The biannual food magazine Cherry Bombe has announced its first-ever food conference, to take place in New York City on March 9th, 2014. Called Jubilee the conference (like the magazine) will "celebrate women and food." The festival's name is inspired by the classic dessert cherries jubilee and also by the definition of the word: " a celebratory gathering." Editorial director Kerry Diamond tells Eater that Cherry Bombe had been thinking about organizing a 2015 conference "from day one," but that the recent TIME magazine debacle and editor Howard Chua-Eoan's "insulting interview" got the team thinking they should look at an earlier date.
Diamond says Eater's pie charts depicting the ratios of male chefs to female chefs at major food events were "the final straw." "We saw that and wondered how we could even respond to it," says Diamond. "[At Jubilee] there will be a large percentage of women, in terms of the attendees, the presenters, and the panelists."
Although the venue and participants are not confirmed yet, Diamond explains that she imagines a half-day event with single person presentations (sort of like TED Talks), panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, plus plenty of eating. Of the programming, Diamond says "there will be no bird beheadings, live gutting of pigs, or any Hunger Games meets Chopped type activities." Diamond says the event will be about more than just networking; she is aiming to create an event that has a strong practical element, where attendees will "come away feeling like [they've] learned something." The venue and lineup will be announced in January, with tickets going on sale at the same time. For now, people interested in participating are encouraged to contact the Jubilee team.
UPDATE 1/6/14: The event has been moved to March 30, 2014.
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