A Slow Food Yolo delegation comprised of local restaurant owners and industry professionals visited Woodland’s sister city – La Piedad, Michoacán – last week to share knowledge to roughly 200 UNIVA University students.

The delegation included Juan Barajas, chapter president for Slow Food Yolo; Josh Zeldner, nectar director for Z Specialty Foods; Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center; Sergio Villanueva, vice president of land management for JDM Organic Farm; and Savory Cafe representative Kristin Hansen.

Each Yolo County representative created lessons that taught the culinary students about their respective industries including honey production, sustainable and organic soils, olive and wine tastings and how to run a restaurant.

Zeldner and Harris, for example, delivered a presentation highlighting the importance of honey, how it’s produced and the many varieties of honey that exist.

“The initial goal of the trip was to share and impart knowledge outside of Yolo County about Slow Food and its principles, and how food can connect different communities in two different countries,” Barajas emphasized.

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization founded in 1989 to “prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat,” according to its website.

“Slow Food USA, the parent organization in the United States pretty much handles everything in the U.S., and Slow Food Yolo is a chapter of Slow Food USA,” Barajas explained.

Slow Food has grown into a global movement that involves millions of people in over 160 countries, according to the website.

The university welcomed the delegation as part of its summer culinary program, which welcomed dozens of culinary professionals worldwide including Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bolivia and Hungary.

In his conversations with these experts, Barajas said many have enjoyed learning about the Slow Food agenda and have shown interest in creating their own chapters in their countries.

He noted that one expert from Puerto Rico has already shown initiative and has begun talks with him about the process.

“She’s really looking into how to create her own chapter in Puerto Rico and what type of help and assistance we can provide to incorporate Slow Food into the many restaurants she is part of,” Barajas remarked.

“One of the big differences between the last trip and this one is that we were really invited here to share our expertise and to provide some valuable experience for these culinary students through the lens of Slow Food,” Zeldner stressed.

Zeldner also noted that the delegation taught students lessons in organics, composting, recycling, sustainability and management of Earth “to give them more perspective on the whole cycle of having to create a plate of food.”

When speaking about highlights and takeaways from the experience, Barajas said the trip to Michoacán has been enriching, informative and immersive.

One example he used was getting to try a recipe called sopa de piedra — rock soup in English — that neither he nor any other delegation member had heard about before.

“It’s almost like a lost art, and that’s exactly what Slow Food is about,” Barajas argued. “It’s about bringing old heritage staples and cultural styles and preserving them by sharing them with individuals.”

“It is the best meal that we’ve had so far since we’ve been traveling and I’ve had very little experiences that have been similar to this.”

Zeldner, who also tried the soup, explained that the dish is created by heating volcanic rocks and throwing them in a soup.

“The soup is just toasted tomatoes, onion and chilies,” Zeldner explained. “They just rotate these super hot stones in the soup to cook everything and add shrimp and a few other ingredients.”

The unique way of cooking this dish and the fact that it was made in a ceramic pot gave it a distinguishing taste the two had never experienced before.

“Both Juan and I have Hispanic and Mexican influences in our kitchen,” Zeldner emphasized. “Even if we’re not bringing back particular recipes, for my staff to know I have this cultural context, it informs how we serve and the way that we prepare food in the kitchen.”

To learn more about Slow Food Yolo, visit slowfoodyolo.com.