Dancing Spoon

Planning Thanksgiving Dinner

Planning Holiday

by J. Michael Wheeler
Thanksgiving Tips: Game Plan
There’s no question about it, for me, Thanksgiving is absolutely the best holiday: it’s all about getting together with friends and family and eating a great meal. No Christmas present stresses or New Year’s Eve anxiety. Cook a lot of good food and share it with friends and family. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was when I was in college in San Diego and I organized an “Orphan’s Thanksgiving” for my fellow college friends who wouldn’t be traveling home for the holiday. It was a bit less than traditional, but the spirit certainly was there.

Of course, for the host, Thanksgiving might not be all that stress-free. Still-frozen turkeys, wallpaper-paste gravies, and well, we’ve all got our stories (we’d love to yours). So in the interest of everyone enjoying our favorite holiday, we’re sharing with you some tips for a great Thanksgiving. We’ll start out with an overall game plan that we call, cleverly, T-Day Game Plan.

Break it Down
Sit down with paper and pen well before your first trip to the grocery store (yes, you’ll shop in phases) and starting with the menu, break the T-Day undertakings into steps. This will give you a bird’s eye view (couldn’t resist that one) of what needs to be done and when. As you accomplish each task you can check it off, giving you a measure of your progress, as well as what tasks remain to be done. Learn to love Lists.

Big Helpful Tip: Organize all of the recipes you plan to use ahead of time. Photocopy each recipe from your cookbook, recipe card, or torn out newspaper article and create your own personal T-Day Cookbook for that meal. With all of your recipes together, in one place, you won’t have to flip through several books and different pages.

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Seafood Summit 2010: Paris

Seafood Sustainable

by J. Michael Wheeler
Seafood Summit 2010:
Challenging Assumptions in a Changing World
I can't think of a better place to challenge assumptions in a changing world than Paris. The Seafood Summit 2010, is to be held in Paris, France, from January 31 - February 2, 2010. The Seafood Choices Alliance explains:

Seafood Summit brings together global representatives from the seafood industry and conservation community for in-depth discussions, presentations and networking with the goal of making the seafood marketplace environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

While many industry events offer companies networking opportunities to showcase their products and services, Seafood Summit is different. It is the only venue that connects large and small companies from a diverse array of industries with leaders from the conservation community to bridge the gap between the latest science and the reality of the seafood marketplace. Summit attendees include international representatives with vested interest in the seafood industry, including: fishermen, fish farmers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, food professionals (chefs, restaurateurs), conservation organizations, academic scientists, media, and policy makers.

Information about Seafood Summit 2010 will be updated regularly. For further questions, contact Seafood Summit. There are discounts for early registration. Discounts for early registration available until 30 November 2009.

Seafood Choices Alliance is an international program that provides leadership and creates opportunities for change across the seafood industry and ocean conservation community. Founded in the United States in 2001, Seafood Choices helps the seafood industry— from fishermen and fish farmers to processors, distributors, retailers, restaurants, and food service providers —to make the seafood marketplace environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

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Best Cookbooks IACP 2009

2009 Best Books

by J. Michael Wheeler
The IACP Cookbook Awards
The IACP Cookbook Awards annually celebrate the year's most outstanding food and beverage publications. The awards program was created to encourage and promote quality and creativity in cookbook writing and publishing and to expand awareness of culinary literature. The IACP Cookbook Awards have become the industry's most coveted acknowledgment of excellence in the cookbook publishing world.

Cookbook of the Year
A16: Food + Wine
At San Francisco's acclaimed A16 restaurant (named for the highway that cuts across southern Italy), diners pack the house for chef Nate Appleman's house-cured salumi, textbook Naples-style pizzas, and gutsy slow-cooked meat dishes. Wine director Shelley Lindgren is renowned in the business for her expeditionary commitment to handcrafted southern Italian wines. In A16: FOOD + WINE, Appleman and Lindgren share the source of their inspiration--the bold flavors of Campania.

Winner: Compilations Category
The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh
For more than half a century, Bon Appétit has been the go-to source for straight-forward, sophisticated recipes, each with a contemporary twist. Now more than ever we also want to be conscientious about choosing responsibly sourced ingredients and healthy foods. The experts at Bon Appétit show how, in the most comprehensive collection—ever—of the magazine's best, most delicious, fast and easy recipes. As a cookbook, Fast Easy Fresh is unparalleled—every recipe is simple to use and has been tested with care by the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen.  It will become your indispensable source for all the tips, hints, and tricks you need to keep you on top of your game. Eating local, eating better, eating fresh—it all starts here, in The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook.

IACP Green Conference

Green Be

by J. Michael Wheeler
Pioneering a Sustainable World
The IACP is trying to help food professionals find better, more earth-friendly ways to feed our hungry planet. That's the topic for the 31st Annual IACP International Conference to be held in Denver, CO, April 1-4, 2009.

"Pioneering a Sustainable World" is the conference theme, and Denver is the ideal spot -- a place where culinary cultures are defined by a pioneer spirit birthed from rugged landscapes, determination, natural beauty, and a commitment to sustainability and food artisanship. Here, the natural and organic food industry has staked its claim, and given rise to new solutions and sustainability advocates.  "Green" has become the mantra for a city determined to preserve and protect the mountains' majesty as well as the global landscape.

The IACP is a not-for-profit professional association with a worldwide membership of more than 3,000 encompasses 45 countries and is literally a "Who's Who" of the world of food. It provides continuing education and development for its members who are engaged in the areas of culinary education, communication, or in the preparation of food and drink.

Related Links
International Association of Culinary Professionals IACP
IACP Pioneering a Sustainable World Conference 

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"Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real."

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