From the category archives:

Events & Presentations

2013 IACP ~ International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference

Thumbnail image for 2013 IACP ~ International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference

The 2013 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) annual conference is April 10 – 13* at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center.

Read Full Story

Careers, Connections & the Art of Reinvention

Thumbnail image for Careers, Connections & the Art of Reinvention

Stick your neck out. Show up. Say yes to opportunity. Be kind to everyone on your way up. Eyes wide open. Face fear. Change when you need to. Or, change when you decide you WANT to. The Southern California IACP regional conference on “Careers, Connections and the Art of Reinvention” delivered on its promise to [...]

Read Full Story

Puff Pastry Straws with Truffles ~ In Erika’s Kitchen

Thumbnail image for Puff Pastry Straws with Truffles ~ In Erika’s Kitchen

This past weekend was Trufflepalooza, the brainchild of blogger Erika of In Erika’s Kitchen. It’s a private party, packed with her friends, family, fellow bloggers and members of the media. The occasion? Erika’s love o’ the truffle, and her showcase of recipes featuring Les Truff, including these crispy beauties, Puff Pastry Straws with Truffles.

Read Full Story

My Panda Express “Top Chef” Experience

Thumbnail image for My Panda Express “Top Chef” Experience

Walk out our front door, head East on foot, the closest restaurant is a half mile straight into the UCLA campus… Panda Express. I like their food. I also run errands then – buy stamps (US post office in Ackerman Union) and greeting cards (Bruin Bookstore).  So what is this photo of a non-existent Dancing [...]

Read Full Story

Scenes from the Aetna Healthy Food Fight Competition

Thumbnail image for Scenes from the Aetna Healthy Food Fight Competition

This is the Rancho Cucamonga regional cookoff for the Aetna Healthy Food Fight Recipe Contest.  A more in-depth post is {probably} coming; the contest is still running and no word on which recipe (it ain’t mine, I can tell you that) will progress from this regional cookoff to the finals mid-November. I cooked my uber-healthy [...]

Read Full Story

Guest Recipe ~ Plum Frangipane Tart by Gisele of Pain Perdu

Thumbnail image for Guest Recipe ~ Plum Frangipane Tart by Gisele of Pain Perdu

My readers here know by now that I had a big event last Saturday when I produced the Day Camp of Camp Blogaway. One of our sponsors, Viking Range surprised us with door prizes, which lead me to think… hmmmm, bloggers LOVE to cook and they love to compete. Thus, a “Bonus Competition” was born.  [...]

Read Full Story

LAWeekly Features Patti & Camp Blogaway

PHOTO CREDIT: Celia Soudry, LAWeekly So… countdown mode for the next Camp Blogaway.  THANKS, LAWeekly reporter Celia Soudry for your in-depth feature! Here’s that LAWeekly article. My dad had one question when he saw it, “How do you eat soup with chopsticks?” Very cute, and I explained (spoon is in my left hand). But that [...]

Read Full Story

Camp GetAway is for Mothers – AND Others, Like Me

Thumbnail image for Camp GetAway is for Mothers – AND Others, Like Me

Circa 2001. Somewhere in this happy crowd was me. Mountains. Cabins. Hikes. Arts & crafts. Sing-a-longs. Dance class. Water aerobics. Skits. Archery. Canoeing. Sounds like good times for the kiddies, except that THIS was camp for grownup women.

Read Full Story

Just Returned from Foodie Bootcamp

Thumbnail image for Just Returned from Foodie Bootcamp

This past weekend, I produced an event called Camp Blogaway Bootcamp for Food & Recipe Bloggers in our local mountains. Yes, a real camp. With dirt and trees and a squirrel who made his way into our lodge. We had 48 hours of seminars, sharing, eating, contests, goodies and more. Today, I am tired but [...]

Read Full Story

My Time at IACP Was “Grape”

Thumbnail image for My Time at IACP Was “Grape”

DON’T FREAK – it’s not what it looks like.  Relax, and read my whole post about what this shot is about…  The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) delivers some incredible opps for food insiders to hob-nob. It’s also a place where food providers (growers, manufacturers) pull out stops and wow us. Grapes from California always shine at [...]

Read Full Story

IACP Roundup

Thumbnail image for IACP Roundup

Here’s what happens when you attend a professional organization’s annual conference (if you do it right) – networking, meetups, contacts, business card exchanging, conversations, chemistry, late evenings over glasses of wine and more. We ate, talked about eating, talked about photographing food, talked about writing about food and recipes and even talked about starting our [...]

