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A local chef turned to
tempeh to resource her health
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after facing a serious
bacterial infection.
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Now she makes the living
food in small batches
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for sale in Durango.
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You’re watching the Local News Network
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brought to you by 2180
Lighting and Design Studio
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and FASTSIGNS of Durango,
I’m Wendy Graham Settle.
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Southwest Colorado chef
Maddalena Tummenaro
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accidental stabbed herself
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with a pitchfork several years ago,
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and soon found her system overwhelmed
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with a serious bacterial infection.
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After months on intravenous
antibiotics, she healed.
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But the microbiomes in
her system were destroyed
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leaving her vulnerable to more infections.
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Scientist estimate that
the human body is a home
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to about 100 trillion
microbiomes, like fungi,
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bacteria, or viruses
that live in our skin,
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in our respiratory system,
mouth, digestive tract
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and other areas of our body.
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They protect us against disease
and help us breakdown food
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to release energy.
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As a chef of 25 years, the
last 15 of which were focused
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on organic and healthy foods,
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she searched for a way
to resort the biomes
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in her system naturally.
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That’s when her journey to
make fresh tempeh began.
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Tempeh is a protein-rich
food made from a combination
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of beans, grains, and
seeds that’s fermented
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with a type of fungus to produce mycelium,
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a white fiber-like substance
that surrounds the bean
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and forms a solid cake of living food.
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Mycelium is the plant part of a fungus
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that allows the fungus to
breakdown plants into nutrients.
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It’s found naturally in soils
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and is sometimes used
as an organic additive
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to enrich soils for cultivation.
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And so this fungus has a life.
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It is alive, it’s really
hard to live fungus
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anywhere in the US because
it has a shelf-life
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and so we’re used to eating
things that are packaged
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and processed, pasteurized,
so that they are shelf-stable.
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This is not, and this
fungus isn’t quite done it
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it’s still growing here.
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And the inspiration for the tempeh,
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tempeh has been made
for thousands of years,
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but the inspiration for the
tempeh for me to get into it,
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was seeing the mycelium in the soil
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where we grow our food to try
to create pockets of life.
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So in the beginning of life, or the end,
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depending on how you want to look at it,
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the mycelium comes in and
makes the nutrition available
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in the soil for the plants.
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Well, the mycelium’s
doing the same thing here.
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So the mycelium comes in
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and breaks down the oligosaccharides
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in the beans, greens, and legumes
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and makes the nutrition more
available for us to intake.
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And that’s really important.
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It also develops an amazing flavor,
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so you get a lot of umami flavors
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and these you know, complex cheesy, nutty,
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depending on the substrate.
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So for a chef this is a really unique food
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and then it ages to create even
more intense umami flavors.
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Tummenaro begun making
commercial batches of tempeh
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about a year ago under
the label of Luv Tempeh.
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In winter she makes
about 100 pounds per week
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and in summer up to 300 pounds per week
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in her home-based commercial kitchen.
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Tummenaro makes every batch by hand
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from all organic products.
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She hand wraps the bricks
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in environmentally sustainable paper
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and deliveries her products
to retail stores herself.
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Although tempeh traditionally
is made with soya beans
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Tummenaro makes six varieties.
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From a black bean, millet,
and sunflower seed tempeh,
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to what she calls a breakfast tempeh,
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made with chickpeas, cocoa
nibs, and pumpkin seeds.
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The latter doesn’t taste
like chocolate at all.
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She calls it a breakfast tempeh
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because the cocoa has caffeine in it.
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Fresh tempeh is so
versatile you can really
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use it any way that you would cook meat.
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But it’s so good that
honestly the best thing to do
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with it, is just a little bit salt,
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fried in maybe just a touch of oil
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on a nice thick cast iron skillet.
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It’s so special, I
mean, the subtle flavors
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of fresh tempeh, you don’t get
that with pasteurized tempeh.
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This is real live fungus,
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so it’s almost very similar
to cooking a mushroom.
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But it’s firmer, so
unlike tofu or mushrooms,
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it’s easier to throw on a grill.
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This is not even done
yet, but it’s quite firm
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and you can also use it like bread,
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so slicing it longways and toasting it
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will work really nicely, it holds up.
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For people who don’t do
gluten or certain grains
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that’s a really good option just cause
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it’s still a whole food.
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You can purchase Luv
Tempeh at Natures Oasis,
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Durango Natural Foods, Zuma
Natural Foods in Mancos,
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and the Durango Farmers Market.
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To learn more about Luv Tempeh
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visit her website at luvtempeh.com.
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Thanks for watching this edition
of the Local News Network,
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I’m Wendy Graham Settle.
