From June 8th to 14th, a trip to California was made with winners of the bakery contest from different countries such as Japan, China, Germany and Mexico.
For this year, Mexico invited the first-place winner of the Sal y Dulce Artesanos bakery and the owner of the Da Silva bakery, chef Eduardo Da Silva as brand ambassador to the country.
During this trip, the participants had a seminar on bakery trends at the Culinary Institute of America given by chef Robert Jörin. They also prepared their winning recipe at the CIA and they presented it to the California Raisins packers at a dinner party.
The group also visited the fields and factories of the raisins to observe more closely the process of harvesting California Raisins and what makes them unique.
At the beginning of September, the winners of the first California Raisins Bakery Contest in Mexico had the opportunity to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California along with a group of winning bakers and chefs from Asia and Europe.
Cultivation fields were visited, grapes were harvested and packing plants were visited.
In May 2016, the Master Seminar was held, and it gathered 307 industry professionals from Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla, Querétaro, Tabasco and Monterrey.
According to the figures, 73% of the attendees were bakers, 14% restaurant managers and hotel chains, 8% culinary institutes and 5% supermarkets and corporate chains.
The seminar was taught by Craig Ponsford, a professor at the Culinary Institute of America, accompanied by Bread Bakers, winners of the First California Raisins Bakery Contest that took place in Mexico City in 2015. The bakers developed 12 recipes to show the process during the seminar and share the best baking techniques.
The main objectives of the event were:
• Communicate the benefits and applications of baking with California Raisins, as well present its properties that make it a versatile product.
• Report on new bakery trends, such as the use of dough, fermentation processes, use of whole grains and benefits of wheat flour.
Attendees were invited to integrate California Raisins into their baked products and to participate in the Second Bakery Contest in 2016.
With the aim of motivating bakery industry professionals to use California Raisins, a recipe contest was called with the following categories: salted bread, sweetbread, snacks or the base for other recipes.
The winning recipe award was a course at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California.
And the winning breads were a concha with raisins and a raisin sauce for light fried pastries.
Imalinx as part of
the industry service program, worked in conjunction with the National Chamber
of Bakery and Related Industries (CANAINPA, for its acronym in Spanish) to
develop the 2 seminars, with the aim of presenting the benefits and
applications of cooking with the California Raisins, highlighting its benefits
and facilitating its consumption.
Both events were attended by 50 bakers…
Imalinx in conjunction with the Culinary Institute Corbuse, held a bakery seminar with the aim of presenting the benefits and applications of baking with California Raisins.
The evaluations showed that there is a lot of opportunity to integrate the raisins into the kitchen of new generations.
As
part of the program for trade servicing, Imalinx and the California
Raisins Committee attended the National Association of Supermarkets and
Department Stores (ANTAD, for its acronym in Spanish)
in Guadalajara, Jalisco from the 11th to the 14th of March, 2014.
The
goal of attending the event was to create contacts focused on retail trade and
the supply chain.
The event recorded an approximate flow of 35,000
attendees during the 3 days.
The participation of California Raisins in ANTAD was successful because
valuable contacts were obtained from importers and processors of dried fruits.