My crazy day – food, video and tv cameras!

You never know when opportunity will come knocking and for me it was this morning with a very unexpected phone call from a producer at Channel 7. They were looking for a food blogger to help with a story on the rise of food blogging – of course I said YES!

It came about because the wonderful Amanda and Jennifer invited me to be the Food Blogger of the Month for May 2013 on the Food Bloggers Australia website – this is how Channel 7 found me. If you’re a food blogger in Australia definitely consider becoming a member – it’s free (!) and it can provide you with opportunities like this one – as well as loads of useful and practical information to make your blog even more fabulous.

I had a crazy morning with a video camera already planned, as I had said I’d be a cooking class member for my friend Mel who was shooting a corporate video for her cooking school Vanilla Zulu. Somedays I really do pinch myself 🙂

After helping cook and eat amazing food with Mel, I rushed home to slap on some more makeup and a top not splashed with flour.

Making bread with fresh, grated tumeric, flower petals and black sesame seeds – so pretty!

Simple herbed butter balls with a couple of goat cheese balls for good measure – if your butter is too hard just grate it

The final dish – cauliflower, sweet potato mash, roast red pepper, amazing lamb backstrap rolled in a spicy pistachio mix, bit of toasted proscuitto for crunch. Nom nom nom

With 15 minutes to spare before the Today Tonight crew turned up, I frantically tidied the kitchen.  Luckily no one looked under the sink cover or in a cupboard! I don’t think it’s ever been this tidy!

Our unusually sparklie kitchen 🙂

I had loads of fun, talking about one of my favourite topics – food! And I had a huge giggle when two of the crew walked in and almost started drooling when they saw my Thermomix 🙂

Emily, the Associate Producer who interview me asked loads of great questions that made me reflect on why I blog and how lucky I am to be part of such a fantastic community of like-minded people. We really do have a fabulous community – thank you to all my fellow food bloggers around the world who are a part of this.

Blogging, blogging, blogging! And a bit of promotion for the beautiful new book by the gorgeous Jude Blereau

Julian the cameraman

Thanks Julian, Jeremy and Emily! I had loads of fun 🙂

There were a few questions about what I thought about bloggers who review restaurants and whether chefs are justified in hating bloggers. Clearly now I’ve seen the promo this is the focus of the story! Let’s hope a few of my comments about how I blog to share my love of food comes across.

I clearly said that I don’t review restaurants, but that I will share positive experiences of places I go to without giving a rating or a point score or without critiquing the food in a detailed way (I don’t really consider OMG YUM!! to be a critique 🙂 ) . Let’s face it, I want my blog to be a positive place. I also made it clear that no way would I blog nastiness (life is too short!), and that if I have less than great restaurant experiences I always let the restaurant know privately.

Let’s see how I’m portrayed when the story airs on Today Tonight tomorrow (Wed 29 May) at 6.30pm on Channel 7.

However regardless of what happens when Today Tonight goes to air tomorrow, I had a fabulous time this afternoon, and shared quite a few laughs and a bit of my leftover maple pecan date and bourbon pie (which was a massive hit and will be blogged…).

Let me know what you think after tomorrow night!