Brooklyn Food Conference Eats, Scene and Sustainable Celeb Sightings

On one of the first gorgeous Saturdays of the spring, did Brooklyn foodies run to the park for picnic lunches or line the bars for springy cocktails?

Sure, some of 'em did. But 3,000 others, according to organizers, crammed the multicolored '70s-esque hallways of John Jay High School, aka P.S. 321, for a day of workshops, eats, panels and vendors called the Brooklyn Food Conference, promoting what a bright-yellow pamphlet trumpeted as "Local Action for Global Change."

Food world celebs roaming the halls included chef Dan Barber, speaker and TV host Anna Lappé and author-activist Raj Patel (whose classroom was so stuffed a volunteer had to turn fans away). Some attendees, all of whom attended for free, were a bit starry-eyed over certain sustainably-minded speakers. About Patel, local CSA organizer Meredith Modzelewski sighed, "I'm in love with him now."

Find out more and see photos after the jump.

"We are part of a revolution happening all over the world," crowed the press materials: "Together we can advocate more powerfully for a food system that's just, sustainable, healthy and delicious -- we call it food democracy."

These lofty words have certainly sparked a following, if these packed hallways are any indication. In one panel with enviromentally conscious chefs including Barber, Savoy's Peter Hoffman and Bill Telepan, moderator Leonard Lopate asked the audience "How many people regularly go to the farmer's market?" Eighty percent raised their hands. Half turned out to be members of a co-op. "We're wasting our time up here!" Lopate laughed.

Of course, not everyone has gone locavore these days: Barber and Hoffman revealed that they had each chatted with a farmer at the Union Square Greenmarket just that morning about his raspberries, which (not being in season) were clearly from a fossil fuel-burning greenhouse. The farmer said he was "returning to his grandfather's method of farming," which Barber said he had tired of hearing, and that the innovative, sustainably minded farmers are really the ones we should look up to, "the Bill Gates-es of the future."



It's possible the conference was preaching to the choir, as Kim Severson smartly noted at the New York Times. But the choir seemed to enjoy it: From a classroom stuffed the gills with those curious about sustainable aquaculture to an overbooked class called "Why Are We All Eating Big Macs?" organic, sustainable and local were the catchphrases of the day.

Attendees roamed through gymnasiums packed with vendors offering samples of local pickles, shares to CSAs, samples of gluten-free brownies and information about turning the local Gowanus Canal into a Superfund site. Children on roller blades zipped through the cafeteria where goods from sponsor Park Slope Food Co-Op included an incredible goat cheese and mushroom quiche and sparklingly fresh greens (above).

The crowd was as kaleidoscopic as Brooklyn itself. A little boy stood staring, unfrightened, at a glassed-in honeycomb swirling with bees while a jazz band played raucously in the background behind him. Just around the bend 20-something hipsters lined up for samples of $2 grassfed beef sliders.

The discussions were just as diverse: In one classroom a cooking demo by local culinary collective Studiofeast featured cook Mike Lee chatting with attendees about what "umami" means -- "sort of savory and unctuous ... the taste of unseasoned beef, not sweet or salty."

In another, Gastropolis contributor and co-owner of beloved lox-and-herring Gotham establishment Russ and Daughters Mark Russ Federman talked about the history of his family shop. In the sort of levity that marked the day despite the seriousness of the topics at hand he announcing to chortles that -- though the lox and other fish products may be in danger in overfished waters -- "there is no danger of the bagel becoming extinct."