Read Full Story

The Backstory on Camp Blogaway Bootcamp for Food Bloggers

Thumbnail image for The Backstory on Camp Blogaway Bootcamp for Food Bloggers

This past summer it struck me, there are plenty of blogging conferences out there, but none offered the specific focus of deconstructing food blogs and teaching how to better each important element, Food Blogging University of sorts.

Read Full Story

My Fancy Food Show Adventure

Thumbnail image for My Fancy Food Show Adventure

If you are in the food business, look into the NASFT Fancy Food Show – winter is San Francisco and summer is New York – you can make good industry contacts while soaking up culinary inspiration, passion, energy, visual stimulation and darn good eats.

Read Full Story

Westwood Village Farmers Market and How to Sauté Mushrooms

Thumbnail image for Westwood Village Farmers Market and How to Sauté Mushrooms

One recent Wednesday, I wanted to walk to our Westwood Village Farmers Market but had forgotten the hours. Google, google, google… where the heck is their website? All I found were press releases from last summer’s reopening after a lengthy absence due to construction, and plenty about our OTHER Farmers Market at the Westwood VA [...]

Read Full Story

How to Become a Serious Food Blogger

Thumbnail image for How to Become a Serious Food Blogger

Presenting insights and opportunities of food blogging and social media to audiences ranging from food enthusiasts to emerging professionals to seasoned pros. September 23, 2011: Techmunch Los Angeles, food trends panelist August 6, 2011: IACP Southern California Regional Conference, producer and presenter, Careers Contacts and the Art of Reinvention August 4, 2011: Women Create Media presenter on [...]

Read Full Story

Garbanzo, Onion and Tomato Salad from LA Greekfest

Thumbnail image for Garbanzo, Onion and Tomato Salad from LA Greekfest

OPA! For years, I’ve wanted to attend Greekfest at LA’s stunning St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. I’m a native Angelino, yet had only been inside once before for the wedding of our favorite Greek, Helen. Larry’s been there often; his high school, Loyola, is next door.  No waiting for the right year, I attended yesterday, [...]

Read Full Story

An Insider’s Peek at County Fair Recipe Contests

Thumbnail image for An Insider’s Peek at County Fair Recipe Contests

Meet Chef George Geary, the Eveready bunny o’ food. He and I have known each other for ages, and I’ve seen him in action as (1) a corporate spokesperson, (2) prolific cookbook writer, (3) pastry chef, (4) culinary tour director (he takes travelers to Paris to walk Julia Child’s French life), (5) culinary competition judge, [...]

Read Full Story

‘09 LA County Fair Blue Ribbon Cheesecake Winner

Thumbnail image for ‘09 LA County Fair Blue Ribbon Cheesecake Winner

  Last evening, I “covered” the Cheesecake Competition at the LA County Fair (another post upcoming on that fun blogging adventure) and witnessed first-hand as the very capable home cook and happy contestant, Ann Turley scored the First Place Blue Ribbon for her Apricot Cheesecake recipe.  Haven’t had a chance to make this myself, but [...]

Read Full Story

10 Reasons to Take a Farmer’s Market Chef Tour

Thumbnail image for 10 Reasons to Take a Farmer’s Market Chef Tour

Westwood Village, California is home to movie premieres and UCLA Bruins.  Plus one tiny Farmer’s Market.  Just 23 stalls, it is reworking itself back up after losing its venue during a drawn out construction job here.  Larry and I walk to the market on Wednesdays, and walk the second half-mile back home with such things [...]

Read Full Story

Fancy Food Show

Thumbnail image for Fancy Food Show

I’ve attended or worked a hundred “food shows.”  That’s the short name for a food industry conference with booths for product displays, tastings, sales, marketing.   I’m a food PR practitioner; companies hire my little PR firm to do fancy things for them.  There can be a strange celeb rub-off in the job, too.  I’ve taken [...]

Read Full Story

Hot Beef Sundae at the Iowa State Fair

Thumbnail image for Hot Beef Sundae at the Iowa State Fair

Larry and I were in our “collecting states” travel mode and he needed Iowa.  So, we attended the Iowa State Fair and acquired something more than another pin in our map.  We got a dose of delightful.   And it was quite the food adventure. Movies like the Bridges of Madison County are my favorite – [...]

Read Full Story

How to Snag a Seat at Martha’s

Thumbnail image for How to Snag a Seat at Martha’s

Freezing weather was my ticket.  Standing outside the Today Show during a New York City mid-week morning, I spied personnel giving away tickets to the Martha Stewart Show  A thought crossed my mind… a heated building.  You see, my friend, Vicki and I actually braved 4 degree wind chill to wave signs to the Today Show [...]

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Read Full Story