Chef Brad Farmerie's Singapore Inspiration

Chef Brad Farmerie, of New York’s Double Crown restaurant, came back from a whirlwind trip of Southeast Asia to invent his own version of Singapore’s magical satay using sweetbreads.  Farmerie is one of the headlined speakers at IACP's Portland conference.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: Reality Pap?

Last fall Chef Jamie Oliver spent a few months in one of the U.S.'s unhealthiest cities, Huntington, West Virginia.  Tonight premiered the first of a seven-part series on how he tried to win Huntington over to healthy food choices.  The Washington Post TV preview suggested that it may be hopeless to get Huntington or the country to eat well.  Let's wait and see.  Despite the formulatic reality show approach, Oliver was clearly a man with a mission.  Whether or not he can get his positive message across without spoiling it with finger-pointing shame remains to be seen. 

Do you like an open kitchen?

Some restaurant chefs like them, and some do not. Could popular open restaurant kitchens affect home kitchen designs and renovations?

Rick Bayless recently opened his third restaurant, Xoco

"Xoco brings Bayless’ notions of quality, sustainability and stewardship to their most accessible and affordable levels yet."  Best wishes, Rick!

Chefs Answer Consumers' Calls for Healthy Breakfasts

Chicago-based market researcher Technomic, reports that nearly half of the consumers polled in a recent survey responded that healthy foods are important or extremely important to eat at breakfast. Chefs are discovering that when they offer healthy and attractive choices beyond egg-white omelets and bran muffins, their customers respond positively.

How Restaurant Menus Make You Spend More

Lynne Rosette Kasper describes a menu as an "invitation to pleasure" but a smart restaurateur uses menu design to maximize profits.  Francis Lam at Salon explores menu design psychology and why we spend more for dinner than we anticipated.

How Women Are Heating Up the Restaurant World

Move over, Mario. Take a hike, Emeril. Look who's cooking now: A handful to ambitious and talented female chefs who are running their own restaurants and creating compelling brands, that's who. Unlike Lidia Bastianich or Cat Cora, who've traded restaurant kitchens for television sets, these top chefs haven't found celebrity. Instead, they are focusing on crafting menus that delight customers--and turning a profit in tough times... Forbes.com 5/29/09

IACP Conference in Denver: 3 classes open to general public

Denver will soon be hosting more than 1,000 culinary professionals from around the world for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference, April 1 – 4, 2009.

Denver’s IACP members and other culinary professionals are truly rolling out the red carpet for us and we’re excited, in return, to share unrivaled access to some of the world’s top chefs through a variety of Advanced Level and Master Classes specifically designed to address new trends and advanced techniques. These include such famed culinary professionals as world-renowned Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz from Mugaritz in Errenteria, Spain; Chefs Nils Noren and Chef David Arnold of the French Culinary Institute; and Armandino Batali, patron saint of artisan cured meats from Salumi.

For the first time, IACP is opening a few classes to non-members. Whether you're a culinary student, a chef or culinary professional in Colorado or anywhere in the World, do not miss the unique opportunity to participate in the following classes:

Date: Wednesday April 1
Time: 9:00 am - 11:30 am
Place: Sheraton Hotel

“New Techniques in Cooking”
Presenters: Chefs Nils Norén and Dave Arnold, French Culinary Institute, New York

From the legendary French Culinary Institute in New York City, we are excited to present chefs Dave Arnold and Nols Norén in this class where the most recent cooking techniques will be demonstrated. The use of low-temperature cooking, sous vide, hydrocolloids, and other newer culinary techniques and ingredients will help you improve the way you cook. Participants will get a first-hand look into these techniques and equipments, as well as tastings of the products resulting from these methods. The FCI is one of the few culinary schools in the USA to offer classes in Culinary Technology, and this is a very unique and exclusive opportunity to participate in this class outside of New York city.

