To borrow a phrase from New Orleans chef extraordinaire Emeril Lagasse, the 2008 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo® set out to—and succeeded in—“kicking it up” a notch. This year’s event, held June 28–July 1, offered nearly 200 educational sessions, organized for the first time into five application-oriented tracks. A total of more than 950 exhibitors sprawled across 213,700 square feet of exhibit space, showing off new products and services. And first-time features such as peer-selected Suppli…