Project Food Blog: Challenge #1

I Love to Bake and Blog: Peanut Butter Banana Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting

Ready, Set, Blog Post! That’s the title of the first round of Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog, a riff on the popular cooking elimination programs that are currently dominating reality TV. This is the beginning of 12 weeks of challenges which will ultimately lead to one food blogger being crowned the next food blog star and winning a cool hard $10000 and a special feature on Foodbuzz for a year. That’s a big deal. And here’s why I think that food blogger should be me:

Pumpkin Gnocchi: I wish I could go to Italy to learn to make it authentically!

I was never one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. While other youngsters had dreams of being ballerinas, fire fighters, astronauts or famous singers, my stock standard answer of what I wanted to be when I grew up was “I don’t know.” As I progressed through elementary school, that answer didn’t change. In high school when others were picking out university programs, I selected six schools at random and applied, without any idea where it would lead. In university when others were applying for jobs or further education I still didn’t know what I wanted to do next and so I decided to take some time off.

Me at The French Laundry: The happiest place on earth, (forget Disneyworld...)

It was during that time that I began to truly identify my love of food and also when I began blogging. For a period of time I thought maybe I could earn a living cooking, but with a university degree in Physical Health and Education, I decided that I had better head to culinary school first. After a year long chef training program I started my first job in a restaurant kitchen, ready to begin a culinary career. Things were finally starting to take shape, except I hated it and wanted to quit after my first week. It improved following the rough start and I managed to stick it out for 14 months, but I knew that restaurant work wasn’t for me. Back to square one.

Culinary School: I learned a lot, but the restaurant business is not for me

Once again, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, I took off and traveled for a year. The one thing that remained constant throughout my travels was my love of food and desire to taste as much of each country as I could. Looking back through my travel pictures, there’s an inordinate amount of food photos to prove it. Since returning home I’ve been looking for a job and applying to a variety of positions but as always, without knowing what it is I really want to do.

Pad Thai in Thailand: Street food is awesome

For anyone who’s been in this situation before, you’ll be familiar with the line of questions you get from others who are trying to help you out. One of the most popular questions is “If money/time/obstacles weren’t an issue, what would you most want to be doing with your time, what would make you happy?” This is not an easy question. I started by answering with my old favourite response of “I don’t know.” But then I started to think about it and the beginnings of a new, better answer began to form.

Skydiving in New Zealand: Not as big a rush as eating at The French Laundry

What would make me happy? I’d ultimately like to spend my days cooking, baking, eating, photographing, traveling and writing about it all. Essentially, I would like to be a professional food blogger. But how do I make that happen? Foodbuzz has provided me with a good way to start on the path to food blogging success with Project Food Blog. Not only would the exposure be good, but just think what I could do with $10000! I could take the Ice Cream Technology course offered by the University of Guelph, the only one in Canada of its kind. I could plan a trip to Italy and learn pasta making from the masters. I could outfit my kitchen with all sorts of new gadgets. And throughout it all, I’d be blogging and sharing my cooking experiences with the world. Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Adventuring and Eating Around the World: Something I'd like to do more of

So when voting opens for the first challenge on September 20th, help make my food blogging dreams a reality by voting me into the next round of Project Food Blog. Need any more proof that I’m serious about food? Here are three reasons:

Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream: One of my favourite homemade flavours

-I started blogging in 2006, over four years ago, I’m serious about this!
-When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is what’s for dinner.
-I got a bigger rush out of eating at The French Laundry than I did from skydiving.