If you were in attendance, we thank you! This was the largest Roots conference to date, with 250 attendees, and the contribution of every single person added up to an incredible experience for everyone. If you couldn’t attend, we hope to see you in 2018, a conference that we’ve already started to plan, thanks to feedback provided by attendees. In the meantime, you can watch this blog and the Culinary Vegetable Institute blog, where we plan to offer information from every single presentation so that we can share the wealth with everyone and keep the conversation going.

 

This means, as just one example, you can find out what Dr. Tim Ryan from the Culinary Institute of America shared about the concepts of creativity and innovation. He promised to deliver a keynote unlike any other presented at culinary conferences to date, using the concepts of music and art to inspire chefs and restauranteurs – and he did exactly that. Bravo!

 

Theme of Innovation

The theme this year was innovation, a concept that served as the fuel to spark a wide range of creative ideas at the conference. But, what kind of innovation? The reality is that innovation covers an entire spectrum of philosophies and attitudes. If fact, if you could imagine each form of innovation as a color, it would be the world’s most beautiful rainbow – as a sound, the most incredible song ever written.



Innovation is a unique blend of knowledge – knowledge of what has already been invented and an understanding of the current limits of possibilities – and intuition. In fact, Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, put it this way: “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” Psychotherapist Carl Jung notes that “the creative mind plays with the object it loves” and Steve Jobs used to say that he wanted to put a “ding in the universe,” another intriguing way of speaking about innovation.



To whet your appetite for what topics were covered – and will be covered in this blog – you can expect coverage on the following topics in the coming months:

• Nuts and Bolts: Fresh Ideas for Managing Labor Laws, Tipping, Minimum Wage, Insurance and Staff Shortages
• The Road Less Traveled: Inventive Ways Chefs Are Diversifying Their Careers
• Fine Casual: What to Retain and What to Discard to Maintain an Elevated Dining Experience in a More Relaxed Environment
• She Will Rise: The Challenges and Rewards of Being a Female Leader
• Oh, Canada! Northern Culinary History and Innovation
• Neurogastronomy: The Science of Flavor
• The Art of the Meal: Ingenious New Plating Ideas
• Food as Medicine: Healing Yourself One Bite at a Time
• Happy Workers, Thriving Company: Rethinking Sustainability in the Workforce
• Diaspora: The Influence of One Nation upon Another and How It Drives Innovation
• Drink Your Veggies: Fresh Ideas for Vegetable Beverages

And, that’s not all. Side conversations and comments made during presentations opened up additional topics to pursue, including but not limited to the role that ugly vegetables play in dining with purpose. Intrigued? Stay tuned! You won’t be disappointed.

Visit the Chef's Garden Facebook page to view images from the event.