Event Overview
Japanese and other Asian ferments like miso, tempeh, shoyu, pickles, and shio koji, and even sake and vinegar are being made by chefs and cooks throughout the US using seasonal ingredients. Chef Ken Fornataro of culturesgroup.net and Christopher and Kirsten Shockey of ferment.works will demonstrate how wild and cultured microbes like koji (miso, sake, shio koji), lactobacteria (pickles) and Rhizopus (tempeh, oncom) make tasty, unique and nutritious foods. Class participants will be learning about and tasting a variety of traditional and novel Japanese and Asian ferments from a wide variety of misos to pickles and salads. Hot soups and ramen dishes, as well unique takes on some classics will be sampled, and available as bento box take-outs! If you would like to purchase one of the Shockey’s books at the event let us know at culturesgroup@earthlink.net
RESOBOX will be selling special Bento boxes based on items made by Chef Ken Fornataro and culturesgroup staff.
Contact culturesgroup:
- koji@earthlink.net
- culturesgroup@earthlink.net
- www.culturesgroup.net
- Instagram: @culturesgroup
- https://www.facebook.com/
groups/pickles/ - http://www.meetup.com/
culturesgroup/ - Interviews
Gallery photos credit: Ken Fornataro
Gallery
About
Ken Fornataro
Ken has been cooking, fermenting and preserving vegetables, seeds, grains, fish and legumes with A. oryzae, yeasts and bacteria since childhood. He was taught traditional Japanese, Chinese and Russian foods, fermentation and preservation techniques to make koji, miso, shoyu, vinegar, sake, jiangs and pickles by Aveline and Michio Kushi, William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, and Jewish and Christian Eastern European immigrants. He is working on a book related to food, fermentation, microbiology and semiotics as Executive Chef for culturesgroup.net.
Christopher and Kirsten Shockey
Kirsten and Christopher Shockey are the co-authors of bestselling Fermented Vegetables, Fiery Ferments, and the new Miso, Tempeh, Natto and other Tasty Ferments books that came from their desires to both help people eat in new ways, both for the health of themselves and the planet. They got their start in fermenting foods twenty years ago on a 40-acre hillside smallholding which grew into their local organic food company. They travel worldwide helping people to learn to make, enjoy and better connect with their food. Their current work is building their relationship with R. oligosporus and R. oryzae and how these fungal ferments interact with grains and legumes to transform our foods for both nourishment and flavor. You can find them at Ferment.Works.
