A taste of America at the Salone del Gusto & Terra Madre 2008

The Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre will be more closely aligned than ever in 2008. The first a meeting place for producers and consumers, the second being a world meeting of food communities. This year’s visitors will have the chance to taste and buy exceptional American food products and meet producers and food communities who follow the philosophy of good, clean and fair food production.

American Slow Food Presidia featured at the Presidia Market in the Oval arena include:
The American Raw Milk Cheese Presidium. The first American cheeses were modeled on English and Dutch cheese and later German and Italian ones as immigrants brought their cheese making skills and traditions to the New World. Over the past few decades, new American cheesmakers, often women, have created a wide spectrum of innovative artisan cheeses. Slow Food has created this presidium project – which includes 24 producers and 31 cheeses from across the United States – to promote the production of high quality raw milk cheeses in the USA.

The Anishinaabeg Manoomin (Rice) Presidium. For generations the Native American Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) harvested manoomin, or wild rice, by paddling among the plants in canoes and beating the seed into the bottom of their boats. The rice was then slowly dried over a wood fire. Now, wild rice has been domesticated and more than 95 percent of the crop is cultivated. The presidium promotes the Anishinaabeg who still hand-gather manoomin. Wild rice (Zizania palustris) is actually an aquatic grass, and is more closely related to corn than to rice. It has a rich and delicious flavor with notes of wood smoke and chestnuts.

The other four 4 presidia from the USA – Cape May Oyster, Navajo Churro Sheep, Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple, Makah Ozette Potato – will be participating in Terra Madre activities in the neighbouring Oval venue.

In Pavilion 1, a wide range of small-scale artisan producers will give life to the International Market. Beer plays a starring role here and the United States are represented by the Brewers Association (www.beernet.org), with 21 breweries present in workshops or as exhibitors: Alaskan Brewing Co, Alaska; Blue Point Brewing Co, New York; Boston Beer Co, Massachusetts; Caldera Brewing, Deschutes Brewery and Rogue Ales Brewery, Oregon; Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Delaware; Flying Dog Brewery, Maryland; Goose Island Beer Co, Chicago; Great Divide Brewing Co, Left Hand Brewing Co, Odell Brewing Co and Steamworks Brewing, Colorado; Lakefront Brewing Co, Wisconsin; Kona Brewing Co and Maui Brewing Co, Hawaii; Russian River, California; Shipyard Brewing Co, Portland; Terrapin Brewing Co, Giorgia; Uinta Brewing Company, Utah; Victory Brewing Co, Pennsylvania.

Products from the USA can also be savored during the Salone’s Taste Workshops in Pavilion 5. These renowned Slow Food workshops offer a chance for participants to hear from producers and experts, and taste the produce being discussed.

The ‘Americans do it bitter’ workshop (Thursday 23 at 6pm) will offer a tasting of bottles from small artisan producers in which local hops varieties add not only bitterness but also, thanks to the skill of the brewers, uniquely refreshing flavors. Guiding the tasting will be Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association and Lorenzo Dabove, cultural director of Unionbirrai.

In the ‘Brew in the new’ workshop (Friday 24 at 6pm) Lorenzo Dabove, the cultural director of Unionbirrai and a judge at the World Beer Cup, introduces four bold, creative brewers from Italy and the USA.

The ‘Jackson’s Five: a homage to the maestro’ workshop (Sunday 26 at 12 noon) is a tribute to Michael Jackson, one of the greatest personalities the world of beer has ever known, who sadly passed away a little more than a year ago. Here you can discover five continents through a tasting of his five favorite beers.

At the Theatre of Taste in Pavilion 5, Lidia Bastianich (Thursday 23 at 6pm) patronne and chef of Felidia, New York, will host a cooking demonstration focused on ‘technique and memory’. (www.felidia-nyc.com)

In the Oval arena, Terra Madre will gather 194 food communities from across the United States, the names of which can be downloaded in the attached file.

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