March 29, 2024

Epic guys head up the Epicurean Classic

Sept. 7, 2008
This weekend, The Epicurean Classic will celebrate its fifth anniversary in Traverse City. In five short years the event has become one of the premiere culinary events in the country. It has helped to propel and inspire Northern Michigan to become the “foodie capital” of the Midwest.
The event is loaded with cooking classes and demonstrations and features the authors and chefs of several newly-released cookbooks. The Epicurean also features several wine-tasting opportunities with some of the top wineries and the world’s best wine importers. The three-day affair also includes some of Northern Michigan’s best wineries as well as an assortment of Michigan micro-brewed beers.
The Epicurean Classic was the vision of Mark Dressler and Matt Sutherland, both who work as consultants in the book publishing world. Sutherland has longtime area foodie who has put on culinary events in the past and has been active with several charity culinary/wine events in the region. Dressler has had a longtime passion for food and wine and his work as the program director for the Book Expo—the largest book industry tradeshow—has given him the inside track in attracting several cookbook authors to the Epicurean Classic.
Dressler and Sutherland sat down and reflected on the first five years of the Epicurean Classic, from the frustrations to the celebrations. They also gave some insights as to the future of the Epicurean during their interview.

NE: How did the Epicurean Classic get started?
Mark Dressler: My work with these major trade shows gave me not only an entrée into the publishing world with these cookbook authors but also the experience to put on a major event. At places like the London Book Fair and the Frankfort Book Fair, I would keep running into Matt Sutherland. Well, we would head off to wine bars and talk about how it would be great to put on a food and wine event. Well, one time when we were flying back I suggested this idea that we have a food and wine event where we would use the model of having authors of new or recently published books on food and wine. Well Matt was very enthusiastic about the idea.
Matt Sutherland: I thought it was a great idea, because no one else in the country was doing this at the time. Originally, we thought about doing this event somewhere else, in a big city somewhere. But that all changed when we met with Fred Laughlin just at the time the Great Lakes Culinary Institute was being built. He suggested that we do the event here.

NE: Things are certainly different from the first year. What are some of the biggest differences?
Dressler: Well we started out small -- just one tent in the parking lot. We learned a lot from that first year. First of all, we held the first one in October and weather is always questionable around here, so we moved it into September. But I see the biggest difference is people now understand what we are trying to accomplish. That first year we heard a lot of “that is a great idea,” but people were unwilling to help or participate. That has all changed now. We were unknown entities ourselves in this community; I think that has changed as well.

NE: In the first couple of years you had Food Network celebrity chefs anchoring the event, with David Rosengarten the first year and Mario Batali the second year. It appears that you have chosen not to go this way.
Dressler: That’s true, and that has not hurt the event. There are a lot of talented people out there who do not have a program on The Food Network. Now, a guy like Mario fit our model; he had a new cookbook out that year. Plus, he has a local connection and he knows he has an open invitation to the event, but it is timing that is keeping him from here. His kids are just back in school, but he will be back. But if you look at the sum total of the presenters and authors we have coming in, it is very impressive.

NE: You talk about this model —the cookbook author model—as the anchor of the event. Explain further.
Dressler: We have created an event that is on the radar with the major publishing houses -- many that release books in time for the Epicurean. New books means the author is going out on a book tour to promote the book. Many of these authors are working chefs who are only able to travel during book tours as they have their operations to run the rest of the year. What is very gratifying to us is that publishers have told us that the Epicurean is now the largest platform in the country for culinary books.
Sutherland: Because these authors are out on book tours we do not have to pay speaking fees to them, so this is a savings that we are able to pass on to the participant at the Epicurean. We were actually able to lower the class fee from $39 to $29 this year.

NE: What have been some of the challenges and frustrations?
Dressler: Well, we mentioned the first year and being unknown. But our biggest challenge and sometimes our biggest frustration has been the venue itself. This is an excellent venue but it has taken us five years to figure out how best to use it to its full capabilities from a presenter’s perspective to a participant’s perspective.
Sutherland: We took a lot of unsolicited advice and did some things that did not work. Essentially after beating our heads up against the wall, we have learned what works and what doesn’t work. We tell people what works somewhere else does not work here. Another challenge is when you take into consideration the number of presenters from the chefs -- many who are preparing multiple recipes -- and you extend out the number of ingredients needed coupled with all the wine, beer and beverages being brought in that need to be inventoried, it is enough to make you want to pull your hair out. But we are getting better at it each year.
Also this year we didn’t do a good enough job explaining how these one and two day passes work. We are essentially learning on the job.

