Day 2 At IFBM

A month later, IFBM still weaves its magic. Read on for events of Day 2.

Even as the realities of navigating the city’s famous weekend rush hour traffic tried to dampen spirits, I refused to get bogged down. I was eagerly waiting for the events of Day 2 to unfold.

Ashish Verma, Digital Strategist for Ogilvy, got down to business with us soon enough. What is SEO?  How to optimise content for SEO? How to use plug-ins to advantage? How does Google Analytics help? What type of title or keyword should be used? Being a newbie to the technical details that runs the web, some of these, well, OK, most of these were unknown to me. Suffice to say, I have resolved to learn more of the workings of the web. Ashish, thank you so much for opening up a new vista of information for me.

 

Good Food Writing, by Rushina Ghildiyal. Boy, was I waiting for this one. Veteran food blogger, successful cook book author, food writer, owner of cooking studio in Mumbai, Rushina wears so many titles with panache. Above all, superlatively helpful, gracious, Rushina is a role model person for all to emulate. How to structure your article, how to write a recipe, how to be your own ‘harsh editor’, how to write reviews, and the list went on. So generous was she in sharing her knowledge and information, that I want to fly right away to Mumbai and sign up for her classes. God, and the Universe, please make this happen soon.

Tea break again was an excuse for the Aloft folks to pamper us silly.

How to self publish your book – Aparna Jain from Patridge Publishing gave us the low down on the lucrative (that is not) aspects of book and e–book publishing. It was very good to get down to the brass tacks of the publishing business. I’ve stored away all information she shared generously to be used when I am ready to publish my book. Wish me luck, folks!

A panel discussion by six great food bloggers followed. This was stimulating. Sanjeeta of Lite Bites shared her experiences of working on food styling assignments, while Harini Of Tongue Ticklers spoke about her photography. Rushina shared candidly her ups and downs of launching her cooking studio. Kalyan Karmakar of Finely Chopped spoke about his famous food walks in Mumbai. Ruchira and Ranjini, the tadka girls spoke about their successful launching of 2 e-books. There was a lively group discussion on how to move beyond blogging. We also discussed how to explore new territory, how to price your work in unchartered domains, how to delineate free content from charged services. All of us benefitted from their collective wisdom.

I have an idea. Why don’t we have online webinars or Google hangout panel discussions similarly instead of waiting for a whole year for another meet?

 

Lunch was again an extravagant affair. Laid out at Nook, Aloft Cessna Park’s 24 hour restaurant, the place is very cosy, cheerful, open and inviting. I love the green chairs as well as the bright cutlery.

Chef Sameer Luthra paid great attention to the choice of menu and quality of food put up. The buffet is vast. A wide selection of salads, starters, and a bit of International as well as regional Indian cuisine in the mains. Vegetarian Phad Thai was very welcome as was Vankaya Igguru. Toning down the oil in the Indian curries would be well appreciated too! After the sumptuous meal, the desserts were fighting for attention and demanded complete justice. Gulab jamun was a heavenly mouthful. The tiramisu and mango mousse were likeable too. I am planning to spend a leisurely Sunday at Aloft Cessna, lunching with my family.

Post lunch, we were eagerly waiting for Chef Sameer Luthra. A product of Le Cordon Bleu, France, he blew us away with his loving treatment of ingredients and whipped up potato rosti and another dish with fish.

I had to leave mid way and missed out on the rest of the evening proceedings. I heard the rest of the folks had a fantastic tea to revive their spirits, set by the poolside.

Did I mention that we were virtually flooded with goodie bags too? It would take an entire blog post to do justice to the goodie bags. For now,

Time to say good bye to IFBM2014. Eagerly waiting for IFBM2015! What do you say, folks?

I was at IFBM

When the first ever Indian Food Bloggers Meet was announced in June 2014, I was extremely excited. The chance of learning from veterans in the blogging world, the opportunity to meet up with the very talented fellow food bloggers, was too good to be missed. Despite being on bed rest then, nursing four rib fractures, I went ahead and registered for the event! When bloggers from Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune,and even abroad were flying in, how could I miss it?

Am I glad that I signed in? You bet! If the rush I got from meeting my old blogger friends was not enough, making several new friends, meeting the faces behind the delicious blogs, attending all those informative sessions were enough to send me into blogger heaven.

