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Press Release: SEED festival miami

20SundayJul 2014

Posted by Sage in Events

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Miami, vegan

SEED MIAMI, THE FIRST PLANT-BASED FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL IN THE COUNTRY, WHICH TAKES PLACE THIS OCTOBER IN AND AROUND MIAMI AND HER BEACHES, ANNOUNCES STELLAR LINEUP OF CELEBRITY CHEFS AND SUPERSTAR SPEAKERS

SFWF Adds James Beard Award Nominated Chefs, Bestselling Authors and Renowned Speakers to its Five Day Festival Schedule.

MIAMI, FL (June 24, 2014) – The Seed Food & Wine Festival 2014 (SFWF), an annual gathering that celebrates spirits, craft beer, fine wine and all kinds of plant-based cuisine while raising health awareness, is overjoyed about the support it is receiving from some of the biggest names in the vegan community.

SFWF has signed a stellar cast of celebrity chefs, authors and health experts to appear at the Festival, starting with the world’s leading raw food chef and best-selling author, Matthew Kenney Cuisine; 2014 James Beard Award nominees Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby; and author Brendan Brazier, a former professional Ironman triathlete considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on plant-based nutrition.

Kenney, an entrepreneur, bestselling cookbook author, culinary educator and celebrity chef, has earned several accolades, such as being named one of “America’s Best New Chefs” by Food and Wine Magazine, earning the French Culinary Institute’s “Outstanding Graduate” award, being named a “Rising Star Chef” by PBS, two nominations from the James Beard Foundation in the “Rising Star Chef” category and Veg News magazine’s “Chef of the Year.” He will also be opening his first Miami location, this winter in the Wynwood area, White Lotus.

The charismatic Kenney has also owned several highly regarded eateries in New York, appeared on various television talk shows, and served as speaker of the popular TEDxOKC Talk in 2011. In order to spread his extensive knowledge the master chef also founded the Matthew Kenney Academy, the world’s first raw food culinary institute. Vegan foodies attending the SFWF’s intimate dinner events, one of which will be hosted by Matthew Kenney Cuisine, are in for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Landau and Jacoby own and operate Vedge, one of the most lauded vegan restaurants in the country. Landau is widely recognized for wowing the judges on the popular Food Network’s series, Chopped. His creative and flavorful use of such basket ingredients as chia seeds, dandelion greens and tempeh garnered Chef Landau the win last year, making him a Season 15 Chopped champion.

The husband and wife team are also co-authors of vegan cookbooks Horizons: New Vegan Cuisine and Vedge: 100 Plates Large and Small that Redefine Vegetable Cooking, a bestseller widely hailed by such respected authorities as Publisher’s Weekly and the Chicago Tribune. Vedge was also named one of the “10 Best Cookbooks of 2013” by Entertainment Weekly.

Celebrity chef and Chopped judge, Amanda Freitag, has spoken highly of the couple’s culinary abilities, their restaurant and their cookbook, saying, “Rich Landau is a highly skilled, inspirational chef who always makes me happy with his food and his energy. He and his wife Kate have created an incredible restaurant in Philadelphia and a work of art in this book. Vegan? Yes! Magic, no . . . this is pure passion at work!”

Seed Food & Wine Festival
Midtown Miami | 110 NE 36th Street | Miami, FL 33137
Saturday, October 18, 2014 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Keeping its promise to bring together the best, most widely recognized and highly respected plant-based diet authorities together, SFWF is proud to include Brendan Brazier as one of the hosts and speakers at the inaugural SEED Food & Wine Festival. Brazier, a two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion and author of the bestselling Thrive cookbook series as well as co-founder of Thrive magazine, is scheduled to host not one, but two SFWF events. In addition to hosting an educational workshop on Festival Day, Brazier will co-host SEED’s VIP Cocktail Party with Maranda Pleasant, filmmaker, founder and publisher of one of the bestselling magazine about conscious living, Origin, and co-founder with Brazier of bestselling magazine, Thrive.

Also on hand will be award-winning chef, author and activist Mark Reinfeld, dubbed the “male equivalent to a vegan Rachel Ray” by Publisher’s Weekly; distinguished chef and alumnus of both the International School of Detoxification and the Matthew Kenney Academy, Nicolas Torrent; farm-to-table activist and chef, Robbie Errichetti of Thyme Catering and Loba restaurant in Midtown Miami, and Juice Goddess, Dr. Etti, with more chefs, health experts and celebrities to be announced.

