Hospitality association honors 2020, 2021 award winners with the return of its annual gala.

Making up for galas lost to the pandemic, the Monterey County Hospitality Association will present both the 2021 Hospitality Professional of the Year and the delayed 2020 award as the organization’s annual awards fete returns.

The name Balestreri has long been synonymous with hospitality on the Monterey Peninsula. Ted Balestreri, chairman and CEO of the Cannery Row Company, took home the MCHA’s first such honor in 1983. His son, Teddy, is the recipient of the award for 2020.

Teddy Balestreri serves as executive vice president of hospitality operations and community relations—a lot of responsibility to wedge onto a business card—for Cannery Row. His duties involve overseeing The Inns of Monterey, The Sardine Factory, Estéban restaurant and retails shops. Working with the California Restaurant Association, he was essential in guiding the industry through the most difficult stages of the pandemic.

Balestreri doesn’t have much down time. He also sits on the board of directors of the National Restaurant Association, the Pebble Beach Company Foundation, Montage Health Foundation and the CSU Monterey Bay Foundation.

Public service outside of his day job is also a hallmark of the 2021 award winner, John C. Turner.

As general manager of InterContinental The Clement Monterey, he has helped the hotel earn four IHG Quality Excellence Awards and three Torchbearer Awards. The InterContinental has become a destination hotel.

Somehow Turner finds time to serve as chair of MCHA, the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Monterey Conference Center Advisory Board and the Tourism Improvement District Committee for Monterey. He also collaborates with CSU Monterey Bay’s Hospitality Department and is on the board of the National Steinbeck Center.

The renewed Awards Gala takes place Friday, April 8 at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa.