Culinary Institute of America-Greystone (Napa Valley) 2009 Worlds of Flavor Conference November 12–14, 2009

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12th Annual Worlds of Flavor

International Conference & Festival

Frontiers of Flavor:

World Street Food, World Comfort Food

Discovering the Fast Casual, Slow Savory, and "Big Value" Culinary Traditions

of Asia, the Mediterranean, and Latin America

Full Schedule of Events

This influential annual three-day forum on world cuisines is one of the American foodservice industry's premier events. Each November, the Worlds of Flavor Conference showcases the gold standards of world cuisines that are reshaping American menus.

The 12th Annual Worlds of Flavor Conference presented an in-depth exploration of two overlapping, hot culinary trends: world street food and world comfort food. Reflecting the intersection of recessionary budget and cost-cutting pressures, the continuing world cuisines juggernaut, and the ongoing embrace of a 24/7 culture of informal, casual food and dining, these concepts increasingly define how we as Americans now want to eat.

"Frontiers of Flavor: World Street Food, World Comfort Food," gathered top culinary talent from the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Presenters included more than 60 culinary experts, from street food vendors, hawker chefs, tapas and meze specialists, and barbecue masters to fine dining chefs who have been inspired by world street foods and comfort foods, mothers of chefs, legends of live fire and claypot cooking, as well as cookbook authors, street food chroniclers, and more.

Highlighted regions and food cultures included Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, India, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Persia, Mexico, the Caribbean, Peru, Brazil, and culinary hot spots across the United States.

The three-day event was a sauce-slopping, noodle-slurping, chaat-sampling, kabob-nibbling, tamale-savoring, tapas-grazing epic tour of the best of world street food and world comfort food!

Spanish Tapas Wow California

Gerry Dawes moderated one general session, three panels on Spanish and Catalan Cuisine and appeared in the final general session as a commentator. 

Profiles of the participants, photos and some recipes for the Spanish sections of the Worlds of Flavor Conference will follow.

Friday, November 13

10:30 AM General Session VI

What’s Next in Spain: Fast, Slow, and Casual Flavors
Introduction: Jim Poris
Moderator: Gerry Dawes
Presenters: Paco Roncero, Albert Asín, Daniel Olivella, Seamus Mullen
With a live video feed from the outdoor live fire kitchen previewing lunch with Mai Pham (Vietnamese food) and Suvir Saran (Indian food).

CIA-Greystone (Napa Valley) Worlds of Flavor Conference 2009 General Session VI:   
What's Next in Spain: Fast, Slow and Casual Flavors. 

Jim Poris (Sr. Editor, Food Arts), 
Gerry Dawes (Food Arts, General Session Moderator), 
Daniel Olivella (B-44 &amp Barlata); 
Chef Paco Roncero (Casino de Madrid, Estado Puro; consultant, Hoteles NH), 
Seamus Mullen (Chef-partner, Boqueria NYC & Boqueria Soho), 
Javier Alonso (Paco Roncero's sous chef),
and Albert Asin (Pinotxo, La Boqueria, Barcelona).  
Photo by Terrence McCarthy, TMC Photography©2009.



(For a full screen slide show, click on image in lower right corner, go to Picasa, click on slide show, then F11.)

Seminar IV A (2:45 PM—3:45 PM)

Williams Center for Flavor Discovery
The Spanish Kitchen, 2010: Casual Menus—and Compelling Flavor Dynamics— from Madrid to New York
Moderator: Gerry Dawes
Presenters: Paco Roncero, Seamus Mullen
Sponsored by Foods from Spain

Chef Paco Roncero, Chef Casino de Madrid, Chef-partner Estado Puro; consultant, Hoteles NH,
cooking at CIA-Worlds of Flavor.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

 
Seamus Mullen, Chef-partner, Boqueria NYC & Boqueria Soho,  

cooking at CIA-Worlds of Flavor.>  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

(Check out my friend, Chef Seamus Mullen of New York's Boqueria restaurants, in his reports on the Iron Chef competition, in which he was one of the final three chefs left (out of ten) competing for the title. I found out Sunday night that Seamus was eliminated, but he made it to the final three and he did it suffering the whole time from a severely herniated disk, for which he was sometimes in a wheelchair and for which he was operated on after the competition, and from rheumatoid arthritis. In some of the episodes, you could see the pain in his face!  Iron Chef, indeed.)

