“We brought home a silver but it should have been gold,” lamented Joseph Leonardi, executive chef of the Somerset Club in Boston. The competitor was reflecting on a successful performance, but the memory of finishing second overrode his triumph. Leonardi was back at his alma mater, Johnson & Wales University, on Jan. 16 to be honored as a distinguished visiting chef. But what everyone wanted to talk to Leonardi about was his stint as captain of Team USA. The team competed in the Culinary Olympics last summer in Erfurt, Germany, that was held just after those London athletic games, which received just a bit more media coverage. more

The long fight over legalizing same-sex marriage in the Ocean State has a host of social, moral, political and even religious consequences that inevitably enflames the debate. more

(Updated, 10 a.m.) Providence posted an 81.3 percent hotel occupancy rate for October, the second time it has surpassed an 80 percent rate since October 2004, according to an analysis just released by Smith Travel Research. more

Rhode Island’s projected 2.3 percent restaurant-sales growth for 2012 is among the worst in the country, besting only Vermont and West Virginia, at 2.2 percent each, and can be at least partially blamed on its slow population growth and high unemployment rate, according to National Restaurant Association research. more

Two Providence-area chefs – Nemo Bolin and Benjamin Sukle – are in the running for Food & Wine’s list of the 10 most brilliant up-and-coming chefs. more

(Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in an occasional series of stories that will feature the companies and industries creating jobs in the region.) more

In a world of tweets, posts and texts, the face-to-face lunch meeting is still a staple of how business gets done in Rhode Island, according to Dale Venturini, president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. more

These days it’s not unusual to find a corporate sales force gathered in a meeting room at Newport’s International Tennis Hall of Fame. They’ll listen to a pep talk about upcoming goals, and then blow off some steam hitting balls on the museum’s courts. more

In a state so dependent on its hospitality and tourism industry, convention business is of more than a little consequence. more

The description reads like a reality TV show. Teams of culinary students compete to open, manage and cook in their own restaurant. They will be judged by restaurant owners, chefs and culinary professionals. The winner receives cash and the chance to go on to a national competition to win more cash. more