Slow Food Calgary members Darrel and Corinne Winter (Winters Turkeys), Cherie Andrews (Chinook Honey & Meadery) and Kris Vester (Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farm) emphasize the elements. The photo was taken at “Finding our Roots”, an event hosted by Calgary’s Office of Sustainability in an effort to develop a local food policy.
Victoria, BC is well known for its love and support of local food and an extension of this is the Island Chefs Collaborative (ICC) Farm Market. Now in its fourth year, the popular downtown market will return to Bastion Square on June 3, 2009.
The ICC identified a need in downtown Victoria for urban residents and visitors to taste some of the Island’s finest produce with local, primarily organic fruits and vegetables for sale at farmgate prices. What began as a small two table market has quickly grown to represent over 100 local farmers and producers.
Each week, ICC chefs will be on hand at the market to provide recipes, cooking tips, and explanations of the more exotic items for sale. The two-day ICC Farm Market will be held every Thursday and Friday through September, from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm.
The ICC aims to increase public consumption of Island-grown produce and to decrease reliance on imported foods. Sales from the market will help provide income for local farmers; many of whom have come through the Island Chefs Collaborative funding program. For more information visit : www.iccbc.ca
Do you want to learn how to replace your lawn with a food-producing landscape?
6 Chefs:
o Shelley Robinson, Baker Creek Bistro, Castle Junction, AB
o Andrew Bujak, Boxwood & River Café
o Cam Dobranksi, Muse/AKA/Wine Bar Kensington
o Genevieve Wakeham, Infuse Catering & Forage
o Adrienne Penney & Darren Nixon, Divine, Okotoks, AB
1 Instructor:
o Andrew Hewson, SAIT
3 SAIT Culinary Student/Youth nominees:
o Stephanie Kolk, PCK professional cook in training
o Kate Campbell, PCK professional cook in training
o Darl Hobsbawn, 2nd year cook’s apprentice
5 Producers:
o Elizabeth, Xina & Tonya Chrapko, En Santé Organic Winery & Meadery, Brosseau, AB
o Tom Olson, Olson’s High Country Buffalo
o Mark & Tamara Taylor, Ravenwood Farm Fresh Meat, Caroline, AB
o New Oxley Garlic, Naturally, Jackie Chalmers, Millarville, AB
o Carman & Ian Murray, Shoestring Ranch, Acme, AB
dispatch #2
Buon giorno from Parma! More specifically, Colorno, where our University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) campus is located. The school is housed in the Reggia di Colorno, a grand, buttery-yellow former palace built as a fortress in the 13th century. As a later Baroque palace, it was home to Napoleon’s second wife, and has since been occupied by a number of institutions, including – fun fact – an insane asylum. Now it is home to a variety of organizations including UNISG and ALMA, an international Italian culinary school. Our classroom runs the length of the palace’s gardens, which I must say provides the loveliest views I’ve ever had from a desk.
Our class is made up of twenty-five students, and each of us are proud to belong to the most diverse group UNISG has ever seen. We represent sixteen different countries, a privilege which has already enlivened classroom discussions and offered promises of a ‘Korean’ or ‘Greek’ or ‘Japanese’ night, to name a few. I am already pondering what on earth I will make on July 1st.
Ultimately, we share several things in common. Firstly, there is our love of food in cooking, eating, and discussing the issues surrounding it. Secondly, many of us have encountered the same dilemma: describing to people that we wish to work ‘in food,’ but then explaining that no, this does not mean we want to be chefs or food critics. This leads to the task of figuring out what our non-chef/non-critic niche is in the food world, with desires to extend ourselves beyond just trendy restaurants, glossy photos of styled food, and the Food Network.
Don’t get me wrong – I love eating out, reading food magazines, and I’ve learned most of what I know about cooking from people like Christine Cushing. It’s just that there are an indescribable number of things that food affects that aren’t always focused on, broadly including the environment, economics, politics, psychology, and anthropology. Within these many disciplines, there is all sorts of work to be done which relates to food, and amongst these lesser-known avenues are where many of us hope to find some understanding through this program.
We have been in school less than a week, but so far we have been lectured on molecular science, with a professor so understanding of her students that she made frequent analogies to butter and compared micelle cells to Ferrero Roche. With another prof, we have begun the long and perhaps impossible process of defining the word ‘gastronomy.’ Several days ago, we learned about the science of taste and smell, then were tested with scents to determine the winner of the ‘Gold,’ ‘Silver,’ ‘Bronze,’ and ‘Stone’ Noses (I did not win but thankfully wasn’t declared ‘Stone’).
We met and were lectured by Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food. Through an interpreter, we listened to this very intense and passionate man talk about the need for gastronomy to be understood as a science, rather than the ‘art of eating delicately’ or ‘food pornography’ (a term quite frequently used in school thus far). He discussed the current food system, the notion of consumption, people’s right to pleasure, and issues surrounding Slow Food and elitism. Ultimately, he told us that the one thing we can be sure of after this program is that we will be confused. Even more-so than when we began it.
Judging by my experiences so far, I am willing to whole-heartedly embrace this confusion and ready to muddle-up-my-mind even further. And with you I shall share the chaos.
Two new things I learned in Italy today? That there are five, not four bakeries on my block, and that I have some incredibly poetic classmates.
Until next time!