I could not believe that the organisers were putting up this, or any event for the first time ever. If they confessed that they had no prior experience in coordinating events at all, I put it down to modesty. Such was the attention to detail. Very meticulous planning. Aparna, Nandita, Arundati, Revatii, Please take a bow! You have created a nation-wide platform for us to interact. You have set a high bench mark for succeeding events. You have instilled renewed confidence and commitment in all attendees, and made those who could not show up, go green! I’m certain the next blogger’s meet will have many more participating.

The first day began with a bang. Famous baker, food styling diva, above all, the most generous of people I have found, Deeba Rajpal led us through the steps of using props intelligently. Her session was liberally sprinkled with tips, stories behind several of her famous pictures and even info on where she purchases and stores her stunning props.

Aparna Balasubramanian led us through the nuances of food photography. One look at the pictures on her blog and portfolio is enough to make everyone sit up and lap in every word she utters. Equable, unpretentious, ever helpful, Aparna shared several tips on how to get lighting right in food pictures, choice of angles to shoot, how to select and use a tripod and several more.

The Kitchen Aid Master class with Chef Surjan Singh Jolly was well, lively and jolly! He demonstrated an unusual ‘Kaer-Saangri’ paratha paired with a tomato kat.

An amazing midday tea was spread out in the lobby waiting patiently for our attention. Boy, were we floored? If the theme of the spread named ‘Honey, I love you’ sounded !!?, the choice of dainty high tea desserts more than made up for it. Have you heard of yoghurt pannacotta sweetened wit honey? Or honey flavoured chocolate mousse cake? Or vanilla cupcakes iced with ‘honey bees’? Or a large tempered - chocolate bee hive? It took me a long time to be convinced that the bee hive was actually edible. And I am talking about only a few delicacies on offer.

Allow me to introduce you to our Venue and F and B Host – Aloft Cessna Business Park.

Aloft Cessna Business Park fulfils the need of business hospitality in the IT Zone of Bangalore. It is fitted with several meeting rooms arrayed with hi-speed Wi Fi and other equipment necessary to make conferences and meetings an effortless, successful event.

A special mention about their very comfortable chairs. I should know. Ahead of the event, I had requested for a full back support chair to enable me sit through the two days of the meet.         (Remember the rib fractures?) The organisers took it upon themselves to ensure this was in place. Aloft Cessna did not disappoint. The chairs were all so comfortable that I breezed through without any discomfort whatsoever. They even had an ergonomic chair with complete back and neck support, just in case. Thank you, organisers and Aloft Cessna! This attention to detail, if sustained, will surely take Team Aloft Cessna a long way.

Lunch was again a theme affair. With food revolving around ‘Aamchi Mumbai’, people could have their fill of murmura in paper cones, pav bhaji, kheema pav, misal pav, vada pav, and ice gola or falooda for dessert!

I would have preferred more sensitivity towards separating vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. The veg bhaji and the non-veg kheema for the pavs were stationed too close to each other for comfort with the same chef handling the service for both as well! Needless to say, I preferred to give it a miss.

Post lunch saw Nandita Iyer, the social media diva, walk us through the steps of harnessing social media to our benefit. Her talk was replete with humour (apt for post – lunch session, it kept us awake) yet bringing home the power and use of social media such as pinterest, twitter, facebook and others for bloggers.

Aneesh Bhasin from Hipcask, took over next. His talk on Rose wines (an under-appreciated category) was very informative. Ably aided with samples of Zampa, a Rose from the Grover stable, he led us through the nuances of wine making, Indian wines, wine labelling in different countries, the correct temperature for drinking various wines. He took queries with great ease and helped food bloggers understand wines much better. Thank you, Aneesh Bhasin!

Before we knew it, folks at Aloft announced tea time. When pampered so much, who are we to complain?  The theme this time was ‘Kolkata Chaats’. Rossogollas, ghugni, puchkas, kathi rolls, kaala jamuns were all drippingly enticing.

It was wonderful to see momos and thupka also part of the menu. The chef had also created different sauces to accompany thupkas. However, the momos again had both vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions in close proximity, nee, in the same steamer (in different compartments). Can we have better discernment with respect to vegetarian / vegan sensitivities please?

Before we knew it, it was time for a session with Husna Rahaman, author of Spice Sorcery. The author shared anecdotes of her childhood, cooking, and how families bonded over food.

This was end of Day 1. A whirlwind of sessions, learning, meeting up with who’s who of the food blogging world, carrying heavy goodie bags back home and excitedly waiting for Day 2.

Day 2 needs another post altogether. So wait for one here.. Till then, eat right, be happy, stay blessed!