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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JUNE 2017 n GOURMET NEWS 1 0 6 Slow Food USA Launches Slow Food Nations Slow Food USA is launching Slow Food Nations with an inaugural food festival in Denver, Colorado, from July 14 through 16, 2017. Inspired by Slow Food Interna- tional's biennial Terra Madre gathering in Turin, Italy, Slow Food Nations will com- bine the energy of a street food festival, rigor of an academic conference and inspi- ration of a cultural exchange. Alice Waters, Ron Finley, Simran Sethi, Jack Johnson, Hosea Rosenberg and Alon Shaya are just a few of many food movement leaders join- ing the festival. Entrance to the festival is free and in- cludes a taste marketplace with 100 ex- hibitors and producers, an outdoor culinary stage, gardening and cooking activities for kids and families, heritage food tastings, au- thor talks and many more events. Slow Food leaders from around the globe will participate in an all-day delegate sum- mit on Friday, including small group discus- sions, focused working groups and a lunch by Alice Waters that will explore school lunch as an academic subject. Delegates will then serve as hosts and speakers during the weekend festival. The first round of ticketed events went on sale Monday, April 10. Events include taste workshops, block parties, regional food and farm tours, roundtable discussions and one- of-a-kind dinners. Slow Food Nations reimagines the food festival to inspire individuals and communi- ties to change the world through food that is good, clean and fair. As Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini says, "If you want to change the world, don't do it with sadness; do it with joy!" For the full lineup and details, visit www.slowfoodnations.org. Hand Forged Artisan Bread From Hewn By Lorrie Baumann The sourdough starter at Hewn has a gender but no name. She's the mother of all the bread sold at this Evanston, Illinois bakery owned by Julie Matthei and Ellen King. Matthei serves as the bakery's Director of Business Operations, while King is the Head Baker. Together, they and their bakery staff produce and sell about 130 loaves a day as well as run a wholesale business that serves restaurants and specialty stores throughout Chicago. That requires that they give their starter lots of tender loving care, feeding her twice a day, every day, whether the bakery is open or closed. "It's like having a pet al- most – the matter of keeping it alive and then having it give back," King says. "She gets fed twice a day, and we literally treat her like a queen." Hewn celebrates its fourth anniversary this June, and in that time, there's only been a baking day or two when all the bread on the shelves didn't come from that mother. "We did have a time early on, when some- one didn't realize there was no more in the walk-in and threw it all away," King said. "It was a very bad day." Another local baker donated some of her starter, and within a couple of days, the yeasty air of Hewn had re-asserted itself and re-established a colony of wild yeasts that carried the unique flavors of Hewn. Everything at Hewn is made from scratch daily. Breads are hand-mixed, hand-shaped and naturally fermented without commercial yeast. The only ingredients are flour, water, starter and sea salt. King uses flours that are organic, sustainable and local whenever she can, which has resulted in making partner- ships with local farmers to bring back her- itage grains after she'd exhausted the local supply of organic grain. "I think it's impor- tant to be able to tell customers where the flour comes from," King says. Dough is mixed by hand, and then turned every 30 minutes over a four-hour period. Then it's shaped and placed into pans to rest overnight. In the morning, it's baked. It's a labor-intensive process that takes two days all told – first a day of feeding the starter so there's enough to leaven that day's bread and enough to save for the next day, and then a day of mixing the dough, letting it rest and rise and then baking it. "It's a solid two days," King says. From the start of the mix to the bake, the bread is fermented about 20 hours. That long fermentation time with wild yeasts unas- sisted by commercial yeast plus flours made from heritage wheat and spelt mean that the flour's gluten is developed slowly and then broken down again before the bread is baked, which allows some of Hewn's cus- tomers who can't eat other bread to enjoy a simple sandwich again. These customers have gluten sensitivities – not celiac disease, which is another serious medical condition – but intolerances that prevent them from eating and enjoying the conventional breads they could buy in the supermarket. "That's been pretty amazing – to have a bakery that I feel is really helping to nourish our com- munity," King said. In addition to 20 different naturally fer- mented breads, including traditional baguettes, croissants and brioche, King makes some sweet pastries, and Hewn also sells coffee and sand- wiches from its 2,400 square-foot shop in Evanston. Three quarters of that is the production area, and the remainder is the retail space furnished with many hand-made fix- tures that reflect King's deep interest in American history – in addition to her training as a classical chef at Seattle Culinary Acad- emy, she also holds a BA in history from St. Norbert College and an MA in history from the University of Maine. The terrazzo floors are original to the build- ing, which was built in 1928 on a site once occupied by Evanston's original