My iPhoto folders are bulging. My computer is groaning and making tired noises. My camera had so many images on it I swear it felt heavier.
Not only did I have all my pictures from 3 days of Food Blogger Connect, there were a week’s worth from my holiday in France too. I must confess feeling a bit image swamped right now so if anyone has tips how to manage massive amounts of photos PLEASE share it with me below. I have over 15,000 in iPhoto alone, nevermind older ones I could scan in too. The frightening part is that 1100 of these images were from the past week alone. I must have a nervous twitch or something.
The upshot of this photo deluge is that I’ve decided to focus just on the food for this post about Food Blogger Connect.
Food Blogger Connect at The Hempel 2010
Can you imagine being sat with 70 odd hungry food bloggers faced with dreary food? It doesn’t bear thinking about. Thankfully the catering team looking after us at The Hempel kept us not only satisfied but entertained with the variety of treats served up over the course of the weekend and these are the subject of this post.
Friday night and we kicked off with a blind wine tasting challenge. Tasting two pairs of wines with tips and information from Laura at Red White or Pink, there was short quiz about the wines. I’m a self confessed wine ignoramus. I only drink pink or fizzy and pathetically only managed to get one multiple choice question right. Without wanting to make her sound like an old soak, I was happily passing my whites and red to Aussie Foodie rather than tip them in the spitoon.
After the wine quiz was over, we enjoyed two types of tartlet; shredded duck and a courgette with pesto/parmesan number…
…and these impressive little salmon mousses topped with fish eggs. I’m a caviar ignoramus too, whether it was the expensive stuff I have no idea. The little cornets are fabulous and I am delighted to say I have a box of them stashed away that I bought in Oil & Vinegar earlier this year ready to use myself at home.
After the excitement of our Skype presentation with Jaden of Steamy Kitchen we stepped back outside to drink full sized glasses of wine and these individual Waldorf salads…
…followed by some arty fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce.
That wasn’t quite enough so we needed some tender lamb stew with mashed potato and artichoke.
Most of us still found room for pudding… although described to us as creme brulee, most of us agreed this was more like panna cotta. There wasn’t much left.
After dinner chocolate tasting courtesy of Tastour; the tables each had a numbered tray with a different type of chocolate and we had to guess the flavours. As I recall they were lemon, coffee, pistachio and bacon.
Photo: Guilia at Jul’s Kitchen
Saturday morning and we had relocated to the Hempel’s basement gallery Art Work Space. Still dozy after six hours sleep, I have vague recollections of croissants being laid out somewhere. I didn’t take pictures so maybe I dreamt them. Or maybe they were first thing on Sunday. In any case, these whopping vases of goodies on the tables were definitely not a figment of my post food blog conference imagination… a veritable tuck shop of chocolate, crisps and sweeties adorning each table whilst we listened to presentations on:
Copyright and recipe development with Jeanne of Cook Sister
Disecting our cameras with Hilda of Saffron and Blueberry
Writing style with Jeanne once more, Jamie of Life’s a Feast and Kerrin of My Kugelhopf
A hungry queue formed back over in the garden for our lunch buffet.
More ignorance – I didn’t take much notice of what type of fish this was. You could probably serve me plaice instead of sole at a swanky restaurant and I would never notice. (*In joke alert*)
But I didn’t need Aoife of Daily Spud to tell me what these were.
And this looks like duck with cherries (wasn’t that on the menu at Fawlty Towers’ Gourmet Night?)
Pam The Cooking Ninja was first in the queue for salads.
We even had toasted nuts.
Pudding, if you had space, was tart citron with a red berry couli
(there was an orange couli too but I don’t know whether it was orange or peach).
UPDATE: Overnight, it’s occurred to me it’s quite spooky that this pudding is similing at me like the Food Blogger Connect logo – it’s even the same colours.
Saturday afternoon and it was back over to the basement gallery for the photography presentation by Mowie of Mowielicious and Meeta of What’s for Lunch Honey?
Afterwards we went back to the garden to photograph an afternoon tea of cakes made by Sarah of Food for Think.
This strawberry decorated sponge was my favourite.
Fruit stacked up to photograph too.
Photo: Mowie, Mowielicious
But before we knew it, it was Pimms o’clock.
Photo: Jeanne, Cook Sister
Sunday morning and there may or may not have been these croissants I’ve dreamt about but after two presentations on getting published (books or feature articles) by Julia of A Slice of Cherry Pie with Kerrin of My Kugelhopf followed by a Skype presentation on social media with Niall Harbison, there was an awesome brunch.
Photo: Jeanne, Cook Sister
We were faced with an incredible choice of granola, porridge (well ok, the porridge got totally ignored), sausage and bacon ciabatta butties, eggs benedict and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on brioche.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this round up of our menu over the weekend. I have more pictures of the venue and people attending but I will share those, along with the links to their sites and a fabulous video of the weekend later this week. We might even have a recipe and that CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY I mentioned…
What a lovely post, Sarah! It was so great to have a chance to meet you, and explore London with you. Hugs from Finland!!
Looks like a fabulous event, with great food and friends.
Btw, forgot to mention how much I laughed at your plaice/sole comment =) x
That's weird… I just commented earlier, but it's not here… strange! Anyway, what I said was that you captured all the food perfectly as I missed out on most of it (too busy eating it!) x
@dailyspud Served in your honour no doubt!
@freshlocalandbest Come next year!
@ramblingtart It was FUN FUN FUN all weekend
@meeta You missed out on Friday night then – I recall you were stuffed with your fish and chips that afternoon weren't you?
@juls Friday night was jam packed, what a shame you missed that bit – miss too!!
@sarah THANK YOU for those iPhoto tips, I didn't know it could do any of that and will try to implement some of your suggestions
@jasmine I'm glad you are enjoying reliving the food!
@foodforthink We fell upon those cakes. Thanks for providing them.
@heatherdavis I can't believe I missed out on poached eggs but the scrambled were great too
@Marymoh Come next year!
@tiina Thank you! I'm so glad we got to spend Saturday evening together and it was lovely to see you bonding so brilliantly with Sari, Juls and Pam! What bum we lost you guys on Sunday afternoon in the crowds.
@barbarabakes Lots of new friends! It was amazing Barbara, you must come next time if you can
@mowie Ha ha, yes I wondered if any of you guys with the fish disaster would pick up on that. Your vanished comment was actually left on my previous post not this one so it hadn't gone into the ether. Thanks for the use of the Pimms picture too. I wasn't drinking it due to driving and totally forget to pick one up to photograph.