What does sustainability mean for the future of Deli cuisine and culture? Local, organic versus industrial systems, externalized costs of cheap food and...collective memory and food traditions.
Even
"authentic" cuisine can obstruct progress towards more just, sustainable food. How does a business committed to being part of the solution persuade traditionalist customers of the importance of change?
For example, towering pastrami sandwiches once signified success, security and abundance, an immigrant's celebration of the American Dream. But given the realities of meat production in America today -- 99 percent is factory farmed -- how can we continue to stand by this as an icon? What taste memories and flavors of The Deli have been provided by an industrial food system?
How can we look at our nostalgia critically? How might we evolve a shared cuisine together and how can we bring our people along with us -- away from grieving the disappearing deli, into the conversation and into the future?
Bio
Karen Adelman
Karen Adelman and Chez Panisse alum Peter Levitt strive to steward a Jewish cuisine reflecting season, time and place, reconnecting with traditional culinary practices. Karen Adelman, the California native born of New Yorkers, enjoyed a Jewish education developed mainly via palate. Twice annually her family made pilgrimages to New York eateries in the city and the boroughs. In this way she came to know "what was what."
Karen studied Sociology and Mass Communications at UC Berkeley. She waited tables at Saul's after her publishing office was crushed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Eventually Karen came to manage Saul's. Karen called Peter out of teaching to help her purchase and run Saul's Restaurant and Delicatessen with her.
Gil Friend
Gil Friend is President and CEO, Natural Logic Inc.
He was a founding board member of internet pioneer Institute for Global Communications, and played key or founding roles in such seminal environmental enterprises as EcoNet, GreenLine, the California Office of Appropriate Technology, and Buckminster Fuller's "World Game." He was co-founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, one of the nation's leading urban ecology and economic development think-tanks.
Mr. Friend has written extensively and lectures widely on sustainability issues. He holds an MS in Systems Ecology from Antioch University, a black belt in Aikido, and is a seasoned presenter of "The Natural Step" environmental management system.
Evan Kleiman
Evan Kleiman is the renowned owner and executive chef of one of LA's favorite restaurants, Angeli Caffe, and best-selling author of numerous cookbooks, including Cucina Fresca and Pasta Fresca.
Kleiman brings to Good Food a rich and varied background -- as scholar of Italian cooking and culture, entrepreneur and trend-setter for the popular trattoria concept, avid gardener, and admired teacher and chef -- which has won her the esteem of her culinary colleagues both here and abroad.
Peter Levitt
Karen Adelman and Chez Panisse alum Peter Levitt strive to steward a Jewish cuisine reflecting season, time and place, reconnecting with traditional culinary practices. Peter Levitt's family in South Africa was on the reform side of Jewish identity but he personally chose to pursue his religion seriously in his early life. Peter spent many hours praying and studying. Fortunately his mother's kitchen also figured prominently in his childhood. Many, many hours reading the torah were complimented by a sumptuous variety of many Ashkenazi comfort foods. Eventually Peter found himself in California.
After studying Mathematics and Chinese Language at UC Berkeley, Peter decided to cook. Naturally. He worked in Oliveto's kitchen for four years and Chez Panisse for two. Then it followed as a matter of course, he became a math teacher at MLK Middle School. Karen called Peter out of teaching to help her purchase and run Saul's Restaurant and Delicatessen with her.
Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a New York Times bestseller.
His previous books include The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism.
Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper's Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing 2004, Best American Essays 2003, and the Norton Book of Nature Writing.
Willow Rosenthal
Willow Rosenthal is the founder of City Slicker Farms, a non-profit urban agriculture organization in West Oakland.
Any person whose religion is Judaism. In a wider sense the term refers to any member of a worldwide ethnic and cultural group descended from the ancient Hebrews who traditionally practiced the Jewish religion. The Hebrew term Yehudi, translated as Judaeus in Latin and Jew in English, originally referred to a member of the tribe of Judah. In Jewish tradition, any child born of a Jewish mother is considered a Jew; in Reform Judaism a child is considered a Jew if either parent is Jewish.
Lovely video. And my mighty Linux box handles the mp4 very nicely, thanks.
I visited Saul's a couple of years ago on holiday.Since I got a new job this year, I've moved to Fordingbridge in Hampshire, which makes the airports easier to reach.
I also love Herring.
But while we have two alleged delis in the village, incredibly they don't do Herring.
In the end the local game butcher kindly got me my Herrings from Speyside in Scotland, superb, but at £14 a tub I have enough for two months.
Meanwhile the cafe close to where I work has a similar attitude to Saul's, and sources everything locally. Their Flapjacks are the best I've ever had, their roast chicken sandwiches are made with real, freshly roasted corn-fed, still warm, and the Arlesford Champagne Truffle chocolates were so good that I bought several packs and sent some to my mum. Will I be going back anytime soon?
As John Wayne said in The Searchers, "That'll be the day."
Based on watching this video, it seems like you believe 100% of people who go to a deli must have a "mile-high" sandwich. Sure a certain percentage love that, however, many think it's expensive and over the top.
As Michael Pollan likes to state: "Make it an occasional "treat".
member. 
