Food Heroes: 16 Culinary Artisans Preserving Tradition

by Georgia Pellegrini

In Food Heroes , Georgia Pellegrini introduces readers to the lively stories of artisanal food devotees such as New York mushroom forager Marion Burroughs, French fig collector Francis Honore, fish missionary Jon Rowley in Washington State, and Ugo Buzzio in New York City, one of the last makers of traditional dry-cured sausages in the United States. Filled with colorful anecdotes, photographs, and recipes, this book offers an accessible introduction to the artisanal food movement, and vicarious living for armchair travelers, food lovers, and others who might won­der what it would be like to drop everything and start an olive farm, or who yearn to make and sell their own clotted cream butter. Thirty-two fantastic recipes follow the profiles, and encourage readers to find their own local suppliers.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Cookbooks

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject matter, but the writing is not at all engrossing. Worse still, the book is hard focused on western trends.

For example: why focus on a guy in Europe who grows 150 potatoes, when you can find people in Peru, where potatoes originated, who grow/catalog/save thousands of varieties.

When covering chocolate grown in Ghana, the entry point is a European guy. What, couldn't find actual Ghanaian cacoa farmers to talk to?

[Karen Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although there are only few recipes in this book, I found it inspirational for my own desire to reach into the past to find a more rewarding experience with my gardening and my cooking. It was so inspirational that I formed a group with four others in my community based on the idea that we can have fresher, healthier and artisan type cooking going on in our lives instead of the easier, less healthy and boring cooking that is sometimes the norm. One of our members is dreaming of creating a destination resort for learning some of these skills; which I find very exciting. We made our own bacon and I plan on more exploring into creating my very own food. Georgia Pellegrini has a blog on line under her name.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book. I read about gardening and food a lot, especially about the need to eat locally-grown foods, to deep our food supply diverse, to honor and use traditional foods and methods.

Food Heroes tells the story of sixteen people: David Langford, who raises heirloom potatoes in Sligo, Ireland; Allan Benton, who smokes hams and bacon in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee; Marion Bush, who forages for wild mushrooms and other edible wild foods in New York state; German beer brewer Matthais Trum, from the historic monastic village of Bamberg, in Bavaria; Marc Buzzio, a salami-maker from New York City who stood up to fight the USDA’s misguided regulations meant for big industry, and single-handedly made it possible for time-honored methods to be used by American charcuterie makers.

Jean-Benoit Hugues is an olive farmer in Provence, in France; Bill Best, from the state of Kentucky, is an expert in the saving of heirloom varieties of seed. (I love the story of his long-ago attempt to sell tomatoes: He tried selling to the commercial market many years before, but his first experience wasn’t good. “I took some ripe tomatoes to a produce house in Lexington where they had several big stores they delivered to, and I asked them if they’d be interested in me bringing them tomatoes. And a man down there he tasted one and said, ‘Yes, this is an excellent tomato. I’ll take all you have.’” So Bill, his young children, and wife picked the first ripe clusters of tomatoes, took photos of them because they looked so good, loaded them in the station wagon, and brought them to the produce house. “He seemed to think I was stupid because I wasn’t aware of the standard way of marketing tomatoes in grocery stores,” Bill says. “The buyer got very upset. He said, You brought me ripe tomatoes. I want green tomatoes. I’ll keep them in storage and when one of my stores wants tomatoes I’ll load them in the truck and gas them on the way, and by the time they get there they’ll be red.’ So I pretty well walked out on him. He was very upset and he made me upset, too. He said, ‘You’re ignorant,’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am, if you want green tomatoes that you’re going to gas.’ So that was the only time I had an experience like that. Since that time forward I have not fooled with places that use ethylene gas. It turns them sickly pink. I think it gives them a very bad taste. They never totally ripen.”)

Traveling to Norway, we meet Hans-Otto Johnsen, a bee-keeper extraordinaire, who is exploring – and finding – solutions to the worldwide vanishing of honeybee populations. In Seattle, Washington, Jon Rowley is on a crusade to educate the public and the restaurant industry about what makes food taste good. Karen Weinberg raises sheep and makes cheese in Shushan, New York, and Sue Forrester hand-makes butter in Cumbria, in the north of England.

Steven Wallace, a former tax lawyer, returned to Ghana, where he had spent time as an exchange student when he was a teenager, to “create the first company in the world to produce worldwide distribution of single-source chocolate – chocolate produced in the same country in which the cocoa beans used to make it are grown.”

Arkansas gives us Rhoda Adams, the “tamale queen,” who has been making them in the Delta region for many years, selling them by the dozens to locals and folks who travel for hours to get them. Hoshigaki is an ancient Japanese art, that of hand-massaging dried persimmons, and it is practiced today by only a handful of people, including Helen Otow and her daughter and son-in-law in northern California. Jess Graber and Jake Norris are brewers who make an American whiskey, the first original recipe in this country since Prohibition, called Stranahan’s. And, finally, Francis Honore grows figs on a thirty-acre farm in Provence, France.

I list all sixteen, because THIS is what good food culture is about – individuals, in their places, doing what they can to grow and produce good food, drawing from the culture and heritage of their families, homelands, and their own expertise and interests. Their stories are important, and they are inspiring. If they inspire readers to follow in their footsteps, even better!

The author closes the book with a To-do list for her readers, and I’m copying that here as well. These “little things” are what give “local” and “sustainable” and all those buzzwords we read a place in our own lives, by giving us concrete ways to make small differences.

