It’s all about the street food
For the entire time last week, we hosted the Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference at the Campus Center and Berkshire DC. Close to 200 participants, mainly chefs from across the nation, joined us. We were a bit worried about the attendance at first, with the economy and travel restrictions imposed by many schools, and thought we might not have a good turn-out even through it was our 15th year celebration. We were wrong, not to worry; there were plenty of executive chefs eager to come here to learn about street food.
Our theme this year, “World Street Food, Local Flavor” was timely. Not only is this food popular, but it is usually in small portions, with local flavors, and it is just what many customers are looking for. Street foods have been around for hundred of years in America and throughout the world, and they are get more popular here. If available, I think our students would snack on tapas all day. They are looking for freshness, variety, and flavor; and portable street foods really fit the bill. Here at UMass, we already serve many street foods such as pho noodle, dim sum, sushi, stir-fry, and tacos.
During the opening session, I proclaimed that world street food with be the next mega trend on campuses because it is portable, fast, fresh, fun to eat, and has bold flavors and is inexpensive. American flavor is now world flavor. The influence of Latin America, the Mediterranean region and Southeast Asia have all had a profound impact on our food. At UMass we plan to roll out sliders, satay, tamales and tapas this year.
In terms of the conference, it was an intense but fun week. We had a bit of everything with 49 sessions of presentations and workshops, many of them hands-on. The tamales made by Mark Miller were outstanding, the presentation by Steve Sweeny on “Enhancing our industry image” was inspiring and our chef Willie’s street food representing nine countries was mouth watering.
We plunged into a four day, sauce-slopping, noodle-slurping, chai-sampling, kabob-nibbling, tamale-savoring, tapas-grazing epic tour of the best of world street food.
It was a week to remember. It certainly set the standard for delicious street food and if you are lucky it will be coming soon to a campus near you.
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu