Johnson & Wales University’s FIT Symposium 2023 is set to take place March 6-7 in Providence, Rhode Island. The event explores innovations in food service, food/beverage product development, food security/access and food system sustainability.

Attendees will join top culinarians and thought leaders including Elizabeth Falkner, Dan Giusti, Will Guidara and Stephen Ritz for an in-person (some sessions will also be offered virtually) immersive exploration of trends, innovations and opportunities in those subjects. Attendees will learn how to solve real-world problems through creative innovation, partnerships and new processes.

This year’s keynote speaker is Paul Freedman, the Chester D. Tripp Professor of History at Yale University, who will be discussing the topic of Cuisine as an Academic Subject. Freedman taught at Vanderbilt University before joining Yale in 1997. His teaching and research have concentrated on the history of the Middle Ages — particularly in Catalonia. The history of food and cuisine is a relatively recent interest. In 2007 he edited “Food: The History of Taste,” which has been translated into ten languages. He is the author of “Ten Restaurants that Changed America” (2016) and “American Cuisine and How It Got This Way” (2019). In 2021 he published a short book for Yale University Press entitled “Why Food Matters.”

Interested individuals can sign up for the symposium can sign up at Johnson & Wales University’s website. An all-access pass is $250, while a virtual ticket is $50.

Sponsors of the event include CHARCUTERIE ARTISANS, King Arthur Baking Company, Foodware Group, Southwestern Foodservice Excellence (SFE), and JWU’s Ecolab Center for Culinary Science.