Idlys are usually a steamed soft bread made from fermented rice. In this case, Maya used basmati rice koji. Maya Seetharaman is a globally trained designer, passionate cook, and fermenter, with a passion to enhance meaning, equity, and quality in people’s lives, through research, food, and human-centered design. Maya has lived and worked across multiple cultural contexts, and spends most of her time – when not covered in flour, oil, or Koji spores – observing and unearthing socio-cultural insights for fortune 500 companies, that can drive innovation, sustainability, and cross-cultural empathy.
InRetrospect
There are now 3 ways to register for InRetrospect or to get on our mailing list. Either follow us on Instagram at cultures.group and DM with your email address and name, or use https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures or Venmo: @Ken-Fornataro.
December 19 - Fruit From the Sands 11AM to 1 PM EDT
With Dr. Robert Spengler III, author of Fruit from the Sands . Co-hosted by Zizinia de Les Flors’ Caspar Hall. The last Zoom event is free, as they all have been over the last 11 years. But we’re moving on.
Available from Independent Bookstores and other online sources.
Alan Callaham began his career hitchhiking around the west coast, volunteering on small farms and working in kitchens. He found beauty in the intersection of these two worlds and set off on a journey to explore connections between agriculture, restaurants, and local food traditions. In pursuit of this he has managed market and kitchen gardens, cooked in Michelin-starred restaurants, established preservation programs for kitchens, and worked on food-related projects in Sri Lanka, Turkey, Denmark, and Norway. He currently resides in his home state of Massachusetts. Currently with Food Preservation Lab at @bluehillfarm / @stonebarns
Follow us here at Vimeo https://vimeo.com/culturesgroup and you get to watch a whole lot of them as they are created for free, and decide if you want to watch lots of them by subscribing.
Again, if you made videos in the past and want access to them all you have to contact us and let us know. It’s that simple. DM us on Instagram.
These are corn grits koji. In other words corn grits that have been steamed to pre gelatinize the sytartch, then inouclated with different Aspergillus spores. In this case a combination of spores was used including Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus sojae. Made by @kenfornataro
The North and Rye - November 7, 2021, 1 to 3:00 PM Eastern Time (Live Event), then all November.
Rye Spoons by Katrina Kollegaeva
Dr. Darra Goldstein, Gabriella Gershenson, Zuza Zak, Laura Valli, and Katrina Kollegaeva of Rosehip and Rye will discuss the history and current state of food and drink in Russia, The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and The Caucasus, especially the love of things fermented, sour, and rye. Zuza Zak has recently published her book, Amber and Rye (Kitchen Arts and Letters). Darra’s most recent cookbook is Beyond the North Wind, and she will also give us a preview of her upcoming book, The Kingdom of Rye(pre-order, Amazon). Videos on kama, hemp seed butter, fermented walnuts, walnut shio-koji, kvass, Serbian fermented stuffed peppers, fermented foods for kids, pumpkin-fermented pickles, brined tomatoes, and rye!
Chetvergovaya rye black salt (Четверговаясоль) by Katrina Kollegaeva
Katrina Kollegaeva Katrina Kollegaeva is a food anthropologist, cook and writer in the UK. She is the co-founder of Rosehip and Rye @rosehipandrye (www.RosehipAndRye.co.uk)
Sprats, Dill Pickles and Russian Borodinsky Dark Rye Bread
December 19, 2021, 1 to 3 PM EST Fruit From the Sands
The Silk Road Origins of the Foods we eat. Dr. Robert Spengler III, the author of the book, Fruit from the Sands will discuss the book and field questions. The most fascinating archeobotanical history of the dissemination of food and culture and civilization from Central Asia to the rest of the world through The Silk Road and it’s predecessor.
All Zoom events are free. A subscribers ticket to any event allows you to watch videos until 12/31/21. An InRetrospect ticket provides access to all events (live or prerecorded, although we don’t make actual replay event recordings available), 200+ food, fermentation and culture videos. Includes videos from the last 5 years including never before screened archive interviews and full length videos. Until 3/31/2022. Gets rolled out over a four month period.
