Speakers

K Dun Gifford

K Dun Gifford is President of Oldways Preservation Trust, which he founded in 1988 in Boston to promote healthy eating and drinking, to encourage traditional and sustainable food choices, and to develop effective programs for helping consumers change their food choice behaviours.

Gifford and Oldways have organized more than 30 International Conferences focusing on culinary traditions and culinary tourism.  These conferences have brought journalists, scientists, chefs, and food lovers to great destinations around the world - from Barcelona and Bordeaux to Beijing, from Ponce and Portofino to Palermo, and from Marrakech to Modena.

Gifford graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, served in the U.S. Navy, and was Legislative Assistant to Senator Edward F. Kennedy and a National Campaign Coordinator for Senator Robert F. Kennedy.   He was an officer of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes; Chairman of Common Cause/Massachusetts; Chairman of the American Institute of Wine & Food; and Chairman of the Nantucket Electric Company. He has owned and managed a number of restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, and founded a food business (Kilvert & Forbes) with John Kerry, now a US Senator.

Dun Gifford is the Chairman of the 2008 World Food Exchange

David is the author of the award-winning cookbook, Taste, based on his TV cooking show of the same name. He is also the author of The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook, a 500-recipe book devoted to the food and food ideas of America's most famous grocery. He is a much sought-after jurist for wine, food, chef and sommelier competitions. For example, he has served as the only American judge on an international panel that selected the world's greatest sommelier. David teaches cooking and wine classes on many topics, and travels frequently throughout the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, where he writes and lectures on a wide range of culinary subjects.

Jo was raised in the Cape and completed his education in the United Kingdom.  He comes from an international sales and marketing background where he demonstrated an excellent track record of building brand profitability, across cultures, within a leading and results-driven organisation. Within the wine industry he has worked for Graham Beck in the Cape, Chateau Ausone in St. Emilion, France and for Oddbins Wine Merchants in the United Kingdom.  Before returning to South Africa and settling in Franschhoek Jo worked for the multi-national beverage company, Seagram.

Jo's various pioneering roles included General Manager for the markets of Croatia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, based in Zagreb.  Subsequently he was relocated to New York where he took responsibility for developing the Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet Premium Scotch Whisky Brands in the USA and Canada. After leaving New York he spent four months sailing solo in the Far East through Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia before deciding that Franschhoek was the place he could plant some roots.

Jo was appointed CEO of the Franschhoek Wine Valley and Tourist Association in 2003 and tasked to combine the wine and tourism associations in the valley and to market the destination locally, nationally and internationally.  Jo's work was instrumental in positioning Franschhoek as a leading culinary destination and he developed several festivals and a comprehensive visiting journalists program, culminating in Franschhoek being recognised as one of South Africa's leading tourist destinations.  Franschhoek has overtaken Stellenbosch as the preferred wine and food destination in South Africa and is now one of the top destinations outside Cape Town.  Franschhoek has acquired the tag of 'South Africa's Gourmet Capital', boasting 20 per cent of South Africa's 5-star chefs and eight of South Africa's leading restaurants. Today, Jo concentrates on his private ventures in tourism in the Southern Africa region while maintaining close contact with the wine and food tourism scene.

The driving force behind Lake House in Daylesford Victoria, one of Australia's most highly regarded gourmet retreats, Alla Wolf-Tasker has seen her role evolve from chef to restaurateur, hotelier, and eventually to ambassador for her region and spokesperson for the Victorian hospitality and tourism industry.

Lake House has grown to include a boutique hotel of 33 rooms and suites, a restaurant seating over a hundred with outdoor terraces offering space for an additional 50, a state of the art function and event centre and the ultra indulgent Salus Spa. Around it, 6 acres of manicured grounds extend towards the shores of a picturesque lake.

Lake House has an enviable record for the repeated winning of most of Australia's major industry awards and a few international ones as well.  Its accumulated 49 chef's hats makes it Australia's most consistently highly rated restaurant under the guidance of the one chef. Awards for the hotel include “Australia's Best Regional Property” and “Australia's Best Boutique Hotel”.  Luxury Traveller and Conde Nast have both included Lake House on their Gold Lists and the Lake House Salus Spa is the recent winner of the Gourmet Traveller Award for “Best Spa Resort”.  "Foodie travellers" from all over Australia and indeed the world, now tread the path to the Lake House front door.

In 2003 the Melbourne Food and Wine festival awarded Alla the title of 'Living Legend'.  She is also the recipient of the Age Good Food Guide Award for Professional Excellence.  Her book “Lake House - A culinary journey in country Australia”, published by Hardie Grant has enjoys much acclaim.  As well as offering recipes, in it she shares the story of the development of Lake House over two decades and provides much food for thought over issues of local food and the state of the hospitality industry. In January 2007 Alla was admitted as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to the Tourism and Hospitality industry.

