IHA News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Deborah A.Teschke
Manager, Media Relations & Communications
847-692-0110

Sizzling Line-up of Celebrity Chefs Headlines GOHO Cooking Theater at 2007 International Home & Housewares Show

Alton Brown, Todd English Paula Deen, Ming Tsai Confirmed to Appear

ROSEMONT, ILL. (February 12, 2007)—Celebrity chefs, including well-known TV personalities Alton Brown, Paula Deen and Tyler Florence, and famous cookbook authors will showcase their culinary skills in the GOHO Cooking Theater during the 2007 International Home & Housewares Show to be held March 11-13 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

The GOHO Cooking Theater is the focal point of the Gourmet Home & Food District, home to the Show’s fastest growing section. On hand will be exhibitors of specialty and gourmet treats and the tools used to prepare them. GOHO also features the NASFT Specialty Foods Marketplace and The Bookstall, which will be selling cookbooks, including those of the celebrity chefs. The Cooking Theater is jointly sponsored by All-Clad Metalcrafters LLC, Fox & Obel, KitchenAid and Wilton Industries/Copco. 

With fresh, local ingredients now more readily available than ever, the way meals are conceptualized, prepared, presented and enjoyed is changing. Cooking is now less about combining ingredients to create entirely new flavors and more about picking the freshest and most desirable ingredient to be the star of a dish. Many of the dishes being prepared by the chefs in the Cooking Theater will showcase this budding trend, which is greatly affecting today’s culinary landscape.            

Cooking Theater Hosts The Stars
The GOHO Cooking Theater will feature chef demonstrations beginning at 9 a.m. each Show day. The current line up of celebrity chefs includes:

  • Alton Brown
  • Paula Deen
  • Rocco DiSpirito
  • Todd English
  • Ming Tsai
  • Rick Bayless
  • Ted Allen
  • Tyler Florence
  • Lorna Sass
  • Jason Paskewitz
  • Nirmala Narine
  • Victor A.L. Gielisse & Ronald DeSantis
  • Jesse Ziff Cool
  • Bernd Siefert
  • Susan Zimmer
  • Elizabeth Falkner
  • Gaetano DiBenedetto
  • Jon-Antony
  • Ruta Kahate
  • Cat Cora
  • Peter Robertson
  • Steve Rocco

Dates and times for each chef will are available at www.housewares.org and will be posted at the Theater. Many chefs will also hold book signings after their demonstrations.

“We are please to host these well-known chefs who support this year’s exhibitors of gourmet specialty foods in The GOHO District,” said Phil Brandl, president of the International Housewares Association, the Show’s sponsor. “Our buyer audience has told us that they appreciate being able to shop the gourmet foods category in conjunction with the visit to the Show.  This category offers traditional home goods retailers a significant additional sales and profit opportunity.”
               

NASFT’s Window to the Specialty Food World

To make GOHO a must-visit destination again in 2007, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) will host its Specialty Food Marketplace. The Marketplace will feature the products of more than 40 companies. “Each company will average five products available for tasting,” according to Ron Tanner, NASFT vice president of communications and education. Buyers will be able to receive follow up information on all products.

The 2007 International Home & Housewares Show will feature more than 2,100 exhibitors from around the world, including more than 400 new companies, showcasing home goods, gourmet specialty foods and housewares products for every room in the home, inside and out. To register at no charge for the Show, visit www.housewares.org or call the Housewares Registration Desk at 800-752-1052 or 312-527-7294 (non-U. S) prior to March 12, 2007.