The Planning Zone
2008: Year at a Glance
Sure, you need to know what’s going on this December. But what about December 2008? We have worn our crystal ball down to a nub in order to bring you some important (and some not so much) dates for 2008.
- 12/1 National Pie Day
- 12/2 National Fritters Day
- 12/4 Hanukkah at sundown
- 12/5 National Sacher Torte Day
- 12/8 Take It In The Ear Day (Happening more lately.)
- 12/9 National Pastry day
- 12/12 National Ding-A-Ling Day (My ex-wife’s birthday. Coincidence? I think not.)
- 12/14 National Bouillabaisse
- 12/17 National Maple Syrup Day
- 12/21 National Hamburger and Fried Shrimp Day (Surf and turf.)
- 12/22 First day of winter
- 12/24 Christmas Eve
- 12/25 Christmas Day (Brunch is our specialty.)
- 12/27 National Fruitcake Day (Also known as National Doorstop Day.)
- 12/31 New Year’s Eve (Elegant menus are also our specialty.)
"Food is our common ground, a universal experience."
James Beard
- 1/1 New Year's Day
- 1/9 Play God Day (Chef thinks it’s every day.)
- 1/16 International Hot and Spicy Food Day
- 1/25 Opposite Day (This would explain Chef being nice.)
National Soup Month, National Hot Tea Month
Chocolate Month, Great American Pies Month, National Cherry Month, National Grapefruit Month, National Potato Month
- 1-4, 5th India Food Expo Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Being held concurrently with UP Industrial Expo, hence this year IFX will be a mega event covering all sectors of industry. The Exhibitors profile will include Manufacturers, exporters, importers and suppliers of Bakery & Confectionery products, while the visitors will be purchasers, exporters/importers, buying and sourcing personnel from various industry.
- 3, Carnival at Vilanova i La Geltrú Vilanova i La Geltrú, Spain
Includes elaborate parades, frenetic parties and massive outdoor battles with meringue, candy (over 200,000 lbs) and cereal; culminates with the ceremonial burial of a sardine. Lots of fun.
- 5, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras
- 5, Ash Wednesday
- 14, Valentines Day
- 24-26, International Boston Seafood Show Boston, Massachusetts
Co-located with Seafood Processing America, is North America’s largest seafood exhibition, attracting close to 18,000 seafood buyers and sellers from across the globe.
- 24-27, 2008 Las Vegas Int’l Restaurant Show & Hospitality Expo Las Vegas, Nevada.With access to more than 30,000 hospitality professionals, there is no better place for you to showcase and sell your products and services!
- 28-3/1 World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest Houston, Texas. The World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest is three days of cooking, competition, eating and dancing. The sweet aroma drifts over the Houston metropolis, drawing crowds like bees to honey as 190,913 guests joined the feast in 2007.
“Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) King Henry V
National Nutrition Month®, National Sauce Month, National Noodle Month
- 3-22 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
- 7-8, 4th Annual Savor Dallas Dallas, Texas
Including the Arts District Wine Stroll, Victory Park Celebration, celebrity chef cooking demos and wine tasting seminars with the pros, and The International Grand Tasting, an extravaganza of over 500 wines and 50 top chefs serving signature samples.
- 9, Daylight Saving Time begins, spring forward
- 17, St. Patrick’s Day
- 20, First day of spring.
- 21, Good Friday
- 23, Easter
“Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter.”
Fran Lebowitz
National Pecan Month
- 1, April Fool’s Day
- 3-5, 2008 Baking China, Beijing, China
With the total area of 10,000 sq.m, Baking China 2007 attracted 202 well-known companies and more than 12,635 visitors worldwide. Baking China will be held in Beijing International Exhibition Center, and it is the right time for professional purchasers to prepare baking products for Beijing Olympics, in order to have a better reception for all the clients. No doubt that Baking China 2008 will be the second important pageant in China, even in Asia.
- 4-5, Party In The Patch, Kilgore, Texas. Features sanctioned barbecue cook-off, art show, horseshoe pitching, rod run, music, motorcycle show, kid's area, Friday Night Street Dance.
- 9-13, Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, Austin, Texas
- 13, Taste of the NFL, Ultimate Dallas Cowboys Tailgate Party
- 19, Passover begins at sundown
- 22, Earth Day
- 22-24, 2008 European Seafood Exposition Brussels, Belgium
The European Seafood Exposition is the one event that brings together seafood- buyers and sellers from all over Europe and the world. With over 1600 exhibitors from more than 77 countries.
- 23-27, The Grand Wine and Food Affair, Houston, Picture an array of renowned winemakers, celebrated award-winning chefs from all over the United States to South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Spain and many others proudly offering exotic and sumptuous samplings. The five-day affair of extraordinary events is The Grand Wine and Food Affair.Grand
"Any of us would kill a cow, rather than not have beef."
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
National Artisan Gelato Month, National Asparagus Month, National Barbecue Month, National Chocolate Custard Month, National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Macaroon Day, National Salad Month, National Salsa Month, National Strawberry Month
- 5, Cinco de Mayo
- 8, D'Artagnan Duckathlon, New York, New York
Watch hundreds of New York's top professional chefs compete in a 20-stop "obstacle" coarse through New York's meatpacking district. Events include cheese identification, "what's that pot?," rubber duck feet race, and blind-folded brandy tasting.
- 11, Mother’s Day
- 26, Memorial Day
“Sometimes I pray to Cod for the veal-power to stop playing with my food words, but I fear it's too bread into me. For all I know, the wurst may be yet to come.”
