Slow Food Nation

DESTINATION: SF RESTAURANTS
For five nights, restaurants around the Bay will be pairing up with local nonprofits to host Slow Dinners, aiming to raise funds and strengthen the connection between food and community. August 28–September 1

Dine: Cozy up on the patio under a heat lamp at Americano (8 Mission St., 415-278-3777) for chef Paul Arenstam's Slow Food Starlight Supper benefiting the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which supports research and conservation efforts in our city's parks and beyond. Arenstam will be cooking up a five-course dinner featuring Sicilian fisherman's stew, grilled Hearst Ranch skirt steak and late-summer berry pudding with mascarpone. August 31, 6 p.m.

DESTINATION: CIVIC CENTER PLAZA
Mayor Newsom's stomping grounds will be hopping with edible activism. Start with the Victory Garden for some SF-friendly planting tips, then have a gander at the Soap Box, where all sorts will share their stories at this new-world Speaker's Corner. August 29–31

Snack: Grab a bite at Slow on the Go, designed to resemble Marrakech's famous Jmaa el Fna marketplace. Pick up sweet snacks from SF's Bi-Rite Creamery, salumi from Seattle-based Armandino Batali (yes, Mario's dad) and Indian street food from Berkeley-based Vik's Chaat Corner. Save room for a sammie made with Heritage USA's sustainably produced charcuterie.

DESTINATION: HERBST THEATRE
The Herbst Theatre will offer a two-day series of lectures culminating in a Saturday-evening film event. Consider it ammunition for the informed discussions you'll be having over your Slow Food dinners.

Think: Put your ideas where your mouth is with the Food for Thought speaker series, featuring activists from all walks of life. Chef Dan Barber (of the NYC restaurant Blue Hill) and Winona LaDuke, Native American activist and founding director of White Earth Land Recovery Project, come together to talk about "Re-Localizing Food." August 29, 1 p.m.

The next day, the heavy hitters come out. Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and, of course, Alice Waters discuss the philosophy and practice of Slow Food for a session called—you got it—"Slow Food Nation." August 30, 12 noon

Watch: Perhaps best viewed after a boozy day at the Beer Pavilion, this sobering bunch of documentaries from Slow Food International's annual film festival in Bologna includes such hard-to-find flicks as The Price of Sugar, Bill Haney's exposé of sugar farming in the Dominican Republic; Silent Snow, a look at the Inuit response to Arctic pollution; and Along Came the Rain, Alejandro Fernández Almendras' short film about rural life in Latin America. August 30, 7:45 p.m.

DESTINATION: FORT MASON
On Saturday and Sunday, the 50,000-square-foot pier at Fort Mason will be home to the biggest eat-in San Francisco has ever seen; it will be named, aptly enough, Taste. Inside, you'll find 15 pavilions, each focusing on a different food, from chocolate to pickles to chutney, and curated by local food luminaries. August 30–31, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5 p.m.–9 p.m.

Drink: The beer pavilion—curated by San Francisco's brewmaster Dave McLean, of the Alembic Bar and Magnolia Pub and Brewery—will be "built in the great tradition of beer gardens," McLean says, and is hardly aimed at the six-pack-swilling lunkhead. Designed by local environmental designer John Randolph, the pavilion will incorporate three shipping containers (symbolic of its transient nature), fresh hops growing up trellises and a roof in the shape of a hop kiln. Three bars will offer a total of 100 beers, including many world-class craft labels, such as Sonoma's Russian River and San Diego's Stone Brewery.

Eat: Follow your nose to the bread pavilion, curated by experienced dough tamer Steve Sullivan (of Berkeley's Acme Bread Company), a man with 25 years of baking under his belt. There, five working bread ovens (two wood-burning pizza ovens, two charcoal-fired tandoor ovens and one commercial deck oven) will be tended by some of the best bakers around, including Pizzaiolo chef-owner Charlie Hallowell and Rohit Singh of the East Bay's Breads of India. Sullivan says that since "bread serves a community," the pavilion will also bake the bread for the other Taste pavilions, including its best friend—Olive Oil.

Learn: Within Taste, you'll find the Green Kitchen, a place to learn from chefs. We'll be front and center to see celebrated NYC chef David Chang (Momofuku, Momofuku Ssäm bar and Ko). We expect his demo will include some kind of quirky, porky deliciousness.

FARTHER AFIELD
Tour: Drag yourself out of bed for this one. On Monday, Joel Salatin—of Virginia's Polyface Farm and breakout star of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma—will be leading a daylong Grasstravaganza field trip to the San Joaquin Valley. There, guests will get a tour by horse-drawn wagon of California Cloverleaf Farms and Full Circle Dairy—the region's dairy farms that best exemplify the grass-fed revolution—and then enjoy a lunch at neighboring Kasteel Noz, the still-incomplete castle currently being built by local eccentric Casper Noz. Local chefs cook a spread featuring valley cheeses and wine. September 1, 7:15 a.m.

Hike: Slow food might be guilt-free, but that doesn't mean it's fat-free. On Sunday, burn it off on the Tennessee Valley/Green Gulch Slow Hike (those who have had one too many grass-fed Let's Be Frank dogs might want to go against the mandate and actually hike fast), in the Marin Headlands. Eight miles of a gently sloping climb will finish with a visit to Green Gulch organic farm, located on the grounds of the famed Zen Center. August 31, 9 a.m.

Complete Slow Food Nation event and ticket-purchasing information is available at slowfoodnation.org.