Videos by Sandor Katz (author of the newly released book, Fermentation Journeys), Mara Jane King, Dr. Johnny Drain, Dr. Darra Goldstein, Dr. Robert Spengler III, Dr. Maya Hey, Dr. Esther Miller, Dr.Tejas Sameer, Dr. Julia Skinner, Dr. Maria Jimena Ricatti, Dr. Peiman Khosravi, Dr. Ann Yonetani, Zuza Zak, Jelena Belgrave, Terri Ann Fox, Anne-Marie Bonneau, Zoe Mitchell, Chef Greg Dunmore of The Japanese Pantry, Esteban Yepes Montoya, Danny Berke, Misti Norris, Ann-Marie Bonneau, Alexis Nikole Nelson, Katrina Kollegaeva, Laura Valli, Andrea Billar, Ed Delteil, Cortney Burns, Alan Callaham, Nancy Matsumoto, Kristine Krauss, Jessica Alonzo, Meredith Leigh, Mallory O’Donnell, Sonoko Sakai, Llewelyn Maire, Mika and Nicholas Repenning of Go-en Fermented Foods, Shinobu Kato of Kato Sake Works, Markus Shimuzu, Pao Yu Liu, Rich Shih, Priyanka Bhuyan, William Rubel, Soirée-Leone, Heidi Nestler, Naomi Duguid, Danny Berke, Will Moffat, Holly Davis, Maria Mantilla, Chef Sean Doherty, Umair Khakoo, Anna Drozdova, Sònia Dguez, Maya Seetharaman, Kirsten Shockey, Zoe Christiansen, Margaret Sevenjhazi, Jae-Sang Choi, Eve Jazmati, Ma!Condimentos, Jennifer Solow, Haruko Uchishiba, Connie Chew, Leda Meredith, Yoko Lamn, Andrea Billar, Kimiko Ito, Christine Krauss, Ellie Markovitch, Jo Webster, Pratap Chahal, Harry Rosenblum, Pascal Baudar, Priya Mani, Melanie McIntosh, Ekta Maheshwari, Laurent Serin, Pork Rhyne, Javier Gutiérrez Carcache, Kartik Sinha, Zizinia de les Flors, Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley of The Cultured Pickle Shop, Sharon Flynn, Riley Henderson, Eiko Takahashi, Jeremy Umansky, Nina Mong, Gabriella Gershenson, Anton Nicola, Eleana Hsu, Kevin Gondo, Amy Kalafa of Cultured and Cured, Taylor Erkkinen, Jenny Bardwell, Joel Orsini, Mark Tan (in formation)
Dr. Darra Goldstein, Gabriella Gershenson, Zuza Zak, Laura Valli, and Katrina Kollegaeva of Rosehip and Rye will discuss the history and current state of food and drink in Russia, The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and The Caucasus, especially the love of things fermented, sour, and rye. Zuza Zak has recently published her book, Amber and Rye (Kitchen Arts and Letters). Darra’s most recent cookbook is Beyond the North Wind, and she will also give us a preview of her upcoming book, The Kingdom of Rye (pre-order, Amazon). Videos on kama, hemp seed butter, fermented walnuts, walnut shio-koji, kvass, Serbian fermented stuffed peppers, fermented foods for kids, pumpkin-fermented pickles, brined tomatoes, and rye!
Rye Bread and Chocolate Mousse from Amber and Rye, by Zuza Zak. Photo Ola O. Smit @olaosmit
Zuza Zak calls herself a Storyteller-Cook and her aim is to inspire the world to cook and eat more food from Eastern Europe. Zuza was born in Communist Poland and spent her childhood watching her grandmothers cook (and often queue for hours). Zuza’s interest lies in the culture and history of food and as such she uses storytelling as a medium for delving into another cuisine and through it, into another culture. Both in her writing and her food-focussed PhD at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (UCL), Zuza explores food as a cultural anthropologist, in the context of identity, society and culture. She is the author of Polska, Amber and Rye, and is currently working on a new book and her PhD.
Zuza Zak and her daughter from Amber and Rye, recalling her Baltic Journey. Photo by Yasin Salazar
Fermentation Journeys by Sandor Katz is now available – inscribed however you like by Sandor from Short Mountain Cultures in Tennessee. It’s also available from our good friends at The Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, California. They sell the most amazing pickles, some packaged for pick up orders. If you are lucky enough to have an actual hard copy in hand you know what all the fuss is about.
Kevin Farley of The Cultured Pickle Shop. Alex Hozven and Kevin created a great video for our WritersCultures event celebrating Sandor Katz and the International Fermentation Community. It’s running for the entire month of November in our Vimeo showcases. have you registered yet?
December 19, 2021, 11 to 1 PM EST Fruit From the Sands
The Silk Road Origins of the Foods we eat. Dr. Robert Spengler III, the author of the book, Fruit from the Sands will discuss the book and field questions. The most fascinating archeobotanical history of the dissemination of food and culture and civilization from Central Asia to the rest of the world through The Silk Road and it’s predecessor.
“The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China, and elsewhere in East Asia. The exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient routes extends back five thousand years, and organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century BC. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Through the preserved remains of plants found in archaeological sites, Robert N. Spengler III identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes as people carried them around the world. With vivid examples, Fruit from the Sands explores how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.” University of California Press
