News of The Paris CookBook Fair
MORE PUBLISHERS THAN EVER
Paris Cookbook Fair adds one more day in 2012. The reason is simple : the amount of trade between publishers is so important that we needed one more professional day. Stands are sold out, thanks to the market leaders - Hachette, Phaidon, Flammarion, Alain Ducasse, Grub Street, Wine Appreciation Guild, Biblioteca Culinaria, China Light Industry Press, Larousse, Arkaim, etc - but also thanks to new exhibitors such as Taschen, Murdoch Books, Zabert Sandmann, Kyle Books, and many more. Many publishers have chosen to visit the fair as VIP-Professionals, which gives them access to the catalog, two five-day passes, and invitations for the Gourmand Awards on Tuesday 6 and the Great Opening Party on Wensday 7.
MORE CHEFS
With one more day, the schedule is now impressive. 70 demonstrations ! Some of the biggest French chefs such as Michel Roux, Pierre Gagnaire, Michel Roth, Jean-François Piège or Christophe Felder are presenting their books in giant masterclasses. The international stars are also present : Chef Ramzi, Chef Wan, Chakall, Steffen Henssler, Vefa Alexiadou, Rocky Singh, Jimmy Yang Jimey, Julie Biuso, James McIntosh and many more will perform live on the kitchens.
MORE JOURNALISTS
Paris Cookbook Fair has three press agencies : L'Arrière-cuisine (in Paris), Buch Contact (in Berlin), and Alex Hippisley-Cox (in London). Requests for press badges are beyond all expectations.
MORE ACTIVITIES
- Each one of these highlights has its own space at the fair :
- - Malaysian Tribal Food, organised by Chef Wan
- - Treasures of Chinese luxury printing, organised by Artron
- - The Wine Penthatlon, organised by Baco Club (Argentina)
- - The best antique cookbooks, organised by the expert Henri-Pierre Millescamps
- - Cookbook Binding, an international contest organised by Jean-Pierre Fournier
- - Over 60 wine tastings at the international bar
- - Premium beers from all over the world, organised by Brewberry (Paris)
- - Spanish products (ham, olive oil, wine) with the best Spanish cookbooks
- - Over 40 conferences with the biggest stars of the sector
- - A digital area with the newest apps and e-cookbooks
- - The huge Gourmand Awards Library, including all the winners by countries of 2011
MORE FUN
- Two big parties :
- - The Gourmand Awards Ceremony, at les Folies Bergère. Followed by a cocktail with Champagne Gosset, Cognac Frapin, François Lurton wines and Wodka Potocki.
- - The Grand Opening Party, at the Paris Cookbook Fair. With a special menu by L'Arome (excellent parisian restaurant) on the french show kitchen, Swedish delights on the international show kitchen, spanish ham served by Breads and Roses (delicatessen bakery located in the historical Hermes building), foie gras by l'Association du Foie Gras du Périgord, an Italian buffet by Samesa, Malaysian tribal food, the finest premium beers, and of course Champagne Gosset, Cognac Frapin, François Lurton wines and Wodka Potocki.
The Gourmand Awards are the major Food Culture event in the world.
They started in 1995 for cookbooks and wine books, at Frankfurt Book Fair. They now include all Food Culture content. The Gourmand Awards are open to all, big or small, print or digital, for sale or for free, with or without ISBN, trade or self published, private or public, in any language. It is free to participate, anyone can send entries. There is no comparable international cultural event in the world, except the Olympics. We are inspired by the Olympic spirit.
1- The countries
This year we had entries from 215 countries and regions. There are 193 countries in the United Nations. For the Finalists, we have considerably reduced from the entries the number of countries, and entries. There are now Finalists for Food from a total of 134 countries (116 UN members) and regions. There are 40 countries and regions for Drinks.
2- Categories
There are 100 categories for Food, 30 for Drinks. This is necessary to reflect the wide diversity of world food culture. It gives a chance to many countries to win in a category. In the Olympic games, they have 303 competitions/categories for 202 countries. On our list our finalists, we have 130 categories for 134 countries and regions. In total, there are 1372 entries now finalist, 1144 for food, and 228 for drinks. This represents less than 3% of the total of similar books and other formats published and available every year. It is a major achievement to be on this list of Finalists. There are 67% of the categories with 12 or less finalists, 26% with 13 to 19 finalists, and 7% with 20 to 30 finalists.
3- Trends
Food Culture is now taken very seriously by most governments and individuals. Food is at the heart of the issues of our future, collectively and individually.Trends in Food and Drinks culture are now global, everywhere in the world, which this list of finalists makes very clear. We see six major trends, combining or competing at a different pace in different countries, with change accelerating:
- Tourism is becoming the force driving food culture. Food is the first positive criteria and motivation generally, for 35%, up from 25% fifteen years ago. We have 160 entries for tourism (12%). See our categories B15, B17, B21, W1-8, W1-12.
- Social media and television continue to expand the food culture market, helping print. See our categories A07, A08, A09, A13, B18, B19.
- Health and Nutrition have joined with Ethics and Environmental concerns, spreading the same issues worldwide. For instance Vegan has become mainstream in very few years, everywhere. See our categories D01, D02, D08, D09, E06, E13.
- Local has become the key word. There is a major effort everywhere to save local food culture, and transmit it. It is helped by tourism and the locavore trends. Slow Food has won. See our categories C01, D05, D07.
- Quick and easy comfort food is still very important, especially in Asia. See our category E01. In 1995, when we started, this was the leading category.
- Children and Family food books are rapidly expanding. See categories D03, D11.
- There are minor new trends starting now Sports and Food, see D13.
- Seniors and food, see D12 Breakfast, see E15.
- Embassies and Gastro Diplomacy, see F08.
4- Digital
We have 19 categories (15%) exclusively for digital, with 195 digital entries now finalists (15%). You can find in the list of Finalists approximately 50 free Food and Wine PDF to download, selected for their quality, nearly all produced by public institutions. Unfortunately, they tend to disappear quickly, so do not be surprised if you cannot find them. We cannot help. See categories A06 for FAO, UN-IOM, UNDEP-Canada, UNESCO, UNWTO or B17, W1-12. For cookbook professional online newsletters, see B03.
5- The next step
The Best in the World will be announced in Yantai, China at the Gourmand Awards annual event May 25-28, 2018. The top 3 in each category will have the right to Best in the World. We do not announce results before the event. It is not necessary to attend to win. Apart from the honors at the event, the major opportunity is meeting the other participants, for business and pleasure. As previous participants have written, it may be the best four days of your life if you participate. Guests from over 60 countries had already indicated they wanted to come as of January 12, 2018. There are among them 81 guests who have already been at our events in Yantai. They come back even if they have no entry in the competition, it is so important for networking, business, and food culture.