COOKBOOKS under the Pyramid
Carrousel du Louvre.
When?
The next Paris Cookbook Fair will take place in February 2013, from Friday 22 to Sunday 24.It is one week after Valentine’s Day, and the Chinese New Year week long celebration February 9-15. New Delhi Book Fair is the first week of February, with Jerusalem Book Fair the week after. Salon du Livre de Paris and Bologna 50th Children Book Fair are one month later, from March 22 to March 28.
Where?
The Carrousel du Louvre main entrance is 99 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, which takes you underground through one of the best shopping malls in Paris, to the inverted Pyramid. The entrance to the Louvre Museum is to the left, and Paris Cookbook Fair will be to the right, just after La Maison du Chocolat. As it is under the ground it is completely sealed off from the outside, and quite warm during winter. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards will be at the same location, in a theater for 1400 guests. The Metro-Subway stop is Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre, on lines 1 and 7.
The two most famous English bookstores in Paris are on Rue de Rivoli, WH Smith at nº 248 , and Galignani, at 224. Within walking distance, there are some of the most famous foodies and shopping places in Paris, Angelina, Ladurée, Colette, and many others. Musée des Arts Décoratifs is 107, rue de Rivoli.
Who?
We have 30% more space than last year for foreign rights tables, trade stand, and publishers stars. We believe we will have a slight increase in European visitors from outside France, reaching 45% of professionals, a strong increase of visitors from other continents, most probably over 35%, with the French making up the balance with 20%.
The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Gala event is one of the key factors for the international presence, with books from 171 countries competing in the Awards this year, aginst 162 last year, and 156 the year before. It is the only sector of book publishing that benefits from such an Awards event with so many countries.
What?
Besides the foreign rights and co-editions book business, there will be much networking and entertaining. There will be show kitchen demonstrations, food and drink tastings, confe-rences, book presentations and launches, authors signings, culinary art and photography, music and dancing. One new feature will be WFWF-TV 2013, the World Festival of Wine and Food Television, bringing together TV food producers, broadcasters and their stars. The last meeting was in October 2011 in Beijing, organized by China Food Television and presided by Edouard Cointreau.
Why?
The legendary 3 star chef from the Waterside Inn Michel Roux has attended the fair every year from 2010 to 2012. He explained why in his speech as President of Honor of the Fair in 2012 : “This fair is absolutely unique. This fair is about respect. It gives a chance to everyone, whether you are big or small. Everyone gets attention here, and has an opportunity to get a close look at the culinary business. You can profit from the knowledge of professionals from all around the world in an absolutely unique way. Every young person who wants to be a professional in the gastronomy or culinary business has to be there”.
Last time, Alain Ducasse had scheduled a one hour visit. He stayed four hours…So did Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Dutournier or Claudia Roden, Lisa Ekus, and many others.
Some of our past exhibitors and trade visitors:
Alain Ducasse Edition, Phaidon, Murdoch Books, Taschen, Hachette Pratique, Marabout, Flammarion, Larousse, Camara Brasileira do Livro, Planeta, Robert Rose, Les Éditions de l’Épure, Biblioteca Culinaria, Papadakis Publisher, Zabert Sandmann, Reed Business, Bonnier Fakta, Matthaes, Heel, Verlag Gebruder Kornmayer, Féret, Tokyo Shoseki Publishers, Presses Universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne, Glénat, Le Cordon Bleu, Kyle Books, Absolute Press, Universidad San Martín de Porres, Wine Appreciation Guild, Sud Ouest, Menu Fretin, Éditions First, 99Pages Verlag, Alaúde Editora, Senac Sao Paulo, Editora Melhoramentos, LMA Editora, Christian Verlag, Arkaim Publishing, Eksmo, Utovie, Buch Contact, Caramelized GMBH, Feierabend Unique Books, Artron Enterprises Group Limited, Beijing 68 Times Culture Media Co.Ltd, China Food Television, China Light Industry Press, Easteat Co. Ltd, Oriental Press, Qingdao Publishing House, Hubert Krenn Verlag, Leopold Stocker Verlag, Dorling Kindersley, Lannoo, White Tara, Gourmet Patagonia, Editions Li Shi Zen, M.N.R Comunicaciones, Ambardiseño, Friends International, Alba Editions, Editions Vefa Alexiadou, Astra Worlwide, NDTV Good Times, L’Artistica Editrice, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Luxury Books, Ediciones Anyma, De Kookboekhandel, Zilverster Media, Lucci Editore, Bertrand Editora, Curtea Veche Publishing, Direct Press, Gorenjki Tisk, Rokus Klett, Ediciones Akal, Canal Micro, Grenadine Publishing, Éditions Slatkine, Fondation B.IN.G., Metro Cultural Publications, Sedes Holding, Easy Cook, Jacqui Small LLP, Prospect Books, TAMR Translations, Bluestone Wine Solutions, Oldways Preservation Trust, The Lisa-Ekus Group, and many more.
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.