Commercial Food Event: International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Conference – James Beard House, Institute of Culinary Education & New York Hilton Midtown – New York City, New York

 

After shooting the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Conference the in Louisville, Kentucky, I was excited to be asked to return the following year for their conference in New York City!  NYC is a great city in general, but everyone knows that it’s a mecca for amazing food and restaurants, so it’s the perfect setting for a culinary event.  Most of the conference took place at the New York Hilton Midtown, but we started off at the James Beard House with an invite-only party for industry influencers.

Next we we headed downtown to the Institute of Culinary Education (aka ICE) for workshops.  What could be more appropriate for New York City than a bagel class with Melissa Weller?  There were also walking tours of famous NYC bars, and of course a welcome party featuring local restaurants and locally made products, such as ice cream from Ample Hills Creamery.

Once the conference officially kicked off, attendees could choose to listen to speaker panels featuring notable names such as Dorie Greenspan and Michael W. Twitty, learn about food and wine pairings with Kendall Jackson, or get a cookbook signed by authors like Peter Reinhart. They could also choose to get their headshot done with yours truly!

The conference ended with the IACP Awards ceremony, hosted by Joe Yonan of The Washington Post and Gail Simmons, who you might recognize from Top Chef. The awards honor the best in cookbooks, food writing, food photography, and beyond, and was the perfect last course to wrap up the conference.