The last two months have been more than incredible.
Happy.Inspiring. Busy.These three words pretty much sum it up. I’ve not been
able to blog about it because you know how it is sometimes life just takes
over. But the other day when I was going through my folder that contains all my
little notes, to-do lists, menus, visiting cards and the monthly calendars for
the last ten months (Yes, I still use paper to write down my schedule and
assignments for the month) I realized I need to write it all down here before
they begun to fade away this October and November. And I must do this now.
October began with the Food Blogger Connect’s writing,photography and styling roaming workshop on the 4th and the 5th. The month also
gave me a chance to conduct not one but two cooking demonstrations; the first
one for The Indian Trumpet Breast Cancer Awareness Event and the second one was
all about cooking with organic ingredients. The demonstration was in
collaboration with The Change Initiative and Down to Earth, Dubai.
Those of you have been following my food journey know
how I go weak in the knees when I get to meet chefs who love food, who live
food and who breathe food. These two months made me strike out many names that
are there on my bucket list; an hour long opportunity to sit down and chat with
MasterChef Sanjeev Kapoor, an enriching masterclass with the Two Michelin ChefMarco Sacco and finally some time with the one and only Chef Marco PierreWhite.
October also brought with it happy news from the team
at Scoop Empire choosing Orange Kitchens as one of their favourite Dubai foodblogs and some remarkable work opportunities that I am not allowed to share at
present. But come 2014 I will be shouting about it for sure :)
A day prior to the FBC meet a bunch of us were invited
for a blogger’s lunch hosted by the lovely Saba Wahid at Barbeque Delights. It
was a great afternoon spent doing what I like doing best; eating and chatting
with fellow foodies.
So yes! Amazing two months. In between all this, the
usual work and the festival madness we took off for a little family vacation to
Istanbul and I was literally in heaven. Its architecture, history and food had
both the design and food blogger me going overboard with the camera.
So yes I have loads to share and that is exactly what
I intend to do in the days to come. At least the intention is there :)
Let’s begin with the Food Blogger Connect Dubai 2013.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with it let me
start with by introducing FBC to all of you. FBC started in 2009 with an aim to
bring together food bloggers. Today it is the world’s leading international
food blogging conference where bloggers, writers, photographers and stylists
all come together for the love of food. The meet up at Dubai brought with it a
chance to observe and learn from the best. Dianne Jacob, author of Will Write
For Food, Ellen Silverman, freelance photographer who has photographed over 25
cookbooks and ofcourse food editor, writer and consultant Martha Holmberg. Read all about them here.
The two day meet was held at the very green, open and
gorgeous Safa Park’s The Archive.
As I made my way in I could feel the room bursting
with energy and enthusiasm. Lots of bright faces, some known to me and some
new,steaming hot coffee,notepads and cameras; everywhere.
Day one began with the writing workshop with Dianne. We discussed several aspects of writing and how fascinating it is that food is the perhaps only thing that can be connected to any, just anything be it history, traditions, politics, experiences and more. We talked about using specific adjectives and using the five senses when describing food rather the usual yummy and delicious that a lot of us are guilty of. We practiced writing and putting several techniques together that Dianne taught us. “Your job is to be storyteller” and not just using adjectives. Wise words there. We also looked at different forms of freelance writing since many of us bloggers were also already writing for a lot of magazines or were interested in doing so and so much more.
By now tummies were grumbling and Chef Tom put
together a lovely picnic for us outside. Though it was unbelievably warm outside I have to say
I enjoyed both the food and the great company.
The day came to end with a memorable meal at the very
colourful and vibrant Zaroob.
Combine that with Ellen and Martha’s visual
storytelling expertise. You get twenty adults behaving like three year olds on
a sugar high and jumping off the walls. That would be Day Two.
Fiona
began the session with a very sound advice,"When styling food always try and get
that sixth sense in; emotion” and introduced us to all the props.
After
a quick session with her, Ellen and Martha took over. The first part of the day
was dedicated to learning about different angles, using light correctly,
bringing out the texture in the food and most importantly sometimes “you have
to kill your darlings”. From there we moved on to how to treat one’s blog as a
brand. We then started our “show and tell” (told you we were like little kids
in a candy store :)) and began styling and
shooting food. It was a great session with feedback from both Ellen and Martha
on the styling and quality of pictures that we took there and our individual
blogs.
The second part of the day was dedicated to
developing, writing and capturing recipes. “You have to be hungry when
developing a recipe,” was their advice.
Big thanks to the entire FBC team, especially Bethany
and Joslin. They all worked really hard to put it all together and ensured that
we had a fabulous time.
The complete album is on the Orange Kitchens Facebook page. I hope you enjoy going through it.
Images: Personal Album. While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated
The logo has been taken from the FBC site and the Map of the Safa Park from their website.
The logo has been taken from the FBC site and the Map of the Safa Park from their website.
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