Food and Wine Festivals | The Rambling Epicure

Food & Wine Tasting Masterclass, Chartres, France

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, July 30, 2014 Permalink 1

Food and Wine Tasting Masterclass in Chartres, France

18 – 21 SEPTEMBER 2014

Exploring the Food and Wine of the Beauce and the Loire Valley

with James Flewellen and Jonell Galloway

Through a series of tutored workshops, this 4-day weekend workshop will help unlock your tastebuds and introduce the richness of aromas, flavors and textures present in food and wine. Our exploration is enabled through local food from the Beauce and wine from the Loire Valley and coincides with the Chartres Festival of Lights and the Autumnal Equinox.

For course details click here and to make your reservation click here.

Contact: info@tasteunlocked.com.

Published by Alessandro + Monday, June 16, 2014 Permalink 1

Food and Wine Tasting Masterclass in Chartres, France

18 – 21 SEPTEMBER 2014

Exploring the Food and Wine of the Beauce and the Loire Valley

with James Flewellen and Jonell Galloway

Through a series of tutored workshops, this 4-day weekend workshop will help unlock your tastebuds and introduce the richness of aromas, flavors and textures present in food and wine. Our exploration is enabled through local food from the Beauce and wine from the Loire Valley and coincides with the Chartres Festival of Lights and the Autumnal Equinox.

For course details click here and to make your reservation click here.

Potatoes: Endless Varieties in Switzerland

Published by Jonell Galloway + Sunday, September 29, 2013 Permalink 0

Potatoes: Endless Varieties in Switzerland

by Jonell Galloway

Potatoes: an essential part of the traditional Swiss diet

If there’s one thing we have plenty of in Switzerland, it’s potatoes. I didn’t even like potatoes before I came here and discovered all the subtle differences of texture, taste and all the ways of using them in cooking.

Potatoes are an essential ingredient in almost any traditional Swiss meal. This year’s crop is already starting to show up in local markets.

Large Number of Varieties of Potatoes in Switzerland

The official 2007 Swisspatat list (provided by Agridea, the Swiss agricultural research station) includes 31 different varieties, along with lists for various seasons and types of potatoes, as well as recipes for everyday use as well as for special occasions.

You can take a look at the 31 varieties in the table at the bottom right on the last page of the Swisspatat article to get an idea of which potatoes to look for at what time of the year.

Different Types of Potatoes for Different Uses

There are basically 4 types of potatoes, according to Swisspatat:

Firm or “salad” potatoes. These potatoes do not burst open when cooking. They are moist, fine-grained and not mealy, and can be used in most dishes, with the exception of mashed potatoes and purées.
All-purpose medium-firm potatoes. The skin on these potatoes opens only slightly on cooking. They are somewhat mealy, on the dry side, and have a fine, grainy texture. They are tasty and can be used for most all purposes.
Mealy potatoes. These potatoes burst when cooked, but they are tender, mealy and rather dry. They have a large grain and strong taste and are used mostly for industrial purposes.
Extra-mealy potatoes. These are basically not for cooking and are used for feeding livestock or to make starch, due to their dryness and hard texture.

La Semaine du Goût Geneva – Sept. 12, 2013

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, September 11, 2013 Permalink 0

La Semaine du Goût Genève – Geneva Tasting Week

Swiss tasting week, referred to as “La Semaine du Goût” in the French-speaking part of the country, starts on Thursday, September 12, and runs until the 22nd. Each producer, restaurant and farm participating offers events. I will list a program of events, by day, in the Geneva area.This event is sponsored in part by Slow Food Switzerland. Here is the schedule for Thursday, September 12.

Continue Reading…

Celebrate the Chartres Festival of Lights & Autumnal Equinox with a Food & Wine Tasting Masterclass

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 5, 2013 Permalink 0

Join us at the Chartres Festival of Lights 2013 & Autumnal Equinox for a
Food and Wine Tasting Masterclass, given by Jonell Galloway, master food taster, and James Flewellen, master wine taster

The Beauce and the Loire Valley: Taste Unlocked

19 to 22 September 2013

A romantic getaway, a tasting Masterclass, and a big dose of
Druidic and Christian history, all in one long weekend at the autumnal equinox

Package:A 4-day Food and Wine Tasting Masterclass in the romantic, historical setting of Chartres. Classes are held in a 1,000-year-old chapel converted into Jonell’s home, just 2 minutes’ walk from the world-renowned Chartres Cathedral and 10 minutes from the train station. The Masterclass is held during the spectacular Chartres Festival of Lights, celebrated every year since 2003 on the weekend of the autumnal equinox.

Date: 19 to 22 September 2013

12 – 14 hours of instruction and workshop tasting, including discussion periods and Q&A

Lodging is in B&Bs and hotels within walking distance of the event, but lodging is not included in our price. Click here to find accommodations in all categories.

All meals and wine are included, except breakfast.

Price per person: 750 Euros

Limited to 12 participants. Early booking strongly advised.

Down payment: 250 Euros on reservation, remainder 30 days before event.

Possibility of purchasing the wines tasted during the weekend.

See details of programme and wine below.

Click on the Paypal button at the top right of the sidebar to pay by Paypal or credit card, or the blue Contact Us button at the top right of the home page to pay by bank transfer.

