Cultivate Festival dishes out fare to Kansas City

Wiley Woodward, a biology major at the College of the Ozarks and a fledgling chef for his circle of friends, made the trip from Branson just to experience Saturday’s Cultivate Kansas City Festival.

“I came out for the music, but this gives you a wider perspective with both music and cooking,” said Woodward, who sat in on chef Michael Corvino’s presentation for lobster aguachile.

Around 23,000 people attended the free all-day festival in 2015 at Penn Valley Park. It was also held in Phoenix and Minneapolis.

So Chipotle came back to Kansas City again this year after returning to Phoenix in April and before heading to Miami in November.

Celebrity chefs Corvino, Andrew Zimmern, Carla Hall, Colby Garrelts and Gerard Craft were big draws. Corvino said he agreed to be a presenter because of the mindset around the event — “good food, quality food, done the right way, turns into delicious food.”

But since the festival also is a promotional tool for Chipotle, it featured several exhibits showcasing its “responsibly raised, sustainable” food. A “Factory vs. Farm” exhibit pitted overcrowded pig farms against the pasture-raised pigs used by Chipotle. An Iowa couple was on hand with a photo album of their family farm to highlight the difference, complete with colorful photos of children holding piglets in contrast to the black-and-white images of pigs stuffed in tiny cages that were used for the factory farms.

Loomstate showcased its organically raised cotton — from cotton plant to cotton bundle to T-shirt — that Chipotle uses in its uniforms and retail products.

A long line formed for a demonstration on how to make guacamole from scratch, followed by a free tasting.

The Artisans Hall featured local vendors Alchemy Coffee, Dolce Bakery, Poppy’s Ice Cream and Shatto Milk Co., while the Tasting Hall included KC Bier Co. and Cinder Block Brewery.