Tag Archives: Michael Pollan

Nikki Henderson: On the frontlines of edible education

Nikki Henderson
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People seem to have an insatiable appetite for food matters right now. Case in point: the public tickets for Edible Education 101 at UC Berkeley were snapped up in 12 minutes on Monday, according to a tweet from Alice Waters, who played a key role in bringing the curriculum to the university.

The 13-week course, co-taught by J-school professor and The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan and Nikki Henderson, the executive director of People’s Grocery, … Continue reading »

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Tickets expected to go fast for Michael Pollan’s food class

Michael Pollan. Credit Ken Light
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When word leaked out in the spring that Michael Pollan would be co-teaching a class on the rise and future of the food movement, students at UC Berkeley rushed to sign up. The 10-week, two-unit course was filled minutes after it was listed online.

Now, the general community has a chance to participate in this gold rush.

UC will be releasing tickets for Edible Education 101 on a first-come, first-serve basis on August 15. There will be about 282 tickets available for each class and people will be able to sign up for just one lecture or all of them, said Carolyn Federman, director of development for the Edible Schoolyard, which is co-sponsoring and paying for the course. The tickets will be free and will be sold through Ticketweb, she said.

Pollan is co-teaching Edible Education 101 with Nikki Henderson, the executive director of People’s Grocery, a food justice organization in Oakland. While Pollan and Henderson are the co-teachers, much of the class will center around lectures given by luminaries in the food movement. Confirmed speakers include Carlo Petrini, Peter Sellars, Marion Nestle, Frances Moore Lappé, Raj Patel, Ann Cooper, Eric Schlosser, and Alice Waters. … Continue reading »

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Chez Panisse chef to open artisan butcher shop

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Chez Panisse chef Aaron Rocchino and his wife Monica are bringing artisan meat to the heart of the Gourmet Ghetto with the opening this summer of The Local Butcher Shop on Cedar Street in the old Red Hanger Kleaners space.

“We think there’s a void in the market for restaurant-quality, sustainable meat for home customers,” said Monica Rocchino, who is setting up the new retail operation with her husband.

“It’s an idea whose time has come. I’m looking forward to having this shop in the neighborhood,” said Michael Pollan, who lives in north Berkeley and has done much to champion the consumption of responsibly sourced meat.

The butcher shop will feature whole animals sourced directly from farms, none of which are further than 150 miles from Berkeley. The emphasis will be on grass-fed, sustainably raised meat, and the butchering and cutting will be to order. … Continue reading »

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Author Raj Patel’s food revolution: From chips to salad

Bill Schechner (right) fetes Raj Patel (left) at the recent Berkeley Public Library Foundation's Annual Authors Dinner./Photo: Richard Friedman
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Raj Patel is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, an honorary research fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, in Oakland.

Such affiliations allow the academic activist to hang out with his brethren in both camps. At the same time it affords the Oxford, Cornell, and London School … Continue reading »

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Chez Panisse to throw a birthday party for 5,000

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Chez Panisse will be 40 years old this summer, and there are certain to be all sorts of food-related events to celebrate the anniversary. For example, there are whispers that Michael Pollan will be giving a series of lectures on food that is open to both students and the public.

Leah Garchik, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, reported today that the Chez Panisse sent out a holidayContinue reading »

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Doctor’s orders: Eat your greens says Preston Maring

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Here’s a notion that hardly seems radical: longtime Berkeley resident Dr. Preston Maring thinks physicians should prescribe healthy eating along with dispensing drugs to their patients.

Maring, Associate Physician-in-Chief at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, believes doctors should also walk the walk about the preventive health benefits of sound nutrition.

He’s so committed to the good food cause he’s willing to show other medical professionals how to mince garlic and whip up vinaigrette from scratch for … Continue reading »

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News

Can’t we just have dinner without all the analysis?

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One of the undoubted pleasures of living in the Bay Area is being able to enjoy the fruits of its pioneering food movement — whether it’s savoring the freshest, sweetest organically grown peach or dining at restaurants where sustainability and relationships with producers are taken seriously.

But there’s also a risk that such enthusiasm can turn into evangelism — that we can veer into being a little worthier than thou. A recent cartoon in the New Yorker summed it … Continue reading »

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Berkeley Bites: Alice Waters

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Do Berkeleyside readers even need an introduction to the mother of the American fresh, local, sustainable, organic food movement?

Alice Waters is a living legend. For four decades, the California cuisine innovator, Chez Panisse chef, Edible Schoolyard founder, school food reformer, and Slow Food advocate, has influenced how people in this country buy, cook, eat, talk, and think about food.

As with any icon, Waters has her fans and foes. Some see her as … Continue reading »

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Berkeley Bites: Berkeley Student Food Collective

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It seems unthinkable that the People’s Republic of Berkeley has existed without a food co-operative for more than two decades. Well, try not to choke on your non-GMO, organic, fair trade, soymilk chai latte, but the co-op is coming back to Berkeley.

The Consumer’s Cooperative of Berkeley was the place to shop for the politically correct for 51 years. It opened in the heart of the Depression, when families came together to form buying clubs so they could afford to put … Continue reading »

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News

The Berkeley Wire: 10.06.10

The 36-hour dinner party: Michael Pollan on a foodie love fest in Napa [NYT]
Reviewed: Revival Bar & Kitchen — more than the sum of its parts [Coco Times]
A nudge and a wink of a remodel at the Shattuck Hotel’s Five bar [SF Chronicle]
Reid’s Records on Sacramento Street: 65 years of family-owned gospel [NPR]
If the Jetsons lived in Berkeley they’d eat at the Saturn Café [SF Chronicle]
UC Berkeley’s architecture school is hiring: two positions open [Archinect]

Photo: Flowers on the wall by Keoki Seu/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

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