After a two-year break due to Covid, the Summer School "Food Science and Culinary Arts - from Field to Meal" took place between July 16th and 26th. The host of the summer program was the California State University, Fresno. During the eleven days, the 13 participants from different countries learned a lot about food production in California. Our institute was represented by 6 participants.
The Summer School started on July 16th in San Francisco with a welcome reception and visiting a farmer’s market at the harbor area. In the afternoon, we learned about “California Slow Wines” together with Deborah Parker Wong, an opinion-leading communicator, journalist and author, who specializes in the wine and spirits industries.
The next day we drove to Oakland, where we visited the factory site of Roli Roti, which operates several gourmet rotisserie food trucks and specializes in food processing using sous vide technology. Then, we drove to the fishing town of Monterey with a brief stop in Santa Cruz.
On the third day we visited the Monterey Abalone Company, which specializes in the breeding and distribution of abalones and got the opportunity to taste abalones. In the afternoon we went to Phil's Fish Market, one of the most famous fish restaurants in California.
On the following day, the trip continued to El Paso de Robles, after visiting the Monterey Aquarium.
On the fifth day we visited the two wine producers "Peachy Canyon" and "Tablas Creek" in El Paso de Robles and participated in their wine tastings.
On Thursday we went to Fresno, the final destination of our summer program.
Friday started with a tour through the Fresno State campus where we visited the different agricultural areas.
Afterwards, we were shown how citrus and almond sorting works. In the afternoon we visited the production side of Enzo's Olive Oil where we learned more about the production of olive oil and tasted their products.
The next day we spent in Yosemite National Park and Bass Lake.
The second to last day of the program was dedicated to tacos. We visited three taco restaurants and learned about Mexican cuisine, for which Fresno is very famous. In the evening we attended a Fresno Grizzlies baseball game and learned about the food logistics behind major sporting events.
On the last day we learned about food trends together with Hanni Rützler, a food trend expert, nutritionist and health psychologist. Afterwards we had our final dinner which was dedicated to a zero-waste concept.
In the following gallery you can find impressions from the event.
