Discovering Our Hometown: Slow Food Asheville’s FEAST
Last night we attended Feasting for FEAST, a collaboration between Slow Food Asheville and the Asheville Affiliates held at The Venue in downtown Asheville.
“F.E.A.S.T. is a program that provides hands on, group cooking experience focusing on locally grown fruits and vegetables.”
Food was generously donated by local restaurants including The Marketplace, Curate and Table for the culinary delight of the attendees.
Oxtail with an olive oil potato mousse (literally dispensed out of a whipped cream canister!)…
Sturgeon caviar and creme fraiche in a fingerling potato…
A tempeh sushi cooking demonstration took place as well as a lesson on the perfect moonshine cocktail.
Tempeh sushi with a local peanut butter sauce…
And towards the end of the night endless cupcakes poured from the kitchen. Surprisingly I like the vegan cupcake the best. Most people love light fluffy cupcakes but this dense beauty held the key to my heart.
Overall it was a beautiful night filled with meeting a lot of great people, enjoying good food and celebrating the local foodie community that we are so blessed with in Asheville.
However…
I can’t end this post without mentioning a few things that could have made the night spectacular, but sadly left us questioning whether it was worth the $24 per person price tag.
1. We were pretty disappointed that with FEAST focusing on local fruits and vegetables there were only two food items that were vegetarian friendly…and one of them was hummus.
2. I was really looking forward to a showcase of sustainable food and practices in the Asheville area. I had really hoped to learn more about it and meet some of those people that bring their food from the farm to our table. Aside from a very small cooking demonstration ,that was far from hands on, the only time the program was discussed was when the raffle winner was announced and even then I unfortunately have to say it was poorly executed as half of the guests weren’t even paying attention.
3. For a total of $50 Husband and I could have had a full meal at Limones. Granted the food was donated and luckily for us we arrived early because halfway through the event food started running out. Possibly recouping our money in beer and wine we still felt the food didn’t quite live up to the cost.
Criticisms aside we were happy for a night out of the barn spent in the town we love!
