There was a time, back in the Golden Age (five years or so ago), when there were at least three book festivals in this area with food/cookbook tracks, but lately, in an alarming trend, two of them have all but eliminated this most interesting of foci. One right-thinking one remains, however: the Baltimore Book Festival. Their Food for Thought stage is alive and well.
While the Gaithersburg and National events have forsaken the foodies among us, in Baltimore they still recognize that food is the second-most important necessity of life (after breathing). The three-day event at the end of September boasted a full program of book authors and cooking demos. Because of a conflict of scheduling (albeit a one-time problem), I could only attend the BBF for one day. Saturday, however, was full of tasty tidbits.
Saturday’s program was billed as “A Special Day with Chef John Shields and Friends,” and a genial host he proved to be. With the assistance of Kevin Brown, longtime MC of the Food for Thought stage and co-owner of the Station North Arts Cafe, he curated an afternoon-long program full of cooking demos, thoughtful discussions with writers, and one nationally-famous chef (or two if you count himself!)
Chef John is the owner of Gertrude’s restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the author of several Chesapeake-focused cookbooks (the latest of which I will be reviewing very shortly); he has also appeared on two PBS cooking series. For the first hour, he treated the audience to a lesson on blue catfish – how this invasive species is threatening the Bay ecosystem, and how we can fight back by eating them (the best revenge!) And he demonstrated by fixing “Blue Catfish Catties,” a play on the codfish “coddies” of Baltimore tradition.
Chef John Shields in the Kitchen
Kevin Brown, Looking Fabulous
There were samples of “catties” and an Apple Cobbler made with Major Grey’s chutney. “Makes it sexy,” said Chef John. It certainly was.
Handing Out Samples
“Catties”
“Catties” and Doggie
Renee Brooks Catacalos has written a terrific new book, The Chesapeake Table, about our local foodshed. I have a copy, which I will review soon. My only complaint is that it doesn’t mention the Olney Farmers Market, but I can forgive her for that. I expect that a close reading will reveal many new resources to explore and a web of local relationships. John and Renee met while Renee was running Edible Chesapeake, a sorely-missed magazine.
Renee and John and Kevin
Some highlights from the conversation: There are so many more food resources now than twenty years ago; consumers should exercise the “power of the pocketbook” to make choices as to where to shop. There are new models for CSAs. Meat can be stretched by using it as a seasoning rather than as center of the plate. People are lacking in basic cooking skills – they are no longer taught in schools. So true!
Chef Virginia Willis showed off her virtuosity by preparing three (count ‘em) dishes in a 45 minute demo. Her new book, Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South contains recipes for Mexican Chocolate Pudding as well as Cat-Head Biscuits. Why such diversity? Today’s South contains multitudes of cultural influences, from “Vietnamese tacos” to the Seafood Chowder she demonstrated along with the pudding and biscuits.
Kevin Pictures Virginia
The pudding contains cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and espresso powder as well as more traditional ingredients. While we dug in, she gave a master class in turning White Lily flour, buttermilk, and shortening, first into a “shaggy mass,” and then into a set of great big biscuits (the size of a cat’s head – hence the name).
Have Some Pudding!
Chef Virginia Demonstrates the Biscuit Touch
And Attracts an Avid Watcher
Another local chef, Cathy Barrow, demonstrated a recipe from her new book, Pie Squared. Imagine, a book full of great big pies! If all the recipes in the book are as good as the samples of Just-Like-Artichoke-Dip Slab Pie, it should be a winner.
Cathy Barrow and Audience
Cathy’s Pie
Then the program took a turn towards food policy and ecology, as Tom Pelton, host of the public radio program The Environment in Focus, joined Chef John for a discussion of the best ways to harvest the bounty of the Bay in a sustainable way. Oyster farming, for example, can be beneficial to the ecosystem. The number of oyster farms in Maryland has gone from zero to over 100 in under a decade. What a delicious statistic!
Kevin and John and Tom
The Food For Thought program wrapped with a Food Writing Panel. Three writers delved deeply into questions of food as metaphor; authenticity; the intersection of food, race, class, and gender; and challenging old ideas through food writing. It was perhaps the truest expression of the program’s name, but I thought that the time devoted to it was just about right for an outdoor book festival.
Food Writers R to L: Carrie Helms Tippen, Soleil Ho, Tia Keenan, Hannah Howard
To wrap up the day, I moseyed over to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) tent, just across the way, and caught their food panel. The writers discussing “The Speculative Table: Beyond Stew and MREs” considered aspects of writing about food that reflected back to the last Food for Thought panel with a different perspective on many of the same issues: in the context of fiction, how does a writer deal with the issues of culture, class, power, etc.? In addition, when worldbuilding, a writer needs to account for how foods are acquired/produced/traded for, considering the level of technology available.
SFWA Panel, L to R: Marianne Kirby, Nibedita Sen, Lara Elena Donnelly, Scott Edelman, Karlo Yeager Rodriguez, Denise Clemons
And then there were donuts. Not just any donuts: thoughtfully provided by Scott Edelman, these products of Diablo Donuts boasted such flavors as Maple Bacon, Espresso, S’mores, and Dirt Cake (complete with gummy worm). A fitting ending to a Food- and Thought-filled day.
Devilish Diablo Donuts
