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The Food Party!

By Laura Stec

E-mail Laura Stec

About this blog: I've been attracted to food for good and bad reasons for many years. From eating disorder to east coast culinary school, food has been my passion, profession & nemesis. I've been a sugar addict, a 17-year vegetarian, a food and en...  (More)

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Balsamic Vinegar + Foodprint Footprints

Uploaded: Nov 1, 2018

Well well, well…Halloween sure was fun wasn’t it? Here’s a few more pictures of Sammy and Riley’s big Halloween bash if you Food Partied! with us last week and wondered how it all came out.

So what do we do now for fun?

Just so happens two fabulous Food Parties! are happening this week.

The Art and Science of Balsamic Vinegar
November 7th, 3 PM
International Culinary Center - Campbell

The most famous aged vinegar is balsamic vinegar. It accounts for 35 percent of all vinegar sold in the world. The Noma Guide to Fermentation says that unless you are very discerning, most of the balsamic vinegar you’ve consumed has most likely not been true balsamic, but the unaged Aceto Balsamico di Modena, a mix of red wine vinegar, cooked grape must, and caramel; second class balsamic at best. Food Party! #1 is hosted by none other than the King of Mushrooms, Mr. Todd Spanier, a crazy mushroom guy who has hunted some of the biggest mushrooms I have ever seen.



Todd’s passion for mushrooms and wild foods came from his grandfathers, who’d bring him along on mushroom hunting and foraging trips as a kid. By high school, he was selling foraged mushrooms to top San Francisco restaurants, and makes his living now as an entrepreneur and chef. I met Todd through Chef’s Lounge, a culinary community where chefs, restaurateurs, industry professionals and foodies gather to network and share ideas while enjoying a monthly feast prepared by our members. Learn more about Chef’s Lounge here and please join us!

The King also has a fascinating story learning how to make balsamic vinegar (his teacher was long-time Oliveto in Oakland chef, Paul Bertoill.) He'll share that and much more in this unique class



Now if Thursday comes around this week, and you are still looking for tasty fun, yours truly joins the City of Santa Clara Sustainability Series, for a talk about your foodprint footprint. Learn the connections between food and global warming, what you can do about it, and even some new cooking techniques that just might change your life! Free.




Let's change the world with great tasting food!


Community.
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Comments

Posted by Eater, a resident of Mountain View,
on Nov 7, 2018 at 12:52 pm

Interesting stuff, thanks.

Just a detail but FWIW, you mentioned Paul Bertolli and Oliveto, but Oliveto wasn't what made Paul Bertolli's name widely known. Before that, he was the longest-tenured chef of Berkeley's Chez Panisse restaurant in the 1980s and 90s. Including part of Panisse's original flush of fame, when reservations there were "impossible" to get. Bertolli wrote one of Panisse's best-known general cookbooks with Alice Waters, "Chez Panisse Cooking," which has been characterized as a modern counterpart of Artusi's classic from Italy: Web Link In it, Bertolli mentions his Italian grandmother, her own annotated copy of Artusi, and her maddeningly sketchy cooking instructions to him ("as is always the case with Italian grandmothers when asked to give a recipe"). His book includes signature dishes from the restaurant, and the levain bread from Panisse's bakery spinoff Acme Bread. Before Panisse, Bertolli worked in Italy, including running the kitchen for an aristocrat's large household.


Posted by Laura Stec, a Almanac Online blogger,
on Nov 8, 2018 at 7:30 am

Laura Stec is a registered user.

Thanks Eater for the added info


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