Posts Tagged ‘taste3’
Taste3, Swag Bag
Monday, July 21st, 2008
I’ve been to a few conferences in my day. Most give you a gift bag upon arrival, one with logo’d pens, plastic fooferoo and a notebook.
But the Taste3 gift bag took the cake.
Best. Bag. Ever.
Are you considering your conference budget for next year? Are you in the Food + Wine + Art business? The gift bag alone should woo you over to allotting some of that precious budget to attending Taste3.
1. The bag. Giant. Good for lugging bocce materials back and forth from the park.
2. Wine and wine gift bag.
3. Books. Real books. There was a gorgeous photography book, Illuminations, by Lynn Davis, one of the presenters this year. There was the Michelin guide to San Francisco (Bay Area and Wine Country). There was the elegantly photographed Willams-Sonoma tome Wine & Food, a new look at flavor. Whole books!
4. Books continued. My favorite was the recipe book given to all attendees. It is a TasteBook, a customizable recipe book started with recipes pulled from the Taste3 folks. Attendees also received 50 credits to add their own recipes to their TasteBook. Clever use of technology and they made it easy for folks to deal with when they got home.
5. Magazines Alimentum and Edible San Francisco. As well, The Best ’08 of San Francisco Magazine. I haven’t made it through all of them, what with the newborn and all, but I was pleased to see blog buddy Samin’s byline in the Edible San Francisco mag.
6. Food! There was TCHO chocolate! There was Scharffenberger chocolate! There was Voges chocolate! I have enough dark chocolate for my nefarious needs for weeks.
7. Other food! There were fancy salts from Saltistry.com and even pear and chocolate sauce.
8. Other stuff! There was a carrot-based hand cream, there was a little pack of wine trivia questions and there was the sense that someone had planned this gift bag thoughtfully and well in advance. I’m sure I forgot some of my favorite stuff, there was so much in this bag. Amen, sister, amen.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Tom’s Shoes’ presence at the conference. Upon registration, each attendee received a coupon for a free pair of shoes! Seriously. And during all my time in the upstairs vendor area, they had everyone’s size in everyone’s requested color.
Plus, they do this buy a pair donate a pair thing that makes one feel all fuzzy inside.
So to sum up, Taste3 gift bag = rad.
Taste3, Friday’s lunch at Copia
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Quickly and worthy of mention, the lunch on Friday was amazing. Marscapone polenta, Mahi-Mahi, sauteed zucchini and green beans and radish salad with chocolate truffles for dessert. The wine, a Mondavi Pinot Noir and a Sauvignon Blanc from Kim Crawford, made toes tingle. Lunchtime mingling found other folks from the restaurant business eager to apply the morning’s ideas.
Good, good, all in all.
Taste3, Friday, Mentorship
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
I’ve been considering a more significant career change, one where I work with my hands more than my keyboard, one with a more concrete impact on the world.
Something like food.
And since the opportunity to blog the Taste 3 conference at Copia came up last year, I was eager to check it out.
What could I glean at the intersection of Food, Wine and Art that might change my career?
A few speakers I was lucky to get access to had some great insight into where this might go — enter Chef Roland G. Henin, talking about Mentorship
It was fun to hear Chef Henin, with heavy accent and cheerful demeanor, walk through his culinary mentorship history.
Competition, collaboration, sous cheffery and a rotating presentation of quotes behind him on the big screen made the presentation fascinating.
At the end, Henin’s most famous protégé, Thomas Keller, took the stage to talk about the effect Henin’s generous mentorship had on his own life.
What did I take from the presentation?
I need to mentor.
I need a mentor.
As well, I liked how Henin inspired other chefs to engage in competition. Due to excuses of my own design, I’ve avoided professional competitions. Design, coding and cookery have all been worked for clients and friends without putting it up to higher judgment. I like how Henin’s inspiration brought chefs to a higher level of performance.
I’d like a little more of that in my life.