Entries associated with the tag "International Association of Culinary Professionals":

A: That would be Dairy.

Last April at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference I met a Des Moines food writer and consultant named Joyce Lock who mentioned she'd created a Trivial Pursuit-style game for food geeks to be published by Chronicle Books.

An advance of Lock's Foodie Fight arrived yesterday, just in time to happily distract four of us from a deadly boring meal at Il Fiasco (review pending). You're right. This is even nerdier restaurant behavior than taking digital pics of your pasta, but we didn't actually pull out the boards, game pieces, and dice. Once begun however, we couldn't stop quizzing each other from the question cards, which are divided into six categories: food people; world cuisines and food places; food on film and in print, movies, and art; party planning etiquette and wine pairing; food science; eating out; and cooking techniques. Good times.

The object is to answer three questions correctly in each category, thereby filling up an individual game card with tokens. There are more than 1,000 questions with a healthy range of difficulty, likely to challenge the expert without without destroying the confidence of the dilletante. The game's release date is set for August 30.

Lock probably won't appreciate spoilers but here's a couple, sans answers. Feel free to answer, but I won't tell you if you're right.

Which oil has a higher smoke point--peanut or corn? 

What was the secret ingredient in the food wafer "soylent" consumed in the 1973 film Soylent Green?

How much water does an oyster's gill filter in an hour--10 to 12 pints, 10 to 12 quarts, or 10 to 12 gallons?

If you had more than the usual trouble getting a table at Blackbird, Avec, Alinea, Frontera, Hot Doug's or any other local celebstaurant last week, it's likely because they were already booked up by thousands of out of town chefs, food writers, marketers, photographers, and entrepreneurs here for the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference. The four-day schedule of talks, workshops, tasting, tours, and dinners was thoroughly interesting, convivial, and so huge that it was damn near impossible to do anything without missing three or four other really cool programs.

This was particularly painful on Thursday morning, as I stood in the Hilton lobby trying to decide between cod, raw milk cheese, and butter tastings, a discussion on herbs and spices with Madhur Jaffrey, and a localism panel with Erika Lesser of Slow Food USA. I settled instead on "The Doctor is In" a Q & A with food science gurus Shirley O. Corriher and Harold McGee, in large part because ten years ago I'd been given Corriher's demystifying Cookwise at a formative time in my life (I'd forsworn vegetarianism), and it quickly became my best friend in the kitchen. The jolly, cherubic Corriher and gaunt, wry McGee had a winning Julia and Jacques-like chemistry as they fielded tough technical questions about brining, natural and unnatural transfats, and what it means when chopped garlic goes green (it's really fresh from high protein soil). Someone asked about how to work with flours with unknown protein content and Corriher said that in the old days German bakers would thrust a sweaty arm in the barrel. If the flour stuck to the arm they knew they were dealing with low protein stuff. The session provided the first of many we're-all-in-this-together, geek-out moments when Italophile Faith Willinger, in large metal cow earrings, rose from the crowd to ask what she could do to improve her zabaglione when she couldn't get Italian eggs (the answer: use extra yolks). 

I followed that with Going Underground: Roots, Rhizomes, and Tubers in Asian Cooking with Viet World Kitchen's Andrea Nguyen, Saveur editor James Oseland and Elizabeth Andoh, whose presentation on konnyaku, "the ugly duckling of the Japanese kitchen" was bizarre and fascinating. This highly fibrous, zero-cal "elephant yam" is extremely labor intensive to produce; it requires three transplants over three years before it's mature, it smells repulsive when it's pollinating, and it has to be processed with an alkaline liquid before it can be digested. If you buy a package that smells sweet it's spoiled--if it's fresh it smells bad. At some point I realized that I had eaten this last year, extruded into noodles. The flavorless end product has a good chew, is an ideal flavor absorber, and has been used for centuries in Japan--there were 82 recipes in a 1864 cookbook and 80 of them are still used. But as Andoh marveled, "Who had the courage to think you could eat it?"

For me, Friday's panel with Rick Bayless and Donald Bixby of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy about the Renewing America's Food Traditions project (RAFT), and cooking heritage breeds was the most hopeful and inspiring segment of the conference. Bixby explained how the heritage breed movement got its start in the 70s, when bunch of agricultural historians working on bicentennial commemorations discovered that they couldn't find any any of the breeds our forefathers raised. Back then their few stewards were hobbyists who just thought it was cool to raise Buckeye chickens, Pineywoods cattle, or Mulefoot hogs, and for whom the thought of eating the endangered (but tasty) animals was counterinterintuitive. But eventually the idea that "You have to eat them to save them" prevailed--an idea Erika Lesser called "eater-based conservation. " Bayless explained that people will reconnect with these animals first through restaurants, so chefs have a serious responsibility to work with farmers, and learn how to properly prepare the animals before foisting them on to the eating public. And it ain't easy. You can't just throw a Buckeye into the pot and expect it to taste right. Bayless said his kitchen tested chickens from Lagrange's Gunthorp Farms for nine months before they appeared on the menu at Frontera (gotta brine them first). It took a year before they could figure out how to get grass-fed beef on the menu--but it was worth it. Now the grass-fed (and more expensive) carne asada outsells the the regular one, which he said was the biggest selling weekend item for 20 years. Bixby summed it up: "Education starts with the chefs." 