Date: Wednesday, April 1
Time: 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: Johnson & Wales University

New Trends: Vegetables on Center Stage
Presenter: Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, Mugaritz, Errentería, Spain

Featuring one of the top chefs in the planet, we are proud to feature chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, whose two-star Michelin restaurant Mugaritz, in Errentería, Spain, has been named #4 in the world. Chef Andoni recently presented in Tokyo Taste and Madrid Fusion, and now he arrives in Denver to share with us his expertise on the latest trends. Chef Andoni will be preparing live 8 of Mugaritz's creations utilizing the most advanced culinary techniques and ingredients.

Date: Saturday, April 4
Time: 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: Johnson & Wales University

The Art and Science of Artisan Cured Meats: Salumi from the Inside
Presenters: Armandino and Marilyn Batali, Salumi, Seattle

What a unique opportunity this master class provides, to learn directly from one of the country’s patron saints of artisan cured meats, Armandino Batali, founder and Principal Salumist of Seattle’s celebrated Salumi. This tiny lunchbox of a restaurant/deli in the city’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood is a Mecca for devotees of salami and other cured meats. There’s an omnipresent line of customers happily waiting for a sandwich of porchetta or cotecchino, or to pick up an order of sliced hot soprassata or culatello to go. The roughly 2000 pounds of cured meats made here each week are sold to walk-in customers, as well as restaurant chefs, delis and salumi enthusiasts across the country.

Salumi’s Seattle production facility manages to blend state-of-the-art processes with deep dedication to the hand-crafted traditions of salumi. Batali will share with class attendees in-depth information about the science of meats and what exactly transpires in the course of the curing process. He will address different styles of curing and explain each stage in the progression from raw meat to sublime salumi. Important issues such as USDA regulations and meeting integrated quality standards (such as HACCP) will be covered. In addition, Batali will share insights on educating and inspiring consumers about this world of artisan cured meats. His demonstration will feature a cotto salami (coarsely ground pure pork with pepper and spices), with detailed descriptions and samples of other cured meats from the Salumi repertoire.

For registration information, check out our website at www.iacp.com

Chef Jam!: Emeril Lagasse at 2008 IACP Annual Conference

Come join us at this year's Culinary Trust Fundraising Event featuring chef Emeril Lagasse in what promises to be an unforgettable evening of "Rhythm on the Plate". Tickets are available for $150. The event kicks off at 6:30pm. If you happen to be in town, that is, New Orleans, you do not want to miss this special event!

A peek into the biodynamic farm at La Provence, with Chef John Besh

Not sure on which optional culinary tour to register for on the Tuesday of the IACP Conference? Take a peek into John Besh's Biodynamic Farm at his first restaurant, La Provence. This is part of OP-04 Northshore Terroir Tour where you'll travel to Lacombe, Louisianna and enjoy a great meal at La Provence, followed by a stop at Pontchartrain Vineyards where you'll tour the grounds and taste fine local wines.

Join us for our 30th Annual Conference in New Orleans, April 15 - 20. For more information visit the IACP website at www.iacp.com.

If you are not an IACP member, you too can join us in New Orleans. For more information on IACP's special offer for non-members contact Emily Pohler at (800) 928 4227 or email her at epohler@hqtrs.com

The following video is directed by David Aman, of DocNO Productions.

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.

Back to the Future with Enrique Olvera

Leading Mexico City chef and restaurateur Enrique Olvera of Restaurante Pujol, has a rare talent for re-imagining traditional Mexican food, including delights mostly seen alongside streets and roadsides. His guides: the elements of flavor, texture, temperature, aroma, and color.

Together with Mexico's country coordinator Ruth Alegria, Olvera, 31, will show how to marry classic technique with an understanding of characteristic Mexican ingredientes to yield new and sublime results. His stunning re-interpretations -- drawing on his intimate knowledge of regional diversity -- are infusing new life to Mexico's cuisines.

