Seattle may be a big-ish city, but it’s a small town when it comes to food. It seems like everyone who into food knows each other. Whether you’re a chef, writer, reviewer, bloggers, or just a person who likes to make and eat food, we know who everyone is. And I love it.
I’ve only been involved with the food scene here for about 9 months. I’ve always baked and cooked, and have been a maniac for cookbooks my whole life, but I didn’t really realise who my people were until I got on Twitter. It may sound dramatic, but Twitter has changed my life. Seriously. Every day, I now follow and am followed by about 1000 people–many from Seattle, many from around the US, and even folks from other countries. On Twitter, we chat with each other about our daily lives, what we’re doing, and of course, what we’re cooking. With Twitter, I feel like there’s always a fun gathering of people that I can drop in on whenever I have the time and inclination. It’s quite convivial.
The thing I love about my Seattle food friends is that we all met and interact on Twitter, but now we all see each other often in real life. And, it’s like getting together with family. Conversation is easy, we know enough about each other that we feel we have the basics down, and we share a common love of food.
Another thing about the food community in Seattle–we like to party! We are constantly getting together for all sorts of events–official and private. This evening I attended an event called Foodportunity. This is a quarterly (or so) gathering of food lovers to chat, eat, meet new people, and listen to food professionals talk about their experiences. It’s a lovely event. As usual, it was like old home week. But, I also met new people, learned about new restaurants and just published books, and ran into and chatted with some local chefs I’ve come to love and admire–including Tom Douglas (who hosted the evening), Chef Wayne from Andaluca (and his partner, Sally), and Chef Daisley from Campagne (who was on Iron Chef recently and invited all of us to come watch his episode with him). Each one of these guys knows everyone in the community and takes the time to interact with us and know who we are. I appreciate that. And, of course, it makes me want to go to their restaurants.
The conviviality warms my heart. I look forward to these events because they are about bringing together like-minded people to enjoy each other’s company. And isn’t that what sharing food with people is about?
