Portland Conference Preview: IACP Visits City Hall

Culinary Professionals Visit City Hall from Mayor Sam Adams on Vimeo.

Left to right: Nate Tilden (Clyde Common Restaurant), IACP Portland Host City Committee Chair Mike Thelin (Bolt Services, LLC), IACP President Scott Givot (Gala & Co.), and Portland Mayor Sam Adams at City Hall in July.

A Bitter Reality for Locavores

“Local food’’ is all the rage, touted by adherents as offering better food, an environmentally responsible lifestyle, and self-sufficient communities. The first of those claims is sometimes true. Local tomatoes and corn may well taste better than those from afar. Beyond that, though, the local food movement is an affectation based on bad logic and bad economics, one that, widely adopted, would actually harm the environment and potentially impoverish millions. Particularly here in New England, it would also turn mealtimes into dull, pallid affairs. Read more at The Boston Globe.

Unusual Cookery Books

The Guardian's Word of Mouth Blog explains how unusual cookery books can be a recipe for mild obsession. WoMer and Taste of London festival fringe tweeter Catherine Phipps, aka Catily, talks shop with the experts. What's her greatest pleasure when it comes to cookery books and food writing? Read More

The History of Appalachian Cooking

Although Mark Sohn began to garden at the age of 5 and his love of food would later blossom in Paris, he's been particularly fond of Appalachian cooking for the last three decades.
"It became big for me because I thought that the food was particularly good," he said.
Sohn, a professor of educational psychology at Pikeville College in Kentucky, is also a foods author, columnist and cooking teacher.
During Sunday's West Virginia Humanities Council Little Lecture at the MacFarland-Hubbard House, Sohn shared some recipes and the history of Appalachian cooking with the audience.
Sohn began talking about prehistoric Appalachian natives who dined on mastodon and giant tortoise. Thousands of years later their successors favored whitetail deer, turkey, acorns, black walnuts and other delicacies as glaciers receded from present day Ohio.
About 1,000 years ago, corn and beans became a dominant food staple in Appalachia, Sohn said shortly before he offered up a recipe for succotash. Read more from The Charleston Gazette.

High Rise Farms

The Pyramid Farm may be one way to address the needs of a swelling population on a planet with finite farmland, according to designers Dickson Despommier at New York's Columbia University and Eric Ellingsen of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Design teams around the world have been rolling out concepts for futuristic skyscrapers that house farms instead of—or in addition to—people as a means of feeding city dwellers with locally-grown crops. Read more at National Geographic.

Bipartisan bill wants counts in plain view

Calorie-count disclosures would be required on menus at chain restaurants under federal legislation that has the backing of the restaurant industry and nutrition labeling watchdogs.

The Senate backers of two competing bills on menu labeling announced bipartisan, compromise legislation Wednesday that would require chains with 20 or more locations to disclose calories of food items on their menu boards or menus.

The legislation also would require such chains to give customers additional written nutritional information -- including amounts of fat and cholesterol -- immediately upon request. And it would create a national standard that would supersede the growing number of local and state calorie-disclosure mandates aimed at curbing obesity.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune.

Food Truck Nation

A new generation of lunch trucks is hitting the streets. They serve high-end fare such as grass-fed beef hamburgers, escargot and crème brûlée. As they rove cities like Austin, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, they alert customers to their locations using Twitter and Facebook. Their owners include highly trained chefs and well-known restaurateurs. Read more from The Wall Street Journal.

Results: Best Food Trucks

Katy McLaughlin from The Wall Street Journal sampled the food at 10 lunch trucks around the country that serve gourmet fare, from braised skate cheeks to bread pudding. One thing she learned: If a truck is famous for a particular item or dish, order that -- and skip the rest. Read the results of her coast-to coast review.

Taking Stock in Fish

Over the past 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture -- programs in which consumers buy shares in a local farm to receive shipments of fresh produce -- has proven popular, with about 12,500 farms across the country offering farm-to-home services today. Now, the CSA model has made the evolutionary leap from land to sea. Nearly 1,000 Boston-area residents this month will receive their first batch of wild-caught fish through the Gloucester-based Cape Ann Fresh Catch Community Supported Fishery program. Read more from The Wall Street Journal.

A Tour Guide Tames Lunch in Midtown

Julia Moskin reports in The New York Times on Zach Brooks, founder, editor, and chief correspondent of Midtown Lunch, midtownlunch.com, a three-year-old Web site that serves those who toil in Midtown and hope to find something decent and reasonably priced to eat on their lunch breaks.

The site brings a measure of order to the roiling chaos of the area, which has almost 3,000 food businesses — delis, pizza joints, trucks, carts and restaurants — and almost one million daily workers, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Read more

Taste of the Nation Los Angeles

Anyone who's been to Taste of the Nation Los Angeles knows this is not the kind of fundraiser where one politely pays more for a dainty plate of food. It's a gourmet feast where a little gluttony can fuel a lot of charity, featuring some of Southern California's best-loved chefs, deftly uniting Taste of the Nation LA the culinary with the altruistic.

Sunday's 21st annual Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation, which takes place locally in Culver City, includes cooking demos from XIV's Michael Mina and Border Grill and Ciudad's Mary Sue Milliken, a silent auction, waiter races and a mole cook-off between well-known Mexican restaurants, Moles La Tia, Guelaguetza and Tlapazola Grill.

But the big draw are the 46 booths where many of Los Angeles' most highly regarded restaurants will hand out samples of their signature dishes, including the Bazaar by Jose Andres, Mozza, Lucques, Craft, Palate Food + Wine, Church & State and Rivera.

IACP's "Room in the Bowl"

"Room in the Bowl: The IACP Gumbo Giveback Project", 132 pages of beautiful visual and written ruminations on the ingredients and experiences associated with Louisiana’s iconic dish, combines the work of top photographers and writers in an effort to give back to the culinary community. Proceeds from the book are divided equally between the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB) and The Culinary Trust, the philanthropic partner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Edited by Jamie Tiampo and David Gallent.

Read the Times-Picayune book review.

Buy your copy at SoFAB or Amazon.com today.

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

Coming Soon in Theatres, "Julie & Julia"

Take a peek at Meryl Streep's new film portraying Julia Child, coming to theatres on August 7.

Where to buy tickets for the 2009 IACP Conference, Events Open to the Public

Here's the link to buy tickets online for open to the public events at the 2009 IACP Denver Conference.

If you wish to attend a tour, master class or special event Buy your tickets here.

Some of the master classes offered are:

Wednesday, April 1

"New Trends, New Techniques" Part I featuring chefs Nils Noren and Dave Arnold from the French Culinary Institute. Class will be offered at the Sheraton Downtown at 9am.

Fee: $100

Part II features celebrity chef Andoni Luis Aduriz from Award winning restaurant Mugaritz, in Spain. Class will be offered at the Johnson & Wales Kitchen Auditorium, at 2:00pm.

Fee: $100

Get both sessions for $180

Saturday, April 4

"Sourcing Sustainably for Culinary Professionals", featuring chef Michel Nischan and presented by the Culinary Trust.

2:00pm at the Sheraton Downtown

Fee: $25

"The Art and Science of Artisan Cured Meats: Salumi from the Inside", featuring Armandino Batali.

2:00 p.m.

Fee: $90

2009 IACP Conference in Denver