RICHMOND, CA, April 7, 2017 – Jered’s Pottery, one of the West Coast’s foremost designers and manufacturers of fine dinnerware, is proud to announce the third annual CLAY WITH YOUR FOOD, an event presented in association with San Francisco Design Week featuring Northern California chefs competing at the nexus of food and ceramic art.
This year’s competitors include Brandon Jew, chef-owner of Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, Jeff Russell, recently appointed executive chef at the forthcoming Charlie Palmer Steak in Napa, and Adam Tortosa, former executive chef at 1760 and Akiko’s, whose newest restaurant, Robin, opens in Hayes Valley later this spring. Judging the competition are food writer Rebecca Flint Marx, chef Daniel Patterson and painter Victor Reyes. Clay With Your Food takes place at Jered’s Pottery Studio in Richmond on Sunday, June 18 at 4 p.m. Tickets, which include food from Namu Gaji restaurant in San Francisco, are $100, and go on sale May 3 at 2017.sfdesignweek.org. A direct ticket link will be announced soon at jeredspottery.com/blogs/news.
“Clay With Your Food is a food-meets-performance-art triathlon,” said Jered Nelson, founder of Jered’s Pottery. “The chefs are tasked with preparing food in the kiln at 1,000 degrees, throwing their own serving dish on the potter’s wheel and plating food on my original, sculptural vessels created for the occasion.”
“I conceived the idea for the competition in 2015 as a way to push chefs out of their comfort zone, and to start a conversation about what’s next in the world of food presentation. But the guiding spirit of the event,” added Nelson, “is the drive to play.”
This year’s event expands on previous years’ with a round of live, on-the-spot ekphrastic poetry in response to the event’s culinary and ceramic creations. Nelson’s wife, Sarah Kobrinsky, a professional poet as well as the director of marketing and business development for Jered’s Pottery, initiated the idea. Invited poets include Hugh Behm-Steinberg, MK Chavez and poet laureate of El Cerrito, Maw Shein Win.
Chefs who have participated in previous Clay With Your Food competitions include Bill Corbett, Kelsey Kerr, Mark Liberman, Evan Rich, Galen Vasquez and former Top Chef TV show participant, Louis Maldonado.
Jered’s Pottery is Jered Nelson and his talented crew of artists and craftspeople. Jered has hand-thrown over 100,000 vessels in his 27-year career as a potter. The creations of Jered’s Pottery are today in use in some of the most popular high-end restaurants in the Bay Area, a growing list that includes Rich Table, Michael Mina, 1760, Coqueta, Nico and The Battery, to name a few.
