This amazing event took place over a month ago, but it’s still worth writing about! It was organised by my dear friend Claire Hartten, together with new friends Yetsuh Frank, of the New York branch of the US Green Building Council, Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheeses, and Carlos Suarez of Bobo restaurant. Hosted by City Bakery (the first organic bakery in New York City) it was an evening meal themed around the links between food, cities and sustainability. One hundred and twenty mostly invited guests, including food producers, policy-makers, eco-builders and restaurateurs, enjoyed a four-course meal, all of which (apart from one of the cheeses!) was sourced from within New York State. As each course was served, the producers and chefs responsible for them spoke about the issues they faced in supplying a city such as New York. For instance, local oyster-catcher Mike Osinski talked about sending his oysters by Fed-Ex, and Anne Saxelby (who went on a 100-mile round trip to a local farm to bring us some delicious raw milk for the event) talked about how such products have been marginalised or made illegal by the scaling-up of food supply chains. It was my job to introduce the event, putting all of these issues into a broad context. It was quite some evening. Many new connections were forged and friends made, and the founding team are staying in touch, looking to do some follow-up events. Watch this space!

For more photos of the event, see here: http://www.malcolmbrown.net/citybakery