Worlds of Flavor offer strategies for cooking for tomorrow By Anne E. McBride
Now in its 16 year, The Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival (WOF) is a proven training ground for chefs from all sectors of the industry who come together for three days to learn from some of the world’s leading chefs and culinary experts. The conference offers demonstrations, presentations on trends, tastings, seminars, kitchen workshops and the opportunity to mingle up close and personal with both their colleagues and the presenters. With the theme of Kitchens Connected: Linking Emerging Appetites and Culinary Innovation in an Era of Global Flavor Discovery, this year’s conference—which was held Nov.14-16 in St. Helena, Calif.—had a particularly relevant package of training for chefs looking to hone in on the latest creative strategies, technologies and flavor trends. Presenters from Scandinavia and Latin America—including Denmark-based Claus Meyer, who co-founded noma and is now working in Bolivia as well—where the eyes of the food world have turned in recent years when looking for the best and most imaginative cooking, detailed how they reconcile hyper-local cooking philosophies with a taste for exploration and adventure. It’s not all about foraging, but rather about looking inward at traditions and cultural elements that make a cuisine, and distilling those into a model that can be applicable anywhere in the world. Connecting it close to home, this approach is also that of Blaine Wetzel, chef-partner at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island, whose cuisine is rooted in the ingredients he finds right around him on the Washington state island. He is also influenced by the relationships he has with chefs around the world, which includes inviting them to cook in his restaurant and by working abroad in the winter, as he recently did with fellow WOF presenter Virgilio Martinez of Lima, Peru. Maxime Bilet, the co-author of the groundbreaking Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking who calls Seattle home, has pushed the boundaries of technology in recent years and now uses a perfect balance of nature and nurture in his cuisine, as he will demonstrate during a kitchen workshop on advanced fermentation techniques. Being able to learn from chefs who come from halfway around the world and others who
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know first-hand the challenges distinct to this state is one of the distinctive features of WOF and one that maximizes the learning value of the conference for American chefs. Other kitchen workshops and seminars will focus on topics such as basic and advanced sous vide techniques; cuts of meats and varieties of fish, including discussions of value; ingredients from Japan, Australia, Mexico, Spain and much more and their use for American menus; food and wine pairings at the world’s best restaurant (El Celler de Can Roca in Spain); and sustainable practices with an eye on the artistry of a dish. Millennials find great importance in healthful foods, as demographic and trend experts will discuss, so sessions will offer strategies for cooking with fruits and plant-based proteins, the science behind and savory applications for yogurt, and the use of world flavors to expand one’s repertoire of vegetable dishes. Experts will also distill the other key elements that millennials look for when deciding whether or not to patronize a restaurant or food company, such as value alignment and convenience. On the business and technology side, attendees will learn about the latest technologies, both operational and informational, to put to use in their business from those who are already working with them. Be they independent chefs or the global foodservice team at Google. They will also hear from app creators on how to use technology to bridge the gap between chefs, companies and consumers and build strong, honest relationships at all points of interactions. Attendees of WOF generally feel that they learn more in three days than they do all year, thanks to all the stimulation and innovation brought by more than 60 chefs from all corners of the world—not to mention the specialty ingredients they get to taste. This year again, they will find that it is the perfect place to charge their creative battery and obtain actionable strategies for the upcoming months of menu research and development. Visit worldsofflavor.com for more information.