Olvera graduated with honors from the Culinary Institue of America, Hyde Park in 1999, where he was awarded the Gold medal of the Societe Philantropique of New York; the M.K. Fisher Award for the best thesis of his generation and the Jacob Rosenthal Leadership Award.

Enrique Olvera and Ruth Alegria will present a cooking class entitled: "Mexican Cooking: Back to the Future", on Saturday April 15 at Kendall College in Chicago, IL, during our 29th IACP Annual Conference. The workshop has been sold out for a few weeks now.

The Global News blog was lucky to get a peek into the menu that will be presented. Those who signed up, are in for what looks like an exquisite selection of Mexican dishes, the 21st century style. Some of them are:
-Squash Blossom Capuccino- Coconut Milk foam and Nutmeg
-Esquites with Mayonnaise gelatine
-Striped Bass Ceviche, roasted Tomatoes
-Rack of Lamb with Chocolate crust, Black Beans and Mole sauce

In December of 2005 Enrique founded TEO (Taller Enrique Olvera), a creative workshop to promote gastronomical culture.

Homaru Cantu

Postmodern Cuisine in IACP's 29th Annual Conference
by Elena Hernandez
photo taken at Madrid Fusion 2006

One of the workshops that I am looking forward to attend during our upcoming Conference in Chicago is "A Savory and Sweet look into Postmodern Cuisine" on Thursday April 12.

The presenter in no other than world reknown chef Homaru Cantu, of Cantu Designs and Moto Restaurant in Chicago. He will be joined by Ben Roche, Moto's pastry chef.

But, who is Homaru Cantu, some of you may be asking yourselves? And what is all this business about "postmodern cuisine"? According to the Star Chefs website, "since opening Moto, Chef Homaro Cantu has attracted much attention with his interpretation of Postmodern Cuisine. While Postmodern Cuisine is in its infancy in America, it seems that many diners and critics weighing-in on this new style of cuisine still view it as the Wild West of whimsy. And this is true at Moto, because the sky is the limit as Cantu stretches known scientific and gastronomic boundaries.

Postmodern Cuisine, often times referred to as Avant-Garde cuisine, found its roots in Spain with Ferrán Adrià of El Bulli leading the evolution. With the exact definition of Postmodern Cuisine still open for interpretation, it is safe to describe this culinary movement as one that reacts against earlier modernist principles. It reintroduces traditional or classical elements, typically carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes. Or Chef Cantu simply describes it as, “The human race has been eating the same way for hundreds and hundreds of years. At Moto, we strip away the rules, stretch the imagination and entice guests with never-before seen dishes. It’s about being open-minded and having a lot of fun with food.” To read Homaru Cantu's biography and a list of his inventions, click here.

I had the chance to see chef Cantu in action last year at Madrid Fusion, and he blew everyone's mind off. Do NOT miss this workshop.

To tickle your curiosity about what his presentations are about, here is a video to watch.

Chef creates dishes and drinks using coca leaves

He says that if Coca-Cola can use them, then its use in the kitchen should be legal.

Peruvian born chef Gastón Acurio and a group of colleagues served an array of dishes prepared with coca leaves to President Alan García and his cabinet this past December. The menu included desserts made with coca leaf flour and “coca-sours”, a take-off of the symbolic peruvian cocktail, the pisco sour.

“It’s been almost 100 years since an American found in the coca leaf an opportunity to create one of the most famous brands in the World: Coca Cola”, said Acurio, who owns Astrid & Gastón restaurants in Perú, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico. “If we could find other legal uses for the coca leaf, it would be the beginning of a new era in the Andes”.

The fear that the drug cartels would benefit from an expanded legal coca leaf market to produce and sell more cocaine, drove the majority of the countries to ban international commerce of the leaf. A 1961 United Nations treaty stipulates that the governments could allow for the international commerce of the coca leaves as a flavor agent as long as the alkaloides, a base to make the drug cocaine, be eliminated. “This is the use that the Coca Cola Company gives the leaf”, cites Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography.

