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Eat Your Vegetables: Aaron Adams, Liz Crain, and Hetty Lui McKinnon

Name: Eat Your Vegetables: Aaron Adams, Liz Crain, and Hetty Lui McKinnon
Start: 2023-11-04T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2023-11-04T11:00:00+00:00
Location: Portland’5 Winningstad Theatre

PBF Pass

November 4, 2023 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Portland’5 Winningstad Theatre

A conversation about plant-based cooking and eating with the authors of two exciting new cookbooks: Aaron Adams and Liz Crain, co-authors of Fermenter, and Hetty Lui McKinnon, author of Tenderheart. Moderated by Gregory Gourdet, author of Everyone’s Table and chef at Portland’s Kann.

Like The Noma Guide to Fermentation but with a punk, DIY aesthetic and a it’s-OK-to-fail ethos, Fermenter provides the sought-after secrets and words of wisdom from top fermentation educators, Aaron Adams and Liz Crain. Based in Portland, Oregon (vegan capital of America), the Fermenter restaurant specializes in culinary fermentation to achieve their unique funky flavors. Learn how to handcraft local bean-and-grain tempehs, fresh and aged vegan cheeses, fizzy probiotic drinks, and koji ferments and revolutionize the flavor profiles in your home kitchen! They empower you to follow them down this highly addictive (and inexpensive) path, resulting in totally DIY food, free from mass-produced or corporate anything.

“This book RULES! Along with Pietramala in Philly and Oakland’s Lion Dance Cafe, Fermenter is part of a select new breed of restaurant severely altering and advancing the vegan food landscape in this country. Thrilling.”
–Brooks Headley, chef and author of Superiority Burger Cookbook

Heritage and food have always been linked for Hetty Lui McKinnon. Tenderheart is a loving homage to her father, a Chinese immigrant in Australia, told in flavorful, vegetarian recipes. Growing up as part of a Chinese family in Australia, McKinnon formed a deep appreciation for her bicultural identity, and for her father, who moved to Sydney as a teenager and learned English while selling bananas at a local market. As he brought home crates full of produce after work, McKinnon learned about the beauty and versatility of fruits and vegetables.

“A love letter to vegetables and almost a memoir through recipes, this truly special book speaks to the soul as much as to the stomach. I loved it more than I can say!”
–Nigella Lawson

Portland Book Festival General Admission Passes are required for entry into all events. Passes are $15 in advance and $25 day of Festival. Youth 17 & under get in FREE. All full-priced General Admission Passes include a $5 book fair voucher and entry into Portland Art Museum. Passes admit attendees to the Festival; individual events are first-come, first-served. More info here.

Bios

Aaron Adams

Aaron Adams: Forever curious about all things culinary, Aaron started venturing into fermentation when seeking to expand his repertoire after switching to a vegan diet. Years later you can find house fermented and cultured foods, from tempeh and koji to sauerkraut and kombucha, finding center focus at his restaurants. Wanting to share his fermentation knowledge in an easy to understand way, Aaron worked to create his first book, Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare. Come say "Hi" to Chef Aaron while he's working service at Workshop or Fermenter when you're in Portland, Oregon.

Liz Crain

Liz Crain is the author of Food Lover’s Guide to Portland and Dumplings Equal Love, and coauthor of the cookbooks Toro Bravo and Hello! My Name Is Tasty, as well as Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis. Her latest cookbook is Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare coauthored with chef Aaron Adams. She is a longtime writer on Pacific Northwest food and drink, and her writing has appeared in Lucky Peach, Food & Wine, the Sun magazine, the Progressive, and the Guardian. She is also a seasoned copywriter, fiction writer, as well as co-organizer of the annual Portland Fermentation Festival.

Hetty Lui McKinnon

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. A James Beard Foundation finalist, she is the author of four other cookbooks, including the much-loved To Asia, With Love (2021), the award-winning Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Food to Nourish Every Day (2019), Neighbourhood: Hearty Salads and Plant-Based Recipes from Home and Abroad (2017), and Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen (2014). Hetty is also the editor and publisher of multicultural food journal Peddler and the host of the magazine’s podcast The House Specials. She is a regular recipe contributor to The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Epicurious.com, and ABC Everyday; and her recipes have appeared in Food52, the Guardian, The Washington Post and more. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Her new book is Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds.

Gregory Gourdet

Gregory Gourdet is a celebrated chef, best-selling author, and television personality. He is best known for his award-winning cuisine, bevy of TV appearances, and trendsetting role in the culinary boom of Portland. A native of Queens, NY, Gregory attended the Culinary Institute of America, becoming the school’s first student to land an internship with celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. For nearly 7 years, Gregory honed his culinary skills at three of Jean-Georges’ trailblazing restaurants, climbing the kitchen ranks to become one of his chef de cuisines. Gregory ran the kitchen at Portland’s Departure Restaurant + Lounge for 10 years, leaving in 2019 to focus on opening Kann. An avid traveler and lifelong student of food and culture, Gregory has made a name for himself by infusing methods and ingredients from all over the world, balanced together with his own Haitian heritage, and creating signature flavors adored for their seasonality, boldness, complexity, and spice. He was named “Chef of the Year” by both Eater Portland and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and is a James Beard Award nominee and two-time Bravo Top Chef finalist. In 2021, Gregory released his first cookbook, Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health, the ultimate guide to cooking globally-inspired dishes free of gluten, dairy, soy, legumes, and grains. The book is a national bestseller and a 2022 James Beard Award winner for Best General Cookbook. Gregory sees food as nourishment and is committed to moving the restaurant industry forward in a sustainable and equitable way.

Date:: November 4, 2023
Time:: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Event Category:: Nonfiction Events
Event Tags:: PBF2023

Venue