Fermentation Cast

Our next interviewee has something to be envious about: a collection of micro-organisms isolated from fermented foods. At the University of Ljublana Neža Čadež works on using this collection for all kinds of new fermented foods. In Bolzano she presented the results of a project aimed at making gluten free beer from buckwheat, a grain that when used with a regular beer yeast doesn’t make for a very tasty beer. In the Slovenian mountains, the team isolated rare yeast strains from spontaneously fermented ciders and selected one that performed best on buckwheat. Then, they improved it so it better utilizes maltose, the sugar mainly found in wort. Hear what Neža has to say about how they managed to do so. Spoiler: don’t carelessly play with this at home, and always keep an eye out for proper pH values.

[Level: Advanced]
This is our second report from the International Conference on Fermented Foods in Bolzano. Oscar Boronat Nielsen, a fermentation scientist and huge foodie, explains us how he combines starters for tempeh and soy sauce to create a new style of tempeh with more umami and more flavour. And the most fun part? You can quite easily try this at home! Learn how to time the addition of each fungus, how the prepare the soy beans and in which conditions you should ferment this fluffy creation.

[Level: Advanced]
This is the first episode of four covering Ivana's visit to the International Conference on Fermented Foods in Bolzano, where four interviews took place with fermentation SUPER specialists. The first conversation is with Emanuele Zannini. He is both a professor in food science at University La Sapienza in Rome and a research professor at UCC University College in Cork, Ireland. Emanuele Zannini talks about how we can use A.I. to create the foods of tomorrow using traditional fermentation, how fermentation allows him to interact with the intelligence of microbes and reveals his favourite sidestream (cause who doesn't have one?).

[Level: Beginner]
Welcome to the first episode of season 2 of the Fermentation Cast! This season, we build on our knowledge obtained in the first season. We step away from the fermentation tree and invite guests from all over the world to talk about how théy ferment. They give us tips and tricks that you can apply directly into practise.
This episode is a special one and evolves entirely around beetroots. Ivana became an ambassador of this sturdy vegetable together with a group of other food professionals. We call ourselves the "Bietenclub", the Beetroot Club. We put this vegetable in the spotlight at the start of winter and hopefully in time for you to put some fermented beetroots on your Christmas table. Time to see if you remember about all the different types fermentations!

[Level: Beginner]
If you are a fermenter, you probably own a copy of the Noma Guide to Fermentation. For our season finale Ivana drove over to Copenhagen for a one hour interview with the writer of this book and thé O.G. master of fermentation David Zilber. In his funky fermentation lab where he works on innovative applications of microbes for Novonesis, they speak about their brief shared history at Noma, his life as a food scientist now and they reflect on the first season of the fermentation cast combining his personal anecdotes with our fermentation tree. Stay tuned till the end to discover how you too can became a true fermentation fairy.