City Of San Antonio: The World Will Get A Taste Of San Antonio's Unique Heritage With Dish Prepared By Chef John Brand For Italian Festival

Press release from the City of San Antonio:

August 19, 2021

CONTACT: Javier Flores, City of San Antonio World Heritage Office
210-207-3901, javier.flores@sanantonio.gov

SAN ANTONIO (August 19, 2021) – South Texas quail. Mustang grapes. Maize from the Mission San Juan farm. Hoja Santa. These are just a few of the ingredients that will come together in a signature dish by San Antonio chef John Brand to create a true confluence of cultures in every bite.

Brand will represent San Antonio as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy at the international Alba White Truffle Fair in Alba, Italy on November 7, 2021. Brand, who is culinary director of Hotel Emma, was one of six local chefs selected to serve as a chef ambassador and represent San Antonio as a Creative City of Gastronomy for the next two years. This will be his first trip in this new role.

For his dish to showcase San Antonio at this international event, Brand will salute our city’s cultural heritage and indigenous roots with ingredients found throughout South Texas, including maize sourced from the farm at Mission San Juan, one of the historic San Antonio Missions. Texas’ first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site is the inspiration for Brand’s dish, South Texas quail with mustang grapes, sweet potato gnocchi and dulce de batata, hoja santa, pecan ricotta and Indian popping corn polenta.

“The food prepared in this dish is sourced and inspired from the indigenous old-world ingredients from the San Antonio Missions World Heritage site,” Brand said. “In creating this recipe, it was important for me to show San Antonio’s culinary history and traditions, so that people from other parts of the world could experience the many influences that have come together over centuries to create the confluence of cultures that San Antonio is known for today.”

The Italian cities of Parma, Bergamo and Alba – all UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy – will host chefs from around the world to participate in an exclusive cooking show called “Foodie Moments” to showcase their creative dishes and Alba White Truffle. This event is meant to collaborate, share local cuisines and discuss best practices. Fellow chef ambassador Kelly Daughety, chef and nutrition education coordinator for the San Antonio Food Bank, will join Brand in Alba as his commis chef. Representatives from other Creative Cities of Gastronomy will be in attendance throughout various dates of the festival (October 9-December 5, 2021), including chefs from Burgos, Spain; Popayan, Colombia; Belém, Brazil; Hataj, Turkey; and Tsuruoka, Japan.

The San Antonio Chef Ambassador program is managed by the City of San Antonio World Heritage Office and is an initiative of the San Antonio UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation workplan. On July 1, 2021, six local chefs were selected as chef ambassadors to represent San Antonio in local, national, and international events through 2023. In addition to Brand and Daughety, the other chef ambassadors are Lilla Bernal (Culinary Institute of America), David Caceres (La Panaderia), Jesse “Chef Kirk” Kuykendall (Hotel Havana and Milpa), and Stephen Paprocki (Chef Cooperatives).

“San Antonio’s chef ambassadors represent a wide array of culinary expertise and diverse backgrounds, and we are excited for them to show the world why San Antonio’s cuisine is more than just food – it is also about history and heritage,” said Colleen Swain, Director of the World Heritage Office. “Chefs John Brand and Kelly Daughety will no doubt represent San Antonio well in Alba, Italy with a dish that is uniquely San Antonio.”

As culinary director of Hotel Emma, Brand oversees three epicurean properties that include Supper, the hotel restaurant; Larder, the in-house market and cafe; and the Sternewirthe, the Hotel Emma bar. A self-taught chef, Brand began his career as a teenage dishwasher and has since worked his way up to become a nationally-recognized chef who has worked in fine-dining restaurants across the country.

In 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated San Antonio as a Creative City of Gastronomy for its culinary legacy as a confluence of cultures. The indigenous roots; the traditions and tastes introduced by the Spanish colonists in the 1700s; and the European, Asian, and African influences that came with European settlers in the 1800s have created a complex fusion that make San Antonio's cuisine distinct from other southwest regions in the United States. As a UNESCO Creative City, San Antonio is part of a distinct group of international cities committed to sharing best practices, developing partnerships that promote creativity, strengthening participation in cultural life, and integrating culture in urban development plans.

More information on San Antonio as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy is available at www.sacityofgastronomy.org. The website provides information on the designation, a community calendar of gastronomy-related events, profiles of local chefs, and more. Information on the World Heritage Office is available at www.sanantonio.gov/worldheritage. For more information on the Alba White Truffle Fair, visit https://www.fieradeltartufo.org/en/.

This press release was produced by the City of San Antonio. The views expressed here are the author’s own.