Meet international chefs in Paris as Chakall (ri.) or Völundur Völundarson from Iceland.

Welcome to the capital of cookbooks: The next Paris Cookbook Fair will take place in February 2013, from Friday 22 to Sunday 24. It is one week after Valentine’s Day, and the Chinese New Year week long celebration February 9-15.

New Delhi Book Fair is the first week of February, with Jerusalem Book Fair the week after. Salon du Livre de Paris and Bologna 50th Children Book Fair are one month later, from March 22 to March 28.

The Location

The Carrousel du Louvre main entrance is 99 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, which takes you underground through one of the best shopping malls in Paris, to the inverted Pyramid. The entrance to the Louvre Museum is to the left, and Paris Cookbook Fair will be to the right, just after La Maison du Chocolat. As it is under the ground it is completely sealed off from the outside, and quite warm during winter. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards will be at the same location, in a theater for 1,400 guests. The Metro-Subway stop is Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre, on lines 1 and 7.

The two most famous English bookstores in Paris are on Rue de Rivoli, WH Smith at nº 248, and Galignani, at 224. Within walking distance, there are some of the most famous foodies and shopping places in Paris, Angelina, Ladurée, Colette, and many others. Musée des Arts Décoratifs is 107, rue de Rivoli.

The Visitors

We have 30% more space than last year for foreign rights tables, trade stand, and publishers stands. We believe we will have a slight increase in European visitors from outside France, reaching 45% of professionals, a strong increase of visitors from other continents, most probably over 35%, with the French making up the balance with 20%.

The Awards

On February 22, 2013 in the evening, the Gourmand World Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Gala event is one of the key factors for the international presence, with books from 171 countries competing in the Awards this year, aginst 162 last year, and 156 the year before. It is the only sector of book publishing that benefits from such an Awards event with so many countries.

Besides the foreign rights and co-editions book business, there will be much networking and entertaining. There will be show kitchen demonstrations, food and drink tastings, conferences, book presentations and launches, authors signings, culinary art and photography, music and dancing. One new feature will be WFWF-TV 2013,

the World Festival of Wine and Food Television, bringing together TV food producers, broadcasters and their stars. The last meeting was in October 2011 in Beijing, organized by China Food Television and presided by Edouard Cointreau.

The Stars

The legendary 3 star chef from the Waterside Inn Michel Roux has attended the fair every year from 2010 to 2012. He explained why in his speech as President of Honor of the Fair in 2012: "This fair is absolutely unique. This fair is about respect. It gives a chance to everyone, whether you are big or small. Everyone gets attention here, and has an opportunity to get a close look at the culinary business. You can profit from the knowledge of professionals from all around the world in an absolutely unique way. Every young person who wants to be a professional in the gastronomy or culinary business has to be there".

Last time, Alain Ducasse had scheduled a one hour visit. He stayed four hours… So did Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Dutournier or Claudia Roden, Lisa Ekus, and many others.

Pictures of previous Paris Cookbook Fairs and information on our facebook-page. Klick here and visit:

http://www.facebook.com/gourmandmagazine