Taste With The Eyes: Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco

11.11.2009

Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco

I left my heart in San Francisco

High on a hill, it calls to me

To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars

The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care

My love waits there in San Francisco

Above the blue and windy sea

When I come home to you, San Francisco

Your golden sun will shine for me

Tony Bennett with Judy Garland

The 1st annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival was a huge success. Congratulations and thank you to the entire Foodbuzz team for hosting this wonderful weekend in San Francisco.

Day 1

Welcome Reception, Hotel Vitale
Taste of San Francisco Street Food Fare, Ferry Building

Day 2

Morning at the Market, Ferry Building
Olive Oil Tasting, Hotel Vitale
Taste Pavilion, at the Metreon
Merlot Tasting, at the Metreon
Foodbuzz Dinner and Awards Ceremony, at GreenLeaf Produce Warehouse by Outstanding in the Field

Day 3

Farewell Brunch, Restaurant LuLu

Day 1

Hotel Vitale Landmark Terrace

Welcome reception with a view of the Ferry Building

Street Food Fare

The Chicharrones Girl

"A one-way ticket to chicharrones heaven."

Rotisserie Porchetta

Heritage’s free range pork loin rolled into the belly with Thomas’s original herb mix with lemon zest. Grilled on the rotisserie for four hours until crispy brown on the outside, succulent on the inside.

Rotisserie Porchetta on Acme Roll

With Curly Cress and Onion Marmalade

Day 2

The Ferry Building

Morning at the Market

Olive Oil Tasting

With Chef and Frontburner Blogger Michael Tuohy

Foodie Friends

Joan of Foodalogue

Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen

Lori Lynn of Taste With The Eyes

City View at the Metreon

Taste Pavilion getting ready to welcome 250 bloggers for a food and wine tasting and cooking demonstrations.

Merlot is Back, Baby!

Alder Yarrow, the granddaddy of wine bloggers and proprietor of

Vinography.com guided us through a Merlot tasting.

Pouring Bonny Doon Wines

Father Adam and Randall Grahm, Winemaker

The Stupendous Serpentine Table

Seating 250 People

Crisscrossing North America, Outstanding in the Field's long, linen-draped table beckons adventurous diners to celebrate food at the source. Bringing together local farmers and food artisans, chefs and winemakers, exploring the connection between the earth and the food on your plate. Their mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. More about Outstanding in the Field here.

GreenLeaf Produce Display

Cooking a Gourmet Dinner in a Warehouse

Kudos to the team from Namu Restaurant!

Foodies in a Warehouse

GreenLeaf Produce Warehouse

a terrific venue for a unique and enchanted evening...

Soup Line

Preparing to serve 250 bowls of soup.

The Soup: Mushroom Dashi, Maitake, Shimeji, Enoki

Salad Course

Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisée & yellow pear tomato with chojang & sesame vinaigrette

Food Photographers

Danny of Kung Food Panda blog

photographing

Mushroom Risotto with Koshihikari Rice

Crispy Maitake Mushrooms

Matt of Mattatouille blog

photographing

Sea Trout Baked with DashiKombu

Fried Garlic, Japanese Curry Powder

Day 3

Build Your Own Bloody Mary

The festival ended with a delicious brunch and build-your-own Bloody Mary bar sponsored by Nature's Pride and Skyy Spirits at Restaurant LuLu. The Farewell Brunch was the perfect ending to an amazing weekend. Besides hanging out with my dear dear friend Father Adam, and getting to meet many awesome bloggers, my next favorite part of the event, being a table setting aficionado myself, was that Outstanding Table! I haven't stopped talking about it! A heartfelt thank you to the folks at Foodbuzz for all your planning and creativity and graciousness. The weekend rocked!

Here I am enjoying Far West Fungi Vol au Vent

from Spencer on the Go

at the Street Food Fare

(photo courtesy of Father Adam)

To all my foodie friends, it was an absolute pleasure to get to know you! Best wishes for continued success with your fabulous blogs. I left my heart in San Francisco, how about you? See you next year!

Julia Child Quotes - TOUJOURS BON APPETIT!

“You should never apologize at the table. People will think, ‘Yes, it’s really not so good.'"

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport."

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters." Paul Child on speaking French

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. "

"Life itself is the proper binge."

"It was a Morsel of Perfection."

"I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu."

Julia Child sees herself on TV, July 1962, she saw room for improvement, and still she can say it was fun : "There I was, in black and white, a large woman sloshing eggs too quickly here, too slowly there, gasping, looking at the wrong camera while talking too loudly and so on...But it had been fun."

She has her own opinions on kitchen equipment: "Clairborne sniffed at our use of a garlic press, 'a gadget considered in some circles to be only one cut above garlic salt or garlic powder.' I happened to like garlic presses..."

Understanding Julia's captivation by French food: "This is the kind of food that I have fallen in love with: not trendy souped-up fantasies, just something very good to eat. It was classic French cooking, where the ingredients have been carefully selected and beautifully and knowingly prepared. Or, in the words of the famous gastronome Curnonsky, 'Food that tastes of what it is.' "

"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always." Julia's instructor, Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu

"Oh, 'crise de foie,' that French sole was so delicious!"

Julia's passion comes through loud and clear as she describes a fish dish: "La Truite's true glory was the Sole a la Normande, a poem of poached and flavored sole fillets surrounded by oysters, and mussels, and napped with a wonder-sauce of wine, cream, and butter, and topped with fluted mushrooms. 'Voluptuous' was the word. I had never imagined that fish could be taken so seriously, or taste so heavenly."

Julia's unique way with words, on Crepes Suzette: "The creature named Suzette may or may not have been the mistress of the Prince of Wales, but whoever she was, she long ago inspired a magnificent dessert that is still one of our favorites."

"I am probably one of the few people around who saw the real Caesar Cardini making his salad. I was about 9 when my parents took me to his restaurant in Tijuana. They were so excited when big jolly Caesar himself came to the table to make the salad. And it was dramatic: I remember most clearly the eggs going in, and how he tossed the leaves so it looked like a wave turning over."

"With a handsome package such as Jacques's, you can neatly cut the top open at the table with a pair of scissors..." Julia on Salmon en Papillote

"There's no reason to be intimidated by the idea of making pâté. You can just think of it as meat loaf."

From Julia's dear friend Jacques Pepin, "You are what you cook."

"Understanding egg yolks will make you a master of hollandaise sauce."

Julia encouraging us not to be intimidated: "When you know how to saute your meat so it browns rather than steams, you're cooking. What's difficult about that? You heat the pan, you dry the meat, you don't crowd it into the pan, and you're browning it. Is that difficult?"

Food Quotes

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."

Orson Welles

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

"Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit."
Charlie Trotter

"Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore. "
Thomas Keller

"I love to make people happy."
Wolfgang Puck

"Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cooking as olive oil is to Italian."

The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le

"I wish, I wish lunch could last forever...waiter, bring us one more bottle of wine..."

Jimmy Buffett

"My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individual's knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis."
Emeril Lagasse

"Gordon Ramsay makes me laugh because he knows that I'm not a chef."
Nigella Lawson

"You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else."
Mario Batali

"I always knew the importance of it, since I was three or four years old my mother used to feed me wine and water. I grew up with wine as liquid food."
Robert Mondavi

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at his/her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers."
Laurie Colwin

"Food is a central part of our lives. It provides the body with fuel and raw materials for maintenance, growth, and repair. It draws together family and friends, anchors celebrations and rites of passage, and sometimes soothes the soul."
Ethan Becker