FoodBuzz Festival Recap

November 8, 2010 by

The FoodBuzz festival has come to a close! I made it to three out of five of the planned events — in typical Opera Girl fashion, I could not pass up my tickets to see Placido Domingo at the SF Opera, and so I missed the Taste Pavillion. It was worth it, of course — Mr. Domingo outdid himself, singing an absolutely heart-wrenching Cyrano de Bergerac.

Yup, a couple miles away and stuck in 4MPH traffic. Needless to say, I arrived fashionably late!

On Friday night, I headed to the city for the welcome reception and street food fare. It took place in Herbst Pavillion at Fort Mason Center, with a gorgeous view of the bay (check out Jenna’s blog for a beautiful shot of the bridge at sunset). It was a blast to meet some of my bloggy heroes and make new contacts, too! Jenna and Mama Pea both raved about the granola I sent them a few months back, which pretty much made my night. And as I had imagined, The Healthy Everythingtarian is as much of a walking party in person as she is in her blog posts — like a magical cupcake fairy, she delivered me a delicious pumpkin-y cupcake from Mission Minis.

I also enjoyed some Double Daddy IPA from the generous brewers at Speakeasy Ales and Lagers — I now know that it was 9.5% alcohol by volume, which explains the considerable buzz I was feeling! It was hoppy and nutty and wonderful, though, with plenty of flavor to balance out the booze.

Sadly I did not get any great pictures of the rest of the food from that night, but lots of other bloggers did. Go ahead and check out Kath’s post from Friday night if you want to see some of the delicious eats.

Saturday morning meant it was time for morning breakout sessions and seminars at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. I chose to go to three different sessions: a panel called Food Blogging Guide to Success, Alaska Seafood’s demonstration on preparing fish tacos, and finally the Hands-On Photography Workshop. These sessions were a lot of fun, especially the photography one — Laura of The Cooking Photographer and Marc of No Recipes gave an organized, thoughtful presentation. I can’t wait to try some of their techniques — even with my tiny point-and-shoot camera, their advice on will go a long way to improving my photos!

Some much needed caffeine, enjoyed between sessions with the lovely Pim of Chez Pim

As I mentioned, my Saturday afternoon was devoted to the incredible vocal stylings of Mr. Placido Domingo — I’d love to hear about anybody’s favorites from the Taste Pavilion that I missed! After the opera, I headed across town to the Gala Dinner, held in the Grand Hall of San Francisco’s famous Ferry Building. It was a magical setting, with classy and delicious food to match. My favorite dish was the first one served — a yellow beet tart, topped with tangy, lightly dressed baby arugula and served with a basil puree and a delicate salad of cubed red beets and feta.

Note the camera in the corner, belonging to Ngoc at San Jose, Love

I am happy to have been included in such a lovely weekend. Thanks so much to FoodBuzz for organizing an incredible conference!