!["Inspirational. Eleven on a 10 scale. Fabulous beyond belief. This extravaganza has become a hot ticket as word of its previous in-depth explorations has spread. [The CIA's Worlds of Flavor Conference] was a massive undertaking, the biggest and most intense of its conferences. The buzz was terrific and the learning curve steep and exciting." -- Food Arts Magazine](images/foodarts2.gif)
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The Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival, presented by The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), is widely acknowledged as our country's most influential professional forum on world cuisines and culinary flavor trends. Entering its 11th year, the annual gathering has become a "must attend" for leading chefs, corporate menu decision-makers, foodservice management executives, suppliers, journalists, and other professionals. The event has become such a popular draw that it now sells
out six months in advance!
The event is the college's flagship conference, and every November literally transforms the Napa Valley campus into an amazing crossroads of world food and culture. Each year it showcases the "gold standards" of world cuisines—from the Mediterranean and Latin America to Asia—that are increasingly reshaping American palates and the U.S. foodservice industry.
In November 2008, the CIA will stage A Mediterranean Flavor Odyssey: Preserving and Re-Inventing Traditions for Modern Palates. This spectacular, multi-dimensional event will bring together a conference faculty of more than 60 top chefs, market cooks, food writers, beverage experts, food producers, and other authorities from throughout the Mediterranean and across the United States. This prestigious guest conference faculty will lead seminars, conduct tastings and demonstrations, collaborate on special meals, and participate in the colorful World Marketplace held in Greystone's historic 15,000 square-foot Barrel Room.
Featured Countries
Featured countries and cuisines for the 2008 program include Italy, Spain, the South of France, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, ancient Persia, and the other food cultures of the Silk Road that connected the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East with Asia.
Program Overview
Americans have come to love a wider range of Mediterranean flavors in recent years, as chefs have discovered and showcased these flavors on their menus. And yet the American foodservice industry is still just barely scratching the surface of what exists in the Mediterranean—from Southern Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. This represents an enormous opportunity to refresh and extend popular Mediterranean culinary trends with flavors that are at once new and seemingly familiar.
While many American are familiar with and seeking out Spanish-style tapas, few have been exposed to mezedakia or small plates of the Mediterranean, dishes that allow diners to experience a wide range of small, flavorful bites during a single dining experience. This is just one example of the thousands of possibilities for American foodservice to showcase the foods and flavors of the Mediterranean on menus across the country.
Many Americans are also becoming increasingly interested in seasonal ingredients and opportunities to eating according to what's available, what's fresh, what's currently being harvested. This type of thinking is well understood in the Mediterranean, where both home cooks and professional chefs shape menus based on the agricultural bounty in front of them. Food is simply prepared, with the freshest ingredients available. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, legumes, grains, seafood, and meat are used to create regional and local specialties whose flavors have been developed over the course of thousands of years, and whose flavors continue to evolve as innovative chefs utilize their creativity and skill to contemporize old favorites.
The 2008 conference, A Mediterranean Flavor Odyssey, will probe the far reaches of the greater Mediterranean and present the best of less familiar regional flavors. Then we'll look at how many of these flavors are being re-invented by the region's leading contemporary chefs, melding the modern with the ancient. All in all, this extraordinary flavor immersion will help attending chefs, operators, and suppliers understand how they can stay ahead of the curve in integrating and leveraging "the next big thing" in the Mediterranean culinary mega-trend on behalf of their operations.
Register Now
A Hot Ticket: Register Early!
As you may know, this conference has become one of the most
sought-after tickets for professionals in our industry. Each year we sell out
quickly, with hundreds of professionals on the waiting list. We wish we could
accommodate more attendees, but the size of our Greystone campus precludes our confirming no more than 700, including our sponsors and
participating media.
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