Maria Finn
Author
Speaker
Chef
Founder
The Institute for Ecosystem Based Living
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Photo by Shelley Alger
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The Truffle Experience
Host an office onsite, or virtual truffle experience for your work team. Treat your friends to a truffle dinner or grazing table. Enjoy a cheese and truffle platter shipped to your home.
Storyteller Maria Finn will trace the history of truffles - and adorable truffle dogs, from Biblical times to the modern day Renaissance taking place.
Her truffle dog, Flora Jayne, can do a live demo , or we can show a virtual presentation of Flora Jayne hunting truffles.
Experience truffles native to the United States and cultivated European truffles.
That was one of the most wonderful nights I can remember! Bert and I can't stop talking about it and neither can our friends." Jane Inch (Truffle dinner in St. Helena)
Published on April 9th, 2024 by Sasquatch Books
Speaking Engagements
My talks combine storytelling with concrete ideas and pragmatic takeaways on how nature and good food can teach us to live more regenerative, authentic and joyful lives.
I have given talks at the SOCAP Conference, Chefs Collaborative, the California Academy of Sciences, SXSW eco, Autodesk Pier 9, among many other places. I have told stories for The Moth Mainstage at the Museo del Barrio in New York City and the Grand Slam at the Castro Theater in San Francisco along with many other venues.
Truffle Lust & Puppy Love
The first time I smelled a truffle, it reached inside me and made me want it more than anything in the world. That first, intoxicating whiff led me to my Italian truffle dog, Flora Jayne.
Here's a truffle talk I prepared for Pecha Kucha SF at the Sausalito Center for the Arts for What On Earth? Stories of Environmental Action, Artists and Activists. And here's a link to a more personal one I performed for Solo Performance Workshop in the Mission.
Flora Jayne and I travel to wineries for truffle hunting demonstrations, talks and tastings. As well, I bring the magical world of truffles for companies for talks, tastings and hands on workshops. Flora Jayne can accompany me when appropriate.
How Wild Foods Inspire Us to Become a Keystone Species
Our blood carries the same mineral content as the sea, and our skin has similar bacteria to the soil. We are fractals of planet earth and deep down, we crave nature. Wild foods like seaweed, oysters and salmon can teach and inspire us to create regenerative systems not only for food systems, but also in our own professional and personal lives.
SF Climate Designers/SF Climate Week : Be the Oyster
The more we farm shellfish, the better their (and our) environment gets. Shellfish colonies are considered “Blue carbon” ecosystems as they extract carbon from the water to grow their shells removed from the ocean. Be inspired by these delicious and beneficial creatures.
Stories Told for The Moth
I love telling stories - whether for a full theater like The Castro or The Museo del Barrio or at the small, funky Voodoo Bar in Astoria. Oregon for Fisher Poets or for a community arts festival at Spaulding Marine Works.
Menus as Storytelling
From grazing tables to sit down multi-course dinners, my team and I craft experiences that are inspired by regenerative producers and wild places. Clients include Stochastic Labs, The Center for Humane Technology, MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), Esalen, Gallery 836M, Good People Dinners, The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catchlight, The Institute of Contemporary Art SF, Ocean Genome Atlas Project, Odd Salon and many others. I also create onsite and offsite experiences with hands on team building through food.
Intertidal Zone Grazing Table as part of the Above Below Collective of Artists & Scientists raising awareness of disappearing kelp forests.
Salmon and Circumambulation Dinner in the Redwoods based on the Mount Tam watershed.
Forest centric grazing table for Paul Stamet's Birthday celebration/MAPS fundraiser
Fertile Void & Keeling Curve Dinners designed for The Center for Humane Technology.
Visit Flora & Fungi Adventures to learn about upcoming wild food and crafting events. Sign up below for the irregular, inspirational, every-once-in-a-while newsletter that's part literary, part natural history, and lists fun stuff to do.
Artist/ Chef Residencies
I was a fellow in the first creative cohort of the Design Science Studio and Living Systems Collaboratory with the Buckminister Fuller Society. I created an augmented reality Pandemic Menu from Spaceship Earth, based on wild foods and the philosophy of Buckminister Fuller. I spent 7 months as an Artist-in-Residence at Autodesk, Pier 9 maker space where I created a Wildcrafting map of the San Francisco Bay illustrated by Iris Gottlieb that’s on display at the SF Exploratorium map room. Other residencies include Writing Between the Vines, The Marin Headlands Center for the Arts and Mesa Refuge.
Press:
Fast Company Welcome To The Brave New World Of The Corporate-Sponsored Artist
Food Tank: Maria Finn: Rethinking Our Relationship with Art, Food, and the Sea
Autodesk Pier 9 Residency Presentation
San Francisco Chronicle: Maria Finn, Dedicated to Using The Whole Fish