A taste of Arkansas.

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When convention programs and conference workshops break for lunch or d across the state, participants can look forward to a taste of Arkansas.

The same goes for breakfast: How about a serving of chicken-based grits with those eggs? It's a special recipe of the Red Apple Inn and Country Club in Heber Springs.

Should you happen upon the heirloom tomatoes ripening in the demonstration garden atop Petit Jean Mountain, chances are you'll be tasting those in the salads tossed by the kitchen staff at the Winthrop Rockefeller Center.

And if you are fortunate enough to be dining at a group function in the Capital Hotel after the remodeled landmark reopens in Little Rock, the restaurant-quality fare before you will have a decidedly local flavor.

Event venues across the state "gravitate toward regional favorites--chicken, rice and things that are grown in Arkansas," said Montine McNulty, executive director of the Arkansas Hospitality Association.

"I think that fresh food is certainly popular," McNulty said, adding that farmers' markets and fresh produce vendors and distributors are on the upswing.

Margie Wynne, director of sales and catering at the Red Apple Inn, said meeting planners often ask about Arkansas-based items.

"We buy products locally if they're fresh," Wynne said.

That includes seasonal purchases of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and all types of produce. Red Apple Inn gets fresh breads weekly from the Old Mill Bakery in Little Rock.

Wynne believes people are more health-conscious, at least to the point of balancing their bacon with yogurt-granola.

Tom Fix, hospitality director at the Winthrop Rockefeller Conference Center, sees a similar dichotomy.

"People attending conferences tend to forget their diets," Fix said.

Still, some will ask where the food came from, and veggie and diet-conscious queries are even more numerous. And, yes, the conference center strives "to be a hale-and-hearty example for Arkansas."

"Then, every time we try to put out a more healthy selection, someone will ask, 'Where's the fried chicken?'" Fix said.

He's heard conferees exclaim: "I've gained five pounds here. ... Pass me another piece of pecan pie."

"We try to balance with salads," Fix said. "An individual who wants to eat healthy would not have a problem."

Two relative newcomers to Arkansas are delighted with the prospect of serving up Arkansas at big events, although both season their enthusiasm with pragmatism.

"With large groups, you generally have to please all the people all the time, which doesn't let you stray from ordinary fare," said Lee Richardson, the Capital Hotel's executive chef.

"The mentality for corporate functions is to take the commodity route," he added, "but to my mind it's easier to serve what I serve."

Richardson said his meal plans for private group functions will mirror the menus elections at the hotel's restaurant, Ashley's. Look for these to derive, in part, from the New Orleans native's food tours of Arkansas over the past year and half--including a sojourn to the Delta, where he visited catfish Lee Richardson, farms and "was really awakened to the abundance and variety of rice."

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"There are beautiful pecans down there, which, for me, I use all over the place. I use the shells for smoking wood."

Unknowingly, Richardson has played the role of "culinary tourist" envisioned by Robert Harrington, who occupies the newly endowed Chair of Hospitality in the School of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Harrington is all about promoting indigenous foods, building on a "growing interest in the organic and naturally produced" and fostering the "enjoyment of food as a part of life and culture." Both he and Richardson are advocates of the "slow-food" movement, which champions the artisan farmer who produces local cheeses and heirloom fruits and vegetables born of seeds handed down through generations. This international effort, rooted in Italy, has a following in Fayetteville, and Richardson is trying to stir up interest in central Arkansas.

Harrington can see artisan-type products and ethnic choices making their way onto banquet tables in Arkansas as a continuation of a niche-markets trend in the food-service industry as a whole, a trend that includes "healthy foods, low-calorie opportunities, ... the broadening of menus with healthy choices at quick-service places."

He also observed, as had Fix and Wynne, that consumers tend to balance nutrition with comfort.

Richardson said it was reassuring to hear that convention and conference venues offer regional dishes.

"I think we're blessed in the South with an iconic set of conditions. If we're able to parlay that into group functions, where we can introduce local flavors, it's a win-win situation."

Oh, about those chicken-based grits. It's simple. They're cooked in chicken broth.