IACP 40 An exhausting, exciting weekend

If you follow Eat Your Books (see right sidebar on home page for links) or myself on social media, you may have scrolled through a few of our photos documenting our trip to New York for the 40th anniversary of IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals). Documenting is probably not the correct word because we spent so much time connecting, learning and sharing that few photos were taken and even fewer shared. This morning before I head home, I wanted to give our members a short recap of our adventures include a sampling of those rare shots.

Let me begin by mentioning that it was an honor to attend this conference and to represent Eat Your Books. It was also fun, exhausting, empowering, exciting, exhausting….did I say that twice? I did. It’s a non-stop pace and trying to do a little writing work is nearly impossible so I’ll have a lot to catch up on when I return home.

Friday night kicked off the celebration with a gala and everywhere you turned there was a face we recognized including the legends Madhur Jaffrey (photo left with Jane), Grace Young, Andrea Nguyen, Nathalie Dupree, Dorie Greenspan, and David Tanis, and then future legends James Brisicone (his third title is coming soon!), Ignacio Mattos (who we met on Saturday night – his debut cookbook Estela should be amazing), and Cameron Stauch (his debut book is stunning). There are countless others to mention but I have to catch a plane and don’t wish to overwhelm, but know that every writer, blogger and person that I met was a thrill for me (Jane knows nearly everyone!) I felt like I was on the edges of the red carpet spotting all the celebrities and fangirling. 

We were privileged to attend a Workman Party on Saturday night where Ignacio Mattos (L in photo) and David Tanis (centre in photo) were cooking up recipes from their books – Estela (Oct 18), and Market Cooking (Oct 17) – the latter our main selection for March in the EYB Cookbook Club. 

Our Jane knows everyone so she introduced me to many people and I squashed my inner introvert (yes believe it or not, I am) and went up to James Brisicone, Ignacio Mattos and Cameron Staunch and introduced myself – and no one got hurt from my exuberance. 

The sessions were informative and specifically Sunday’s keynote address/panel was empowering.  Look for a separate post on that subject next week (I was able to hug everyone on that stage and Kat Kinsman gave a shout out to Eat Your Books). It truly was a wonderful experience all around and will take me until April to recover just in time for the James Beard awards. Jane will be my date (I was a judge this year) and it should be a much less hectic trip. This time around we also met with publishers and were able to talk about all the spectacular books coming out this Spring and Fall with many promotions coming for all of them, to include more territories when possible.

Sunday night’s award ceremony was great fun. Darcie’s post shares the winners that we were live tweeting.  We were thrilled that Joe Yonan, Bonnie S. Benwick and Matt Brooks of The Washington Post won Publication of the Year (circulation of 300,000 or more) and Alice Medrich won an award for Food-Focused Column “Rogue Baking Tips (and Recipes)” at Food52. Joe and Gail Simmons were great hosts. Joe is working on a new book all about beans and Gail’s Bringing it Home is a title I am enjoying. 

There was a book I fell in love with – Amalia’s Guatemalan Kitchen: Gourmet Cuisine with a Cultural Flair – and I’ll be doing more on that title soon. How did I not know about this one? I was also able to touch Modernist Bread – swoon – and page through Cameron’s Vegetarian Viet Nam (which will be waiting for me at home). Cameron did a stellar job on his debut book.

Eva Kosmas Flores’ second book First We Eat is gorgeous and I was able to stow that book in my suitcase. The Cook’s Atelier was sitting across the table during our meeting at Abrams and will be coming to me soon along with promotions on these two books plus other Abrams titles. 

At Houghton Miffin, we had a peek at Dorie’s BLAD for her new book, the galley for Flavor Bombs, Glow 15 and talk about other new books. A BLAD is a promotional mockup of the book with photos and images. See my Preview Post for 2018 for most of those titles and I’ll be updating soon. Another highlight was my meeting Rose Levy Beranbaum who is lovely (everyone was) and she proudly showed us her beautiful blad for Rose’s Baking Basics. I want to mention The Bordeaux Kitchen: An Immersion into French Food and Wine, Inspired by Ancestral Traditions by Tania Teschke will be coming this June and I met up with Tania several times – this book looks amazing. 

Everything looks so beautiful for the Spring and Fall. This was an experience I will never forget and one that will take a few days to recover from. Look for more detailed posts in the next few weeks and promotions to come!

Last night we had the most amazing meal at Prune and I learned something new besides how outstanding the food and service is there. I discovered that Jane Kelly created the index for Prune which can be downloaded, if you would like a copy for your book. Gabrielle wanted the book to look like a kitchen manual hence the tags, faux stains and no index and since EYB indexed the title Jane took a few days to create a pdf for the public. The things you learn and I did request that Gabrielle get busy on a second cookbook. 

Mark your calendar for May 10-12, 2019 for IACP’s next conference in Santa Fe!