13 washing dishes—I'm not sure which," he remarked in recalling his entry into the family business that had now culiminated in winning a Gold Plate.