Last September Visit Sacramento’s president and CEO, Mike Testa along with others, visited the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Italy, Europe's largest food festival.
With thousands of attendees, over 700 vendors, and a global celebration, Testa said he had an epiphany — this is what the Terra Madre Americas could become.
“It was incredible,” Testa said. “It's great to be able to see where we're starting and where we could end up.”
This Friday, September 26, through the weekend, the Safe Credit Union Convention Center will transform into a global hub of culinary experience.
The Terra Madre Americas is a free food festival that aims to educate people about sustainable food and brings together chefs, farmers, food enthusiasts, and policymakers from across the nation.
Visit Sacramento did a trial run of the festival last year in May at the Memorial Auditorium.
“It's certainly not going to happen overnight in Sacramento. But I walked away from that event in [Italy] thinking there was just a huge opportunity to shine a global culinary spotlight on Sacramento.”
The festival will feature wine and beverage tasting, cooking demonstrations from celebrity chefs, a pop-up restaurant, vendor booths selling food products, and more.
Testa said they’ve signed a 10-year deal with Slow Food International to host the Terra Madre Americas festival in Sacramento.
“This is the American version of that long-standing event. Sacramento is the first city in the United States to host it,” Testa said. “It's essentially an event that brings together food policymakers, farmers, restaurant tours, chefs and everybody in the food world to have larger conversations about food.”
Sacramento has hosted a free Farm-to-Fork Festival for the past 12 years, but they’ll be combining both festivals into one, according to Testa.
“The Farm to Fork Festival will be outside on the streets, and people are familiar with that in the sense that it's food booths, live music, some cooking demonstrations and things like that,” he said. “Then inside the convention center will be Terra Madre America. Think of a farmer's market on a grand scale that has a number of different wares to it.”
Brad Cecchi is executive chef and co-founder of Humble Concepts Restaurant Group, which owns Canon in East Sacramento and Franquettes in West Sacramento. He said the event will include a market exhibit with 150-200 exhibitors, with various tastings.
Cecchi is a board member for Visit Sacramento and serves as the culinary advisor, so he’s been working alongside the events team since the inception of the festival.
“I think that we put together a really dynamic festival,” Cecchi said. “We have chefs like Jeremiah Tower, Drew Deckman, Elizabeth Faulkner, Mary Sue Milliken, and Sean Sherman all doing pop-up meals in our Terra Madre Bistro.”
Cecchi also mentioned the Enoteca, where they will showcase 200 plus wines, beers and spirits. Additionally, he noted there will be live music from bands like The War on Drugs and Spoon.
“This is really a celebration of food and so every good celebration should have great music,” he said. “People can kind of go to the convention and learn during the day, and then around dinner time or lunch time, they can spill out into the streets and celebrate and have a good time and see some really great live music.”
The event will also feature educational panels and workshops spanning three days, with UC Davis Health serving as a presenting sponsor.
According to Santana Diaz, the executive chef of UC Davis Health, the organization operates as a Farm-to-Hospital food program, serving 6,500 to 6,700 meals daily, which he believes aligns with the Slow Food International ethos.
Diaz said UC Davis Health will host panel discussions on sustainable beef procurement, aquaculture, and viticulture, along with food demos featuring registered dietitians. He said the goal is to inspire sustainable changes in other institutions.
“We have multiple executive chefs throughout this program between both campuses, paired with an RD—registered dietitian—to help talk about the health benefits of the foods that are being demonstrated,” he said. “And we'll actually be giving out tastings of every demo that we do, so the audience can connect with what's happening on the stage.”
Testa added it’s tricky to gauge the amount of attendees because it's a free event, but based on previous Farm-to-Fork Festivals, they’ve welcomed 100,000 people over the weekend.
Celebrity chef Alice Waters of the world famous Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, will also be part of the educational panel and Workshops on Saturday and Sunday.
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