Michael Harlan Turkell interviewed me for The Food Seen on Heritage Radio Network. We spend a fantastic hour talking about the art gallery, Wok the Dog, travel and all the culineary delights I discovered around the world as I progress w/ the long term documentary project of food markets around the world. Listen to the full interview here.

Michael Harlan Turkell, once an aspiring chef and now freelance photographer and a photo editor of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan magazines, captures the inner workings of kitchens and documents the lives of chefs in their restaurant world. On The Food Seen, he’ll further explore the amalgamation of food and art by talking to artists from a multitude of media. Guest will range from photographers, food stylists, interior architects for restaurants, industrial designers — all the players that make you want to eat with your eyes. Get ready to feast your ears!

Heritage Radio Network was started in March of 2009 by Patrick Martins and Heritage Foods USA. Built into two re-purposed shipping containers, the station is located in the back garden of Roberta’s Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Our shows are broadcast live, and subsequently archived on our website where they can be downloaded as podcasts or RSS feeds.

The content on Heritage Radio Network is absolutely unique, no other broadcast medium is offering the range of subject matter, or the depth of interest in matters of vital importance to every day living.

A press stunt/ random shenanigans / a just because “I can” adventure with friend Sherry Otts on Girlfriendology. Read more about how we disrupted NYC Monday commune here.

Rachel, an fabulous independent curator is the Art Muse. Images from “Fetal Position and Drool” was featured for Curated. See Curated here.

Florence Fabricant from The New York Times Dining sections lists Flesh + Bone.

Untapped Cities NYC caught up with Kesha and I and wanted to know more about the EPIC fall season we have planned for Baang and Burne Contemporary, out experience in crowd sourcing and more.

Here is what Untapped Cities had to say:

Charlie Grosso and Kesha Bruce of the roaming art gallery Baang and Burne raise this provocative question that challenges the norms of art production, distribution and ownership: What if there were no more art galleries? “Artists would have to be in complete control of their own work,” says Kesha. How would artists sell and promote their work if they completely removed the traditional commercial gallery route from the equation? What if self-produced, “indie” events were considered the norm instead of the alternative?

Charlie and Kesha plan to do just that with their event, 6×6. In 6 weeks, they will host 6 art exhibits, 5 artist dinners, 1 scavenger hunt, 4 workshops & 1 cooking class. They see this is a blueprint for how artists can wrest control back. This isn’t about countering the increasing hold of the digital domain however. They see social media as a given. Charlie tells Untapped, “Running an aggressive social media campaign, reaching out to sites such as UntappedCities and really embracing the new opportunities of the digital media is a given. We hope with what we are doing with Baang and Burne and 6×6 that we can show the art world an alternative but also use the web to reach out to new audience.”

A further example of their digital savvy is that they will take the video footage and workshop notes, podcast recordings and package it all up into an affordable, easily accessible, step-by-step DIY “How-To” Guide that teach independent artists how they can plan and re-create their own version of 6×6 in their own communities.

Some of the artists featured in 6×6 include Guggenheim fellow Ed Smith, paintings by a 72 year-old South African artist Meyer Uranovsky, as well as new work by anonymous video artist, and YouTube celebrity, Readymade777.

 Here's the lineup of the events. You can get involved and support 6x6 via Kickstarter.

Four “Friday Art Date” dinners where a gallery space is transformed into a fun, cozy restaurant for the exhibiting artists and 15 to 20 hungry art lovers.

Get Connected: A two-part workshop series focusing on on Effective Web Design + Branding and Social Media for Creatives, in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Web Work Marathon:  Show up with your laptop, images, and a bit of web copy.  Leave with your slick new Art website built under the knowledgeable guidance of a team of Rockstar web designers.

Hide and See: An Art World themed Scavenger Hunt throughout the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City custom designed in partnership with Secret City.

Looking and Cooking with ArtBite. A Fine Art cooking class taught by Renowned Los Angeles Executive Chef Maite Gomez-Rejoin.

Be sure to check them out for all the unexpected, funfilled culture NYC has to offer.

Sheep Seller in Yellow, Kamil, Morocco, 2010

NYC Chef Marcus Samuelsson featured images from Kamil, Morocco portion of Wok the Dog on his blog, Food and People. Check it out here.