In the spirit of paying it forward and promoting conscious plant-based living around the world, SFWF is donating the proceeds from all its ancillary events to Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s largest and most effective farm animal rescue and protection organization; and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit organization that promotes a plant-based diet, preventive medicine, and alternatives to animal research through education and outreach.

Plant-based diets lower cholesterol and high blood pressure, as well as lower the risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Such diets are also eco-friendly and promote an end to animal cruelty. SFWF will demonstrate that plant-based diets are not only healthy, but delicious by providing the 5,000 estimated attendees with five full days of delectable vegan food, wine, spirit and craft beer samples, as well as cooking demonstrations and educational workshops.

Tickets and passes to the five days of festivities go on sale July 15th with prices from $10 to $125 per event or a all inclusive vip experience for $375. Follow the Seed Food & Wine Festival on Twitter and Instagram: @SeedFW and Facebook: Facebook.com/seedfoodandwine or on the web athttp://www.seedfoodandwine.com.

"Global Warming" (This is Not About Partisan Politics)

I have cousins whose politics are diametrically different from mine.  There are a few recurring topics of debate, and one of them is "global warming."  My cousins are "climate change deniers."

There are three arguments made by people who do not want climate change addressed.  One is that climate change is not caused by people.  The second, and related, is that people cannot reverse or even impede climate change.  But the real stalwarts of the anti-climate change argument assert that there is no climate change.  There is no global warming.  It's all made up, and the assertion that there is climate change is invented by people who either want to profit from this assertion, or they just want to make a name for themselves.  Actually, one of my cousins even sent an article that argued that there is global cooling.

This is how this debate regularly goes.  The closest either of my cousins has come to acknowledging what appears to most of us to be painfully obvious is to cite observations of an average global temperature increase of about 1.5 degrees F in the past century.  Apart from that one tentative accession, the debate never moves.  Until today.  One of these guys sent me the following link:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising

I don't know why he sent it.  I don't know if he thinks the article is tongue-in-cheek.  It's very unlike him-- unheard-of, actually-- to concede any point about anything.  But he did send this link.  Maybe he was making tangential fun of me, almost like a non sequitur, for living in Miami.  He lives in Connecticut.  I replied, telling him it was an interesting article.  Which it is.  And that's all I wrote.

The fact is I like my cousins.  I'm very fond of them.  As much as our political debates unnerve all of us, it's personally reassuring and pleasing to have a little conciliation like this.  Mostly, I am branded as a lefty, a socialist, sometimes a Communist, I'm accused of failing to listen to reason, and I am declared disqualified.  It's nice to find out they themselves, or at least one of them, can keep an open mind.

"Top Heavy." "Too Many Chiefs?"

You don't talk to too many people in Biscayne Park before you hear from someone who is complaining about Village Hall.  The specific complaint is what many perceive as an awful lot of "staff" for such a small municipality.  It was only eight years ago that we had no Manager and no Assistant to the Manager.  We had five Commissioners, a Clerk, and a couple of other employees, including a part-time Finance person.

It's true that the Commissioners had much more responsibility and got more money than they do now, and the Clerk was, um, haphazard.  It's also true that the Village was not run efficiently, and that many important (essential?) functions did not get done, or at least not done well.

A Charter Review Committee at the time determined that we could not continue responsibly this way, and that we should have a professional municipal Manager, who would run all operations.  The Committee had no trouble convincing the Commission of this recommendation, and the Commission unanimously agreed to surrender its authority to a Manager.  The Commission put its money where its mouth was, too, and decreased its own salary.  Because this functional change required a change in the Village Charter, the matter was submitted by referendum to the residents of the Park, and they, too, agreed.

So we hired a Manager.  Was the first bicycle you ever got, or the first guitar, or the first car, or the first house, top of the line, luxury, no expense spared?  Mine, neither.  We learned a little bit about what it's like working with a Manager, and we decided to upgrade.  It's like every other educational opportunity: we learned something, and we paid for the tutorial.

Most of us thought our second Manager was terrific.  Some of us didn't approve of her.  She accomplished a great deal for the Village, and she tightened things up very considerably.  I never heard anyone say she wasn't a very hard worker.  When she told us she needed an assistant, for whom we would have to budget a good piece of change, she got some distinct resistance.  Not enough to prevent a Commission majority approval, but enough to leave some ill feelings among some Village residents/tax-payers.  Some of that continues to this day.  It wasn't always easy for Ana Garcia to explain, to enough people's satisfaction, exactly what Candido Sosa-Cruz does, and why his contribution is important to the functioning of Village Hall and the whole neighborhood.  Then, and even now, some people simply don't believe Candido accomplishes that much, or has that many responsibilities, or is that important.  And that's sometimes the bottom line: they simply don't believe or accept it.

