Check out ThePeopleWhoFeedUs -- a video blog featuring unsung (and sung) food heroes – farmers, cheesemakers, bakers, restaurateurs, writers, and assorted innovators in specialty food and small-scale agriculture. It almost seems unfair to call the videos “posts” – each one is a essentially a short film. Staci Strauss and Craig McCord are the writing/directing/production team behind it all, and they’ve really gone out of their way to find cool people with a SOLE food outlook. A few examples:
Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why
Rick Field, of Rick's Picks
Mike Yezzi of Flying Pigs Farm
This is what I love about the web – you’d be hard pressed to find something as good as this on TV;(perhaps Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie comes close). Thank you Staci and Craig – keep on keepin’ on.
Great new interview with Michael Pollan, in which he talks about grass-fed beef, sustainability, and the current food crisis.
Link to interview on Alternet.
Paul Bertolli is a food hero. This guy does everything -- a hugely successful chef, writer, entrepreneur, and charcuterie master. His Fra Mani Salumi is a beautiful, near-perfect expression of Italian dry cured sausage (Whole Foods and most specialty stores carry it). The first time I tried Fra Mani (Toscano), I remember anticipating the flat, plastic taste that most domestic salumi have; I was prepared to be underwhelmed. Instead, I was jolted by powerful, confident flavors so striking that I almost started laughing. I just kept saying "wow".
But the other cool thing about him is that he's under-the-radar -- no TV shows, no line of cookware on QVC, no "finishing sauces" with his picture on the label. Paul Bertolli is the real deal; honest and true to his craft. His book -- Cooking By Hand
Here's a great piece with Mr. Bertolli, produced by Slow Food USA; he talks about Fra Mani (p.s. small warning on the voice-over -- just a tad over-the-top):
