Taste Talks to Bring Weekend of Music and Food to Brooklyn
Photo Courtesy of Taste Talks
Music and food will be in harmony this weekend in Brooklyn, where industry leaders are meeting for a series of discussions, tastings, and cooking demonstrations at the third annual Taste Talks.
Musician and outspoken food fan Questlove is curating the events this year, tapping talent including Queens-born rapper Heems and Brooklyn native and singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten to participate.
“Taste Talks is a three-day festival devoted to exploring issues around the future of taste,” said Daniel Stedman, the owner of Northside Media and a founder of Taste Talks. For years, Brooklyn has been a home to writers, artists, and musicians. Now, it’s also known as a culinary epicenter for innovation.
“It is this intersection of art, music, and food that has made Brooklyn the coolest city in the world,” Stedman said.
MORE: Dominique Ansel on the Power of Dessert and Partying with Quest Love
Himanshu Kumar Suri, whose stage name is Heems, released “Eat, Pray, Thug,” this spring, and is a passionate home cook that would someday like to open a restaurant.
“When I think about food lately, I look at spice in a dish and it’s not that different than words in sentence and color on a canvas,” said Suri, who is appearing at the Talks. “I just experiment … it’s no different than rapping. I don’t roll into songs with concept in mind, not formulaic rapper with bars and a hook.”
Questlove, who is curating Taste Talks; Photo: Getty Images Entertainment
The festival opens Friday evening with a dessert party hosted by Questlove and Cronut king Dominique Ansel who will be cooking up creations like matcha beignets, sage-smoked brownies, and miniature lemon yuzu tarts.
Panels include crash courses on food-friendly topics like how to take actually good food photos for Instagram, tips on how to become an amateur sommelier, and what kind of sustainable seafood customers should be seeking out. Yahoo Food’s Editor-in-Chief Kerry Diamond will host a conversation with leading bakers, including Erin McKenna, whose gluten-free bakery is celebrating 10 years, and Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery.
MORE: This 22-Year-Old Chef Turned His Popular Pop-Ups Into a Culinary Career
Chefs Janine Booth and Jeff McInnis; PHOTO: Courtesy Root & Bone
There will also be plenty of munching. Chefs Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth of Root & Bone will be demonstrating how to make three dishes with grits they source from an old-school mill in upstate New York that grind them to order. Learn how to make a grits side with pimento cheese, grit fries, and taste some of their shrimp and grits.
While the events are ticketed and charge admission, the Future Food Expo, running both days, is free, and showcases innovative food producers, startup companies and food media.
A highlight of the weekend is the All-Star Barbecue, which runs in two sessions Sunday afternoon. Questlove will DJ and host, and chefs have partnered with artists and food and drink producers to create unique dishes for the walk-around tasting.
MORE: 5 Food Startups We’re Psyched For (And Tips from Their CEOs)
Hugue DuFour and his wife Sarah Obraitis, the duo behind the Queens steak house M. Wells, have teamed up with Long Island’s Blue Point Brewing to source hundreds of pounds of Deep Sea Red Crab, which is known for its sweetness but hard for restaurants to buy in small amounts.
“It took a network of experts to come together and make this happen,” Obraitis said of working out the logistics to get the crab, which they plan to serve with corn, and accompaniments like brown butter and mayonnaise. “It will be a boil, so we’ll just get down and dirty and it will be sloppy fun.”
Last year’s Future Food Expo; PHOTO: Courtesy of Taste Talks
Brooklyn favorite Robicelli’s Bakery is teaming up with actors George Takei and Telly Leung, who are starring in the new Broadway musical “Allegiance,” about Japanese internment camps in the United States during WWII. Allison Robicelli has known Leung since the sixth grade — the two formed a friendship in grade school in Brooklyn.
“The story behind ‘Allegiance’ is about the dichotomy of the immigrant experience — how someone can both be all-American yet have deep ties to their ancestry and cultural heritage,” Robicelli explained.
They will be serving an apple pie with Asian influence. The crumble will have a hint of chrysanthemum, a national symbol of Japan, and will be filled with a mix of Granny Smith, which is Robicelli’s favorite apple for pie, and Fuji, the most popular apple in Japan. Instead of ice cream, it will be served with a silken tofu cream and vanilla beans.
For a full schedule of events or to buy tickets, click here.
