Chefs Converge on S.D. With Hopes of ‘Catching the Wave’
BY TANYA RODRIGUES
Staff Writer
A cooking industry conference taking place in San Diego this spring is expected to bring in several noted chefs and close to 1,500 of the group’s 4,000 members.
The International Association of Culinary Professionals will be meeting April 17-20 at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina.
Despite the slowed air travel market, IACP’s registration so far is on track with last year’s event, said Jamie Estes, a spokeswoman for the Louisville, Ky.-based group. An estimated 450 people have signed up so far, Estes said.
The conference’s theme will be “Catching the Wave,” said IACP president Lauraine Jacobs.
“It will explore the many aspects of food , growing it, producing it, selling it, cooking it, eating it , and how technology, global communication and commerce and an ever-increasing migration of cultures are changing what we eat and how we eat,” Jacobs said.
The opening keynote presentation has already been set up. Dr. Carl Safina, who founded the National Audubon Society’s Living Oceans program, will address the threats to the various seas and its effect on fisheries around the world.
Other workshops in the works for the four-day conference include “Asian Flavor Dynamics,” “Global Food Safety,” and “How Aging Affects Flavor Perception.”
Eight San Diego chefs will create a banquet for IACP’s awards gala on April 20, a Sunday. The awards that night will honor food and beverage books published in 2001. The local chefs will be Bernard Guillas of the Marine Room and Edmund Moore of Thee Bungalow cooking the first course, and Parallel 33’s Amiko Gubbins and Maderas Country Club’s Riko Bartolome cooking the second course.
Trey Foshee of George’s at the Cove and Martin Woesle of Mille Fleurs will create the main entr & #233;e, and Rudolf Weidner of the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina will make the dessert. The gala’s supervising chef will be the Marriott’s Werner Seyfried.
There will also be a “Taste of San Diego” event on the North Embarcadero, in which 24 local chefs and restaurants will give samplings of their fare. It’s been scheduled for April 17, and will not be open to the public.
The next day, Food Network star and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse and other personalities in the culinary world, including Jacques P & #233;pin, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Martin Yan and Carolyn O’Neil, will be featured in “Star Chefs Cooking in Concert.”
The event, which is scheduled to take place April 18, will have the various chefs demonstrating techniques, ingredients, presentation as they cook solo and also in various groupings. A limited number of tickets will be made available to the public, but no further details were available.
