Sharing the plate

What I talk about when I talk about food that comes from regenerative organic farms, the role of future foods, and honey made from bees.

Greetings from New York. My big event in Brooklyn was this week, and (huge sigh of relief) it was amazing. From the venue to the food to the crowd, who were so completely engaged. Several guests told me they could have listened to the panel for hours. (Love you!) Because I’m writing this newsletter on the go, with not a lot of time (I’m in New York!), I thought I’d make today’s newsletter more photos than words. To that end, here’s a brief roundup of the event on April 6th.

The cheese course was a fun opportunity for guests to try regenerative cheeses alongside their plant-based counterparts (gouda from Grounded Foods and mozzerella from Vertage Foods), Also on the plate: upcycled crackers, real honey, molecular honey from MeliBio and a lush dollop of jam.

Walking Veronica from Grounded Foods through what’s no the plate. Veronica and her husband are the duo behind Grounded Foods, which makes plant-based cheeses from recognizeable ingredients like cauliflower and hemp seeds.

The salad course was a side-by-side comparison of greens grown on a regenerative organic farm (in soil) and greens grown indoors without soil, sun dependent on a hydroponic watering system based.

Chicken Cordon Bleu. On the left: Tindle, a new plant-based chicken that you can find in a few restaurants in SF, LA and New York. The “chicken” was stuffed with Vertage mozzerella and topped with MyForest Foods mycelium bacon. On the right, chicken from a Snowdance Farms, a regenerative organic farm in NY.

On the panel, L to R: Me, chef Dan Barber (Stone Barns), Irving Fain (CEO of Bowery Farming), Malaika Spencer (Roots to River Farm), Michael Ray Robinov.

There were about 150 people in attendance. How do I feel about crowds? Miss them, love them, please don’t make me Zoom again.

Two of my favorite food folks: Kate Krader, my editor at Bloomberg, and chef Dan Barber of Stone Barns, and author of The Third Plate.

One of my favorite bites: black pepper meringues.

Dessert of champions. Berries on the top left were grown in Bowery Farming’s vertical farm in New Jersey. Berries on the bottom right were grown in soil.

Selfie with Michael Ray Robinov, the CEO and co-founder of Farm to People. Michael and I met about a decade ago. We were both eager to find a job in the food world, and both felt like little kids who knew nothing (or maybe that was just me?) In September, Michael and I tossed around the idea of an event to support my book. It slowly evolved into a panel, a dinner and a book signing. The event could not have happened without Michael’s incredible team at Farm to People. (Rachel, this most especially means you.)

Going the distance! Chef Phil Saneski has worked with me for every one of my Future Food events. I have no words for his effort, creativity and passion. Phil’s not beyond leaping across metal tables to get the job done. Thank you Phil and Emily and every chef that has pitched in to help us.

If you want to watch the panel you can find it on my Instagram feed. We also filmed the panel and are hoping to share it down the road.

Other tidbits:

1. One winter when I lived in New York, I wrote about how local beekeepers were seeing a bumper crop of honey despite the extremely wet weather we were having that year. That story made me go deep on local honey, how taste changes depending on the season and the trees that the bees were pollinating. It’s an such a pure example of what happens in the natural world—complete interdepenence. Here’s a honey from Crete that I learned about at Amfora, an olive oil company in the region. Crete honey in spring tastes like sage.

2. Last week, I tasted lab-made salmon. Visually, the salmon was eye catching if perhaps a little too symetrical. The taste wasn’t there, but it wasn’t not there. I’ll be curious to see how far the salmon can get in achieving a taste and texture good enough to convince fish eaters. SF Bay Area folks, you can join the waitlist to try the WildType lab-made salmon.

3. Live in New York? This Saturday (tomorrow!) is Japan Fes, an all day, all Japanese food festival in Manhattan.

Where you can find me:

1. I taped an episode of Green Eggs & Dan with comedian Dan Ahdoot a few weeks ago. He tried some Future Foods on air and we dished on cultured meat. He brought up Soylent Green, a sci-fi film that came out in 1973 . Highly recomend this episode→Dan is super fun and funny.

2. Have you missed seeing me online? (Or, like me, are you over virtual?) It’s not all bad. Here’s my 90-minute Extended Session class. In it, I bring my book to life, bring you behind the scenes, and share some personal stories that aren’t in the book. You can rent the class and watch whenver you want.

3. I’m moderating a panel on fermentation at the Reducetarian conference this May 12-14 in San Francisco. Heads up: There’s a reduced price ticket for students. Let me know if you’ll be there. I’d love to say hi.

   

   Thank you for getting to the very bottom, and for reading my newsletter!

   Final bit: Next week I’d like to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything). Submit a question, any question—about food!—and I’ll answer the best one (or two) next week.