For the second day of the IFBC I focused on the photography workshops with Andrew Scrivani. Andrew has been working in the food photography industry for years, and he is both charming and generous with his time and information. Food porn is a very popular subject for us food bloggers and we oohed and ahhed over photos of dripping chocolate and melting cheese for quite some time!
After whetting our appetite with amazing photos of delicious food, we sampled more food at the Discovery Expo. My current favorite Blue cheese was there – Rogue Creamery, which I devoured with delicious crackers. Rogue Creamery are based in Oregon and they make a particularly addictive smoky blue. This creamy blue is cold smoked over hazelnut shells, and has a really rich distinctive toasty flavor.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with more photography workshops and an interesting talk about Sous Vide from the ingenious Scott of Modernist Cuisine fame. He is something of a mad scientist and he even has his own centrifuge in his basement…as you do! For once this workshop was full of men. I love the sous vide method of cooking and really enjoyed all the geeky talk about sous vide.
A few hours later Urban Spoon whisked us all off to different restaurants around the city. We were put into random groups and brought to surprise restaurants. I was part of a table of eight at Ray’s Boathouse in Ballard. I’ve never been to Ray’s but was looking forward to it, as it’s somewhat of an institution in Seattle. The restaurant is right on the waterfront in trendy Ballard. We were treated to a custom designed eight course meal, with an emphasis on local fish. Food was great, as was the company of bloggers I dined with. After dinner, we were all intrigued to see the kitchen, so we cajoled the chef into a late night tour behind the scenes. I love hanging out in restaurant kitchens as there is so much buzz and atmosphere there. This kitchen was extra hot, as it has its own inbuilt barbecue! We merrily departed Ray and said our thanks and goodbyes to all the staff. It was a memorable evening, and somewhere I will definitely return.
DAY 3.
Day three, we were all feeling a little tired and weary. However, the show must go on and some early risers even managed to take the self guided tour of Pike Place Market at 6am. I just managed to surface for Google+ talk at quarter the ten. At this stage my brain was a little addled and I’m afraid I still have a lot to learn about Google+
It was all in all a great experience and I met some lovely people like Renatka from Ren Behan, Daytona from Outside Oslo, Kristy from The Wicked Noodle, Joan from Architect Mom, and Jamie from Gluten Free Mom among many other great bloggers. I will definitely be returning to IFBC in Seattle next year, and if you have a food blog I would highly recommend that you go to this one.
This is a sponsored post, however all opinions and views are my own.