by Tory Davis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Artist Laura Parker’s newest installation, “Taste of Place,” is part art, part culinary experience and is shifting how people relate to the food they eat.
- Visitors experience a dirt “tasting,” where Parker provides wine glasses full of carefully chosen terroir, adds water, swirls and then passes them for a sniff. Attendees discuss the bouquet as they would vino, then taste vegetables grown in said dirt for a contrast-and-compare. Occasionally Parker also offers tastes of cheese or eggs from animals who grazed on the land (Culinate.com 9.21.09).
- Tastings/installations are being held throughout the fall and winter in Sonoma, San Francisco and Santa Cruz — and Australia in the spring.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- Farm-to-table is hot, and this is the most literal expression of this trend. Foodies are gaga for the newest culinary experience, and, “I went to a dirt tasting,” is guaranteed to turn heads at the next dinner party.
- Oenophiles have waxed rhapsodic about terroir for ages, but rarely get into the dirt themselves. This is a primo experience for an authenticity one-upmanship contest.
- This is a locavore fantasy come true, and reinforces the message that healthy soil equals healthy food.
RESOURCES
- Taste of Place, an installation by Laura Parker
