A few months back I learned that the 2010 IACP conference (International Association of Culinary Professionals) was scheduled to take place in Portland in the spring and I thought -- sounds interesting, I should check out some events. Once I found out more about the association and its conference -- and to put it bluntly more about the cost to attend -- I decided to volunteer for some of the spendier events and blog about and attend the less expensive ones.
Turns out I judged it right. By volunteering I not only got to attend a lot of fantastic events, I also got to know a lot of local Portlandfood folks that I've been wanting to meet, as well as catch up with somelocal friends. It was a charmed and memorable week for me. Here are some of the highlights...
Quite the honor to host these two for Portland's IACP conference...
I held this up at the airport last week because I was lucky enough to be asked to pick up this culinary powerhouse couple from the airport and take them to their hotel. They were exhausted from their NYC->PDX flight so I did little more than take them on a quick loop of downtown so they could get their bearings. They've been to Portland a bunch but it had been a couple years.
Even though it was a short trip from the airport and they were exhausted Karen and Andrew were nice enough to ask me a bunch of questions about my wee book and give me some expert advice on marketing it. (This is simply to let you know how freaking nice they are.) It turns out their first book was a summer title too!
Other than Michael Ruhlman calling "Bullshit!" on Karen during a lively panel talk they had a lovely time doing everything from hosting an all-star dinner at Leftbank Annex to benefit The Culinary Trust with Naomi Pomeroy, Steve Jones, Adam Sappington, Jason French and others, to talking about the death of recipes, and signing copies of The Flavor Bible at the IACP Culinary Book Fair...
That's another one of the many events I volunteered for. At the beginning of my shift I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to find Madhur Jaffrey (!!) asking me to escort her to her signing table. Well, yes, I think I can do that. Along the way we passed all sorts of well-known writers all signing away and chatting with fans...
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at the Culinary Book Fair..
Linda Ziedrich my pickling and now preserving hero...
Linda Ziedrich my pickling and now preserving hero…
and many more including the likes of Ruth Riechl, Judith Jones, Kim Severson, Michael Ruhlman, along with plenty of local cookbook authors.
That's all I have time to say right now but I'll be back for at least one more installment about the IACP conference. For now I've got to hurry up and finish up at the office so I can get over to this big PDX food/drink event happening tonight...
International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) www.iacp.com