New this year, the Level Up program presented a selection of exhibits and talks addressing the Future of Food. It was both literally and figuratively elevated – upstairs from the exhibit floor and filled with blue-sky notions. I caught a few of the talks and visited the exhibits. Here are some highlights.
FreshDirect runs a food delivery service. One of their concerns is maintaining and improving the speed of their delivery, so they are exploring cutting-edge methods of getting food into the hands of their customers in the most efficient ways possible. Jason Lopes described innovations such as “dark stores” with no actual produce on the premises, for ordering only; drone delivery; urban agriculture; augmented and virtual reality for virtual merchandising, and other technologies that seem outlandish now but could be just around the corner.
And speaking of technology, Francisco Migoya discoursed about Modernist Bread, the latest publication from the folks who produced Modernist Cuisine and is no less exhaustive in its treatment of all grains fermented. In five volumes (plus a kitchen manual) which took three years, 40 tons of flour, a scanning electron microscope, and a saw capable of cutting appliances in half to produce.
Francisco Migoya and Canned Bread
To what end? This set of books appeals to the geek-foodies and professionals for sure, but what about the rest of us dilettantes? No fear – some things of use to the home cook: producing a levain (a.k.a. sourdough starter), techniques for preserving that levain in a home freezer, and the best way to proof it (in a $70 wine fridge set to 55°). Also, baking bread in a canning jar will preserve it for six months. This was presented as a brand new thing! – which will be news to everyone in New England who has ever bought Boston brown bread in a can.
In response to an audience query, Mr. Migoya admitted to addressing gluten-free bread “because we had to.” That’s just about how I feel about that whole question.
Another part of the floor contained exhibits from projects on the leading (bleeding?) edge included one from Drexel University’s Food Institute, which, oh, no! displayed a plate of gluten-fee chocolate croissant samples! And yet, they were strangely edible. Probably the presence of chocolate mitigated the absence of gluten.
Alexandra Zeitz of Drexel
Meanwhile, Alexandra Zeitz filled me in on the programs Drexel is working on for food recovery, to reduce food waste and repurpose excess produce. An excellent enterprise! More power to them, and all other programs working to that end.
