Fermented foods, traditional techniques, and fermentation culture.
Beijing-born Liu Yang, from IT, fell for cheese while studying in France. From a small Huilongguan Farmers’ Market stall in 2009, he crafted over a dozen handmade cheeses blending French tradition with Beijing’s terroir, yet Bule Cheese Workshop faces the growth challenge of “from workshop to factory”.
Yi Jian, who runs Jane&Lucy, cultivates a natural sourdough starter from flour and water — rich in yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and acetic acid bacteria — and walks through every step of making sourdough bread, from starter cultivation to baking.
Food Talk’s first crossover with Dàxiǎo Diànbō: Qiaoli Ke founder Nánshān and host Gǔsì chat about fermented foods—from cacao beans becoming chocolate to cheese and kombucha—and a new goal of growing homegrown cacao in Hainan.
As the scattered village in the New Territories crumbled under demolition, Sanjiao carried a sourdough starter through pandemic streets and bread workshops, finally reaching Yinlin Ecological Farm, Conghua, where ecological smallholder flour gives bread back to the land beneath her feet and the community around her.
At a Fermentation Awakening Festival panel in Beijing, Lake Shore Culture’s Jing Yan and Liu Xinxing and Mary, authors of The Incredible Fermentation & Brewing, discussed traditional crafts—Highland barley wine, Sulima wine and others—vanishing as makers dwindle. Fermentation culture still lacks dissemination and consumer support.
Liuyi, a Hunanese living in Hangzhou, brings back Mount Heng’s chopped chilli late-night snack and the lard rice in her father’s travelling bag; the sourness of sour chilli comes from salt, not vinegar – it ferments for about twenty days at thirty degrees.
From Katz’s The Art of Fermentation to Watanabe Gaku’s Field Bakery Wonders, from Nine-Inch Craft Brewing’s home-brewing notes to a civilisation history of fermented food – five books and ten video episodes sketch an entry path into home fermentation and link offline communities across many cities nationwide.
Two fermentation engineering graduates founded Nine Inches Craft Brewing after starting with home-brewed beer, then visited fermentation artisans across the country – from mead and Stinky winter melon to suanye – hoping that flavour will help more people see the diversity of the fermentation world.
Bule Handmade Cheese proprietor Liu Yang first makes Mozzarella from one pot of pasteurised fresh milk, then heats the leftover whey into Ricotta – two Italian fresh cheeses, both completed at home.
Fermentation is migrating from home kitchens to factory production lines; millennia-old techniques are on the brink of disappearing. Sandor Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation, advocates bringing fermentation back to homes and communities, rebuilding local food economies and communities. Foodthink hosts four Shared Reading discussions in November.
