The Slow Food Nations Food Festival wrapped up last weekend after three days of workshops, talks, and parties focused on Where Tradition Meets Innovation.

This year, we were merchants in one of the 70 wooden booths made for the event. We sold cookbooks and served brownies, cookies, and lemon curd. A visitor wandered by, one of 30,000 people in attendance. After she tasted a deeply fudgey brownie (recipe from my latest book, A Baker’s Passport and featured below), she asked, “Why is it slow food?” This struck me as a good question because this brownie was not earthy, nor vegan, not gluten-free, and most definitely NOT healthy. I explained that the brownies were made in a small-batch by hand from a meaningful recipe with high-fat butter, local eggs, and slow-milled flour. They were made with dark chocolate I sourced from a Belgian supplier, from a book I wrote about my travels through world-wide pastry foodways. I explained that while these brownies were not technically healthy, the high-quality ingredients and careful composition created a sweet worth savoring – a sweet that lifts the spirit. This long explanation seemed to satisfy my customer, who answered, “Oh! Artisan!! They were made with love.”

Yes. Slow Food is artisan and lovely, even in its sweetest, most decadent, most spirit-lifting applications.

The farmer and the chef play pivotal roles in reimagining the food system to be good, clean and fair for all.

From Slow Food Nations Newsroom – At the Chef Summit, chef Eric Skokan challenged the room: “Create one relationship with one farmer. Invite them into the restaurant for a beer after a hot day. Buy their good stuff. Buy their bad stuff and be creative with it.” Farmer Paul Willis agreed: “Anytime you have a chance to meet a farmer, have a conversation.” Chef Alice Waters called out “fast-food farming” and asked chefs and farmers to engage schools: “I would like all of you chefs to think about what school lunch can be. What do children love? What would be culturally diverse and simple to make? Let’s make school lunch an academic subject.” At the Colorado Fare Block Party, we tasted the magic that can happen when purveyors from across Colorado are paired with chefs to present a delicious foodscape of the state.

We can vote with our forks

Individuals have a collective power to make real change, beginning with what we eat. A first (and fun!) step is to get to know who is producing your food. The Slow Food Nations Taste Marketplace brought in small-scale producers to meet consumers face to face to sample and buy new products. The Grain Chain let kids and adults alike explore how grains are grown and processed. One visitor from Chicago said, “I’ve always tried to align my values, but the more I learn, the more I realize there’s room for improvement.”

Sharing food traditions gives us common ground to connect and learn

At the Leader Summit, John Kariuki from Kenya gave closing remarks that illustrated the centrality of working together across cultures: “We all share the responsibility for the future, and as Slow Food in Africa we believe in collaboration and not aid. Our combined efforts can increase the global cooperation, awareness, grassroots interventions and push policy markers towards a more sustainable future.” From chef Regina Escalante’s Taste of the Yucatán Peninsula session, to chef Pierre Thiam digging into fonio from Senegal, and indigenous youth presenting on a sustainable future, the values of equity, inclusion and justice resonated throughout the festival footprint.

Here is more information from Slow Food’s website:

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us. Since its beginnings, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. There are over 150 chapters in the USA.

Good:

Believe that delicious nutrition is a right for everyday life
Cultivate joyful connections to community and place
Advocate for diversity in ecosystems and societies

Clean:

Protect natural resources for future generations
Help people and the environment depend on each other
Promote food that is local, seasonal, and sustainably grown

Fair:

Build local cooperation and global collaboration while respecting all laws
Require no prerequisite or credential for participation
Fight for dignity of labor from field to fork

Slow Food USA is part of the global Slow Food movement creating dramatic change in more than 160 countries. In the US, there are more than 150 local chapters and 6,000 members. Join us to connect the pleasures of the table with a commitment to the communities, cultures, knowledge, and environment that make this pleasure possible.

What We Do

Slow Food USA gathers likely and unlikely allies to transform the way we produce, consume, and enjoy food.

Gather

From grassroots activists to policymakers, from farm to table, we are gathering a vast network for a common good. We gather both in online communities and in local, national, and international events.

Fudge Brownies from A Baker’s Passport

As a young baker, I had the honor of meeting cookbook author Maida Heatter in Los Angeles. She handed me a wrapped Palm Beach Brownie and explained how she always traveled with sturdy winners like these to give as spontaneous gifts. It made her feel welcome wherever she went. After one bite, I was forever grateful, and wished she would stay longer. This recipe is inspired by her version, and mine are even darker and more decadent with coffee, brown sugar, and an extra shot of rum. As you pack them up to give to friends, remember a brownie is a flashpoint where a cake is a cookie and a cookie is a cake. Technically, brownies fall into the “bar cookie” classification, but they are baked as cakes then sliced and served as soft cookies. I like serving these with sifted powdered sugar on top and arranging them with raspberries, which creates a high color contrast of deep chocolate brown, snow white sugar and ripe berry red.

Fudge Brownies

From my book, A Baker's Passport

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Chill Time 30

Course Brownies

Cuisine American

Servings 20 2″ squares

Equipment

13 x 9" baking pan
medium bowl over medium saucepan
electric mixer
spatula

Ingredients

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
8 oz premium dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (two sticks) butter (preferably unsalted European style, such as Plugra)
4 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp strong brewed coffee or espresso
1 tbsp dark rum or Kahlua
1 cup white sugar
1.5 cups light brown sugar
1 cup broken walnuts or pecans (optional)
1/2 cup cup powdered sugar, sifted (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare a standard (13 by 9-inch) brownie pan with parchment paper (allowing a few inches to extend over the top of the pan to use as handles to lift the brownies out later) and set aside.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt and set aside. Place the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water (a double boiler works here, too) and occasionally stir until they have melted.
In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, coffee, rum and sugars on low speed. Turn the mixer up to high speed and allow this mixture to whip for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy (or full volume).
Take the bowl off the mixer, and fold in the melted chocolate mixture with a large spatula. Slowly add half of the flour mixture and fold by hand until incorporated. Add the rest of the flour mixtures and then fold in nuts.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the sides are brown with a little softness in the center – a toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a little bit of soft batter. Turn off the oven and allow the brownies to stay in the oven for another 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool.
Once the pan comes close to room temperature, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Slice cold. Use a ruler to cut into 2” squares. For triangles, cut each square diagonally. This is the ideal serving size for these brownies, as they are very rich.
Using a small strainer or tea strainer, dust each brownie heavily with sifted powdered sugar if desired.