While IACC’s annual confab may involve serious educational sessions, dynamic speakers and the like, an argument can be made that the main course of the event has become the Copper Skillet competition.
Sure, the record attendance of 457 might have been drawn to IAAC’s 26th Annual Conference because of its location at The Heldrich, located smack-dab in the most populous region of the U.S., about an hour from New York City in New Brunswick, N.J. Or maybe the record number of new attendees—108, according to the association—points to the overall health of the conference center industry?
But after witnessing the good-natured pandemonium at the latest Copper Skillet competition, one might say, “It’s gotta be the food!”
The Copper Skillet cook-off, which pits chefs from top conference centers throughout the world, has revealed itself as somewhat of a marketing epiphany for IACC, simultaneously raising awareness of conference center F&B quality, promoting the international flavor of its membership, and providing one heck of a party at its Annual Conference.
“One of the issues we have tried to address over the years is how to dispel the reputation that conference centers didn’t have the level of chefs, food quality or services that hotels have,” says Vicki Todd-Smith, chef/consultant to the competition, who now works for Mustard Seed Market, a Solon, Ohio-based natural foods supermarket. “I don’t think that that reputation was undeserved years ago, but it has changed a great deal. And the perception within the hotel industry has changed tremendously; that conference centers can be a dining destination.”
In front of a boisterous crowd waving the flags of their respective nations, Assadang Langsub, executive chef of London, Ontario’s Spencer Leadership Centre, came away with the 2007 Skillet.
It couldn’t hurt that Langsub hails from Thailand, and the theme of the competition this year was Thai cuisine.
Next year, however, the chefs will battle under “Market Basket” rules, in which they receive a basket full of food and are not constrained by a cuisine style.
“It means they will have to think on their feet and be creating every minute,” Todd-Smith says.
