A month before Eat Real takes over Jack London Square like some county fair in a parallel universe, where corn dogs taste like Mangalitsas and kombucha refreshes like Dr. Pepper, organizer Anya Fernald has leaked the festival's manifesto. Well, not leaked so much as posted at Chow.com, where she goes all Four Freedoms, sketching out a basic roster of bullet points essential for what she calls revitalizing and re-energizing American food. First among them: defining, she says, the notion of food craft. Fernald:
"Food craft is the transformation of raw ingredients with techniques that change and build flavor, make foods last longer, and increase the impact of land and place on flavor.
"Food craft requires entrepreneurial spirit, manual skills, wisdom, and a deep understanding of primary ingredients. Many food-crafting techniques date back centuries or millennia, others are recent innovations. Food craft is where food and people meet, where human skills make flavor, where better food is born."
Anyone who's ever gotten pleasure or found meaning by making bottle-ends vinegar, backyard loquat jam, or garage hefeweizen? You have a movement. Savor it. Eat Real happens August 27-29 in Oakland.
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