| TED KRUCKEL 10.06.09 4:59 PM |
|
As Gourmet Bites the Dust, October Is Food Month in New York
|
 | Jacques Pépin at New York magazine's Culinary Experience
Photo: Larry Busacca |
|
It’s getting hot in here and the pressure is mounting. I’m in the kitchen with Jacques Pépin and about 20 students who are racing against the clock to complete their stuffed ballotines of chicken. Pépin is perspiring and working furiously as he goes from one student to the next, showing each the main steps that he demonstrated twice onscreen already.
It is 4:15 on a Saturday afternoon at the French Culinary Institute, and I’m sitting in on a New York magazine-sponsored deluxe weekend of instructional cooking, the New York Culinary Experience, with some of the world’s leading chefs. In addition to Monsieur Pépin, fellow F.C.I. deans André Soltner (formerly of Lutèce) and Alain Sailhac (formerly of the 21 Club) are sauntering around the room, assisted by six sous chefs, by my count. In two days, the announcement that Gourmet is closing will shock this community, but today we are all blissfully enjoying Food Month.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
New York Magazine, Gourmet magazine, Bon Appétit, French Culinary Institute |
 |
| EVENT REPORT 09.23.09 3:38 PM |
|
New Technology Partners Beef Up Bon Appétit and Esquire Pop-Ups
|
 | Esquire's SoHo apartment
Photo: Zach DeSart |
|
Monday saw the return of two magazine pop-ups. The third incarnation of the Bon Appétit Supper Club & Café opened its doors at 11 a.m., and in the evening Esquire launched its seventh experiential living space, dubbed Esquire SoHo, with the after-party for Michael Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. In each case, a fresh location offered a change of pace for the pop-ups' look and new technology sponsors added interactive elements for guests.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit, Condé Nast, Esquire, Hearst Corporation, LG Electronics USA, Buick Lacrosse, Macy's, Lufthansa, Diesel, Hugo Boss, Heineken, Pokerstars.net, Davidoff, Joyful Heart Foundation, Feeding America, Save the Children, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation |
|
| FRESH FACE 09.09.09 9:00 AM |
|
Floral Designer Anne Kilcullen Prides Herself on Interpreting Clients' Ideas
|
Anne Kilcullen found herself working in the event industry in 2001, after interviewing for a sales manager position at Bloom, a floral design company. “When I walked in, I knew I had to work there,” she says. “I didn’t care what I would be doing, because the shop was so beautiful.” She ended up renting out Bloom’s two spaces for parties, learning event planning along the way. On Valentine’s Day the next year, Kilcullen worked with the staff through the night to finish all of the holiday orders. What would seem like an exhausting experience actually invigorated her, sparking a lasting interest in flower arranging. After four years managing two Bloom locations, then honing her design skills during a four-year stint as manager and creative director at floral shop Flowers of the World, she decided to go solo, opening Blade Floral & Event Designs in fall 2007.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appetit |
|
 |
|
| EVENT REPORT 05.21.09 2:30 PM |
|
Bon Appetit Unites Top Chefs With Foodies for Four-Day Vegas Uncork'd Fest
|
 | The crowd at Bon Appetit's Vegas Uncork'd
Photo: Courtesy of R & R Partners |
|
FROM LAS VEGAS
Sin City has long been divorced from its former reputation as the home of the $0.99 bargain buffet. Underscoring the city's newer reputation as a home for restaurants from world-class chefs is Uncork'd, a partnership between Bon Appetit, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Southern Nevada Wine & Spirits, and a group of top Las Vegas resorts, including Bellagio, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, and Wynn. This year's program—which took over town from May 7 to 10—spanned four days and included more than 25 events featuring big-name chefs. Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Todd English, Bobby Flay, Rick Moonen, Alex Stratta, and Bon Appetit’s Cat Cora and Barbara Fairchild were among the participants in the event, which saw a higher attendance among repeat visitors—a goal of its organizers.
This was the first year that Bon Appetit and the visitors authority brought in a third party to assist, New York-based Karlitz & Company. Caryl Chinn, vice president of culinary marketing at Karlitz, worked on the logistics of creating the large-scale event with a host of different planners in different cities. “What is unique to Uncork'd is the hotels' participation,” said Chinn, noting that the properties typically host massive, complicated events and are consequently experienced clients. “They challenged us all to put our best foot forward.”
