On 1st July I was invited by Angelica Malin of About Time Magazine to a networking dinner for bloggers at Café Rouge in Holborn. Lucky me! Café Rouge's marketing team weren't so lucky. The day they had chosen to preview the Christmas menu was one of the hottest of the year so far. Fortunately, we were just trying the starters, which were tapas-style dishes designed for sharing and thankfully quite light.
The event was a great opportunity to meet other people who love food and I especially like a couple of the blogs I discovered via the ladies behind them.
The Little Library Café is my new favourite. It is the most imaginative concept for a food blog that I have come across in a while. Kate makes and bakes fiction, literally:
Growing up, my memories of books and of food are intertwined - dreaming of rich treacle tart by the Gryffindor fire, drinking gallons of ginger beer and lemonade on Kirrin Island with the Famous Five and sharing a pot of creamy honey with Winnie the Pooh.
Recipes on this blog will be inspired by the books I grew up reading, and some that I've enjoyed more recently too.
Kate is not just a big bundle of creativity in the thematic department. Judging by her pictures, she’s also a bloody good cook AND a good photographer. Don’t you just hate her?! I’d love to, but she’s super nice too... ;-)
Photo Courtesy of Kate Young, The Little Library Cafe: Summer Tart, Alice in Wonderland
Kate plans to make The Little Library Café a reality later this year. But (sadly for me) in Liverpool, not London.
Another very talented lady you simply must check out is Lauren Purnell of Culinary Canvas. She turns plates into canvases and food into paint. This is something you have to see:
Photo courtesy of Lauren Purnell, Culinary Canvas
Check out more of her artworks here.
Connie of Connie Consumes is as vivacious and effervescent on the page as she is in person and that is no mean feat.
Anyone who tells you they don’t like reading scathing restaurant reviews is a goody-two-shoes or a liar, and let’s be honest, no one likes either.
Apart from being a wee bit cheeky - a definite plus in my book - she has a wonderful capacity for sharing her joy and excitement when it comes to food:
The prospect of weaving up and down aisles filled with stalls exhibiting new or unique produce might not excite the mass population, but boy does it tickle my fancy. I love, I mean love, going to the supermarket or farmer’s market,
Her blog is raw enthusiasm and untamed gluttony unleashed.
I sat next to the lovely Loriley of Loriley Sesh. She had a tough time working out what she could and couldn’t eat from the shared starters; she's gluten-free. My friend Jenny is gluten-free too and each year I try to make a new gluten-free cake for her birthday, but the last couple weren’t especially inspiring. I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes on Loriley’s gluten-free blog. Her pictures even make me – a die-hard fan of all things wheat – want to eat them.
Photo courtesy of Loriley Sessions, Loriley Sesh
Unfortunately, the dim lighting at the event meant my food photos didn't come out very well. These are some of the better ones:
Thanks again to Angelica Malin for being a wonderful hostess, as ever, and to Café Rouge for the meal.