The best and worst places to experience Slow Food Nation
WHERE TO TAKE IT SLOW...
Renzo Piano protégé Brett Terpeluk’s olive oil pavilion
Part of: Taste Pavilions ($45–65, Fort Mason Center, Aug. 30: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–9 p.m., Aug. 31: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 6–9 p.m.).
Why this? Working mostly pro bono, with cheap, reusable materials, more than a dozen architects and designers each took on a different pavilion in the Taste Hall. On paper, some look, well, cheap and reusable, built from plastic milk crates and repurposed shipping pallets. But Terpeluk, the designer of Farina in the Mission, plans to exploit the intrinsic gorgeousness of olive oil. All the bottles will be fenced off at eye level in serpentine racks lit from below, creating a glowing scrim in oleaginous greens and golds.
“A New, Fair Food System,” moderated by Eric Schlosser
Part of: The Food for Thought speaker series ($20, students $10, Herbst Theatre, Aug. 29, 3–4:30 p.m.)
Why this? This discussion gets to the heart of the social-justice challenge that Slow Food USA has been poky about championing. Indeed, the lives of the poverty-struck workers who pick and slaughter the contents of our grocery carts may be the most disturbing part of our entire food system—and the one we’re least inclined to look at.
Slow Dinners
Part of: Special programming concurrent with the festival. (Cost varies, buy tickets at slowfoodnation.org, various locations, Aug. 28–Sept. 1).
Why this? Some chefs have shown ambivalence about Slow Food at the chapter level—despite having the same kind of passion for the international movement typically reserved for their knife kits. So consider these fundraisers for various nonprofits a Slow group hug. No doubt the $250 blowout for Sustainable Agriculture Education at Coi will stun, but Aaron French’s $22 breakfast at Albany’s Sunny Side Café (benefiting the Green Chamber of Commerce) may offer an hit of Slow Food’s original humble spirit.
Victory Garden
Part of: Civic Center Plaza (free, Aug. 29–31, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.).
Why this? It’s the festival’s centerpiece, a bioactive mass of food and politics sprouting from the very hub of civic power. In truth, the garden’s materials and execution make the showplace feel more than a little makeshift. Depending on your perspective, it’s either a testament to the grassroots nature of the local urban agriculture movement, or a manifestation of the city’s flimsy commitment to it.
...AND WHERE TO RUN AWAY FAST.
Slow Food Rocks
Part of: Two-day companion concert at the Great Meadow at Fort Mason Center (adults $79, kids $20, Aug. 30: 11 a.m.—7 p.m., Aug. 31: 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.).
Why not this? The idea may have been to get smoked-out Coachella kids high on the idea of good, clean, and fair, but the lineup promises to have them zoning out. Headliner Gnarls Barkley probably appeals more to their parents, while Phil Lesh and G. Love & Special Sauce have the collective whiff of hippie-dippy lameness.
Slow Journeys
Part of: Day trips hosted by various Northern California Slow Food chapters ($119–159, Aug. 28–Sept. 1).
Why not this? With the event’s dual locations in San Francisco, it seems odd to siphon visitors off for daylong bus-and-guided-tour trips of “Mysterious Bolinas” or “Merced Grass-Based Dairies.” No doubt cool for the first taste or two of sheep’s-milk yogurt or sustainable oat scones, these excursion’s fun could fade long before the return bus merges onto the freeway for the long, slow ride home.
Renzo Piano protégé Brett Terpeluk’s olive oil pavilion
Part of: Taste Pavilions ($45–65, Fort Mason Center, Aug. 30: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–9 p.m., Aug. 31: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 6–9 p.m.).
Why this? Working mostly pro bono, with cheap, reusable materials, more than a dozen architects and designers each took on a different pavilion in the Taste Hall. On paper, some look, well, cheap and reusable, built from plastic milk crates and repurposed shipping pallets. But Terpeluk, the designer of Farina in the Mission, plans to exploit the intrinsic gorgeousness of olive oil. All the bottles will be fenced off at eye level in serpentine racks lit from below, creating a glowing scrim in oleaginous greens and golds.
“A New, Fair Food System,” moderated by Eric Schlosser
Part of: The Food for Thought speaker series ($20, students $10, Herbst Theatre, Aug. 29, 3–4:30 p.m.)
Why this? This discussion gets to the heart of the social-justice challenge that Slow Food USA has been poky about championing. Indeed, the lives of the poverty-struck workers who pick and slaughter the contents of our grocery carts may be the most disturbing part of our entire food system—and the one we’re least inclined to look at.
Slow Dinners
Part of: Special programming concurrent with the festival. (Cost varies, buy tickets at slowfoodnation.org, various locations, Aug. 28–Sept. 1).
Why this? Some chefs have shown ambivalence about Slow Food at the chapter level—despite having the same kind of passion for the international movement typically reserved for their knife kits. So consider these fundraisers for various nonprofits a Slow group hug. No doubt the $250 blowout for Sustainable Agriculture Education at Coi will stun, but Aaron French’s $22 breakfast at Albany’s Sunny Side Café (benefiting the Green Chamber of Commerce) may offer an hit of Slow Food’s original humble spirit.
Victory Garden
Part of: Civic Center Plaza (free, Aug. 29–31, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.).
Why this? It’s the festival’s centerpiece, a bioactive mass of food and politics sprouting from the very hub of civic power. In truth, the garden’s materials and execution make the showplace feel more than a little makeshift. Depending on your perspective, it’s either a testament to the grassroots nature of the local urban agriculture movement, or a manifestation of the city’s flimsy commitment to it.
...AND WHERE TO RUN AWAY FAST.
Slow Food Rocks
Part of: Two-day companion concert at the Great Meadow at Fort Mason Center (adults $79, kids $20, Aug. 30: 11 a.m.—7 p.m., Aug. 31: 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.).
Why not this? The idea may have been to get smoked-out Coachella kids high on the idea of good, clean, and fair, but the lineup promises to have them zoning out. Headliner Gnarls Barkley probably appeals more to their parents, while Phil Lesh and G. Love & Special Sauce have the collective whiff of hippie-dippy lameness.
Slow Journeys
Part of: Day trips hosted by various Northern California Slow Food chapters ($119–159, Aug. 28–Sept. 1).
Why not this? With the event’s dual locations in San Francisco, it seems odd to siphon visitors off for daylong bus-and-guided-tour trips of “Mysterious Bolinas” or “Merced Grass-Based Dairies.” No doubt cool for the first taste or two of sheep’s-milk yogurt or sustainable oat scones, these excursion’s fun could fade long before the return bus merges onto the freeway for the long, slow ride home.
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