#1 Food & Restaurant Industry Event
Over the course of four days, the Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One brings together more than 500 chefs and 50,000 attendees for palate-pleasing culinary programming. The festival includes more than 80 seminars, hands-on-classes, tastings, and other foodie-driven events, and Giada De Laurentiis, Rachael Ray, Christina Tosi, and Aaron Sanchez were among the notable culinarians who appeared at the 2018 festival. Since its inception in 2007, the event has raised $12.5 million for nonprofit organizations No Kid Hungry and the Food Bank For New York City. Next: October 10-13, 2019
#2 Food & Restaurant Industry Event
The Specialty Food Association hosts the Fancy Food Show, the largest specialty food trade event in North America. In 2018, the show drew 2,600 exhibitors from 54 countries, who displayed more than 200,000 products to distributors and retailers. Highlights from the event included a pavilion dedicated to new brands, a foodservice pitch competition, information sessions, and a 90,000-pound donation of products to nonprofit partner City Harvest. Next: June 23-25, 2019
#3 Food & Restaurant Industry Event
Upwards of 16,000 restaurant industry professionals congregate at the Jacob K. Javits Center for the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York, which is owned and managed by Clarion UX and sponsored by the New York State Restaurant Association. Now in its 26th year, the show covers everything from menu trends to decor innovation, with events like mixology demonstrations, networking panels, tastings, and the popular Farm to City Expo. This year, attendees will also have access to the Coffee Fest and Healthy Food Expo. Next: March 3-5, 2019
#4 Food & Restaurant Industry Event
Jonathan Waxman, Daniel Boulud, and Scott Conant were among the culinary powerhouses at the Chef’s Tribute to Citymeals on Wheels in 2018. The 33rd annual event celebrated chefs of the world’s great hotels, who served their best dishes to 1,000 guests at tasting stations throughout Rockefeller Center. The event raised nearly $900,000 for the nonprofit organization. Next: June 10, 2019
#5 Food & Restaurant Industry Event
Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, and Thomas Keller are alumni of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs list, which started in 1988. Last year’s party for the newest class of winners, including Julia Sullivan of Henrietta Red in Nashville and Jonathan Yao of Kato in Los Angeles, was held at Vandal and sponsored by Capital One. Next: Spring 2019
