The International Chef’s Congress 2016 Recap

The International Chef’s Congress by Star Chefs is not for the traditional chef. It’s an environment curated especially for chefs looking to push the boundaries of food forward. Amidst the sea of tattoos and rough language, the halls leading to the main stage of Brooklyn EXPO Center are filled with tantalizing aromas from the main stage, vegetable vendors, and Steelite’s pop-up restaurant-themed booth. Even if you’re not a chef, you’ll feel like one in the back of the house combing through the expo center.

ICC is known as a platform for chef’s from all over the country (possibly, the world), to come together and get ideas from each other. To see what’s new, what’s better, and what’s trending. As Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen (Baltimore) put it in an interview he did for Star Chefs, “Somewhere, someone right now is taking a universal truth about food and proving it wrong.”

It’s that kind of mentality that thrives at the International Chef’s Congress. It’s a place where chefs can come to find that universal truth being proved wrong. 

When it came to dinnerware… Steelite, Front of the House, and American Metalcraft held it down for the tabletop portion of the show.

As mentioned earlier, Steelite came to the show with the theme “Art of Presentation Pop-Up.” Pop Ups being a major trend that continues to grow in the Food Service industry. They brought in four distinguished chefs, including Ian Palazzola of Mourad (San Francisco) to show how despite the temporary nature of the restaurant, you can still create amazing meals and present them on some amazing tableware.

Unsurprisingly chefs got to use Steelite’s CRAFT, an industry standard at this point. Designed by Andrew Klimecki, CRAFT is inspired by hand-crafted, simple county wares made by generations of potters over hundreds of years. The range embodies the beauty of rich, lustrous glazes applied by hand, and celebrates chance effects and reactions, which occur naturally in the kiln.

Front of the House’s presence didn’t go unnoticed. We got a chance to speak with FOH’s Director of Marketing Alexia Rouquette whose approach to ICC 2016 was all about customization. “We’re trying to make it accessible and affordable for chef’s to get that unique look and style that matches their already unique approach to food.”  Roquette also states that with the customization they can do everything in house, as well as 3-D modeling and printing – all translating to smaller minimum requirements and quicker turnaround for their customers.

We spotted some great custom-etched wooden serving trays, as well as some pretty cool decal work on ware from their Tides Collection.

Lastly, but certainly not least, was tableware go-to American Metalcraft. Once again, this creative company was all about making updating your dinnerware an easy and approachable process. A large part of ICC is observing trends. Having a trend-friendly menu can be great for business, but sometimes they require special presentations to really set themselves apart. American Metalcraft came with a wide range of tchotchkes from Japansese-Style Steel Jiggers to Hammered Copper Moscow Mule Mugs. The idea being that no matter what tools you need to adapt to the trends of tomorrow, you’ll be able to find them at American Metalcraft today with low risk at a tremendous value.

Overall the show is still a great experience to be a part of, even if it’s just to see the camaraderie between chefs from all different walks of life. However, while it’s nice to see some big players like American Metalcraft, Front of the House, and Steelite representing our category, the ICC by Star Chefs isn’t quite a tabletop-centric show. It’s more of a tight knit celebration for the rock stars in the kitchen, a chef-centric show if you will, and we were just happy to be apart of it.

We look forward to seeing how the International Chef’s Congress continues to grow and what other creative ways they can champion not only pushing the boundaries of how chefs prepare food, but how they present it as well. After all, what’s a jump shot with no finesse? 

– H.Ali