Mysteriously, quietly, acai bowls are showing up on restaurant menus about Sacramento. But what’s acai, and why should diners care?
Sacramentans will have an opportunity to learn all about acai and a whole lot of other dietary staples – coffee, cocoa, quinoa, corn, wine – May 17 through May 19 at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.
That’s where and when the first Terra Madre Americas will convene, an educational conclave intended to inform seasoned and aspiring foodies about the value of various foods and how their exploitation fits into social, nutritional, environmental, and political considerations.
The event is free and open to the public, though several sessions are optional and ticketed. Food producers, researchers, scientists, cooks and others involved in the food chain are to be on hand to mingle with guests to swap insights on how food is made and distributed.
For the record, acai – pronounced ah-sigh-EE – is a small purple berry that grows on acai palm trees along rivers of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Its rising popularity in bowl cuisine is attributed to its sweet, tart flavor and its nutritional payload of antioxidants, friendly fats and fiber.
At Terra Madre Americas, the Brazilian cook Maria do Socorro Almeida Nascimento will prepare for tasting acia-centered dishes at workshops Friday and Sunday. Both require tickets ($50 per person). More information: https://visitsacramento.ticketspice.com/terra-madre-americas
Other ticketed sessions are to include a barista class led by Francesco Impallomeni of Nordic Roasting Co. in Denmark, who will focus on espresso and espresso-based drinks; a workshop on corn to be led by Mexican farmer Jesus Roberto Poot Yah; and a tasting of cupuacu, a dish that incorporates several Brazilian ingredients, including cocoa, prepared by Patricia Ellen Rodrigues Nicolau of Rio de Janeiro.
Despite Sacramento’s aspirations to be the country’s “farm to fork” capital, Terra Madre Americas clearly is focused on the foodstuffs of Latin America, though the local culinary scene will have some representation, principally through a series of wine tastings.
Ann Kraemer in her Shake Ridge Ranch vineyard.
San Francisco Bay Area wine educators and wine writers Deborah Parker Wong and Pam Strayer will oversee classes with such themes as “everyday wines priced under $30 from the Sierra foothills and Lodi” and “great grapes from Amador County’s legendary Shake Ridge Ranch.” Viticulturist Ann Kraemer, whose family owns and oversees Shake Ridge Ranch, is to be joined by some of the many winemakers from throughout California who each harvest head to her remote and isolated vineyard to load up on choice Tempranillo, Zinfandel, Barbera, Syrah and other grape varieties she tends assiduously.
Terra Madre Americas is a spinoff of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, an Italy-based food conference held every other year, with recent iterations drawing up to 350,000 visitors and 600 exhibitors who participate in a series of farmers markets, film screenings, tastings and workshops. The next Terra Madre Salone del Gusto will be in September in Turin.
Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, in turn, is an outgrowth of Italy’s Slow Food movement, dedicated to cultivating a global network of “local communities and activists who defend cultural and biological diversity, promote food education and influence policies in public and private sectors,” states the organization’s mission statement.
One of its programs is the Ark of Taste, an evolving catalog of foods endangered by industrialization, climate change, migration, conflict and shifts in consumer tastes. More than 6,000 foods are listed. California products aboard the ark include the Blenheim apricot, the Charbono grape, the Mission olive, the Chaberte walnut, the Crane melon, the Elephant Heart plum, and the Karakul sheep.
For Terra Madre Americas, Slow Food is collaborating with Visit Sacramento, which sees the event as prelude to a more expansive version in September 2025, followed by even more ambitious gatherings in years alternating with Terra Madre Salone del Gusto starting in 2027.
For more information, visit Visit Sacramento.
To find where copies of my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California” can be found, please visit my website SignatureWines.us.