Commercial Food Event: Research Chefs Association Conference – Savannah Convention Center & Westin Savannah Harbor -Savannah, Georgia

RCA (aka Research Chefs Association) combines culinary skill and science – “culinology” if you will.  Food-centric events are some of my favorite events to shoot, and here’s a little known fact: I’m actually a science nerd with a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology.  Needless to say, the RCA Conference in Savannah was the perfect job for me!

Like most conferences, there were plenty of educational opportunities, mostly in the form of speaker sessions at the Savannah Convention Center.  There were some speakers whose faces I recognized immediately, such as Bryan Voltaggio (you might remember him and his twin brother Michael competing on Top Chef).  Matthew Raiford of The Farmer & The Larder (who you might know as a James Beard award semi-finalist) was also in attendance gave a captivating keynote, adding tidbits about his grandmother.

Since the conference took place close to Halloween, it seemed appropriate that the cocktail competition was held at a Halloween-themed party at the Westin Savannah Harbor.  In a room decked out in purple lighting and cobwebs, attendees were provided with glow sticks and bracelets.  With plenty of cocktails, the dance floor wasn’t empty for long!

The expo is always a highlight at any culinary related conference, because attendees get to chat with vendors and sample their wares. You might not recognize some of the vendor names since many cater exclusively to the foodservice industry, and not directly to consumers.  But some were household names like Tabasco, and anyone with Asian blood like me would recognize Lee Kum Kee!

During the expo, there’s also a culinary competition with a student division and a professional division.  The goal in both divisions is to create a meal that would be suitable for sale as a pre-packaged product sold in the freezer section of the grocery store, and of course, make it delicious.  The meals were actually flash frozen during the competition, and the judges microwaved them on site according to instructions, just as you or I would if we were whipping up some Lean Cuisine for lunch!

The awards ceremony was a fun end to the conference, with plenty of champagne and ice sculptures.  Live auction items were interspersed with awards (Oscars, take note!), and competition results were revealed.  The student competition winners had my favorite reaction. 😀