To make the content available to those unable to attend, ten panels on Friday and Saturday, February 10-11, 9 am-6 pm, will be webcast. Anyone can tune in, watch the panels, and tweet questions.  In addition, all 28 panels will be filmed and will be up on the same website a week or two after the conference. The broadcast schedule  is available on the conference website:
www.cookbookconf.com <http://www.cookbookconf.com>

The url for it is:

http://cookbookconf.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FINALFINALSCHEDULE.pdf

The meeting is taking place at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC is the site. This is a small hotel near Grand Central Station. It is a  welcoming and quite inexpensive place to stay. I like it a lot.

In the last semester one fellow said he just wants to ride his Harley and write about food. He’s landed a column at a biking magazine!

This is the first day of the new class at the CIA. It is an elective and 27 students have enrolled.  This is what I’m planning to say:

May I begin by asking you to look at the person seated next to you. And to the person seated in front and behind you?

Immediately you’ll see there is nobody in the world who looks like you, thinks like you or has had the same experiences you have had. You are unique. And special. And as Christopher Robin said to Winnie the Pooh:

Promise me you’ll always remember you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.  So to echo President Obama: Yes you can!

This should get us ALL FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!

Teaching this class is what I love to do.

“Good Food Jobs is a gastro-job search tool, designed to link people looking for meaningful food work with the businesses that need their energy, enthusiasm and intellect. We post opportunities with farmers and food artisans, policy makers and purveyors, retailers and restaurateurs, economists, ecologists, and more…”

Go to the site for information about the conference planned for February in NYC.

In a January 5^th article in The Tribune, Nancy Maes resports: Gemini Birstro and Rustic House is serving offer a trio of gelati: rosemary Irish cream; casatta with dried fruits and nuts in a cinnamon orange base; and honey chestnut. $7.  Big Jones’ Paul Fehribach created a sour orange sage sorbet paired with sweet potato pie. There’s also a chocolate chili ice cream served with chocolate bread pudding, garnished with salted caramel and chocolate sauce. $8 sorbet with hints of cinnamon, allspice and clove. Another is a vibrant orange persimmon pudding ice cream, inspired by the fruit that its originator ate growing up in northern Indiana. She says it has a flavor like that of a pumpkin combined with a citrus fruit, enhanced with cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest. Another choice is a dark chocolate ice cream laced with a burgundy-colored ribbon of house-made fig jam, created with dried figs, red wine, honey, orange zest and balsamic vinegar.

Yum.  Who sez ice cream is only for summer days?

By the way, even small dairies employ a professional ice cream taster who may be asked to suggest new flavors too.

I recently came across an article in the Los Angeles Times about Katherine Montero who describes herself as an ice cream sommelier.

She graduated with a business degree from Harvard University and an interest in molecular gastronomy and biology. She’s created a job working with a chef in an ice cream laboratory in Miami.

They’ve dreamed up some truly weird flavors including pizza ice cream: a combination of basil and tomato marmalade served with a curl of parmesan cheese. There’s also maple syrup served with a strip of crisp bacon and chocolate mole ice cream. Those who yearn for vanilla may be out of luck but there is a never ending parade of people who are willing to try anything, at least once.

I mention these things because if you can identify the thing you truly love, you can scoop up a career wrapped around the object of your affection.

As the nation focuses on health care there will continue to be, increasing concentration on food that is good to eat and good for the health of the nation. By this, I don’t mean low calorie, low fat, low cholesterol, and low salt foods but in enthusiasm for sustainable farming and locally accessed fruits, vegetables and meats. Those who can afford the best are opting for artisanal and minimally processed foods.

There is mounting interest in good, not too costly, healthy (as opposed to health food) options everywhere. This is a worldwide trend and offers job opportunities both in industry and private enterprise. For some of these positions it helps mightily to have obtained a degree from a culinary school but is not always necessary. A cheerful disposition may be more persuasive than a certificate.

