The Abridged version:
- Terra Madre Americas will bring three days of food and drink lectures, demonstrations and tastings to downtown Sacramento.
- Most live music takes place on Saturday, including headliners Spoon and The War on Drugs.
- The festival spotlights food and drinks from across North and South America.
One of the United States’ biggest new food festivals, Terra Madre Americas, will drop into downtown Sacramento this weekend. It’s an international affair with options galore for locals.
Modeled off of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy, Terra Madre Americas aims to showcase foods, drinks and their makers from across North and South America. There are free lectures, demonstrations, podcasts, live music and of course, tastings, all happening in and around the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center.
It’s a lot to digest, so to speak. Here’s what you need to know for each day throughout the weekend. and make the most of your time. Check out Terra Madre’s online calendar ahead of time, and reserve your spot in advance for anything you’re particularly interested in attending, especially if it costs money.
All weekend
Terra Madre Marketplace and the Enoteca will be running essentially all weekend, and adventurous eaters and drinkers won’t want to miss either. The Marketplace offers free samplings of more than 75 foods from across North and South America, with larger quantities available for purchase, while the Enoteca has wines by the glass or 10 tastings for $50 in its “Meet the Producers” experience. Be sure to stop by whatever day you go.
Worried a million little bites won’t add up to a full meal? The streets outside the convention center will be filled with food trucks and pop-up stands in the spirit of Sacramento’s erstwhile Farm-to-Fork Festival. More than 20 beers will be on tap at the Slow Beverage area, along with a Negroni bar.
Note: The Grand Tasting featuring bites from 20 Sacramento-area chefs is sold out, as are all three-course Terra Madre Americas Bistro dinners from visiting celebrity chefs. That’s unfortunate, particularly for the latter, given that their mouthwatering menus are still listed online. I’m making a mental note to sign up early when Terra Madre Americas returns in 2027.
Friday
Ear-catching discussions: Exploring indigenous foodways in the United States (12:30 p.m.), building community through food (2 p.m.), peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities at the heart of local food systems (3:30 p.m.), tea for the body and mind (4 p.m.), Slow Spirits: distilling terroir (5 p.m.), exploring Slow Food Negroni Week (6:30 p.m.)
Talks with tastings: Upcycling spent brewer’s grain (1 p.m.), cacao drinks from Brazil and Ecuador (2:30 p.m.), eating well to lower cancer risk (3:30 p.m.), exploring the Ark of Taste and Slow Food Farms in the U.S. (4:30 p.m.), tea with the UC Davis Global Tea Institute, exploring Colombia and Mexico with El Cruce de las Rocas (6:30 p.m.), Séka Hills olive oil tasting (6:30 p.m.)
Demonstrations: Processing acorns with Wilton Rancheria (noon, interactive), meat cooking with Sean McGaughey, the acclaimed chef/co-owner of Healdsburg restaurants Troudabor and Quail & Condor (1:30 p.m.), whole animal butchery with Bonjerk founder Anica Wu (5:30 p.m.), California dates in cocktails with celebrity chef Elizabeth Falkner (6 p.m.)
Live podcasts: Wolves, grizzlies and the challenge of ranch coexistence (12:30 p.m.), stewarding state lands for the future via regenerative agriculture (2:30 p.m., with California Natural Resources Agency secretary Wade Crowfoot), how pastured poultry is joining the regenerative revolution (4:30 p.m.), understanding the range of regenerative certifications on meat packaging (7 p.m.)
Paid courses: $30 taste of Slow Coffee and Slow Wine (12:30 p.m.), $25 home barista masterclass (2 p.m.), $35 introduction to Mexican wines (3:30 p.m.) $25 cacao tasting and workshop (5 p.m.) and $25 zero-proof garden cocktails workshop (6:30 p.m.)
Saturday
Ear-catching discussions: Getting to know the Sacramento area’s Slow Food farms (10:30 a.m.), challenges and opportunities for California agriculture (11:15 a.m.), transforming California school meals with Alice Waters, Kat Taylor and chef Ann Cooper (12:30 p.m.), foraging with respect (1:30 p.m.), a conversation with Jeremiah Tower and Corti Brothers owner Darrell Corti (2:30 p.m.), democratizing food access (3:30 p.m), the Slow Beverage movement (6 p.m.), Indigenous foods from across the Americas (7 p.m.)
