IACP Culinary Conference in Louisville photographed by Julie Lowry

Culinary events are one of my favorite things to shoot, so I didn’t mind making the drive to Louisville, Kentucky to photograph the International Association of Culinary Professionals‘ 2017 Conference. They kicked things off with a party at 21c Museum Hotel, where they gave away this awesome black stainless Kitchenaid refrigerator!

kitchenaid refrigerator giveaway at iacp conference

attendees using facetime at iacp conference

The next morning began with pre-conference workshops, including one with Todd Coleman on making food videos and one with Molly Yeh on cake styling. Soon after, more sessions kicked into gear, a cookbook library was opened, speaker panels started, and more parties were had!

todd coleman video workshop at iacp

attendees listen at iacp workshop

At most culinary events you’ll spot at least one celebrity chef, cookbook author, and/or influencer, and the IACP conference had no shortage of them at the host hotel, the Marriott Louisville Downtown. Edward Lee, Carla Hall, Ronni Lundy, and Dorie Greenspan were all in attendance, plus many more familiar faces.

We even set aside time during lunch one day to take headshots (who doesn’t need an updated headshot?). I was able to photograph about 40 attendees (including Virginia Willis and the ladies from Filipino Kitchen) before I needed to run to another floor to grab some photos of a bourbon tasting class with Woodford Reserve.

Awards night took place at The Louisville Palace, where a slew of awards were given, including cookbook of the year to Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard (who you might know from the PBS series A Chef’s Life). Of course, an awards night for a bunch of culinary people can’t be celebrated without food, so once the awards wrapped up, attendees were treated to some of Louisville’s most famous eats, such as Hot Browns, Ale-8-One, and plenty of bourbon. If they didn’t get their fill then, Chef Edward Lee made sure they wouldn’t go hungry at the after party, which took place at Milkwood (one of his restaurants).