Mark Morton
'Arts & Scantlings' (Gastronomica, Fall 2006)
National Candy Month, National Dairy Month, National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month, National Hunger Awareness Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Seafood Month, National Soul Food Month, Turkey Lovers' Month
- 3, Taste of the Nation
- 3-5, Interfood China 2008, Guangzhou (Canton), China
The 5th China International Foodstuff Exposition
Currenly with: Interwine China 2008
- 6-8, 2008 Coffest Fest, Kona, Hawaii
- 12-15, 36th Annual Chisholm Trail Roundup BBQ, Lockhart, Texas
With Music Festival & Kiwanis Rodeo - Always 2nd week in June
- 14, Flag Day
- 15, Father’s Day
- 20, First day of summer
- 22-24 Texas Restaurant Association Expo, Houston
- 29-July 1, NASFT 54th Summer Fancy Foods Show, New York, New York
More than 2,100 exhibitors from around the world, presenting more than 100,000 specialty foods to discover and sample.
"Cuisine is both an art and a science: it is an art when it strives to bring about the realization of the true and the beautiful, called le bon (the good) in the order of culinary ideas. As a science, it respects chemistry, physics and natural history. Its axioms are called aphorisms, its theorems recipes, and its philosophy gastronomy."
Lucien Tendret (1825-1896)
great-nephew of Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Lasagna Awareness Month, National Baked Bean Month, National Culinary Arts Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National July Belongs to Blueberries Month, National Picnic Month, National Pickle Month
- 1-2, Bocuse d’Or Europe 2008, Stavanger, Norway
New European edition of Bocuse d’Or World Cuisine Contest.
- 4, Independence Day
- 12-13, Annual World's Largest Catsup Bottle Summerfest, Collinsville, Illinois.Help celebrate the world-famous Brooks Catsup Bottle water tower. What could be better than a red, white & blue birthday party for this incredible example of 20th century roadside America? A nation-wide, grassroots community effort saved this landmark from demolition and restored it to its original glory in 1995. Join in the Brooks Ketchup Tasting Contest and see you will be crowned Little Princess Tomato and Sir Catsup!
- 18-19, California Wine Festival, Santa Barbara, California
5th Annual Reds, Whites & Blues. Santa Barbara's own big-time wine festival hits the beach again in 2008! Guests sample from over 400 great California wines and dozens of gourmet food purveyors supply delectable tidbits, artisan cheeses, craft beers, barbequed meats, and more!
"Hunger: One of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution."
Irwin Van Grove
National Catfish Month, Peach Month
- 13-19, KRLD Restaurant Week, benefiting the North Texas Food Bank
- 6-8, All About Food Expo 2008, New Delhi, Delhi, India
The most comprehensive food show in South Asia!!
- 30-31, The Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival, St Davids, West Wales, UK
A Celebration of Food and Countryside Crafts originating from the Wild.
“Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat.”
Fran Lebowitz ('Metropolitan Life')
All-American Breakfast Month, Hug a Texas Chef Month, Mom & Apple Pie Month, National Biscuit Month, National Chicken Month, National Cholesterol Awareness, Month, National '5-A-Day' Month (fruits & vegetables), National Honey Month, National Mushroom Month (Duuude), National Organic Harvest Month, National Papaya Month, National Potato Month, National Rice Month
- 1, Labor Day
- 1, Ramadan begins at sundown
- 22, First day of Autumn
- 23-26, TECNO FIDTA 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina
9th International Food Technology, Additives, and Ingredients Exhibition
- 26, State Fair begins
- 29, Rash Hashanah begins at sundown
“I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure.”
Anthony Bourdain, 'Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Celebrate Sun Dried Tomatoes Month, Cook Book Month, Gourmet Adventures Month, Hunger Awareness Month, National Apple Month, National Applejack Month, National Caramel Month, National Chili Month, National Cookie Month, National Country Ham Month, National Dessert Month, National Health Care Food Service Month, National Kitchen and Bath Month, National Pasta Month, National Pickled Peppers Month, National Pizza Festival Month, National Popcorn Poppin' Month, National Pork Month, National Pretzel Month, National Restaurant Hospitality Month, National Roller Skating Month, National Seafood Month, National Spinach-Lovers' Month, National Toilet Tank Repair Month, Vegetarian Awareness Month
- 8, Yom Kippur begins at sundown
- 13, Columbus Day
- 19-23, SIAL: The Global Food Marketplace, Paris, France
SIAL showcases the entire global food offering, promoting the energy and vitality of the food industry in France and internationally. (every 2 years)
- 31, Halloween
“Pork - no animal is more used for nourishment and none more indispensable in the kitchen; employed either fresh or salt, all is useful, even to its bristles and its blood; it is the superfluous riches of the farmer, and helps to pay the rent of the cottager.”
Alexis Soyer 19th century French chef.
The Modern Housewife (1851)
Good Nutrition Month, National Diabetes Month, National Georgia Pecan Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers' Month, National Pepper Mont, National Raisin Bread Month, Vegan Awareness Month
- 1, All Saint’s Day
- 2, Daylight Saving Time ends, fall back
- 4, Election Day
- 5-9, San Antonio New World Wine & Food Festival
- 11, Veterans Day
- 12-15, National Ice Cream Retailers Assn Annual Convention, St. Petersburg, Florida
- 27, Thanksgiving Day
“Talk of joy: there may be things better than beef stew and baked potatoes and home-made bread --- there may be."
David Grayson, 'Adventures in Contentment' (1907)
International Calendar Awareness Month
- 21, Hanukkah begins at sundown
- 21, First day of winter
- 25, Christmas Day
- 31, New Year’s Eve
“Sacred cows make the best hamburger.”
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910)
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