IACP: For the Love of Food

By JULIETTE ROSSANT This summer, Favorite Recipes Press published For the Love of Food: Recipes and Stories from the Chefs, a collection of member recipes and co-sponsored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals or IACP. The IACP, founded in 1978, is the oldest and only professional association designed for people employed in all aspects of foodservice. It is one of the few organizations where chefs network and interact with food photographers, teachers, writers, marketing professionals, food manufacturers, and tour operators. This is the IACP's first cookbook, sold to raise fund for the association. Most cookbooks that restaurant and food organizations churn out are full of the most familiar and most well known chefs to entice new members to join. There is something refreshing in the breadth of range among the 34 chefs and their recipes in For the Love of Food. On the one hand, a number of super chefs contributed recipes and stories: Lidia Bastianich (p. 12) , Todd English (p. 50), Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken (p.54). There are celebrity chefs Rick Bayless (p. 18), Gale Gand and Rick Tramonto (p. 60), and Charlie Trotter (p. 158). And there are other local heroes of national standing such as Louis Lamensdorf of Dallas-Ft. Worth (p. 76), Nora Pouillon of Washington, DC (p. 108), and Allen Susser of Miami (p. 140). On the other hand, real cookbook readers and collectors may leap at the chance to get recipes from lesser known chefs from across the country. The cookbook opens with Sam Arnold and daughter Holly Kinney who own the Fort Restaurant in Ben's Fort, Colorado. They offer a recipe for Jalapenos Stuffed with Peanut Butter (p. 10) (Arnold suggests serving with Major Grey's chutney: "It give a nice fruity sweetness that also buffers the burn"). There is also Rafih Benjelloun (p. 24), whose Moroccan restaurant the Imperial Fez is a great reason to go to Atlanta. His recipe for Moroccan Marinated Baby Eggplant Salad (p. 26) is an interesting variation on more familiar Turkish or Greek dishes: he uses a marinade made of ginger juice and spices. Another great find in the book is Sven-Erik Mill (p. 98) from Sweden (remembe, the IACP is an international association), who runs Loka Brunn resort's restaurant and Mill's Ost & Vilt, a food product company. Chef Mills reflects: Riding my bicycle to my mother's job in the kitchens of Skfors manor, I passed through dark, blue-green woodlands, caught the scent of flowers in the fields, and was hypnotized by the silvery sparkles from the lakes. All the guesthouses in the mining area were founded with iron and steel fortunes. And my mother was one of the bestknown cooks, using game, mushrooms and berries from the woods and fields, and fish and crawfish from the many fresh lakes. I followed her profession closely, and in the process, learned to value quality and frehness. (p. 98) Mill's recipes include one for Grythytte Stew (p. 100), a venison stew served with a Tawny Port Sauce with Cherries and Sweet Rosemary Apples (p. 101). All photographs and recipes in the book were donated by IACP members, with production costs provided by the IACP and editing by Sarah R. Labensky, former IACP president, now culinary publications specialist at the cookbook's publisher, Favorite Recipes Press. Previous articles: [complete cookbook reviews] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, cookbooks --> back to superchefblog