The sun is shining, the Pacific ocean is sparkling, there is fine artisanal fair-trade organic coffee to drink just steps away, and yet all these fresh-faced shiny people are spending their days worrying about a conflict so far removed from their own lives that it seems farcical.
Much of what makes Florence's annual artisanal Italian food fair, Pitti Taste, more enjoyable than say, its sibling, the men's fashion week, Pitti Uomo, is the simple fact that participants are encouraged to eat.
Mr. Young scoffs at the word artisanal — "everyone's an artisan now," he said — but it is a fair description of the baking process at Balthazar and several other bakeries in New Jersey that make crisp baguettes, hearty multigrain loaves and sourdough ryes in a similar hands-on fashion, if on a smaller scale.
For the last two years, Ms. Legeron has held RAW, a fair in London that brings together producers of artisanal and natural wines with others in the trade and the public.
STROLLING a street fair should be a wholesome, cheerful endeavor, a chance to ogle artisanal wares, help a giggling toddler onto a pony or watch your buttoned-down neighbor slam power chords with his garage band.
It is not charity; It is shared values: we create fair and decent jobs; we ensure women economic empowerment, we preserve artisanal traditions, we contribute to sustainable development, we build local entrepreneurship; we leverage development aid with business solutions to generate growth through trade".
Outside the tent, on the path from the pier where ferries from East 35th Street deposit travelers to the fair, I came across a van stocked with a dozen flavors of artisanal ice cream from van Leeuwen.
In any event, you will want to shun those mass-market confections shouting at you from display racks at the front of your local supermarket, and find your way to the artisanal treats discreetly clustered elsewhere, with their sweet but subtle siren songs promising organic ingredients, fair or direct trade sourcing, and high percentages of cocoa within.
The Vendy Awards are now embracing a new breed of outdoor vendor: market stands at hip food fairs like the Hester Street Fair on the Lower East Side, Smorgasburg in Williamsburg and New Amsterdam Market at South Street Seaport, where foodies flock for artisanal, locally sourced treats on summer weekends.
Artisanal techniques, once deemed the opposite of cool, are making their way back into art fairs and galleries, particularly in Europe.
In recent years, she said, nominations have clustered around ethnic-food vendors and vendors who produce artisanal foods with ingredients like lavender and umami — no surprise to anyone who has visited a food fair recently.
