International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference 2012 Part 1
Apr 21, 2012 | From the kitchen of Rose
It's been many years since I attended the annual conference, the last time it was held in New York City. Since that time I attended many annual conferences and regional meetings all over the world. But this year IACP returned to my city for the second time. And there were so many appealing seminars I signed up for the full conference including one day of a preconference tour.
The cookbook awards were held on the last evening and, to my delight, my dearest friend Lisa Yockelson won "Best Baking Book" for her Baking Style. (An award she also won for her prior books ChocolateChocolate, and Baking by Flavor!)
Winner of "The Book of the Year" was Christine Manfield for "Tasting India." I met her for the first time when I presented at the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival and greatly admire her work.
But beginning at the beginning, for the pre conference I leapt at the chance to be part of Madhur Jaffrey's tour of food places in the Indian communities of Jackson Heights and Floral park. I thought I knew Indian food and ingredients but we got to experience flavors and the cuisines of different regions I never had before. One of the highlights of the day was a visit to Patel Brothers, a giant supermarket, where I saw countless numbers of grains, each available whole, hulled, unhulled, cracked, and powdered into a flour. For a moment I contemplated moving to Queens and spending the rest of my life experimenting with all these ingredients. It was a memorable day with the most gracious and knowledgably host imaginable. As I took more photos than notes and spent the rest of the time tasting I can't give you full details on what the dishes were but I do plan to return on my own for dinner.
First stop was Rajbhog Sweets where we were welcomed most warmly and graciously by Nirav Shah and his wife (who took time off from her day job as lawyer in order to host us)!
We tasted many treats including masala tea and the best mango lassi I've ever enjoyed (and there have been many!).
CHAPATI/ROTI BALLOONING ON THE OPEN BURNER
HOT KHANDVI BATTER BEING SPREAD ON MARBLE
ROLLED KHANDVI 'PASTA,' SILKY AND TENDER
In Floral Park we visited Kerala Kitchen where my favorite of many treats was the vada, a savory doughnut.
FISH CURRY
THORAN (VEGETABLES WITH COCONUT) & AVIAL (MIXED VEGETABLES)
Our last stop of the day was Usha Foods Inc. We all thought ourselves to be incapable of another mouthful but the aromas and beauty of the presentation rekindled our appetites.
PAPRI CHAAT AND BHEL POORI
BEDVI (STUFFED, PUFFED DEEP-FRIED BREADS FILLED WITH A SPICE MIXTURE)
And for our very last taste of the day, gulab jamun, a deep fried pastry, doused with a sweet rose-flavored syrup, and containing one bright green pistachio in its center.
Part 2, the main conference will be next week.
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Sharon
04/27/2012 01:45 PM
Loved the post, its all abt India, Rose!!
So happy you liked the savory dougnut,Uzhunnu Vada as we call it,(Uzhunnu in Malayalam is Black gram dal)and its delicious with coconut chutney paired with a glass of piping hot tea..
So amused to see our thorans, fish curry and appams placed next to it and the Avial too...typical South Indian cuisine..
Papri chaat and Bhel puri are a national rage even though they are North Indian fare,smile..
The Gulab Jamuns are always a treat too and pairs great with vanilla ice cream..some of us avoid the rose essence for the natural flavors to come thru and add a lil bit of saffron instead.
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Tawana
04/26/2012 07:38 PM
I am such a fan! I wish that every baking author would follow your lead in using metric weights for at least the flour portion of their recipes. It seems that every baker assigns a different weight to a cup of flour. For AP alone, I have seen the range go from 118g/cup to 145g/cup. And cake flour? Forget about it! I would bet that most bakers weigh their ingredients...why not share? Maybe at one of the conferences you attend, even if everyone could not agree on the weight of 1 cup of flour, everyone could agree to publish their recipes with the weight of flour they use to produce a sucessful product. Ingredients are so expensive these days...
Many, many thanks for your continued efforts for all of us!
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rose Levy Beranbaum in reply to comment from Zach townsend
04/21/2012 10:17 AM
moi aussi zach!
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Zach townsend
04/21/2012 10:11 AM
Looks wonderful, Rose, and right up your alley with the Indian cuisine! The savory donut looks delicious. I'm thinking now of Goa....
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International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference 2012 Part 2
Scenes from The Chicago Housewares Show (IAH)