2007 Japanese Food & Restaurant Show

New York Mutual Trading has organized 14 consecutive Japanese Food & Restaurant Shows in New Jersey and New York.
In 2007, the show will be held on Monday, October 1st at Metropolitan Pavilion and The Altman Building located on 18th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues, NYC.

It is open to retailers, restaurateurs, foodservice professionals, and members of the media. Admission is free.

Some of the world's finest artisan-made ingredients made their U.S. debut last year at the Japanese Food & Restaurant Show in New York. Real Wagyu beef, sea salt smoked over cherry wood fires, live miso, and soy sauce aged in 100 year old cider barrels were just a few of the items that became an instant sensation among the nation's culinary cognoscenti. This year's show promises to be the most exciting one yet, with more artisanal ingredients, and more workshops, demonstrations and tastings than ever before.


Learn and Taste with the Experts
Japanese cuisine authority and James Beard Award-nominated cookbook author Hiroko Shimbo heads up the demonstration kitchen. She will be joined by Sara Moulton - Executive Chef of Gourmet magazine and star of Sara's Secrets on the Food Network--and Chef Yosuke Suga of L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. They, along with more of New York's favorite chefs, will present ideas for using Japanese ingredients in innovative preparations.

Saké & Shochu Education
Throughout the day, saké expert Michael Simkin and shochu expert Yukari Pratt will lead workshops, guided tastings, and food pairing seminars, and mixologists will shake up creative cocktails behind the shochu bar. Saké is to Japan as wine is to France, and saké production in Japan dates back to 300 B.C. Today, ancient tradition has met modern technique to craft some of the finest sakés ever. Though shochu was traditionally known as an unrefined "poor man's drink," it has been enjoying a revolution in Japan. Not confined to just one base ingredient, shochu is made out of everything from sweet potatoes, rice, barley, black sugar, or even buckwheat. This wide range of ingredients creates richly varied flavor profiles, making every bottle of shochu distinct.

For more information visit this page.

Food & Wine Festival in Boquete, Panama

Anthony Bourdain visits Venezuela

Lidia Bastianich to lead Columbus Day March

Photo via Foodtalk

IACP member Lidia Bastianich is the first chef/restaurateur to lead New York City's Columbus Day March on Oct 8. Ms. Bastianich said that her selection sends “a message about the importance of food culturally, and it really elevates Italian food.”

Via the New York Times.

Slow Food International Congress 2007

“Arrivederci a Puebla!” See you in Puebla. These were the very last words of president Carlo Petrini’s closing speech to delegates at the last International Slow Food Congress in Naples in 2003 and will be the first Slow Food Congress held in a non European country.

“The choice of Mexico was strategic and the congress in Puebla will mark the definitive launch, both symbolic and actual, of the network we have been building since 2004 through Terra Madre ” explained Paolo Di Croce, head of Slow Food International.

The fifth International Slow Food Congress will take place November 8 - 11, 2007, in Puebla, Mexico. The meeting will convene 700 delegates from all over the world representing 85,000 members and is the movement’s most important event. It will be here that the executive body is elected, strategies will be decided upon for the international develop-ment of the association itself, the Terra Madre network and for projects in defense of biodiversity.

Puebla 2007 marks a momentous transition in the movement, ratifying a new pact be-tween producers, co-producers (informed consumers), cooks, educators and scholars in the name of truly sustainable local economies.

For more information visit Slow Food

On the Road to NOLA

We're back after a break to bring you plenty of information about the food world and our upcoming Annual Conference in New Orleans to take place April 16-19 of 2008. The IACP NOLA Conference program and host committees have been working very hard to put together an excellent program that will feature a line-up of world famous speakers, the best workshops, tours, and optional events for the week that we will be there. We hope that many of you will join us in a collective effort to support our fellow culinary professionals in the city. We leave you with the following video.