International Food Blogger Conference – Seattle

AND STUFF

I hadn’t been to Seattle since about the time the Space Needle was new. No reason for my not visiting, it just never came up on my radar. And then last year at the IFBC in Portland I got a good reason to visit Seattle. And so I crawled out of bed last Friday, left the beach, and drove in the dark to LAX for the journey to the 2013 IFBC in Seattle.

And man was I happy with the city and the event!

What a City! What an event!

I checked into the W” smoothly and in no time was ready to hit the conference. There could be no doubt we were in for a tremendous conference the moment the keynote speaker, Dorie Greenspan, took the stage. If only we could tap into her energy and drive!

No one person could possibly follow Dorie, so the next event was live blogging with Amazon.com Grocery where over 15 brand representatives took turns on stage introducing their products to us while we munched or drank the item. I am told we were jamming up Twitter pretty good during the live blogging event!

There comes a time in every day when the only civilized option is wine pairing. This event was led by the Chateau Ste. Michelle Culinary Director John Sarich. His love of food and wine was apparent throughout his presentation.

John had a different take on teaching wine pairing. He would have us taste the wrong wine with food before we tried the correct pairing thus giving us a sometimes jarring example of what not to pair. You can always tell a person who loves his or her work and John and Dorie both clearly love their work.

And now a confession. My good old boy side forced me to sneak away at lunch on Saturday for a burger and beer at Pikes Pub Brewery.

Did I mention yet how cool Seattle is?

So, with my comfort food fix handled, I took a few breath mints to rid my breath of any lingering odor of the cheese burger with caramelized onion or the big ol Pike IPA, and walked back up the hill to the “W”.

And here’s a secret; the foodie venues in Seattle are so plentiful the IFBC will be held there again in 2014! Last year sold out, and this year I hear over a 100 spots have been scooped up in the 3 days since the 2013 conference closed! So if it’s your sort of thing, ‘better get er done’.

Stay tuned! More great IFBC details to follow in future posts.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger Scouton

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