Food and People By Charlie Grosso

A friend took me out to a small town called Kamil, Morocco just before Eid Al-Adha, Feast of Abraham. It was market day and there were sheep everywhere.

Every family buys a sheep and sacrifices it for God during Eid and sheep is nearly all you see. They put strap the sheep down on top of buses, in the trucks of cars, push it home in wheel barrels or simply throw it over their shoulder and haul it out. Not only were there live sheep everywhere, the butchers were selling lamb and mutton as well. The one chicken vendor was almost a novelty in amidst the frenzy of sheep-centric Eid.

President Obama was recently in NYC and dined at Red Rooster, Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s latest venture in Harlem.

Images from Wok The Dog series is regularly featured in Marcus Samuelsson’s Blog, Food and People.

In a silly game of 6 Degrees of Separation, Ms Grosso is now only 2 degrees away from President Obama!

Fez, Morocco – City of Fairy Tales is the most recent entry.  To see more here:

A brief Except from the Blog Entry:

The sand colored city of Fez, Morocco appears to be a city out of fairy tales. The city seems like it never quiet entered the modern century much less the 21st. There are still vendors selling coal. And one butcher shop in the medina that sold Camel.

I’ve always thought that Camels were expensive and highly prized by the Arabs and seeing the camel head outside the butcher shop with the camel hoofs on the ground was certainly a shock.

I wish I spoke French or Arabic better to ask about the taste, cost and selling of camels in Arab culture.

Charlie Grosso, Director of Baang + Burne Contemporary spoke at the Emerging Collectors Symposium for Finch & Ada along with Marisa Sage from “Like the Spice” Gallery and Independent Curator Savannah Spirit.

The panel is geared towards the Emerging Art Collectors to remove the intimation out of art buying and start collecting.

The event is part of Finch & Ada’s current exhibit, The Pleasure is All Mine, a group show featuring work that is about pleasure, happiness and joy.

If you miss the event and would like to learn more about collecting art, Baang + Burne Contemporary has a free E-Book “Art Buying for Emerging Collectors” available to down load on their website.

NYC Chef Marcus Samuelsson featured images from Casablanca, Morocco portion of Wok the Dog on his blog, Food and People. Check it out here.

Food and People By Charlie Grosso

“Wok the Dog” is a long term photographic series that examines the commerce of meat, the market place around the world. Since 2004, I have photographed markets in 20 countries and 74 cities. For more international adventures, read my past Food and People posts about Luxor and Masaya.

Humphrey Bogart might be the only association you have with Casablanca, Morocco. Yet Bogart is absent from the markets of Casablanca. What is abundant is the a sense of poetry.

The French influence is unmistakable. It telegraphs itself throughout the market and I am surprised by its appearance. Take stall number 14 for example. I feel like I am looking a rendering of Paris in early 1900s, yet it is Casablanca in modern day. A little bit of the old along with a little bit of the new comes together in the markets of Casablanca.

For more images from Wok the Dog and information, visit: www.charliegrosso.com

March 10, 2011
NYC

NYC Chef Marcus Samuelsson featured images from Luxor, Egypt portion of Wok the Dog on his blog, Food and People. Check it out here.

Food and People By Charlie Grosso

“Wok the Dog” is a long term photographic series that examines the  commerce of meat, the market place around the world. Since 2004, I have photographed markets in 20 countries and 74 cities. For another international adventures, read my past Food and People post about Masaya.

I arrived in Luxor, Egypt just after Eid Al-Adha, Feast of Abraham. Markets were closed during the high holidays and the markets in Luxor were gradually awaking itself and reassembling. There were butcher shops in the most uncommon places, down a strange alley way on your way to the main drag, for example.

Complete sides of cow hang down from hooks just outside the shop while butchers break down the carcass right there on the street. The masculine nature of Islamic culture is on view here as men out numbers women in the markets.  Friendly vendors smile at me as I seem to the be only traveler who is willing to stay a minute and not hurry through in disgust like the other tourists. The markets are not a novelty to me. The market is the authentic view on any culture one can have.