Last Saturday I went to a food blogger conference, called BlogHer Food, in San Francisco. This is a niche group to say the least – first you have bloggers, then food bloggers. But even more of niche? Gluten-free food bloggers! Yes, we were there in force (all 10 of us!)
I should clarify that I don’t qualify as a “food blogger.” I’m not creating new recipes in my kitchen every day, I’m not writing a cookbook, and I don’t take 500 million photographs of my food with an expensive camera (although I’m working on taking like, one or two photos of my food creations with the camera I already own). I wish I could be more like some food bloggers who dine out all the time and write about it, but it doesn’t really fit with my schedule right now (or my wallet). Instead, I consider myself a guide, a teacher, a gatherer and sharer of information about living gluten-free and allergen-free. At the center of it all, of course, is food. Which brought me to the food blogger conference and gave me a chance to meet some of the “food bloggers” who have helped me and inspired me in my own gluten-free journey.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want to introduce you to the fabulous women that I had a chance to meet in real life. They were all so nice! And so… life-like!
So here they are, the gluten-free gals… please visit their blogs!
Back row:
- Elana Amsterdam, of Elana’s Pantry – yes, she’s tall, and she fed all the starving gluten-free people homemade cookies (I ate four – thank you!) She also has a new gluten-free cookbook out! Look for a giveaway here soon.
- Me, hopefully you know who I am by now
- Karen Schuppert, of Cook4Seasons – looking forward to meeting with her locally and sharing gluten-free info!
- Dr. Jean Layton, of Gluten-Free Organics and More! – not only is she knowledgeable but she is a lot of fun and great dancer (we found out at the after party!)
Front Row:
- Stephanie O’Dea, of A Year of Slow Cooking – it’s always great to see Steph – love her wit and infectious laugh! And she has a slow cooking book coming out!
- Seamaiden (her blogger name), of Book of Yum – she is cute as a button and I got to meet her cute-as-a-button baby. Check out her blog full of inventive recipes!
- Ali Segersten, of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen – she is down-to-earth and beautiful. I wanted to hang out with her for a week and learn how to eat better!
- Shirley Braden, of Gluten Free Easily – you couldn’t meet a nicer person and her blog is jam-packed! I have a feeling she helps a lot of people.
- Diane Eblin, of The W.H.O.L.E. Gang – Diane defines the word spunky! She is also adventurous and has a great attitude about having multiple food intolerance.
Other noteable people I got to meet or see again:
- Shauna James Ahern, of The Gluten-Free Girl – the GF inspiration for many, I got to see her baby this time! (missing from pic above because she had to put baby to bed!)
- Elise Bauer, of Simply Recipes – I thank Elise for being a teacher to other bloggers
This was the first annual conference of its kind. Hopefully there will be another one! In the meantime, I need to get to work on some new recipes. Or not.
Stephanie O'Dea says
It was fantastic seeing you again, Alison! We need to find a way to get together more often. I’m looking forward to the GF event Oct 30; I’ll keep my eyes out for you.
xoxo steph
CinnamonQuill says
Sounds like a fabulous time; glad you GF people were there to represent!
gfe--gluten free easily says
Great summary post, Alison!! Thanks so very much for your kind words … they made my day. 🙂 It was absolutely wonderful meeting you! You are a doll and so photogenic. In every photo, you look absolutely fabulous. Me? I was still waiting for the hair and costume person to show up. LOL 😉 I’m still trying to catch up here in VA after several days of bad jet lag (it doesn’t seem right with only a 3-hr time difference, but it is reality) … hoping to get a post up by tomorrow. One of my favorite photos is Rocco breezing by and you on your cell phone with the kids–priorities!
Hugs,
Shirley
Ali (Whole Life Nutrition) says
It was great to meet you too Alison. I think I could hang out with you for a week too and have a blast! 🙂
Diane-The WHOLE Gang says
It was great to meet you too. Thank you for the kind words. People often use that word, spunky, to describe me. I’m wondering if I should change my name. 🙂 I hope I get out to S.F. again soon so we can meet up again. I had so much fun. Don’t worry about not posting recipes and restaurant reviews. You share other information that people need too. Your blog was one I found early in my shift to GF and boy did it help! It’s great we can all share unique things. I’ll be posting on the restaurants GF meals in San Fran on my other blog. They should be available this week. Have a great week!