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit |
|
| EVENT REPORT 10.23.08 4:54 PM |
|
Bon Appétit Gives Supper Club Pop-Up a New Look
|
 | Bon Appétit's Supper Club and Café
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
|
Bon Appétit's culinary pop-up is back. The two-week supper club and café opened today and will run through Friday, October 31. Taking over the same location as it did last year—the Midtown site that once housed the Hard Rock Café—the marketing ploy from the Condé Nast magazine will be open to the public during the day and play host to private events at night.
This time around, the planning team, led by Bon Appétit executive director of creative services Terri Smith, enlisted the help of production and design firm Relevent to create a completely different look for the space. Hudson Yards Catering was brought in to coordinate the food preparation and provide staffing. Designed to feel like a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Midtown, the interior design features organic and earthy elements like tree branches.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit, Condé Nast, Pop-Ups, KitchenAid, Maybelline, Lladró, Hewlett-Packard, Swanson |
|
| NEWS 10.02.08 9:00 AM |
|
Bon Appétit's Pop-Up to Return With New Line Up, New Partners
|
 | Last year's Bon Appétit's Supper Club & Café
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash |
|
Following a successful run last year, Bon Appétit is bringing back its Supper Club and Café pop-up concept for the last two weeks of this month. Returning to the same Midtown site at 57th Street and Broadway, the magazine will again host free public cooking demonstrations and book signings with big-name chefs during the day as well as use its temporary venue as a place for private events at night.
"The supper club and café is a great format for our brand, audience, and sponsors," said Terri Smith, Bon Appétit's executive director of creative services, who is heading up the planning team again. "And everyone loves a good meal."
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit, Pop-Ups |
|
|
|
|
| NEWS 11.07.07 6:14 PM |
|
Bon Appétit Drives Traffic to Café (in Rickshaws)
|
 | An additional marketing strategy for Bon Appétit's promotion.
Photo: Courtesy of the Michael Alan Group |
|
If the celebrity chefs and modestly priced food weren't enough to reel in the crowds at Bon Appétit's Supper Club and Café last week, the magazine had more strategies up its sleeve, which drove even more consumers to the promotion. Bon Appétit's special projects director Wendy Lauria hired the Michael Alan Group to put together a guerrilla marketing initiative that involved branded Buick Enclaves (Buick was a sponsor) and pedicabs. Canvassing high-traffic areas such as Union Square, Grand Central Station, and Bryant Park, street teams in aprons handed out menus and information during lunch, with the cars as mobile ads. (The mag also used the Buicks to shuttle clients to the restaurant.) Aproned pedicab drivers from Mr. Rickshaw circled Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Columbus Circle, providing free rides to and from the pop-up. —Anna Sekula
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit, Pop-Ups |
|
| EVENT REPORT 11.05.07 1:50 PM |
|
Bon Appétit Cooks Up Permanent-Looking Pop-Up
|
 | The not-so-temporary look of Bon Appétit's Supper Club and Cafe.
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash |
|
Pop-up promotions are great studies in experiential marketing, and while we've seen some dazzling ones (Target's Hampton store, the launch of Gillette's Venus Vibrance, and Illy's cafe among them), few have looked less temporary than Bon Appétit's Supper Club and Café. Open to the public for a two-week stretch (from Tuesday, October 25, to Friday, November 2), the eatery hosted chef demos and book signings during the day and became a site for private events (such as the post-screening dinner for Kite Runner and designer Douglas Hannant's 10th anniversary party) at night. Terri Smith, the magazine's executive director of creative services, headed up the planning team, which enlisted the help of the Rockwell Group and Restaurant Associates, among others.
"Every magazine wants to bring its pages to life, and we thought this would be a unique way [for Bon Appétit] to do so. It was [also] about bringing out-of-town chefs in town, and people without restaurants, like Giada De Laurentiis, to the public," Smith said of the concept. "The supper-club idea really embodies Bon Appétit's accessibility and has an up-close-and-personal element to it." It also provided an opportunity for the magazine's advertisers to interact with consumers.
MORE >>
RELATED TOPICS
Bon Appétit, Pop-Ups, Visa, LG, Buick, Bodegas Trapiche, Circulon, Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism, Evian, Ghirardelli, Haagen-Dazs, Land O'Lakes, Lladro, Mexico Tourism Board, Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Puerto Vallarta, Rums of Puerto Rico, Sensodyne, Silversea, Sugar in the Raw, Tourism Ireland, Viva, Woodbridge |
|
|
