Tantalizing Tastes at the Taste Pavilion by Diane

One of the highlights, if not the highlight, of the Slow Food Nation weekend was the Taste Pavilion at Fort Mason Center on Saturday and Sunday. Knowing there would be huge crowds, we were extremely happy to be invited to a sneak preview walk through and tasting on Friday evening.

Slow Food Nation curators and architects erected 15 separate taste pavilions, including beer, bread, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, fish, honey and preserves, ice cream, native foods, olive oil, pickles and chutney, spirits, tea and wine. There was a ‘curator’ – one person knowledgeable about the food - paired up with an architect to create an area that showcased the food in what could only be called an artistic way. Each pavilion was also set up to be recyclable, so materials used for all the sections was to be broken down after the event and used again.

The pickle and chutney area had 3,000 mason jar lids suspended from the ceiling to create a kitchen canopy, while mason jars were fitted in wood frames to give the area a feeling of your grandmother’s kitchen gone to an art museum. Next to that was the fish pavilion, which featured over a hundred fishing weights dangling from the ceiling like a chandelier. Beneath the silver weighted chandelier was a huge display of seafood, from Dungeness crab to Sockeye salmon and all other sorts of fish and seafood laid out in a beautiful display. Another area of note was the olive oil section, where hundreds of glass bottles of olive oil were set up in rows around the pavilion, creating a golden divider that contained several olive trees and orange netting used to actually harvest olives. It gave you the feel of being in an olive grove that had been placed in the middle of a trendy New York City bar.

Each area offered samples of food, which on Saturday and Sunday were crammed with people. (The Taste Pavilions sold out both days.) During the preview the night before, it was crowded, but we were so hungry that we bee lined for the pavilions we were most interested in sampling. Our first stop was the cheese area, where award-winning raw milk, farmstead and organic cheeses were highlighted. Our favorite cheese came from Cowgirl Creamery – a cheese definitely worth trying if you ever get out to the San Francisco area. Next was the ice cream section, where unique, hand crafted ice creams were dished out 3 scoops at a time. We tried the hazelnut, strawberry and goat and fig ice creams – goat and fig won hands down, though the strawberry was also pretty spectacular.

Another area in the Taste Pavilions was the Green Kitchen, where cooking demonstrations were held throughout the two days. Simple recipes were stressed, from making salsa to instructions on how to poach an egg, from nationally known chefs like Alice Waters from Chez Panisse; David Chang of Momofuku in NYC; and Charlie Trotter of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. Our favorite presenters in the Green Kitchen were Bryant Terry and Anna Lappe, authors of Grub and good friends of Sustainable Table.

The Pavilions were a little overwhelming, with thousands of people and lots of food to try, but it was an amazing opportunity to experience all the wonderful things happening in the local sustainable artisanal food movement.

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