Food Conference

Week Filled With Conferences, Cookies, Contests and Crowds (lovely crowds!)

Week Filled With Conferences, Cookies, Contests and Crowds (lovely crowds!)

Last week was a whirlwind, leaving my brain (and my SD cards) filled with images, ideas and inspiration. I have much to process, integrate and digest, so I’ve decided I’ll share a quick set of snapshots of what was going on over the last week in the Food and Hospitality scene around here.  (Yes I know this is sucky SEO-wise, should care. Don’t.) Terroir 2013 – #Terroir7 the 7th annual Hospitality Industry Symposium bringing together Canada’s “innovative and creative influencers of Canada’s hospitality industry including chefs, food writers, wine and food experts and business leaders.” Essentially we all get together…

Read more »

I’m Speaking at the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference

I’m Speaking at the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference

I’m excited to announce that I am one of the speakers at this weekend’s Food Bloggers of Canada Conference, Canada’s first dedicated food blogging conference. I will be speaking about restaurants, blogging and critiques in: The Chef & The Critic – 2 Perspectives on Restaurants and Blogging Alexa Clark and Jason Bangerter. Moderated by Alison Fryer of The Cookbook Store In this panel, moderated by Alison Fryer of The Cookbook Store,  Chef Jason Bangerter of Oliver & Bonacini’s Luma Restaurant and Alexa Clark of CheapEats and unsweetened.ca will discuss and debate the pros and cons of bloggers and restaurants working…

Read more »

Honoured to be the Feature Member Blog for Food Bloggers of Canada.

Honoured to be the Feature Member Blog for Food Bloggers of Canada.

How cool is this: the Food Bloggers of Canada have featured unsweetened.ca as their Featured Member Blog. My answers to the Q&A range from food-related to not so food-related and intensely personal, but that is the nature of unsweetened.ca, or as Gerry says unsweetened is  “pure, undiluted, unsweetened Alexa” The fact I had to use my old banner really highlights my need for some unsweetened.ca logo/banner design work by someone who knows what they are doing! On a less self-critical note, I find it kind of cool that this feature was published the day before unsweetened.ca turned 9. Featured member…

Read more »

Who is Making Your Dining Experiences Exceptional?

Who is Making Your Dining Experiences Exceptional?

It’s time again vote in the Canada-wide GE Monogram® – Terroir Awards for Excellence in Hospitality.  These awards are aimed at inspiring, nurturing and celebrating excellence throughout the Canadian culinary industry. They are a great acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication to excellence so many people bring to the Hospitality industry which is often riff with challenges and pressure to compromise and conform. Where the difference between an excellent experience and a mediocre one is often only measured by a 3% increase in tip, an extra photo on Instagram or an extra two exclamation marks in a Yelp review. …

Read more »

Soy La Prensa

Soy La Prensa

Sounds sexier than “I’m press” doesn’t it! I’ve spent the last 2 days at Forum Santiago squeezing every ounce of Spanish Carlos taught me out to engage with vendors and producers. And Matt has been charming the folks I can’t.It’s been an absolute joy! My people, albeit not my language. Lots of wine and gin! A strong focus on local, quality and the animals living right. Oh, and we’re close to the ocean so my hair looks great (I am a girl after all) and the air smells like home! Could it be better? Only if Gerry were here too,…

Read more »

Some Of My Favourite Folks At Delicious

Some Of My Favourite Folks At Delicious

If you haven’t heard there is a new Food Show in town – Delicious Food Show! As the title suggests some of my favourite food professionals are involved. (Not all, but some).  I know, favouritism… but the reason I like food festivals and events is that I get to see talented, interesting and friendly food folks making and serving tasty, interesting and exciting food.  So isn’t favouritism kind of built in? So here are the folks I’m eager to see again! Chef Matt Kantor on Saturday at 2:30pm (note the change in day and time!) doing a demo on Modernist…

Read more »

Last Year’s Flavour Development Seminar

Last Year’s Flavour Development Seminar

I’m really looking forward to this year’s Terroir at Hart House on Tuesday. The theme this year is Innovation & Inspiration Last year’s event was a fantastic learning and networking experience. And the food wasn’t bad either. My three favourite sessions were: Mirella Amato of Beerology and Kathleen MacIntosh, Ontario Cheese Society & Culinarium Panel on Creating a Culinary Destination Chef Owen Steinberg’s Flavour Development Seminar One of the sessions at Terroir 2009 was Chef Owen Steinberg’s session on flavour development. Using a squash soup as the basis, he took us through the flavour development step by step. it was…

Read more »