Paris Cookbook Fair 2013

This year I had the honor of being invited to the Paris Cookbook Fair. Which I think is the best year to have been invited, since it's the first time the ticket price has gone from 10 to 35 euros!

Another thing that's also changed is the location. Held at Le Centquatre for the past few years, this year it relocated to the very posh Carousel du Louvre, right in the middle of the Louvre museum complex... Yup, the organisers have definitely stepped things up a notch in the class department.

But with the updated location and the increase in ticket price comes a change in the type of visitors you have. Whether or not this was a deliberate move is something I would have liked to ask the organisers. And although it was one of the biggest kicks getting to wear a badge with my name on it, I did notice that the vast majority of other people were wearing badges too. In other words, there weren't so many 'just visiting' Parisians whose face I could rub my badge in. Bummer!

Beautiful food prepared by Annabel Langbein during her cooking demonstration

The vibe of the fair was much more professional this year, there seemed to be less buzz and excitement, and more hallway conversation about selling international book rights. The wine tastings however did manage to garner some decibles, as did the presence of a Japanese celebrity chef slash actor slash model.


One book to definitely look out for this year is "The Art of the Restaurateur", by Nicolas Lander, food critic for the Financial Times (did you know the Financial Times had a food critic? I thought they only wrote about finance!) Glancing quickly at the table of contents of his book didn't do enough to convince me to buy it, but his discussion on the current celebrity-chef oriented trend as opposed to the more traditional restaurateur's position in the restaurant definitely left me wanting more.