I went to BlogHer Food 2012 this past week in Seattle representing all of our food sites at Prime Publishing LLC, including RecipeLion.com, MrFood.com, FaveHealthyRecipes.com, AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com and our latest site, AllFreeCasseroleRecipes.com. You might have seen my post yesterday about how I’m giving away my swag bag from the conference. Be sure to check out the post to enter to win all the swag–you have only this week to enter.
I left sunny Chicago for gloomy, chilly Seattle. Though, I was not surprised by my rainy welcome. :/
BlogHer Food 2012 took place from June 8th to June 9th in Seattle, and attracted over 500 food-loving attendees, including 20 sessions, 4 keynotes, more than 70 speakers, two parties and a market excursion to Pike Place Market. Sessions at the conference covered a range of topics including food literacy, food photography, demonstrations, the politics around food accessibility and more. Some blogger-focused topics were covered as well, such as traffic building, monetization, recipe copyright and others.
The conference drew some beloved and well-known bloggers such as Diane Cu from WhiteonRiceCouple.com, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, Elise Bauer from SimpleRecipes.com, Jaden Hair from SteamyKitchen.com, Kalyn Denny from KalynsKitchen.com, Kim Sunee, author of Trail of Crumbs, and many more.
The closing conference party was also co-hosted by Elise Bauer, Jaden Hair and blogger-made-TV-star Ree Drummond of ThePioneerWoman.com. Fame aside, Ree was a kind, bubbly and statuesque woman. I enjoyed talking with her :).
Ree Drummond (center), Elise Bauer (Right) and Jaden Hair (left) announce raffle winners at the closing party.
Enough with celebrities, let’s talk about the food!
My first night in town, I needed nourishment before the start of the conference the next day and upon recommendation of the hotel concierge from the Fairmont Olympic Hotel (where the conference took place), I went to Wild Ginger.
This restaurant was an Asian-fusion paradise with beautiful decor and a tasty menu. I went with a fellow blogger and we split the following:
Buddha Rolls: Southeast Asian vegetable spring roll in a rice paper wrapper. Pineapple dipping sauce.
We also split:
Fresh wide rice noodles are wok-fried with scallops,
prawns, squid and mussels in a light soy sauce with hints of basil and chili
The last dish we split was this one:
Seven Flavor Beef: from Vietnam: flank steak fragrant with the seven flavors of lemongrass, peanuts, chilies, hoisin, basil, garlic and ginger.
As mentioned, the conference took place at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle and the chefs truly out-did themselves. The conference opened the next morning with an outstanding breakfast display.
There was a juice bar, with flutes of orange juice, topped with whipped creamed and sugar-glazed orange slices…complete with a frothing orange centerpiece:
The breakfast spread included bagel trees, fruit beyond your wildest dreams, eggs, maple sausages, croissants and more.
As you can see, there were individual yogurt cups. They edible flowers in them, but it’s hard to see.
Chobani also had a yogurt bar stand where one could make their own Greek yogurt potion in a mason jar.
As if we weren’t full enough from our breakfast feast, the hotel lunch included:
Deconstructed potato salad…
…as well as an impressive spread of finger sandwiches and cold gazpacho soup with edible flowers.
Here’s broad view of the display:
The spinach salad had a skewer through it, and we were meant to pour dressing over it. Pretty cool.
We were on our own for dinner, so I decided to try local seafood at a restaurant called Japonessa. I ordered the Paraiso Tropical, because I love the combo of fish and sweet fruit:
Paraiso Tropical: salmon, tuna, cucumber, avocado, strawberries, topped w/ tuna, mango,tobiko, raspberry sauce
CHECK OUT PART II:
I’ll be taking you on a tour through Pike Place Market and more!
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Sounds like a wonderful conference! And a perfect excuse to spend a couple days in Seattle–a fantastic town : )
Love the Chobani stand providing mix-your-own Greek yogurt, too. I’ve been delighted to see Greek yogurt rise in popularity over recent years–it is simply too delicious to remain unknown and uneaten by the masses! My local grocer has even begun stocking frozen varieties, which I am anxious to try.