Jay Foster, Farmer Brown, in partnership with sf|noir
Saturday, February 27, 2016, 10:30 am - 11:15 am
Stop by the CUESA Classroom for a cooking demo featuring the seasonal bounty of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
CUESA is proud to partner with sf|noir during their annual Wine & Food Festival. sf|noir is a non-profit organization, celebrating its 15th year in 2016, highlighting and celebrating African American arts and culture, both as innovator and interpreter, and also recognizing the interpretations of other cultures to uniquely Black art forms—helping to make our collective experiences richer.
North Carolina native Jay Foster didn’t arrive in San Francisco with thoughts of being in the culinary industry. A student of mathematics and, later, art, the Farmer Brown creator (which is celebrating its 10th year in 2016), actually ran from the idea of a career in restaurants, not realizing how big of a role they played in his life. “My first job was as a dishwasher and every job I’ve had has been in a restaurant and my parents met in my grandmother’s restaurant. I probably was running from a lot of that and ended up finding my way and I just kind of fell into it.” At its core, Farmer Brown is not just a restaurant that serves Southern cuisine, but a place that also pays homage to those who helped grow and create the culture of food and, along the way, fueled the farm-to-table concept way before it became trendy. “When I got the opportunity to create what I really wanted, I was looking around and didn’t see much soul food and then began asking myself, ‘What is soul food, what is the difference between soul food and Southern food and Creole food and American food.’ And the more research I did, the more I realized that so much of our food and, because of that, our culture, came from farmers.” Not one to give in to monotony, Foster meets with farmers at least twice a week to see what they have that may lead to a new culinary creation.
All demos take place in the CUESA Classroom (under the white tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.