As host city for international culinary conference, we're the center of the food universe for a week

In just the past two months, Austin chef Tyson Cole won a James Beard Award, and Food & Wine magazine named up-and-coming chef Bryce Gilmore, who got his start in a trailer, as one of the country's top 10 chefs to watch. The magazine also will partner with C3 Presents to produce the upcoming Austin Food & Wine Festival, which will likely become a nationally recognized food festival in the vein of the magazine's other events in Aspen, Colo., and South Beach, Fla.

"We have our own sense that we're on the culinary map," says Cathy Cochran-Lewis, past president of the group who has worked in the Austin food industry for more than 20 years. "But when you have people from all over the world coming to sample at the restaurants, meet the chefs, try the artisan products, it validates that feeling."

Starting today, the association will bring hundreds of the country's most influential food writers, magazine editors, publicists, cookbook publishers, authors, cooking instructors, chefs and TV show hosts for four days of workshops, panels, mentoring sessions and networking events. Culinary stars slated to attend include New York Times food columnist Amanda Hesser, vegetarian authority Deborah Madison, baking guru Dorie Greenspan, Food Network's Ellie Krieger and New Orleans chef John Besh. Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower will sit down with New York Times food writer Kim Severson for a talk about the big picture of food's impact on business, agriculture and politics.

Just as the South by Southwest festival is a harbinger of the latest innovations in technology, music and film, the IACP conference educational program reads like a list of the year's biggest food trends: blog-to-book deals, molecular gastronomy, the vegetarian/carnivore middle ground called flexitarianism, the use of bitters in cocktails, community gardens and the sweeping local food movement.

IACP asked Austin-based food writer Toni Tipton-Martin to come up with events to help attendees explore Austin outside the three-block radius of the Hilton Austin, where the conference panels and workshops will be held.

"(Conference attendees) aren't going to come into town and sit in their hotel rooms," Tipton-Martin says. "(The conference) is designed to get people out to experience the food scene," but not just the hottest food trailer.

As a culinary historian, Tipton-Martin wanted to balance the new with a little bit of old. "Knowing that we have this very provocative current scene, I wanted to ensure that the traditions of Central Texas were also put on the spotlight." She helped plan tours of Hill Country wineries, small-town barbecue gems, Austin grocery store meccas Whole Foods Market and Central Market, and even one tour of local restaurants to illustrate the difference between Tex-Mex and interior Mexican food.

The IACP Cookbook Awards, among the nation's most prestigious, will be be handed out at a gala at the Paramount Theatre on Thursday, and the conference ends Saturday night with a barbecue event at another historically significant place: Boggy Creek Farm, one of the first urban farms in the country.

Of the 33 national conferences, two others have been held in Texas: one in San Antonio in 1995 and the other in Dallas in 2005.

It's not just about showing off what Austin has to offer, Cochran-Lewis says. The conference brings people who will share what is going on in their corner of the food world, so attendees are comparing notes and learning from one another. "It's a two-way street," she says. "It elevates our awareness and our sense of where food is going."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Culinary convention events open to the public

The International Association of Culinary Professionals' annual conference starts today and runs through the weekend. You can register for the conference at the Hilton Austin, 500 E. Fourth St., starting at 6:30 a.m. today . Four-day passes cost $745 for members, $930 for nonmembers, and day passes start at $225 for members and $410 for nonmembers. (You can find the full program schedule online at www.iacp.com .)