60 Faces ~ Sacramento Farmers and Chefs

Thank you Greg for this poster! Love it! Pomegranate Design

What is it? It's an Art project. And those of you who follow me on Facebook know I teach art during the school year so this project is not a huge stretch for me. Is it a food movement? I don't really think it is. I think the word "movement" can be left to the group driving Farm to Fork. They are doing an amazing job promoting an identity for a city that is ginormous in it's agricultural industry and almost as ginormous in it's restaurant and food options (is ginormous even a real word?)

Sacramento Farmers & Chefs is a much simpler concept. SF&C is an art project and 60 Faces is an art show. A show with the faces of 30 chefs and 30 farmers on giant glossy prints and many, many other local celebrities that will be featured in a slideshow. 

I guess a little back story is needed here, yes?

The artist is Janine Mapurunga. She's a little woman from Brazil. She likes to take pictures. I have also come to know she likes to know all the why's and how's and what makes people do what they do. She's also a bit of a control freak and likes to make sure she is a part of every bit of minutiae involving every step of the process. And she is most likely going to choke when she reads that last sentence. None of this is bad (except maybe the choke part) Any individual that loves their craft is going to be more possessive than a momma bear. That's just how it is. And that is a-o-kay.

Janine started this project with a few faces and her camera. This turned into so many faces, and then interviews, and then an idea to share what she was learning. Thus SF&C began to form and on September 14th will completely come to fruition. 

By the way, here is a little photo of her I took one day while at her home. And right after she had harvested a bagful of tomatoes for me to take.

She is lovely and her heart is huge. She is a person who loves food, loves seeing the process of growing food and like myself, loves to see her friends enjoy food. She wants to share with the world what she loves about Sacramento and how huge the food culture is here in our city. Thus she has dedicated a year of her life to documenting the process and photographing all these individuals who are involved. Janine wanted a way to get close to each person. To share not only what they do - but to show what makes them tick - and to understand why. I also think she wanted to make the viewer question and wonder. Raising the curiosity level will heighten awareness will it not? And wont this in turn cause a greater appreciation for our surroundings? Or in this case - for the persons responsible for the food we love in Sacramento? 

Janine found a way to show the smallest tomato plant in someones' backyard - up to the biggest restaurants in the Capital City. And it is this project - Sacramento Farmers and Chefs.

My part in this project is large or small depending how you want to view it. This past June she asked me to be one of her 30 chef faces and wanted an interview. I agreed. We met. She took some photos. We chatted. And I left.

Here is my photo.

Yup - that's me. Thank you Janine for photo-shopping all the wrinkles and dark circles out of this image!

Then a few weeks ago she needed someone to take over as the Event Coordinator and called me (all those years being owned by Macy's have come in very handy these past few years) We met again. I said yes. And now here I am. Putting together an Art Show happening September 14th at Sunh Fish Market (how's that for a little shameless self-promotion?)

In fact - while I'm promoting - let's add a link to purchase tickets!

click me right here to purchase your ticket

What started out as a whisper of a thought has grown into this beast of a concept. There are now over a hundred images. Hours and hours of interviews have been recorded and are being transcribed. Flyers and posters can be found everywhere in the city. All of this to promote the 60 Faces exhibit happening September 14th. There will be live jazz, delicious edibles provided by several local chefs, wine and beer from a few local spots. What else can I tell you? This will be big. Bring the kids and enjoy the evening. Whether chef or farmer or culinary teacher - their photo will be found in this archive. And Janine is not done. There will be many more added to this growing list of Farmers and Chefs and many more events to come. 

Will we see your photo next?

dinner @Tate's / august 2013

What do you mean school starts in exactly two weeks??? For some reason this realization just hit me and sent me into a slight panic. Needless to say, I am not ready. Not ready to no longer have my little sidekick with me most every minute of every day. Her and her little antics and constant dialogue and dancing and singing around the house are already missed. I'm a somewhat sad mom right now. Yes...I know...all of you are rolling your eyes at me...why am I here? the reason you're here? oh yes...my dinner post...(sniff...sniff...)

The Summer of Seafood has run it's course. For now anyway. Who knows what will show on the menu for September. In addition to testing recipes for all sorts of seafood I've also been dealing with all the produce that has been given to me. An unbelievably fantastic array of pears, peaches, apples, plums, grapefruit, onions, peppers, tomatoes, on and on this has gone. It has been AWESOME. I have canned and pickled. Made jams, jellies and chutneys. Cooked all of it every which way I think my family will eat it. And for this months dinner I wanted to try and incorporate some of the items that have been swallowing up my kitchen and my fridge. Therefore, we started Sunday dinner with a simple Caprese salad.

(I know - that whole list of produce I just mentioned and I threw some tomatoes and cheese on a plate???!!! What kind of kitchen is this? HA)

Next up was a Brie wheel baked in puff pastry with my homemade spiced peach jam - served with wheat crackers (I was trying to add some nutritional value to this appetizer...think it worked?)

This is one of the worst photos ever but you get the idea.

I let this settle with the guests for a bit and just kept the wine flowing (Best Hostess Ever!) Then served this salad of grapefruit, garlic and ginger marinated shrimp on a bed of arugula, radishes and more heirloom tomatoes with toasted panko crumbs. Additional marinade was quickly boiled and served as dressing - Delicious!

This was followed by an entree of mussels cooked with beer, bacon, tomatoes and thyme. Served with a little homemade wheat pasta and pretzel bread toasts.

I also had a bunch of corn and cherry tomatoes from my market visit so I did a quick succotash sort of dish with fresh basil.

Now I REALLY needed to let everyone sit and rest for a minute (and of course kept the wine flowing) I think everyone was pretty full at this point but I had already made dessert soooooo.....buck up little campers.....here's some homemade plum and brandy ice cream with a drizzle of hot fudge sauce and toasted almonds

Followed immediately by these apple handpies served with the same hot fudge sauce on the side - just in case anyone wanted to put themselves completely over the edge.

WHEW! So what should we have for September dinner@Tate's Kitchen? Thoughts? Suggestions? I promise to not let my tears from missing my daughter get into the food.

:-)

oven roasted cauliflower

This is now my new favorite way to have cauliflower. 

Usually the family wants it dripping in Hollandaise Sauce so I think they were all a little skeptical when I said I was roasting it and there would be NO sauce in sight. As you can imagine this was met with some sour faces but all is now well. Pretty quick. Definitely delicious. Try this.

originally from Bon Appetit - February edition

note: I have made this a few times and used both Parmesan cheese and Pecorino cheese. I actually think I prefer the Pecorino.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 head cauliflower

1 red onion

fresh thyme sprigs

6 peeled garlic cloves - sliced fairly thick

olive oil

salt

pepper

parmesan cheese

TO DO:

Oven to 425

Chop the cauliflower into thick slices or chunks.

Roughly chop the onion.

Slice the garlic.

Toss all that onto a baking sheet.

(btw - after roasting, those big chunks of garlic are like butter. So good.)

Add the olive oil.

Add a little salt and pepper - easy here because the parmesan cheese is pretty salty already.

Just use your hands and make sure everything is covered.

Maybe add another tablespoon of olive oil if you feel it's necessary.

Add 4 or 5 of the thyme sprigs.

Into the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven - carefully give it a stir.

Grate some fresh parmesan all over the vegetables.

Back into the oven for 20 minutes - or until vegetables are tender.

remove.

Add more Parmesan (always more cheese please)

Add some fresh thyme.

Add some fresh grated pepper.

Taste for salt and add as needed.

Serve immediately.