Diva on the Road- New York for IACP

Once a year there is a culinary conference in America with IACP, where it is my opportunity to connect with other culinary professionals and I ADORE IT.

I haven’t been in two years and was great to come to New York, where I have never really been, to attend the conference.

Here is the view from my room.

We stayed just down the street from Times Square which was really larger than life and passing through at night, was like being there in the daytime there were so many LIGHTS!

I was in culture shock for most of the week. I really had never been to New York and was overwhelmed. There were so many places I would have love to gone. I would have loved to just stroll down the streets in the smaller neighborhoods and get the feel of what it is like to live here.

BUT.

Insteaad I was in conference sessions learning new things all day long and evening events. We did manage to sneak in a couple of quick nice lunches, but not leisurely lunches.

I was thrilled to be learning from so many fabulous people. One of my favorite moments was listening to two of my inspirations for entering the food world, Jacque Pepin and Molly Katzen.

Meeting your culinary icons is just one part of IACP, it is also being with a thousand people that have the same passion and frustrations about our food world.
We have panel discussions— which are thought provoking and when I leave IACP I am always so wound up with ideas. This year I was inspired by Marcus Samuelson at the opening panel and later on in the week attended a panel with Ruth Reichl and Grant Achatz. WOW. I SOOOO want to go and eat at his restaurant now. When you hear someone explain their thought process about creating their menu’s, recipes and visions, that is what makes me hungry.

While in NY I took a cab over to visit my friends Justin and Todd over at Speedy Romeo in Brooklyn. Before they opened, we spent a week travelling around Italy to let Justin meet the masters of pizza, mozzarella and meat. He opened a grill and forno restaurant. The place was PACKED and food was fabulous.

I love taking classes “outside” of my box- and took a lot of new media sessions, workshops on MEAT and new cutting techniques, you know my passion for butchers!

Was thrilled to meet Adam Sappington at a demo on lamb.

I will write more about my inspiration from the conference later— was so overwhelming it needs time to sink in. Didn’t really get time to see New York much, but that will be for another trip.

Now I am in Providence, Rhode Island with client/friends and part vacation with one cooking class they organized for me. So I already had a lobster roll and home-made clam chowder. Today we will go around shopping and then prep for class tomorrow. I am leaving out of Boston so we will overnight there and then I am home for Easter dinner!

Now to go get my AMERICAN fixes! We had a wonderful burger yesterday and I had my root beer!
Watched a marathon of Food Network and saw Chopped for the first time!

this is the sterling silver heart i gave to Justin at Speedy Romeo, it is by the pizza oven

The BEST part of the conference was hearing from chefs and people I admire that they read my blog!
I know there are more people reading it than I realize ( another reason for the new media classes is to understand the Google analytics). Some loved the pasta recipes others the foto’s of Italy.

I met Michael Ruhlman and he said he read my blog! maybe just being nice, but it was nice!

I ADORE when someone leaves a message– so please leave comments and suggestions about what you would like to see more of.

I will be writing more this year. As some of you know I am more often posting foto’s on FB, to not overload the site with posts!

Get your taste of italy from Divina Cucina! Stop by FB and friend me too!!