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Putting fresh and passion back into our food
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WU Min is very picky about food. The Suzhou native once was so eager for a bowl of good noodles that she took a two-hour train from Hangzhou to her favorite restaurant in Suzhou, just because she was feeling homesick.
Two years ago, the fastidious woman was not satisfied with just doing this alone. So she gathered a bunch of like-minded people to give speeches or supply goods — only about food, at Food Talk, a Hangzhou-based forum.
Wu is Food Talk’s co-founder and organizer. “I want to influence audiences by telling them what really good taste is,” she said.
“Too many additives are used in foods today, and people are getting too used to that.”
The Food Talk forum is much like TED. The speeches are given on a theater-like stage.
A meeting usually involves more than four speakers. All videos are free and shared on the Internet.
Indeed, Wu used to be an organizer for TED x Xihu in Hangzhou.
So far, Food Talk has held over 20 meetings and each has had an audience of 300-400. The most popular video received about 1 million hits.
“At a greenhouse, we tested that over 30 chemicals used on one cucumber while it grew,” Wang Jing said in a speech at Food Talk.
Wang works at a non-government organization that researches pesticides.
“For instance, one chemical is used to make sure the flower does not fall, and another one is to make it straight, because people believe straight cucumbers with flowers are fresh and juicy,” she added.
Wang is one of the 86 speakers that Wu has invited in the past two years — from farmers planting rice to Michelin-starred chefs.
Wu, picky on noodles, is picky on selecting her guests. All speakers must be licensed or hold qualifications in their field.
Some are quite innovative: Erica Huang from Taiwan introduced Food Revolution (initiated by British cook Jamie Oliver) into Beijing, and Ning Bo, who invented the Smart Vegetable Planting Machine that can be used in any room.
Ecologist Tang Jianjun volunteers promoting ecological living, and Chen Li, a consultant for the popular documentary “A Bite of China,” spoke on anthropology and sociology.
Other guests include chicken raiser Luo Xiqin whose birds are so frisky that they can fly into trees, Wang Baoshan, a sixth-generation inheritor of oil expression techniques, and Zou Zhizhong, a farmer who prints his ID card on the package of organic rice he planted so customers know the product is genuine.
“Many people don’t understand food very much, and I want to break the information asymmetry between people and foods,” said Wu.
“First, Food Talk invites trustworthy speakers, then audiences trust the speakers, and they consequently believe in what speakers say and suggest,” Wu explained.
The forums and workshops are free.
And Food Forum’s WeChat forum recently started selling commodities provided by speakers.
Wu, the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, has for two years now been working 12 hours a day running the forum.
“I would rather see my daughter playing with a real tomato in a field than plastic baubles in amusement park,” she said. “I bet other parents think the same.”
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