Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference: An inspiring (and exhausting!) experience

Susan Olcott, MCFA Director of Strategic Partnerships, working hard to portion fish for tacos during a training at the Chef Culinary Conference.

I consider myself a pretty energetic person, but I have never been so exhausted after cooking all morning among a team of chefs at the 31st Annual Chef Culinary Conference at UMass Amherst in early June. This year’s event included more than 550 chefs, academics and other culinary experts from more than 70 universities. I was there representing MCFA and the Maine Seafood Promotion Council in our shared goal to introduce more chefs to the versatility and abundance of delicious Maine seafood species, and encourage them to source more seafood from Maine in their food service. Other members of the council attending were Chef Rob Dumas, Togue Brawn of Downeast Dayboat, Courtney Cosgrove, and Emily Lane of Focus Maine.

One of the highlights was a Food Showcase, which featured vendors from all over the country ranging from Korean pork buns to peanut puffs from the National Peanut Board. Our Maine table was one of a very small handful that served seafood. Others included Andrew Wilkinson from North Coast Seafood with his "Seaweed-ish" meatballs, the Alaska Seafood Promotion Council, and King and Prince Seafood Company, one of the country’s largest seafood distributors.

After helping to set up our table for the Showcase, I headed into the kitchen to help Rob prepare a seafood stew that was chock-a-block full of Maine clams, mussels, lobster, and scallops. His stew was a nod to the Acadian culinary traditions of Maine and was called a fricot. In addition to the fricot, I was prepping the Flounder Fish Cakes I’ve been sampling in Maine K-12 cafeterias that are made by Graffam Brothers Seafood in Rockport, Maine. 

It was bustling - “hot pan behind” and “oven open front” were frequent phrases deftly spoken by the many chefs preparing samples for the afternoon show. Among these were a team of UMass Amherst Culinary Staff who were helping everyone navigate the hot kitchen. I took my place shucking mussels and chopping lobster meat and was at first intimidated by the facile skills of the other chefs, but quickly found them incredibly welcoming and forgiving of my lack of knowledge of the mechanics of a commercial-scale kitchen.  

Alice Waters!

After several hours of shucking, chopping and flipping cakes, we were ready to serve. Our first visitor of the day was none other than Alice Waters, award-winning Chef, founder of the Edible Schoolyard project and owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkley. She had given the opening keynote address and I had the honor of having my picture taken with her at the dinner the night before and putting in a plug for our table and our work in schools. The menu for the dinner that she put together included halibut, so I knew she was a seafood fan. Many other chefs and conference attendees also came to our table over the next several hours and there was great enthusiasm for Maine seafood.

And then, FINALLY, I sat down, exhausted in many ways. That’s when Chef Rob asked which afternoon workshop I was going to. Part of the conference included 3-hour long hands-on cooking workshops. I had attended one with Chef Matt Jennings the day before and had volunteered to portion the fish for fish tacos. While I only had to make 50 servings, I found it took me an extraordinary amount of time to try to get them all about the same size and thickness. Rob and others in the group were very gracious in their patience with me and also their sharing of expertise. Knowing how intense the workshops were and that we had a dinner event that night, I skipped the workshop - but Rob headed off to keep on cooking. 

Rob’s stamina and skill along with that of the many other chefs I interacted with at the conference were truly superhuman. While I thought I had a decent understanding of the stresses of those working in food service, I truly did not know it until my body felt it first-hand. I now more fully appreciate the challenges in getting seafood into institutions, as one more step to work in is sometimes just not possible with the number of hands available, space, and time. MCFA’s work in developing ready-to-serve products is in response to these challenges and I hope that this experience will help me to make them as simple and service-friendly as possible. 

Above: Alice Waters' halibut ceviche; Emily Lane getting hands-on in a cooking demo; Chef Rob Dumas with Susan.

Below: Chef Mike Jennings putting the final touches on fish tacos from Susan's cooking demo, Maine Seafood Promotion Council's table during the showcase, and the fish tacos on display for sampling.