The coca leaf, a stimulant that has been chewed in the Andes since pre- Inca times, is legally consumed in tea and soft drinks in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Acurio, 39, said his dishes prove that the coca leaf could have a productive use that would help the poor Andean farmers expand their markets, a position backed up by the leaders of Peru and Bolivia.

When Fidel Castro turned 80 he received a cake prepared with coca leaf flour from Bolivian president Evo Morales. Last September, Morales brought with him to New York City a coca leaf, illegal in the United States, and held it up high during his message to the General Assembly at the UN.

“It is not possible that the coca leaf is legal to make Coca Cola and illegal for medicinal consumption in our country”, said Morales. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America.

Chef Acurio said that he would liket to serve "coca sours" in the restaurants he is planning to open this year in Madrid and San Francisco, he sustains that the potential benefits of the coca leaf are attractive.

“It’s a nutritional leaf with a delicious flavor that can be used to season shrimp, crabs, mollusks, almost anything that’s cooked in the kitchen.”, said Acurio. “It’s a product that could be served in the best restaurants and at the same time help the poorest farmers”.

Original Text in Spanish

Translation and Photo: Elena Hernandez

Chicago's Avant Garde Cuisine

If you are planning to be in Chicago in April to attend IACP's annual Conference, then you might be interested in knowing that the city is home to some of the finest restaurants in the country. In fact, culinarily speaking, Chicago has been named the "Barcelona of North America".

We are fortunate because we will be able to meet a few of the chefs of these restaurants during our Annual Conference. Chef Charlie Trotter will give a cooking demonstration on sous vide and other modern techniques. His restaurant ranks 26 among the top 50 in the World. Make sure to make a reservation 8 to 10 weeks in advance if you plan on having dinner there.

Homaru Cantu and Ben Roche of Moto Restaurant in Chicago will give us a demonstration on their latest inventions on Thursday April 12 in the workshop named "A Savory and Sweet Look into Postmodern Cuisine". Make sure not to miss this unique opportunity to see chef Cantu in action.

Tru will be represented by Chef Gale Gand, who we will meet us on the Chocolate and Vanilla tour on Tuesday which includes lunch at the restaurant; she will also join us during the Kids in the Kitchen workshop on Wednesday afternoon.

Finally, there is Alinea, named the Best Restaurant in the USA in 2006 by Gourmet Magazine. The Chef is Grant Achatz, who worked with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry and did a brief "stage" with Ferrán Adriá at El Bulli. Called the new wunderkid, Chef Achatz marveled the audience at Madrid Fusion last week. Chef Achatz is not scheduled on our program but we are sure many of you will be interested in his cuisine and visit his restaurant.

If you are curious about what the food at Alinea looks like, here is a set of photos taken recently by a diner.

Enjoy!

Peruvian food, the hottest trend

Ceviche, tiraditos, anticuchos, causa, cau cau, arroz chaufa, seco de chivo...are just some of the popular dishes of Peru. Lima has been recently named the gastronomical capital of Latin America and this has been accomplished thanks in great part to the government´s support in promoting Peruvian food outside of the country´s frontiers. Local chefs headed by the ultra popular Gaston Acurio and owner together with wife-partner Astrid have managed to create a "food empire" in and outside of Peru. Their upscale restaurant Astrid & Gaston opened 12 years ago in Lima and now has branches in Santiago de Chile, Quito, Bogotá, Caracas, and before the end of this year will open in Panama. Chefs Mario Navarrete of Raza in Montreal and Emanuel Piqueras of Mixtura in Seattle have been recognized for their excellence and their restaurants featured in newspapers and magazines in North America.

The Associated Press has written a very interesting article about Peruvian food that you can read here.

To read my coverage (in Spanish) of the Salon Internacional de la Gastronomia that took place last weekend in Caracas, Venezuela and featuring special guest chefs from Peru, including Gaston Acurio, click here and here.

Here´s another great interview in English.

Elena Hernandez
International Chair, IACP