At the Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival, you will spend three days alongside hundreds of like-minded, flavor-seeking culinary pioneers, mixing business with pleasure as you learn from some of the best chefs in the world. What better way to meet your colleagues than while discussing the inspiration provided by chefs from around the United States and the American continent? From the famed world marketplace tastings to the main theater to the live fire of the Wood Stone Outdoor Kitchen to the stoves of the magnificent Hestan teaching kitchen, and to the gardens to the wine tastings, the CIA’s Copia campus provides the perfect background for inspiration, engaging all of your senses at all moments as you listen, watch, smell, hear—and taste!
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You will attend culinary demonstrations, presentations, panels, and workshops that showcase both the most modern of techniques, century-old traditions and give you the latest data on trends and demographics. Uniquely, at Worlds of Flavor, you also get to taste the food you watch being made without traveling further than California, you can eat three-star Michelin and street food delicacies from just about anywhere in the world. In the evenings, join new and old friends at the world-class restaurants of the Napa Valley. And stay an extra day to visit wineries and markets to complete the full culinary immersion that Worlds of Flavor offers.
“Worlds of Flavor, more than any other single event in a calendar year, delivers more inspirational ideas than I can produce in a year of R&D work.”
Audience Snapshot
The audience for the Worlds of Flavor conference includes senior-level chefs, independent and chain restaurant operators, university and contract foodservice managers, hotel food & beverage directors, leading foodservice manufacturers and marketing experts, wine and other beverage producers and distributors, supermarket foodservice operators, educators, world cuisine experts, and other influential foodservice industry professionals from the U.S. and around the world.
Unparalleled professional development opportunities in just three days, focused on cooking techniques, flavor pairings, ideas for new dishes and how to plate them, and strategies for new business models, hospitality and service, and memorable dining experiences at all levels.
30+ guest chefs and food experts from Turkey, Tasmania, Spain, and throughout the United States.
A unique opportunity to learn how chefs are both paying homage to authenticity and innovating beyond it with influence from cuisines around the world, and how you can expand your reach by incorporating them into your menu.
In-depth seminars and kitchen demonstration workshops with some of the most talented and influential chefs and food experts working today with topics that you won’t see anywhere else.
400+ recipes from our visiting chefs for dishes that you tasted at the conference.
All that plus business and flavor strategies to help ensure your success and rejuvenate your creative spirits!
Why Attend
Ever since it launched in 1998, The Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival has been widely acknowledged as our country’s most influential professional forum on world cuisines, food cultures, and flavor trends. Every year, it has brought to its stage chefs from Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America, and throughout the U.S., to showcase old and new traditions of world cuisines, reshaping American palates and our industry. This annual gathering of professionals has become a “must attend” for leading chefs, corporate menu decision-makers, foodservice management executives, suppliers, and media.
History of Worlds of Flavor
The Culinary Institute of America, a private, not-for-profit culinary college, is the world's premier culinary college whose faculty and alumni set the pace in the ever-expanding foodservice and hospitality industries. The Culinary Institute of America has a long-standing commitment to healthy cooking initiatives and the integration of healthy, world flavors in the future of American menu research and development. Founded in 1946, The Culinary Institute of America offers bachelor's and associate degrees, coursework for foodservice professionals and opportunities for professional certification, and operates four campuses, with locations in New York (Hudson Valley), California (Napa Valley), Texas (San Antonio), and Singapore.
The Culinary Institute of America’s at Copia, the site for Worlds of Flavor, is the ultimate Napa Valley destination for exploring, experiencing, and enjoying the world of food, wine, and community. The CIA at Copia officially opened in early 2017 with a variety of consumer-facing programs and experiences. In one convenient location in downtown Napa, guests can experience daily cooking and beverage classes, wine tastings, a lifestyle store, full-service bar and restaurant, art collections, and private and community events. With its leadership initiatives in menu development, flavor, and health and wellness—and its world-class teaching kitchens and other state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities— The Culinary Institute of America at Copia has become an epicenter for innovation and a culinary "think tank" for the American foodservice industry.