Bayless, incidentally, won the IACP's 2007 Humanitarian Award, recognizing "individuals who have contributed significantly to improving conditions for the underprivileged in our society," for his work with the Frontera Farmer Foundation.

Whiskyfest sells out every year and this one's no different, but there are a number of attendant side events open to the public, starting tonight at 5 PM with a 150-whiskey tasting at Binny's, 3000 N. Clark. It's $30; call 773-935-9400. At 7:30 there's a Bulleit Bourbon-marinated pig roast at Chief O’Neill’s. The $10 admission benefits the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation; call 773-583-3066. Later still, at 10 PM, Delilah’s introduces its new signature Highland Park Single Cask Single Malt, while over at the House of Glunz (1206 N. Wells) there's a "Wild Scotsman Tasting" with John McDougall "the only living man to have distilled whisky in every region of Scotland" at 10 PM. Call 312-642-3000. Finally, if your liver hasn't fallen out after Friday's main event, Delilah's hosts the always rollicking afterparty starting at 10:30 PM.

Meanwhile, for tonight's whisky-free entertainment, San Francisco Chronicle food writer Linda Furiya reads from her food memoir Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America, about growing up in Versailles, Indiana, as part of the only Japanese family in town. It's tonight at 7:30 at Women & Children First.

Over at the International Association of Culinary Professionals confab, more than 60 authors are expected to represent at Friday's open-to-the-public Cookbook Expo. It starts at 4 PM at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, 720 S. Michigan. It's free but you have to register by e-mailing IACPCookbookExpo@hqtrs.com.

Saturday morning at 9 the Culinary Historians of Chicago present Anne Willan on "An Exploration of the Best and Worst of Historical Recipes," at Robert Morris College Institute of Culinary Arts, 401 S. State. It's $10; call 708-788-0338.

Also on Saturday, Slow Food Chicago conducts a walking tour of La Villita. The group meets at 9:30 at Panadería La Baguette, 3117 West 26th. Reservations at Brown Paper Bag.

Meanwhile at 10 AM there's a Discovering Devon tour led by the American Institute of Wine and Food. Tickets ($65) can be had here.

And, elsewhere on the street: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is holding a Carnaval & Parade for Fair Food, Real Rights and Dignity beginning at 10 AM at Federal Plaza.

The talented Louisa Chu of Moveable Feast announces the first ever molecular gastronomy seminar in the United States with one of the giants in the field--Herve This. Its starts at 9:30 at the Union League Club of Chicago. 65 W. Jackson. It's free, but reservations are required and "business casual attire or chef's coat are requested. (No jeans please.)" Call 312-435-4822 to register.

Sunday, April 15, the Chicago Foodways Roundtable presents Robyn Eckhardt and David Hagerman of Malaysia's Klue Magazine, on palm sugar in Southeast Asian cuisine. In 2003 Eckhardt, under the screen name FoodFirst, was the first person to translate the Thai language "secret menus" at Spoon Thai and Forest Park's Yum Thai, ushering in something of a local revolution for true Thai food. It starts at 10 AM at Kendall College, 900 N. Branch, and it's $2; call 847-432-8255.

Monday, April 16, Felipe DiBelardino, director of fine wines for Banfi Vintners, is the special guest at Osteria via Stato's monthly winemaker dinner. The four-course meal with pairings is $65 and starts at 6:30. Call 312-642-8450.

Also on Monday at least two restaurants are attempting tax day promotions. There's a tax relief special menu at 200 East Supper Club, 200 E. Chestnut--four $10.40 entrees and two martinis at $5.20 each. Call 312-266-4500. Meanwhile Pops For Champagne is offering three premium sparkling wines--Domaine Carneros Brut 2003, Domaine Carneros Le Reve Blanc de Blancs 2000, and Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir--for, you guessed it $10.40 a glass. They're also putting out four $10.40 dishes, and each guest will get a $10.40 gift certificate when the clock strikes 10:40. Call 312-266-7677.

Tuesday night at 5:30 there's a Wines of Portugal tasting and seminar at the InterContinental Chicago, 505 N. Michigan. The $25 donation benefits Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation. Call 800-871-9012, ext. 22171#, to register.

Lastly, on Wednesday, April 18, Fiddlehead Cafe holds a tasting of at least 30 "Wines of Spring and Summer." It's $35 and starts at 6 PM.