Alvin College Culinary Arts: American Culinary Federation National Conference

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

American Culinary Federation National Conference

Last summer, I was fortunate and was able to attend the National Culinary Federation national convention in Grapevine, Texas. It is quite an experience to spend four or five days immersed in food. The seminars were simply outstanding. It was good to see some of my old friends from the Texas Chefs Association.
I took a few pictures at the conference and thought I would share them with your all.
One of the key note speakers was Alton Brown. I found him to be informative and entertaining at the same time. His presentation was quite good. The photos is not great.

Lately has has been promoting Diamond Crystal salt. So it was fitting that there were several huge salt crystals at the door as we walked into the ball room.

Lest you thing it was all work and no play. The opening night icebreaker featured among other things a clown walking around making balloon hats for people. You know, of course, that things are bigger in Texas.

I am not sure how the young child that was wearing this "hat" could even carry it. It had to be as tall as he was.
One of the more interesting seminars was on bread sculptures. I managed to take a couple of decent photos of the demo piece. Very nice work and a great seminar.

Some of you may remember that I was nominated for the Central Region Chef Educator of the Year award. I did not receive the award. But, I did have the pleasure of watching the chef who did, present their "lesson." She did an outstanding job! This is the dish she prepared as a part of her lesson.

The following photos were taken at the "trade show" were all the competitions took place. The work was all done by team USA. What an outstanding job they did! I hope you enjoy these few pictures of state of the art culinary competition platters.