Kathryn DeGroot
We recently caught up with Amber Stott, executive director of Food Literacy Center, and she let us in on some insider scoop for this year’s festivities.
1. The menu for Soul of a Banquet: Chef Mike Lim is trained in authentic Asian cooking, and it shows! You’re in for an entirely new spin on what you think of as Chinese food. You’ll find lotus leaf-wrapped rice, chicken; seafood treasure hot pot; stir fried vegetables with grass-fed lamb; mushrooms.
2. VIPea experiences: these are brand new to the festival this year. We’re adding the option for folks to upgrade their ticket for a variety of hands-on, one-on-one experiences with our chefs. At Soul of a Banquet, VIPeas get a full HOUR with Chef Mike Lim to learn the art of making Chinese dumplings.
At The Federalist, Chef Shannon McElroy will demonstrate how to properly form your own pizza dough and send you home with his sourdough starter.
At The Farmer & The Chef, you’ll actually hang out in a separate party lounge with the full line-up of local celebrity chefs while you enjoy Ruhstaller beer and the bites these chefs have created.
Check out the other VIPea experiences. They all rock the rhubarb!
3. Swag: We have the coolest swag bag for every guest at the festival premiere party! It contains an entire bottle of olive oil, coffee from Chocolate Fish, Bloody Mary mix from Preservation & Co, fresh vanilla beans… the list goes on! So cool!
4. Urban Farm Bus Tour: When was the last time you hopped on a bus with three of the city’s best chefs and leading food
movement experts? Probably not recently! Not only will you get to experience three urban farms that aren’t located on any Google maps and aren’t open to the public, but you’ll be doing it in toe with some pretty smart cookies! They’re not just dropping off the bites they create–they’re coming along for the ride because they care about these issues, too. Soak up the knowledge. Enjoy the awesome bites these chefs prepare. And prepare to learn more about Sacramento than you ever rea
lized.
5. Popcorn: Food Literacy Center makes some awesome popcorn seasonings in class with our kids! From our Spicy Southwest to our Lemon Dill, these seasonings are all the rage. We’ll have our popular popcorn out at several of our events.
6. Glitter Sparkle Tees: Yep. Glitter! Remember those fancy 80’s tees? We brought them back! We’re unveiling them at the film festival, where they’ll be available for purchase for the very first time.