IACP unveils its New Website!

After many months of hard work, IACP launches it's totally revamped website. Visit us now at www.iacp.com.

The Fifth Element: Changing your eating habits with Umami

Yukari Pratt writes about Umami.


Sweet, sour, salty, and bitter are the four tastes recognized on the palate in the Western world. In Japan, it has long been accepted that there is a fifth: umami. What exactly is umami, and can it change your life? I went to an expert, Jacqueline B. Marcus, to set the record straight. A registered dietitian and nutrition consultant based in the Chicago area, Jacqueline speaks around the world on the topic of umami.

First of all, there are taste receptors all over the mouth for sweet, sour, salty, bitter—and, yes, umami. “Umami is perceived as savory or meatiness,” Marcus says. “Examples in the Western world include Parmesan cheese or ripe tomatoes.” In Japan there are several examples of umami-rich food including kombu, katsuobushi (smoked bonito) and niboshi (dried sardines). Voila—these are the basic components of dashi, the essential stock without which Japanese cuisine would not exist. Umami is an integral part of Japanese cooking, and you’ll find it in miso soup or anything cooked with dashi.

Read the rest of this article here.

Star Chefs Congress 2007

This year's Star Chefs Congress kicks off this coming Sunday featuring an impressive line-up of top chefs from around the world. For more information visit this page and make sure to watch the video from last year's event.

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.

The Bento Box

Bento image care of Wikipedia.

Check out what a Japanese Bento Box can do for your lunch in this article from the Washington Post, written by Andrea Sachs. IACP member Yukari Pratt also gives tips on how to prepare a harmonious meal utilizing the concept of goshiki. Click here to read the complete article.

International Conference on Food Styling and Photography

Boston University will host the International Conference on Food Styling and Photography: A World of Business, Techniques, and Design from June 1-4. Quite a few IACP members are featured speakers at this event. Board Director Darra Goldstein, Ignacio Urquiza from Mexico, James Scherzi, Lisa Golden Schroeder, Delores Custer, and Shirley Corriher are among them. For more information click here.

Depachika

In the Market
by Yukari Pratt
yukari.pratt@gmail.com


It goes without saying that Japan is a paradise for any foodie. This is the country where cows are indulged with beer and massages. Fruit is fondled and coddled like a newborn. Bread from Poilane is flown in weekly from France and handmade wagashi from Kyoto is whisked to Tokyo via shinkansen.

This outright obsession with food is perhaps nowhere more evident than in Tokyo's department-store food floors, or depachika. Working as the sommelier at Takashimaya's Nihonbashi depachika, I am surrounded by the familiar, such as background music from the Carpenters, and the not-so-familiar, like the endless variety of fish. My workplace is constantly evolving, and so massive that I feel I will never fully understand its intricacies. Nevertheless, the depachika is one of the greatest places for anyone who is passionate or slightly curious about food to get a taste of Japanese cuisine and culture-and to begin to unlock their many secrets. Read complete article here.

Image property of Lifestyle Japan.

Top 50 restaurants in the World 2007

El Bulli made first place again followed by The Fat Duck and Pierre Gagnaire in second and third best restaurants in the World. The French Laundry, Per Se, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Daniel, Charlie Trotter in the US ranked in the top 50. Alinea, in Chicago, ranked 36. Tsesuya's in Australia came in 5th place. France ranked first with 12 restaurants in the top 50.
DOM, Alex Atala´s restaurant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, ranked as only Latin America. Astrid y Gastón in Lima, Peru, ranked 72.
To see the complete list, click here.

Hervé This - Molecular Gastronomy at the IACP 29th Annual Conference

Hervé This, the famed french chemist, author of Molecular Gastronomy, and director of the INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) in France, was the keynote speaker on Friday, April 13 at the IACP's 29th Annual Conference in Chicago. Dr. This came on stage to talk about Constructivism and performed a couple of experiments to proove his points. The following is a very short sample of his presentation. You can read a summary of the session here. If you are interested in getting a full transcript of Dr. Hervé This's plenary session, as well as other presentations and workshops of the IACP Chicago Conference, you can do so by accessing this website.

International Event - Latin Fiesta at Nacional 27

Nacional 27 in Chicago was the venue for the IACP's International Committee Latin American Fiesta. The party was co-hosted by Adam Seger, CCP, General Manager at Nacional 27. Chef Randy Zweiban served an outstanding array of latin american foods featuring delicious tapas and grazing stations. Guests loved the interactive Mojito station and the music. Latin Rhythms taught some of the guests a few salsa steps. Door prizes were drawn for those who left their business cards, members from Panama and Mexico kindly donated bags of fresh Panamanian and Colombian gourmet coffee beans, bottles of aged rum, Molas, and Mexican sweets. We had fun! Come join us next year in New Orleans!!!

After an intense day of workshops and committee meetings, a little exercise helps to loosen our bodies!