The list: Grow baby greens in a window box. Grow herbs in pots indoors. Make infused oils and vinegars. Dry your own herbs. Bake bread. Forage for wild edibles. If you eat meat, hunt. Keep honeybees. Start a compost pile in your yard and a compost bucket in your kitchen. Keep chickens. Grow potatoes in pots or even a garbage bag. Pick wild berries and make jams. After you eat fruit, try planting the seeds. Squeeze your own juice. Can everything so you get to eat it year-round. Make your own butter from grass-fed milk. Make your own ice pops. Pickle vegetables and fish. Make your own alcohol and spirits. Make wreaths out of vines. Make lots of pesto and freeze it. Or, at the very least…Learn how to make a damn good pie.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time it appears that agribusiness and industrial food factories are about to displace traditional farmers and artisanal food producers, some passionate person counters by reviving and continuing the more venerable way. Georgia Pellegrini is so fascinated by these people and their edible products that she traveled around the US and around the world to meet them and taste their offerings. She introduces sixteen of these people, who she calls heroes, in this, her first book. There's the fig grower in France, the whiskey distiller in the Rocky Mountains, the persimmon farmer, the wild mushroom forager, the potato breeder, the ham smoker, the German master brewer and the salami maker. The book is well written; the author is a graduate of both Harvard University and the French Culinary Institute in New York City. It includes 41 recipes; I'm going to try the "Whiskey Hot Sauce" first and the "Fig Vinegar" next.

[Matt Youngbauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short vignettes and portraits of 16 artisans who are working hard to preserve food traditions. Inspirational in that she covers a number of types of food related areas: there's a fig grower, a seed saver, a mushroom forager, a whiskey distiller, etc. The downside is it's all a bit scattered, there were several times I wish she had whittled down the number of artisans and had gone into more depth, a few of the chapters seem out of place: a more focused book would have been a better book.

Still, the book is engaging and inspirational; after just about every chapter I found myself thinking "I'll make my own cheese!" or "Brew my own beer!" or "Bees!" I also appreciate that even in the all too short chapters, the author is able to capture the enormous amount of blood, sweat, and tears that the artisans pour into their labors of love. The recipes look good to, I'm saving my copy to cook with :-)

[April Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, though it took me about two months too long to read it, was precisely what I needed. Not only did it make me want to quit my job and go to culinary school so I, too, could travel the world in search of artisanal foodie people to fall in love with, it was exactly the pace I needed. I think, if read in one sitting, it may have come across as choppy and a little disjointed ... Some of the stories had entirely different voices, which didn't bother me in the tiny snippets I got to sit down and read, but may have had I been able to devour the book.

All in all, though, this is a delightful read, bringing with it a sense of nostalgia and warmth that only good food, and things written about it, can bring.

Now I just have to figure out how to do what she does, because oh lord, am I ever jealous.

[Asha Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read for food lovers or nature lovers alike. It celebrates the beauty of food as well as the people who are till today trying their very best to preserve the knowledge which they have gained from their forefathers. The author has made an effort to incorporate tested recipes and to connect the readers to the these artisans who are preserving traditions near and far. The book teaches us the difference of buying products from the supermarket shelves, buying organic and growing your own produce. This is another book which I would love to add to my personal collection!

With the plethora of so called natural or organic products on the market, one tends to forget the real taste of original ingredients ~ Jacques Pepin

[else fine · Rating 4 out of 5]

All over the world, impassioned people have put their livelihoods on the line to preserve our endangered food traditions. Each story here is a tale of love and endurance - people who walked away from good jobs, or who have resigned themselves to a lifetime of wrangling with inane bureaucrats; craftsmen who have chosen lives of hard work and little monetary reward in pursuit of their calling. Pellegrini's mini biographies are vivid, capturing these eccentric and devoted craftspeople with all their charm and quirks, and explaining why exactly their work is so important. She's got a lovely, sentimental but understated style, and the recipes following each chapter are a bonus.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: this book will make you long to move out to the country and try your hand at growing something.

In my opinion this is actually a great idea, at least the part about growing something of your own to eat, because it is fun and tastes best and connects us to the magic of the earth.

Please note that the author does not sermonize at the reader at all, nor make you feel bad about your eating habits or lack of a garden. She merely describes everything so beautifully that you can't help but wish to be a part of it.

Highly recommend!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this genre of book: part travel writing, part food history, and a little snapshot of the lives of interesting folks mixed in for good measure. Much like American Terroir and other books I've read, Pellegrini seeks out people and places the world over who are doing things the slow way, the old way, or even just the right way in producing excellent food. She ranges from BBQ in the South to figs in France and I enjoyed every story, even if some were a bit more thin than others. Inspiring, educational, and transporting.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book that looks at 16 food artisans who are working to keep long-standing traditions alive - some for hundreds of years. Instead of trying to make things faster and bigger they are working to preserve not only their food, but a way of life that is slipping away. It's a quick read because each person's chapter is only a few pages long and there are also recipes at the end of each chapter as well. A very interesting read and it will definitely make you think.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was filled with essays on people who are preserving culinary traditions such as butter-making, bee-keeping, and curing meat. I flagged quite a few of the recipes and am now determined to grow potatoes in a garbage bag. We'll see if it happens; either way, I'll definitely come back to this book.

[Rie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It had me at the introduction. I now want to make home made butter, grow fig trees (in a climate not meant for them), and drink Stranahan's whiskey (I don't like whiskey). Thoroughly enjoyed savoring this book on artisanl foods

[Patrick Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories about people holding on to tradition, to make top notch food.

[Susan Krage · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was informative, but not engaging....

[Joe Heaukulani · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring book for young farmers and other lovers of food. Now I want to make all the things these Food Heroes have spent their lifetimes perfecting.

[Glen U · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and entertaining, 16 stories about people who love food and their way of life. A bit repetitive but none the less, engaging for the reader. A very good read.