James R Carreker

Jim Carreker is managing director and owner (with his wife Helen) of Arbutus Hospitality Group, a South Australian fine dining and luxury accommodation tourism enterprise comprising Appellation restaurant, The Louise luxury vineyard retreat and Atrium at Greenock Creek private vineyard residence, all in the Barossa.

Mr Carreker grew up outside Atlanta, Georgia USA and attended Georgia Tech, obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering with honours in 1969.  He subsequently obtained a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University with high honours in 1970.  Mr. Carreker's US business career spanned 3 decades, starting as a software engineer at Bell Laboratories and culminating in his founding Aspect Telecommunications in Silicon Valley in 1985, where he served as CEO until his retirement in 2000.  During his tenure as the head of Aspect, the company grew from an original idea into a recognized industry leader in specialised telecom systems employing more than 2,500 staff and serving customers in more than 30 countries.  From an initial $10,000 investment, the company grew in market value to more than US$1 billion and was particularly known for its commitment to the communities where its employees lived.

Starting in 1990, Mr Carreker joined the Professional and Industry Advisory Board to the chair of the school of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he served for ten years.  In 2000, Mr Carreker was elected to the Georgia Tech Advisory Board, the primary advisory body to the university's president, and has recently completed his six year term in this capacity.   Jim and Helen have endowed a chair and have financially sponsored the Arbutus Centre for Distributed Engineering Education at Georgia Tech.  He has additionally served on the boards of the Museum of Glass, International Centre for Contemporary Art near Seattle Washington, and for the American Leadership Forum in Palo Alto California.  He is the recipient of a number of awards and recognitions for philanthropic service.

In 2003, the Carrekers moved to Australia to develop a follow-on career in high-end hospitality.  Their 15-room, five-star luxury vineyard retreat in the Barossa The Louise recently was awarded category winner honours as the top luxury accommodation in the state and in the nation.  The co-located restaurant Appellation has received 'Best Regional Restaurant' and 'Best Wine List' in the past two Adelaide Food Awards.  The recently-launched private vineyard retreat Atrium at Greenock Creek brings a high-level of food and wine experiences to discerning visitors seeking privacy and luxury.

Barbara Santich

Professor Barbara Santich designed the curriculum for the Graduate Program in Gastronomy and developed the core courses which were first offered to online students in 2002.  Born and educated in NSW, she gained her first degree at the University of NSW (B.Sc. Hons I). Travels in Europe (France in particular) sparked a food writing career which has continued for almost thirty years.  Her fascination with languages, food and France led research into medieval Mediterranean cuisine, and she was awarded her PhD (Flinders University of SA) for a thesis entitled Two Languages, Two Cultures, Two Cuisines: A comparative study of the cuisines of northern and southern France, Italy and Catalonia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Barbara Santich has written for numerous Australian newspapers and magazines as well as overseas publications including The Journal of Gastronomy, Petits Propos Culinaires, the New York Times and Slow (quarterly magazine of the International Slow Food Movement).  She contributed extensively to the Oxford Companion to Food, edited by Alan Davidson, has presented papers at many Australian and overseas conferences, and is a regular participant at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

Barbara Santich will present her paper "Attracting the Gastronomic Tourist" at the World Food Exchange Symposium, Hilton Adelaide, on Thursday 25 September.


Regional Workshops Moderator - Robin Shaw

Robin is passionate about all things wine and tourism which has culminated in a wine industry career spanning more than 15 years. Her experience has been gained in a variety of roles which have led her to a position as Director - Tourism & Business Services for the industry's peak body, the Winemakers' Federation of Australia.

In 2004 Robin received a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship to undertake a study tour of wine tourism. This research was integrated into the comprehensive Wine Tourism Toolkit CD, released nationally in October 2005.

In her current role, Robin is responsible for enhancing the relationship between the wine and tourism industries for their mutual benefit. Robin has coordinated and facilitated projects such as the Australian Wine & Food Tourism Conference (2005), Moderator of the World Wine & Travel Summit (2006), WineSkills wine tourism workshops (2005-2007) and the national cellar door benchmarking program, CellarDoorMETRICS (2007/08) and the national WineSkills workshop program (2008).

Robin maintains active involvement in wine tourism at State and National level and as an accomplished facilitator and speaker is also regularly invited to share her knowledge through participation in major conferences and workshops across Australia and internationally.