Look out for my lounge on Saturday night on BBC’s Arena about the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour – it was used as a location to represent a 1967 front room on Boxing Day.
Now to business! This will probably be my longest post ever.
Any conference where you get handed a breakfast margarita to sip during the first session of the day is aces in my book! FBC12 was absolutely fantastic. 3 days of mind-blowing food, free-flowing-freebie booze, excellent speakers and best of all a bevy of beautiful bloggers every one of them passionate about food.
This whole post will be raving about the things I ate and drank, the people I met and the ideas I gleaned. Normal service will be resumed next week.
Was great to see my Guild of Food Writers chum Heather Grant from Cook Up a Party acting as MC. My conference buddy was the lovely Glamorous Glutton – she specialises in cooking things her son brings her home like a proud kitty from the hunt – furry game and grouse and other wild treats. Some of the other new blogs I’ve been introduced to by meeting their lovely creators:
The Botanical Baker – aka Gujerati Girl
I am going to have to get organised with some kind of blog reader device, I want to keep up with all of these ladies. I wish I’d had a chance to meet everyone but 3 days wasn’t enough…
I also met Chico from London Cuisine, the Russian Revels ladies, Mecca Ibrahim from Great British Chefs, and Paul Richardson from Get Me Cooking. What a lovely bunch.
The sessions were brilliant. I will heed the warnings about backing up my blog, I’m going to get hold of Lightroom for my pix and will be getting a fancy plugin for all my recipes from so watch out for increased professionalism on my part (ha ha). Thanks to Hugo at Rumble Chat I had a light bulb moment about Pinterest and am planning to get a planning calendar so I can plan, plan, plan…
The food and drink? Aaaaarggg. Where do I start?
We were entertained and got in the mood for the whole kaboosh by toasts with Lanson and Moet et Chandon courtesy of Champagne Jayne
and my borderline obsession with sampling everything the Vitamix folk were blending up in their industrial strength soup and smoothie makers began right there. I want one. You don’t have to peel anything!
Topper Porter was great, brewed locally in Lewisham by A Head in a Hat. I was already a bit sloshed on cocktails made by the Whisk crew at that point so I think I bent the ear of the gentleman brewer about Hammerton’s Stout for a while.
There was amazing street food including beetroot gnocci with a with truffle butter (eek) by Pasta e Basta –mmmmmmmmmm – I didn’t think I’d like it but I did! great sliders and buffalo wings by Mother Flipper, divine salt beef by Bell & Brisket, delightful foccacio stuffed with gorgonzola, chick pea cake and something else by two men with the best moustaches ever at Gurmetti
and the piece de la resistance? A burger by Tongue N Cheek.
Oh my good gawd. I’d read about the “Heartbreaker Burger” somewhere and fancied having one. Made of ox heart and aged beef and without a doubt the most delicious burger I’ve ever eaten. And that was when I thought I couldn’t eat any more.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I am going to STALK that guy. Loved the fact he was the absolute opposite to all other artisan food types I’ve met lately. No smiles, no friendly banter, just cooked the most fabulous burgers in the world with no schmoozing. When one of the other food bloggers started trying to order one Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle style he put his foot down. He said something along the lines of, we know how to do this, this is the way we do this, this is the way you are going to have it. Her one had salt pork in it. YOWZER. I sure was happy with my Heartbreaker.
and here is my pyramid of goodie bag goodies:
There are things in this pile that I have never seen before and I don’t know what to do with. There’s going to be some experimentation in the Silver Screen Suppers kitchen this month! What would Marlene have done with Organic Koekkruidden I wonder?
Monthly newsletter going out a little late this month but hopefully in the next couple of days – MWOAH!
I too was struck by the no schmoozing of the offal guy – extremely unusual given that he was Italian (or is that an awful stereotype?)! Great to meet you. What a fun time we all had. And where’s my breakfast margarita?
I want that goodie bag. Perhaps one day I will be invited to such a festival!
Hi Jenny,
As I was linking to your lovely post here from my blog, I noticed my comment I left here for some reason didn’t appear. I get that a lot when I use my phone to comment!
It was very nice to meet you, shame we didn’t get more time to talk.
Do let me know how you get on with the hairdo 🙂
Love the blog!
Take care x
Aw thanks Regula! I have trouble using my phone to comment too, old skool technology is best – let’s go back to the typewriter!
I’ve been messing about with backcombing lately and wearing a bit of a beehive, but I still want to try your hairdo – I might have to get some hairpieces though, mine’s not as long as yours by any means.
Going to pop over to your blog soon – thanks for the link! Jx