City to host foodie conference

Resler
Resler

It was a palm-in-the-face kind of moment that led Seth Resler, a culinary enthusiast and social enterpriser, to realize Providence was the place to hold what he calls the nation’s first food-tourism conference.
“I literally had this moment. Of course we should do this in Providence,” Resler said. “It makes a lot of sense from a culinary standpoint but also because I have a lot of relationships [here].”
Though a native Californian, Resler has a long history with the Ocean State’s capital city, starting with his college years at Brown University and a professional career within the entertainment and events industry that eventually led him to start his Mystery Meet dinners – a kind of group blind date for “foodies” – in Boston that he now continues from his home in the San Francisco area.
He also conducts culinary-focused podcasts and through his culinary contacts he realized there was an assumption that the country’s best foodie cities were also its largest.
“[The assumption] is that it’s New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and that’s where all the big chefs are,” Resler said. “But Memphis has more than BBQ. St. Louis has some interesting things. Portland has all these food trucks. There’s just a lot of interesting stuff and I wanted to put something together to showcase that.”
So the idea for the Taste Trekkers Food Tourism Conference, happening Sept. 20-22, took hold.
Resler originally thought about heading back to Boston or staying put in San Francisco but was listening to a podcast when he heard Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications at the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, talking about marketing Providence as a great food city. That’s when he put palm to head.
The success of promoting Providence as a food-tourism destination, many involved with the conference said, can be attributed to a perfect blend of a rich culinary history, increased consumer awareness about food sources, the rising popularity of chefs due in part to popular television series, and an increasing consumer willingness to pay more for quality food. Then there’s the national attention being given to up-and-upcoming Rhode Island chefs, including Matt Jennings of Farmstead, and prominent mentions in Travel + Leisure Magazine, which recently named Providence the No. 1 foodie city in the United States.
Katrina White, travel and trade manager for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, feels Providence has had great food for a long time.
“I think Rhode Island has been under the radar for so long. There’s definite food culture,” she said. “The stars have really lined up well. Outside media is pushing this culinary culture, the whole rise of farm to table and ocean to plate. People are so much more aware. People are willing to spend to have a food experience.”
Resler said about 300 attendees are expected at the conference, for which he ran a kickstarter, online-fundraising campaign and raised $13,410 quicker than expected, which could point to an expectation of the conference’s success.
“I think [Resler] is the right person [to run this] because he’s really tapped into the social media and blogger aspect of the food community,” said Mike Martini, a former chef who has for four years run Newport Gourmet Tours.
Martini said he started the tours in Newport, and then expanded to Providence, because he saw food tourism growing. He and his wife, for instance, often travel to destinations based on where and on what they could dine there.
He said about 85 percent of his tour clients come from outside Rhode Island, though the bulk of those are from Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Cindy Salvato runs food tours of Federal Hill through her company, Savoring Rhode Island, and will participate in the conference. She started the tours 12 years ago.
“When I first started, I had almost exclusively Rhode Islanders for the first three years. Then there was a lot of media attention. The food scene [here] just exploded,” she said.
The bulk of the conference will talk place on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Providence Biltmore. A full schedule still is being developed. •

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