Oakland: New Urban Eating

About

Oakland: New Urban Eating is a cookbook I self-published in 2015 with a little help from Kickstarter. The book captures the developing food scene in Oakland, California through interviews and recipes. Originally conceived as a traditional cookbook of Oakland restaurants and artisans, I quickly became aware of the number of food-based organizations working towards food equity and the importance of their work. With this new development, I shifted my focus and began interviewing urban farmers, foragers, food justice advocates, restaurateurs, artisans, and residents, asking them all a unifying question—“What will Oakland look like in 10 years?”

Introduction Sample

What will Oakland look like in ten years?

For the past two years, I posed this question to the chefs, artisans and food-based organizations who are transforming the food scene in Oakland. In doing so, my goal has been to provide a snapshot of the city during a period of rapid and dramatic cultural transformation.

Of course Oakland has existed in a state of transition since its beginnings. Oakland's long history of newer populations arriving, disrupting, pushing out, and “refining” begins with its incorporation in May 1852, initially as a town and two years later as a city. Recognized today as one of the most diverse cities in the US, it was originally inhabited by the Huchiun tribe. Long before our cafes and dive bars existed, the Huchiun were collecting food in Temescal and Lake Merritt, where we currently enjoy gondola rides and food options that range from Eritrean cuisine to Cambodian to soul food...