'Top Chef' judge to showcase his Southern touch at CAC's Fresh Summit booth
'Top Chef' judge to showcase his Southern touch at CAC's Fresh Summit booth
This year, the California Avocado Commission's PMA Fresh Summit booth (No. 2647) will host Atlanta-based chef and cookbook author Hugh Acheson, who will fuse southern cuisine and California avocados to create irresistible dishes for booth visitors to sample. The commission will also share some of its 2016 marketing programs at the event.
“CAC is gearing up for 2016 with exciting plans and looking forward to meeting with retailers in our booth and at show events,” Jan DeLyser, CAC vice president of marketing, said in a press release.
Chef Hugh Acheson (Photo courtesy of the California Avocado Commission) “Early indicators point to an excellent California avocado crop next season and Fresh Summit provides an opportunity to discuss planned harvest size, timing and marketing support.”
The commission will have the latest category sales data and research to share with retailers, including California avocado merchandising performance results in 2015. Updates on the California avocado label project will also be provided. More than half of California avocados are now labeled with California branding and provide clear identification of origin at point of purchase. Supermarket registered dietitians, educators and the media are invited to CAC’s booth to learn about the nutrition qualities of avocados, programs to promote them and more.
CAC said Chef Acheson is a perfect fit for its booth, and at select times throughout the expo hours on both Saturday and Sunday he will engage with industry members and showcase delicious California avocado recipes he created with fresh flavors of the south.
Acheson is chef/partner of the Athens, GA, restaurants 5&10, The National, the Atlanta restaurant Empire State South, and The Florence in Savannah. He competed in Bravo’s "Top Chef Masters," season three and currently stars as a judge on "Top Chef." Acheson is a James Beard award-winner for Best Chef Southeast and was named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine. He also is the author of the James Beard Foundation award-winning cookbook "A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen." Acheson’s latest book, "The Broad Fork: Recipes for the Wide World of Vegetables and Fruits," mentions California avocados.
“The commission also is excited that a California avocado recipe has been chosen as one of the 10 finalists in this year’s PMA Fresh Summit Sensory Experience Contest, which will be judged on October 23,” said DeLyser. “Our recipe also will be featured during the Fresh Ideas in Action reception following the judging.”