[wp_paypal_payment_box email=”jonell@theramblingepicure.com” options=”Down payment 250 Euros|Full payment 750 Euros”]

Switzerland: Ollon Wine Fair 2013, Photo Essay

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 5, 2013 Permalink 0

Switzerland: Ollon Wine Fair, September 7-8, 2013

by Jonell Galloway

Balades dans le vignoble / Strolls through the Vineyards

The winemakers of Ollon in the canton of Vaud organize “Balades dans le Vignoble,” or strolls through the vineyards, every second weekend in September. You stroll through the vineyards and taste some hundred different wines from the vineyards of Ollon. It is possible to eat at numerous vineyards as well as in the restaurants and bistros in the village.

There are various means of transport, including:

Buses: two vintage buses as well as contemporary mini-buses to take you from one winemaker to another.
Mini-trains: trips through the vines.
Nostalgic vintage cars and sidecars: Vintage Citroën 2 CVs (see photos) and motorcycles with sidecars take visitors from one vineyard to another
Other transport: It is possible to walk the scenic mountain paths through the vineyards and from one vineyard to another.

Click here for details of the event: dépliant_2012.pdf (2 Mb).

Here are my photos from the 2012 wine tasting fair. Click the photos you like to enlarge them.

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Bookings for Celebrate the Chartres Festival of Lights & Autumnal Equinox with a Food & Wine Tasting Masterclass

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, July 23, 2013 Permalink 0

We are having technical difficulties with the booking system for the Chartres Festival of Lights & Autumnal Equinox with a Food & Wine Tasting Masterclass. If you want to reserve, simply click on the Paypal button at the top right of the sidebar to pay by Paypal, or the blue Contact Us button at the top right of the home page to pay by bank transfer. We’ll send you all the necessary details. Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Rambling Epicure Made Loads of New Friends at the Wendell Berry Conference 2013

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

“A Rambling Epicure”: a short article about my work

One great thing about spending 3 days with a group of like-minded people, who have come from all over the country (and Switzerland) to pay homage to their “spiritual guide”, Wendell Berry, is that the audience is already filtered, and you can be sure to meet people you can relate to and that you will stay in contact with.

Wendell Berry speaking in Frankfort, Indiana

Such is the case with Elias Crim, a native Texan who spent “several good years studying classics and medieval Italian at U.C. Berkeley before wasting several more years in financial journalism around Chicago.” Crim has also written for The American Scholar, The American Conservative, the Washington Times and The Chicago Observer.

This is the only photo ID I could muster up and I think it rather amusing.

He also runs a website, Solidarity Hall, which he describes as “as a hospitable old hostelry, a mental oasis in the deserted landscapes that surround us. We no longer have the coffeehouses of eighteenth-century London, where Samuel Johnson and his friends said more of substance in an hour than our blogs today could manage in a week. Nor do we have a local culture of pubs such as Chesterton’s Old Cheshire Cheese, where friendship could flourish easily, even amidst clashing opinions.” I thoroughly recommend that you take a look and start a conversation of your own.

Elias was so kind to publish this article, “A Rambling Epicure,” about my work after the Wendell Berry conference. I invite you to take a look.

Start here and then continue on Solidarity Hall:

Jonell Galloway is surely the only person from Hardinsburg, Kentucky, to ever study Sanskrit. But that’s secondary. More important is the way this spiritual daughter of Wendell Berry has developed the Rambling Epicure, an encyclopedic and literate website which describes itself thusly: “A gastronome’s guide to mindful eating. A serious approach to real-food shopping, cooking, and dining.”

Click here to continue.

Pumpkin “Museum”, Salone del Gusto 2012, Slow Food Italia

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Permalink 0

All the Pumpkins Varieties in the World: A Photo Essay

by Jonell Galloway

Pumpkin varieties of the world, Salone del Gusto 2012

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A Look at Slow Food’s Salone del Gusto, October 2012, in Turin, Italy

Published by Diana Zahuranec + Saturday, November 3, 2012 Permalink 0

by Diana Zahuranec

Salone del Gusto ended on Monday 29, but I can’t stop thinking about it.

Salone del Gusto, held in Turin, Italy, is a Slow Food biannual food fair and conference. To sum it up in these few words undermines everything else it is, too, and its importance as an event that brings together producers from all over the world. These are producers that grow ancient varieties of grain to save genetic biodiversity, that make Slow Food Presidia cheeses or salumi, that pipe their cannoli full of the freshest organic ricotta you’ve ever tasted, and whose principles and values align with your own and, it goes without saying, Slow Food’s – good, clean, and fair food for all.

The Slow Food mascot

For all things Slow Food, here are some links courtesy of Scoop.it and Slow Food. To understand a few of those words in the paragraph above, just look at the end of the article.

This year, Salone del Gusto was a marriage of the original Salone del Gusto, first held in 2006, and Terra Madre, first held in 2004. While both events had food artisans and producers from all over the world, different activities were held at each and were not all accessible to the public. Salone del Gusto focused more on the exposition and sale of high quality foods and products, while Terra Madre was a gathering of a network of food producers from around the world. Having never been to either of these before, I can’t offer judgment on the differences of before and after. What I would love to do is share my first-time impressions of this year’s.

To say Salone is a food fair means that, like your down-home county fair, the place is jumping with activity – with a few notable differences. The funnel cakes are replaced with French butter cookies in 20 different flavors, the groundhog whacking game is replaced with the foodie’s (divisive word, I know) form of fun, that is vertical Barolo wine tastings, and that feeling of riding the Zipper right after you eat your funnel cake is replaced by the feeling of pressing up against crowds right after you drink your Barolo wines.