Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz
(Chef Silverio Luiz Tecedor is a chef consultant for IDF, who has spent the past 40+
years cooking and traveling around the world. Through the years, he typically flew
more than 100,000 miles annually, while cooking, teaching and learning about food
for CPC/Best Foods/Unilever. Here at IDF, we’re delighted that Chef Luiz has agreed
to share some of his global food-lore.)

Chef Luiz gives his take on the annual Research Chefs Conference

Is our industry surviving or thriving?
That’s what I was wondering on my way to Phoenix from my winter home in Brazil. I figured the RCA conference would be a good indicator. This year’s conference had a clear picture of the economic situation of our country, the foodservice industry and the strength of RCA within the industry. My sense was there is cautious optimism.

Jobs...Jobs...Jobs
The first thing I do every day at the conference is look at the employment opportunities postings. This year we had many more job listings than last year when the board had maybe only two or three listings—very low level positions at best. What a relief! This is also the best place to find your old friends.

All my life, I’ve had a thing about checking out job opportunities in the newspaper. Now my daughters tell me I have to learn to look on the Internet…“no more newspapers, Daddy,” they say. While that may be true, the best jobs are still within your network of colleagues and suppliers.

The situation seems better for the chefs working as consultants than full-time employees. Many new chefs are trying this as an option, which makes the field a bit crowded, but good for the industry. Consultants can get lots of experience during short periods with no commitment.

As usual, we had lots of students full of hope, energy and dreams for their careers. This makes the older chefs, like me, feel good that we are teaching and influencing lives. In a way, I feel that we are paying back what we received from our mentors. This was very clear when I saw our older RCA members helping the newcomers with their presentations, playing second fiddle, when they used to be the maestro. It’s also good to see the chefs that started the RCA keeping it running even when times are tough. They are great people, helping out whenever needed, and they are proud of their profession.

It’s my take that this conference was more ‘science’ than ‘culinary,’—but then again it’s less expensive to talk about strategy and methods than to put on culinary demonstrations. Overall though, it was good, and I’m glad I was there. The learning sessions (workshops) covered many subjects, from formulation to marketing new products.

The trade show
Quite interesting…the floor was packed for the first two hours. There were very few international visitors, though; the RCA is still very North American, with multinational companies the major target.

I heard we had more people attending the show this year than last, which is an indication our industry is already getting back to work, offering the consumer what they demand. Not many new products were shown, and again innovation was not the main objective. Old products were being repositioned with new applications.

At our booth, we were quite busy. It seems we had the right ingredients to offer at the right time with the addition of our two new cost-effective frozen broths (light roast/savory) and full line of broth powders. We had the largest number of sample requests ever, so new retail and foodservice products are sure to be in the making. We also obtained several new leads and revived old contacts.

Trends
It seems that we are always looking for new trends, and we could hear many people talking about helping or protecting local farmers, local restaurants, local chains and local chefs. Several presenters and attendees were promoting the trend to do more business locally with farmers, restaurants, chains and chefs. It may be something that is not fully understood yet, but it is a logical objective, if it is economically feasible and improves sustainability. Companies like IDF have been striving to use local resources right from the beginning.

The foodservice industry remains very traditional, we continue to take many of the existing ingredients available and mix and match them with new ones to continue offering applications that meet the market demand for variety at a reasonable cost, but “it must taste good!”

Overall, I’d say the industry is thriving, rather than just surviving. Yet we’re still in a cautionary mode, watching expenses and not taking too many risks.

That’s all from Phoenix…hope to see you soon at the IFT FOOD EXPO in Chicago.

Tchau!

Chef Luiz