Talks with tastings: Healing meals for cancer recovery (10:15 a.m.), fireside chat with acorn soup (10:30 a.m.), anti-inflammatory foods for everyday health (noon), exploring grains that feed us across the Americas (12:30 p.m.), honey talk and tasting (1:15 p.m.), affordable choices for a healthier planet (2 p.m.), a buttermonger talk and tasting (2:15 p.m.), chocolates of the land, from seed to flavor (2:30 p.m.), upcycling wine grapes (4 p.m.), flavors of Brazil to Bolivia (4:30 p.m.), plant-based eating for chronic disease prevention (6 p.m.), charcuterie and wines from California (6:30 p.m.)
Demonstrations: Butchery with Taylor’s Market owner Danny Johnson (10:30 a.m.), foraged mushrooms preparation (noon), cooking with Alchemist CDC chef Dennis Sydnor (1:30 p.m.), cooking with celebrity chef Chris Cosentino (3:30 p.m.), stirring up culture one dish at a time (5:30 p.m.), cooking goat with Los Angeles chef Mary Sue Milliken (5:30 p.m.)
Live podcasts: How regenerative ranchers heal the land (12:30 p.m), financing the ranches of tomorrow (2:30 p.m.), Harvest Path: a tool for regenerative producers (4:30 p.m.)
Paid courses: $25 home barista masterclass (10:30 a.m.), $35 agroecology in action (noon), $25 how to make the perfect Negroni (4:30 p.m.), Slow Spirits: agave cocktails (6 p.m.)
Music: Son Cafe (12:30 p.m.,) hotplug (1:45 p.m.,) Jon Wiilde (3 p.m.), Passion Pit solo acoustic set (4:25 p.m.), Jade Bird (5:40 p.m.), Spoon (6:55 p.m.), The War on Drugs (8:20 p.m.). All outside the convention center on the Golden 1 Live Music stage.
Sunday
Ear-catching discussions: Gender rights in food systems (11 a.m.), coffee voices from North, Central and South America (noon), sustainable fisheries and the role of chefs (1 p.m.), getting kids excited about eating local (2 p.m.), Bourbon, an American tradition (3 p.m.), chef advocacy across divides (4 p.m.), the future of sustainable agriculture (5 p.m.)
Talks with tastings: Debunking public food service myths with fable mushrooms (10:15 a.m.), legume traditions from Latin America and the Caribbean (10:30 a.m.), UC Davis student farm (noon), Slow Wine Coalition: agroforestry in action (1:30 p.m.), fruits of the land (2:30 p.m.), seafood for health and sustainability (4 p.m.), traditional flavors rooted in healing and heritage (4:30 p.m.)
Demonstrations: Cooking pork with chef and co-owner Matthew Dolan of San Francisco restaurant 25 Lusk (11:30 a.m.), the wonders of squash with Crystal Wahpehpah of Wahpehpah’s Kitchen in Oakland (2:30 p.m.), butchery with Eric V. Miller, the former owner of V. Miller Meats now with Corfini Meat & Seafood (2:30), Slow Food Turtle Island: following the path of our ancestors (3:30 p.m.), cooking lamb with Daniel Kedan of the Culinary Institute of America (4 p.m.)
Live podcasts: How shepherds are feeding people and the land (10:30 a.m.), meat as medicine for people and the planet (12:30 p.m.)
Paid courses: $35 Slow Cider experience (10:30 a.m.), $25 home barista masterclass (noon), $35 Criolla grapes of Latin America (1:30 p.m.), $25 Slow Drinks 101 with James Beard Award-winning author and bartender Danny Childs (3 p.m.), $25 Jenny Lind heritage melon apertif creation (4:30 p.m.)
Music: The Golden Cadillacs (3:30 p.m.), Big Head Todd and The Monsters (4:30 p.m.)
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.