Ana left, Candido stayed, Heidi Shafran joined us, and Candido is still here.  Questions about that again?  You bet.  What is it exactly these people, Ana/Heidi and Candido, do?  Can it really be that much, and take that much time?  Is it worth what we pay?  Explanations about delineated responsibilities and even accomplishments do not reassure all questioners.

We have now outsourced the sanitation function of our Public Works Department, over which Candido has supervisory responsibility.  The question is quickly raised as to whether that substantial reduction in Candido's responsibility might (must?) mean that we either don't need an Assistant to the Manager, or at least not a full time employee in that position.  I wondered, others have asked me, and you can be very sure I have asked the Manager.  Here is the response.

Candido unquestionably works hard and full time or more, doing what he is doing.  As is true of so much of what should be Village functioning, there are many things we don't do.  Things we can't afford to do.  Things which Candido might be doing, if he had the time, and if we had the money.  If we didn't outsource, Candido had his work more than cut out for him.  He and Heidi would have been quite busy reorganizing and managing our PW/Sanitation Department.  With outsourcing of sanitation, one of the benefits is increased income to the Village, and some of that income is substantial.  It is so substantial that it will allow us to do things we could never do before.  Things like road maintenance.  If Candido has less PW oversight responsibility, he will have new responsibility in other areas.  This is what I have been told, and I believe it.

I'm not a municipal manager.  I don't manage a business, except my own tiny personal professional business.  We went to trouble to find and hire someone we thought would be a great municipal manager.  We wanted someone who knows a lot more about this than we do.  If Ana, and Heidi, tell me we need an Assistant, and they give me what sound like good enough reasons why we do, I am in no position, nor poised, to second-guess them.  My hypothetical reason to doubt them would be to think that either or both of them are lazy, and they just want someone else to do work for them.  And that they both care so little about the Village that they don't mind stressing Village coffers to buy themselves a glorified gofer.  This is not what I believe to be true.

Candido has recently accepted a bigger and better-paying position.  Heidi is faced with the idea of replacing him.  She has told us she intends to "underfill" the position.  She intends to hire someone with less responsibility, and who will accept less pay, than Candido.  I don't know whether this makes sense.  I don't know, and will find out, what motivates Heidi in this choice.  The question for me is how we will get the tasks accomplished.  If a Manager, or an Assitant to the Manager, no longer has to supervise the sanitation function of the Public Works Department, good.  Either we need less help from Village Hall, and they can reduce staffing, or they can apply themselves to other tasks: tasks we didn't have the manpower, money, or wherewithal to do before.

Whether we have an Assistant to the Manager, or how much of one, or how much we pay this person, is not my concern.  Elevating the Village, and providing for ourselves what we as a municipality deserve, is very much my concern.  At the moment, we are failing in our responsibilities to ourselves.  No self-respecting municipality should have streets like ours, drainage problems as we do, and medians that look like ours.  We should not do without relatively inexpensive upgrades, like security cameras and a public address/recording system.  We should not have to hope for grants from someone in order to maintain ourselves.  This needs to change.  It's certainly true we need more revenue.  We also need more initiative and organization.  I think Candido did a great job.  I will miss him, personally and for the work he did.  If Heidi can do her own job and his, I'll be happy to have her do it, and save us the money.  If Ana could have, I'm sure she would have.  Frank didn't have an assistant.  He also didn't do anything.  Should we do the math?

It Doesn't Seem Worth the Trouble, But It Very Definitely Is. More Peruvian Food.

I got a lead onto two places to get what was billed as excellent Peruvian food.  The lead came from a Peruvian person, who told me that Peruvian food is certifiably "the best food in the world."  As if someone did a test and provided an acceptable rating.  I'm just telling you what someone else told me.

I was further told that these two places, which are side by side, are owned by the same Peruvian genius chef/entrepreneur.  His name is Juan Chipoco.  Among other things, he is said to have invented a recipe for cooked sweet potato, that this recipe is served all over Peru, and that Juan Chipoco is rich on account of royalties or something paid to him by all the Peruvian cooks who serve his patented sweet potatoes.  For all I know, these stories are apocryphal nonsense, but they are the stories which were told to me.

