After promoting the visit of prominent food guru Michael Pollan on last week's cover, we're back in the kitchen again for second helpings with food mavens Ben and Jonny Hunter, principals in the local Underground Food Collective.
It's inane to say that food has become a big business. It's always been that, but it certainly is true that the growing, marketing and eating of food gets a lot more attention than it used to. And that's a good thing. Not only do we now know more about what we put in our mouths, but we also have more control over it, if we choose to, and have a greater variety of comestibles to choose from.
The Hunter brothers and outfits like the Underground Food Collective are in the adventuresome regions of all this food awareness. Food writer Kyle Nabilcy tells us how the two made their way to Madison, by a circuitous route, and the influence they've had on Madison's food traditions.
We're also providing a menu of food for the soul with this week's Isthmus, which includes the program for the Wisconsin Book Festival. The Book Fest, Oct. 7-11, presented by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, is five days of free events all about books - lectures, discussions, readings and more. The program contains everything you need to know, all in one place. There are an overwhelming number of choices. In our issue next week, staffer Dave Medaris will give what has become his annual overview of festival offerings, pointing out the highlights, if you can wait that long.
In the meantime, with a pork chop in one hand and a book in the other, I'd be a pretty happy chomper. There would be that problem of grease on the pages, but I'm just imagining anyway. The only place that combination is likely to come together is in the pages of Isthmus.
