Sandor Katz – The marvels of fermentation

Fermentation opens up a marvelous world to us. In culinary traditions in every part of the world people have developed techniques for guiding the development of microorganisms so that rather than our food decomposing into something disgusting that nobody would ever put into their mouths, we always derive some practical benefit from fermentation.

Fermentation creates extraordinary flavors and gourmet food shops everywhere in the world are full of products of fermentation: alcohol is produced by fermentation, many foods become more stable, preserved by the power of fermentation, fermentation can also make foods more easily digestible, they can make nutrients available that would not be otherwise available to us. Fermentation removes toxins from certain foods and produces a bacteria that we we call probiotic, because they confer a benefit on the people who eat them.

Sandor Ellix Katz is the guru of fermentation. A curious researcher from Tennessee, he’s developed his passion through experience in the kitchen, studies of nutrition and agricultural practices. He runs courses on fermentation across the world, has participated in Terra Madre since its first edition and has helped create an international interest for these topics. The New York Times has called him “one of the few rock stars of the American gastronomic scene”. Newsweek described his book Wild Fermentation as “the bible of fermentation”.