Here's the trouble.  Both places are in downtown Miami, on NE 3rd Avenue, at about 1st Street.  One is called CViche 105 (it's at 105 NE 3rd Ave), and the other is called Pollos y Jarras, immediately north of CViche 105.  If you haven't stopped reading this review yet, valet parking is $10.  Being allergic to paying $10 to some valet to park my car, I drove 1 1/2 blocks west on 1st St, and paid $1.50 to park the car myself for an hour.  That's more like it.

I went to this trouble for a reason.  I wanted to find out what's so great about Peruvian food, although I already had a lesson at Tunky-Tunky, up our way.  I did not go to CViche 105.  Not only am I allergic to paying a valet $10 to park my car; I'm also allergic to standing on line for an hour to get a seat in a restaurant.  So I went to Pollos y Jarras.  It's much better to sit upstairs in the real restaurant than it is to sit at the bar downstairs.  It's more comfortable, and you can watch the World Cup, or whatever else they show on all the TVs on the walls.

CViche 105 appears to be distinctly trendy.  I'm not exactly allergic to trendy places, but I generally don't like them.  Pollos y Jarras is funky.  This is directly up my street.  The decor is brick and white panel with graffiti.  Nice, though.

Shortly after you sit down, you are brought a little arrangement of four dips.  It was not made clear what the purpose of these dips was, but they looked nice.  One looked like pickle relish, but it was very good.  Two looked mustard-based, and both were mild and delicious.  The other looked cream-based and tasted subtle, but good.  You are not brought bread, so the dips were not for that.  I used them for the fried yucca.  Maybe they're the Peruvian equivalent of chimichurri, and they should have been used on meat.  I don't know.  Not long after the dips arrive, a ramekin of green stuff is brought.  This ramekin turns out to contain a complimentary serving of soup.  As best I understood, the soup had chicken and vegetables in it.  It was thick, and it certainly had whole baby peas.  The soup was remarkably good: full of flavor and a little bit spicy.  As soon as you realize you got that fantastic little serving of soup for free, you start feeling very friendly to the place.  And once you look at the menu, and see the prices, you feel even more friendly.  After you've ordered and discovered how much food they bring you for that price, you wonder if you're falling in love.

I got ceviche, of course.  It happened to be the Ceviche Pucusana.  It cost $10.95.  I wouldn't say I've made a career of exploring ceviches, but I've had them enough times.  This one was by far the best I've ever had.  And there was a great deal of it.  The Buenas Yucas was served in a little metal basket, like a tiny version of the thing in which french fries are fried.  I'm estimating there were about six pieces, and the cost was $6.95.  A special dipping sauce was brought for the yucca, but I used all five sauces (the first four, and the special one).  What can I say?  I don't normally get fried yucca, but these were excellent.  They were not greasy, they were perfectly done, and they were hot (caliente, no picante).  They would have been fine on their own, but the sauces were perfect.  Ensalada de la Huerta sounded to me like the most interesting salad.  At $9.95, it was also tied for most expensive.  You and two of your friends could have shared the Ensalada de la Huerta.  It had tons of stuff in it, and ingredients included various lettuces, tomato, cheese chunks, artichokes, asparagus, and what I found to be the almost ubiquitous Peruvian corn.  You can see it whole when you walk in.  It has massive kernels.  It's also very tasty, both boiled and roasted, both featured in the salad.  The dressing was very good, too.

Oh, the chef/entrepreneur's special sweet potatoes.  This dish wasn't available as a side order (although I was told it is available at CViche 105), but a chunk was included in the ceviche.  It looks like what it is: a piece of cooked sweet potato.  It doesn't appear as if anything has been done to it, apart from baking it.  And it tasted like sweet potato.  Except it was unusually good.  If Juan Chipoco did something to the sweet potato, or used some rare species of sweet potato, it wasn't obvious, except that it tasted better than any other sweet potato I've ever had.

Two or three people could have had an adequate small meal sharing the items I ordered.  And not one of those items was an entree.  They have plenty of those, too.  I saw some gorgeous platters go by.  I also saw the parrillada, which is definitely on my list for when I bring a few friends.

I will certainly be back, trouble and all.  And I'll make my way to CViche 105, when it's less busy.  David Coviello and Harvey Bilt could easily walk there from Chopin Plaza.  Drew Dillworth and Roxy Ross would have a somewhat longer walk during the work day.  But far be it from me to discourage them.  It's well worth the trouble.