• Healthy food is a concept that is gaining traction in company cafeterias (Google and Facebook are among several companies that employ full-time chefs who provide free food for their employees. This is a growing trend among businesses that want to keep their employees happy. Some companies even offer take-out food for dinner too.
• Healthy food choices are taking up more and more shelf space in supermarkets where chefs prepare meals ready to be cooked (or simply reheated,) at home. Wegman’s, one of the best companies to work for in America, has even installed bistros in their fabulous supermarkets.)
• Top chefs are cooking in airport restaurants.
• Employment can be found cooking for congregations who are encouraged to meet and greet each other at the conclusion of religious services.

• A gardener sells gift bouquets of the herbs he grows himself. He takes orders online and sells to individuals who visit his farm. His clients include restaurants that use the bouquets (tied with a lavender-colored ribbon,) instead of flowers on the tables. (Guests are invited to take home the bouquets and many of them are delighted with the gift.)  He also offers rosemary, the herb of remembrance, to florists who include this and other fragrant herbs in bridal bouquets.
• A former butcher caters large parties: he roasts whole suckling pigs.
• A former television producer offers media training for chefs, spokespersons and everyone who is selling anything.
• A nutritionist offers cooking classes for diabetics and those on gluten-free diets. She is an adviser for post-gastric bypass patients and children with eating disorders, cancer patients and others who have special dietary needs.
• A home cook provides healthy breakfasts and lunches for kindergarteners.
• A baker sells brownies, cookies and other goodies from a kiosk at the movie house.
• A Mom landed a job teaching table manners to culinary students.

The news that he is closing his restaurant comes as a huge surprise to many who have long admired his vision. He was a pioneer years before the eruption of the current crop of avant garders and creative thinkers. He was a prophet who arrived in a culinary desert a tick before his time. Even so, he surely must be tucking a little smile into his top pocket as he surveys his extraordinary accomplishments as a leader in the evolving American food revolution.

If I had to record the three best meals I have had, one would be Charlie’s salmon luncheon.

He prepared the meal for the food press. The Norwegian Salmon Fishing Trade Association sponsored it.

I think it was probably the first time any of us had experienced what became known as a tasting menu; tiny course followed tiny course like principal dancers performing solo or in duets in an exquisitely choreographed ballet. Miniscule renditions of salmon appeared in fourteen glamorous poses. We gasped with delight as each model morsel strutted forth from the kitchen runway to pirouette onto our plate.

What a triumph it was.

Without a doubt Charlie Trotter’s next incarnation will be just as dazzling.

Bon voyage, Charlie as you complete your Master’s Degree in philosophy and political theory. The teacher becomes the student in preparation for the eagerly anticipated next class act.

A cookie.

One theory to account for this is that we have not surpassed our ancestors physiologically. Our brain does not know how to tell us when to stop eating junk because the subject never came up among our Cro-Magnon ancestors, who were programmed to eat anything that didn’t eat them first and were equipped to store fat for times of famine.

We can’t explain away our almost desperate yearning for a cookie by claiming to possess a sweet tooth. A more plausible theory is that when we are starving, inborn instinct makes us seek out high-calorie, high-fat, quick-energy foods.

Imagining we are starving is a relative thing, especially when we know there is a cookie or candy bar nearby.

Seeing is Believing

Television is another phenomenon our ancestors didn’t have to contend with. The excitement of seeing a pizza flashing on the screen alerts our appetite control center, which in turn sends fast and furious messages to the salivary glands to get ready for the feast. EAT? Is the question. NOW is the answer. NO is not even an option. Hungry is the consequence of the sighting of food, even if we have barely rested our fork from the prvious meal.

An Appetite for Sugar

Hunger is not the same as appetite and has almost nothing to do with taste. Hunger relates to a drop in the level of blood sugar and the physical need for food.  Appetite relates to the desire for food, and taste is the ability to to differentiate one food from another.

None of this thinking goes even the smallest step to explaining why we think we are hungry so soon after eating Chinese food. One hypothesis is that the meal doesn’t end properly — meaning there is no chocolate cake and no ice cream. We find ourselves (unless we are of Chinese heritage,) with a subconscious sense of loss and longing. Naturally this feeling of deprivation leads us to think we are hungry when in fact we are just being peevish.

A cookie usually solves the problem.