Monday, November 14, 2011

Foodbuzz Festival 2011

Ah, my favorite foodie event took place last weekend at the third annual Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco. Food bloggers from near and far flocked to various venues for tastings, fabulous meals, workshops, and scintillating chatter about our favorite topic FOOD!!

The Welcome Reception at the Terra Gallery was sponsored by Sabra Hummus, so all the hors d'oeuvres featured hummus in some fashion. Totally fine by me since I'm a huge fan of hummus, and there were enough variations to keep things interesting. I highly recommend Sabra's roasted pine nut hummus and their holiday flavor, "Season's Finest"  featuring the winning combination of rosemary, olive oil, and sea salt. Mmm.


The Reception was followed by the Awards Dinner, where awards were presented to some of the best bloggers out there today, while we devoured pork belly and day boat scallops cooked to order, and selections from a gourmet buffet. The desserts were the stand-outs, in my opinion, particularly the heirloom pumpkin tarts and festively-themed macaroons.



The next morning, after a series of helpful photography workshops, we headed over to the Metreon for the Taste Pavilion to sample food and drinks from various vendors. Every year I say I'm going to pace myself, but I always end up rolling out of there feeling like a stuffed tomato.

Some of my personal faves this year:
  • Pumpkin patch truffles and pumpkin spice coffee from Godiva Yay for autumn flavors!
  • Cupcakes from Mission Minis A hit every year ... I probably had at least 5 of these.
  • Organic beers from Bison Brewery Can't go wrong with seasonal beers like honey basil ale, pumpkin ale, and gingerbread ale!
  • Grass-fed beef from Estancia Yummy, healthy, and sustainable.
  • Artisan syrups and extracts from Sonoma Syrup Co. Vanilla extracts should always taste this good.


After stuffing ourselves for 3 hours, we proceeded later that evening to the Grand Hyatt for the Gala Dinner where more food was waiting. Somehow I still managed to eat a bunch of canapés, a super leafy bibb lettuce salad, a tasty filet mignon atop creamy celery root purée, and a trio of cute desserts.


The best part of the night, though, was an awesome cooking demo from Chef Tyler Florence, who made the audience rightfully drool as he prepared pan-seared pork chops, braised cabbage, and spätzle (Scandinavian dumplings) which all comprise one of the entree dishes from the menu at his SF restaurant, Wayfare Tavern.



Here's a video of Chef Tyler making his spätzle:


Finished product I'm totally going to try his pork chop and braised cabbage recipes! Maybe after trying them at his restaurant ... just so I know what they're supposed to taste like.



Thanks again to Foodbuzz and all the event sponsors for another wonderful festival! I'm already looking forward to next year!






1 comment:

foodhoe said...

ooh, I left the FB network a couple of years ago and really miss that bash. Looks like so much fun!