NE: Speaking of jobs, you both have full-time work responsibilities outside of the Epicurean. This has to be a challenge.
Sutherland: It is a big challenge especially for Mark. I am fortunate to have a wife who has a successful company that affords me the opportunity to work part-time and to freelance. I am in a position to spend a great deal of time on this. But eventually we both would like this to be our full-time job. I think right now we are both making a dollar an hour at best.

NE: Speaking of finances, you stated earlier that you do not pay public appearance fees, but there must be other expenses to put this event on.
Dressler: It will cost us more than $200,000 to put this year’s event on. The stakes keep getting higher and higher every year and so do the expenses. So we have to juggle the bottom line to insure that there is value for the participant, the artisans and the sponsors. Plus, we want to provide scholarships to the students. We are closing in on $50,000 to date to the scholarship fund. The restaurants in town that host the Friday night dinners all donated 15 percent of their proceeds from that night to the fund.
Sutherland: There is also other value that the community is gaining from this event. First of all, there is no other culinary program in the country that has an event like this. The opportunities these students are getting is phenomenal. A few years ago Mario Batali hired one of the students assisting him to be an intern. That student is now a chef at Mario’s new restaurant in Las Vegas. The Great Lakes Culinary Institute has to go through an accreditation process and part of that accreditation requires having visiting chefs. Once Fred Laughlin shows his list of impressive visiting chefs the process is over.

NE: What are the thoughts from all of these visiting chefs and drink experts?
Dressler: They are blown away. For most of them it is their first time in Northern Michigan and they are unfamiliar with our agricultural diversity. They are all amazed at what we are able to source locally. They head to the farmers market downtown on Saturday morning and then look out at West Bay and see all the salmon boats and they just shake their heads.
Sutherland: Throw in all the local wineries and the great breweries and yes, everyone that comes here is amazed.

NE: Is this event just for the home chef or foodie or does the professional chef also benefit?
Sutherland: This is something we have battled, but we feel very strongly that people in the trade will benefit from this and we have structured it so people in the trade are able to get the most out of Epicurean. We even offer half off for members of the trade. We just received an e-mail from the chefs of the most prestigious country club in Virginia who are excited about attending and they even asked what the dress code is. This is a consumer event but I think professionals stand to benefit from the creativity and inspiration that they take from participating.
NE: You mentioned earlier that one of biggest changes is the new day pass program and that it has caused some confusion. Explain?
Sutherland: As with anything new there are always some issues and we just didn’t do a good enough job explaining how it works. Essentially, you are able to purchase a one-day pass that will get you into the tasting pavilion for that day and all of the cooking demonstrations with the pavilion for the day, or you may buy the two-day pass. We also have the Gourmand pass that includes the opening and Grand Reception. However, for all the passes the classes are separate. So the confusion comes with the classes versus the demonstrations. But people are starting to figure it out.

NE: Speaking of classes, there seems to be fewer classes and demonstrations by local presenters.
Sutherland: I am concerned that we might have some bruised egos, but we have to keep the event fresh. If we have the same chefs back every year, the event will get stale.
Dressler: We are not saying that these chefs with cookbooks are somehow better; what we are saying is this is our niche.
Sutherland: We have several local presenters and others who were here last year and will be back again in the future. It is all about keeping it fresh.

NE: What about the future?
Dressler: We have built this event that creates culinary relevance for an Epicurean Classic perspective for three days out of the year. What we would like to do is look at ways that the Epicurean might remain relevant on the culinary landscape for the rest of the year.
Sutherland: We have ideas of having the ability to watch a class or demonstration on our website after the Epicurean ends. We will continue with the same model of new release books and their authors.

NE:: Finally, who are all of these people who are coming in for the Epicurean? Where do they come from?
Dressler: We are excited that now about 50 percent of the attendees are from out of the state. We are bringing in a lot of “buzz agents,” “change makers” in the world of food and wine. These are people who get excited about events like this and they go back and spread the word in their hamlets. This is great news for our local winemakers and artisans.
Sutherland: I want to emphasize that whether you are from town or just visiting, that the great thing about Epicurean is that you can wander over on the spur of the moment and there will be something for you to do. If you show up at 10 a.m. on Saturday and have not registered, you will be able to do that on the spot.

The Epicurean Classic will take place Septembers 11-13 with most events at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute on West Grand Traverse Bay. For additional details check out epicureanclassic.com or call 231.933.9688.

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