high school. The metal that faces the walls was salvaged from an old barn roof, and the shelves and counters were built from lumber obtained from an old white oak tree in Wil- mette, Illinois, that had to be cut down. The shop's exterior light came from a closed Wisconsin factory, and the doors between the shop and kitchen are made out of old Michigan cypress pickle barrels. A bench in the retail shop was once an old church pew, and it's become something of a draw for eld- erly neighborhood residents who like to sit and watch the come and go. "They all come in at roughly the same time. Sometimes they're grumpy," says Matthei. "It's kind of an old-school place," adds King. "For me, part of the fun is seeing peo- ple forced to share a small space – and then connect." The shop fits into a quiet mixed use urban residential neighborhood with low-rise apartment buildings and ground-floor retail storefronts along a two lane street with a 25- miles-per-hour speed limit. There are apartments over the store, and one of the shops at the other end of Hewn's building was once occupied by a family-run neighborhood grocery called Bernstein Bros. "Once in a while, we have a customer come in and say they used to go to that gro- cery store," Matthei says. "They're glad there's food back in the build- ing." She met King a few years ago after she heard about an underground bread club that King was running out of her home. "I had heard about this woman who was making bread, and it was really, re- ally good," she says. Matthei sought out the bread and became a regular customer, and as the months went on, she mentioned to King that she'd like to become a partner in her business. Six months later, they'd formed a company, and in another six months, they opened Hewn in June, 2013. When the two of them were making their initial plans, they thought they'd be making and selling 30 to 40 loaves of bread per day, closing the shop for the day when that ran out. Things didn't work out that way, and the bakery's floor plan has now doubled in size, employs about 200, and is selling wholesale to restaurants and specialty stores in the Chicago area as well as in its own retail shop. Because their production process takes so long, the retail day ends when the last loaf of bread is sold. "There are days when it's 5:00 and we sell the last loaf," Matthei says. "I love those days." It's never been hard finding customers, Matthei says. "Evanston's become a food hub. It's really exploded; we were very for- tunate in being at the nexus of that." A Sensory Feast When Savannah, Georgia gave the green light for food trucks to do business in the city about a year ago, Kay Heritage and her sister Sunju Pitts decided to look into open- ing a mobile wood-fired pizza business. Kay's husband Kevin began researching the different options, while the sisters visited wood-fired pizza oven manufacturer Marra Forni's test kitchen in Washington, D.C. to determine their options. After visiting a friend's pizza food truck, which was catering a wedding rehearsal din- ner event, the sisters knew what they didn't want in a wood-fired oven. "There were 75 people total, and we observed people stand- ing in line for 15 to 20 minutes at this party," says Kay Heritage. "We didn't want to do that." After much research, the family, which also includes Kay and Kevin's' sons Kevin Jr. and Christian and daughter Anna, created Big Bon Pizza. This mobile catering busi- ness features traditional and Asian-inspired Neapolitan pizza, and Marra Forni's wood- fired oven is the centerpiece. Marra Forni ovens are built using the same tried and tested process used by Italian masons hundreds of years ago. Its brick-by-brick building process is supe- rior to cement and able to withstand years of use without cracking. This process ensures the most efficient heat absorption, retention and consistent cooking possible, resulting in huge gas bill savings. Because each oven is made to order, operators have the option to cus- tomize the look to complement and en- hance the scenery. "Instead of locating the oven inside, the trailer is opened fully on three sides, so the entire production process is on display," says Heritage. "This creates the heart of an event, but also an experience that encom- passes all of the senses." The environment is akin to people gath- ering in a home kitchen for a meal, yet also provides the illusion of an Italian festival, with globe lights setting the scene. The Marra Forni wood-fired oven not only im- parts a theater experience guests can see, but the roaring fire also can be both heard, smelled and almost tasted, setting a scene that wows event attendees. "When people see my son Kevin scoop- ing fresh dough out of the tray to be stretched, topped and cooked in the fire, it brings home the old adage that people really eat with their eyes," says Heritage. "We've visited many operation where wood-fired ovens aren't visible, even in open kitchens, yet this is central to the sensory experience. Setting the theme is critical, whether it's a brick and mortar or mobile operation." She says in the event the operation does become more permanent and finds a home in a building, Marra Forni's wood-fired oven will remain front and center as part of the dining experience. "Not only do guests trust an operation more because they can see the entire process, but the oven provides a convivial feel," says Heritage. "With everyone gath- ered around the fire sharing great food and being together, it's like welcoming them to our family table." For more information, visit www .marraforni.com.