Saturday, November 14
Seminar I (8:45 AM—9:45 AM)

Ecolab Theater

Spanish Casual, from Traditional to Modern: Tapas, Bocadillos, Cocas, and More

Moderator/Presenter: Gerry Dawes

Presenters: Paco Roncero, Seamus Mullen, Albert Asin

Sponsored by Foods from Spain

Albert Asín (Pinotxo, La Boquería, Barcelona). Photos by Gerry Dawes©2009.

Albert Asín cooking lobster rice at Pinotxo, La Boquería, Barcelona
(CIA-WOF Video)

Seminar I (3:30 PM—4:30 PM)

Ecolab Theater

Fresh from Barcelona: Tapas, Cava, and the Flavors of Catalonia
Moderator: Gerry Dawes 
Presenters: Albert Asin, Jesús Bernad, Daniel Olivella

Sponsored by Catalonia, the Gateway to the Mediterranean by Prodeca

Santi Mas de Xaxas (Director, Gastronomic +34 y coordinador del equipo Catalan-Español); 
Rosalba Arrufat (Prodeca), Albert Asin Pinotxo (La Boquería, Barcelona), 
Fernando Bienert (Director General, Prodeca), Jesus Bernard (Escritor de vinos).  
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

4:45 PM General Session XVIII: Town Hall

World Flavors…On a Stick, In a Bowl, On the Run…A Game Changer?

Moderator: Greg Drescher
Presenter: Jonathan Gold
Panelists: Rick Bayless, Roy Choi, Gerry Dawes, John T. Edge, Susan Feniger, Mark Furstenberg, Jonathan Gold, Jessica Harris, Anissa Helou, Diane Kochilas, Maricel Presilla, Jim Poris, Ruth Reichl, K.F. Seetoh, Suvir Saran

 

See Related Worlds of Flavor Articles About Spain:
  
Spanish Wine & Food Pairing: Possibilities Are Limitless

Iconic Dishes on the Wine Roads of Spain

Spain’s Innovative Vangaurdia Cuisine vs. Traditional Down-Home Cooking

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

 Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television 
serieson wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

"Rey muerto, Reina puesta" - Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía conference to be supplanted by Roser Torras GSR-run "San Sebastián Gastronomika"

After the 2008 Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía conference ended in November, rumours immediately began to fly that, after ten years, this would be the last Lo Mejor conference to be held in San Sebastián. It now appears that the rumours were true.

As the Spanish sayings goes, "Rey muerto, Rey puesto" ("The King is dead, another one is put in his place.") In this case it is "Rey muerto, Reina puesta," because the brilliant Roser Torras, the head of Grupo GSR and one of world's greatest organizers of gastronomic conferences, in a golpe de estado culinario (a culinary coup d'etat) has established a new conference, "San Sebastián Gastronomika," which will take the place of Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía during the same date slot-the third week in November--and in the same Rafael Moneo-designed convention center and under the auspices of the same El Diario Vasco (Grupo Vocento) newspaper group.

From Alimentaria selected shots 2008 & 2006

Roser Torras, the head of Grupo GSR, one of world's greatest culinary conference organizers.

The new conference will be organized and directed by Torras' Grup GSR-Produccions de Gastronomia, which organized stellar culinary conferences at the Culinary Institute of America-Napa Valley (the historic Worlds of Flavor Conference dedicated to Spain in 2006), São Paulo, Alimentaria (BCNVanguardia) and, for the past three years had helped organize Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía with Rafael García Santos, the controversial Spanish food critic who founded the event.

From San Sebastian Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia & EVOO Jaen

Rafael García Santos

At this stage, it is rumoured that Santos plans to mount a similar conference in Alicante, Portugal and, perhaps, even in Germany. ¿Quien sabe? Stayed tuned for more on the culinary star wars, photographs and maybe even an interview with the also very controversial Santi Santamaría.

About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@hotmail.com