A Day (or Almost) at the Culinary Blog Show in Paris
On Saturday 12 April, I had the chance to attend the food blogging show for the very first time! Yes, I know, this post is a little late (rest and holidays will do that ^^). The SBC — or “Salon du Blog Culinaire” — was held at the Nikki Diana Marquardt gallery, Place des Vosges, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. This event has been organised by 750g for several years and is dedicated exclusively to food bloggers (who could bring a guest).
We arrived around 10 a.m. with my husband, who was kind enough to come along, and we were already faced with a queue to get in. About twenty minutes later, I was handed a badge with my name and my blog name on it — very classy! And as requested, I had put on my finest apron, made and sewn by my sister!
There were already a lot of people. The venue is beautiful but much smaller than I had imagined. I didn’t quite know where to start — workshops and stands were dotted all around the gallery. I had spotted in advance (thanks to the programme) the workshops I was particularly interested in.
On arrival, some people were having breakfast, kindly provided by the show’s organisers. As for me, I couldn’t resist a delicious smoothie from the Interfel stand (fresh fruit and vegetables): a strawberry, grenadine syrup, vanilla and coconut milk smoothie. Absolutely divine!!!
I kicked off the day with the LIDL workshop, a colourful sweet-pink recipe session led by Sandra from the blog Cuisine Addict (a blog I love!). I had a front-row seat and didn’t miss a thing! Sandra made raspberry cupcakes. I particularly loved how close you could get to Sandra as she ran the workshop — you could ask her questions and she answered with great warmth. Well, not the luckiest of starts — her cupcakes didn’t quite come out right (too much baking powder, apparently) — but deep down I thought: ultimately, everyone, even the best, can have a recipe go wrong (and there’s actually something reassuring about that!). As for the topping, the butter was too cold and the cream kept getting stuck in the piping bag, which eventually burst! :O That’s when Chef Damien made his entrance to lend a hand in his own inimitable way! Unfortunately I left a little too early and never got to taste one…
Here’s the recipe in pictures:
You can find the recipe on Sandra’s blog here.
My husband had been worried he might get bored at first, but he quickly got into the spirit of things and became quite interested in the Kenwood stand. I didn’t have time to stop there and I regret it — same goes for the Terre exotique stand…
The next workshop was dedicated to choux pastry, but unfortunately it had been moved. We spent a good quarter of an hour looking for it (and were very poorly directed), so we arrived a little late — typical! This time it was Chef Claude leading the workshop. I’m no stranger to choux pastry — my husband once gave me a dedicated choux pastry class as a gift, and since then I’ve had no trouble making them. But there’s always something new to learn, and I love watching chefs at work! Chef Claude shared some really lovely tips. Many thanks to him — he’s incredibly kind and passionate about passing on his knowledge.
I would have loved to stay for the next workshop on shortcrust pastry, but choices had to be made — and my husband (who had well and truly caught the bug) and I both wanted to attend the food photography workshop organised by Olympus. One of my goals, alongside improving my baking skills, is to learn how to take beautiful photos. This workshop came at exactly the right moment! For the occasion I put my DSLR away, as we were lent a camera (the Olympus OM-D E-M10). There were barely ten of us taking part, and that small group was ideal for learning and getting involved. The workshop started with some useful guidance on the camera and how it worked. And then — pure joy! What a gem of a camera! My husband and I were both blown away!! At around €600–700, it’s well out of our reach, but for an hour we got to work with it, and it was simply fantastic: compact, twin dials, touchscreen, easy focusing, Wi-Fi, tilting screen, photo mosaic mode and more… the touchscreen alone left us speechless! The second part of the workshop was led by a food photography professional. A dish was brought over and it was our turn to practise… We were given the SD card to keep, so I was able to hold onto the shots I took. Lovely!
It’s 1 p.m. and time for the brunch. Every blogger had brought a sweet or savoury dish. I had made several muffins, but to my disappointment they weren’t put out on the table (too many things to eat already, most likely…). Being a picky eater, I kept things minimal, but my husband had a great time. It was a shame you had to wait so long to help yourself to food. Even though the food stands were spread across the gallery, the queues were enormous. And fatigue was starting to kick in — my back was beginning to hurt quite badly. We found two chairs and sat down to eat. By nature I tend to be rather reserved, so I didn’t really take advantage of the opportunity to chat… thank goodness my husband was there!
And here’s what I had made: pear and chocolate muffins, white chocolate and cranberry muffins, praline muffins, and chocolate chip muffins.
It’s 2 p.m. and the workshops are resuming (more or less). Some people are still eating, so the workshops are slow to get going. I take the opportunity to reserve my spot at the LIDL stand again to watch the workshop led by Céline from the blog L’heure du cream. She was showing us how to make grapefruit marshmallows in a chocolate shell, paired with a mint and strawberry rosé (the recipe is on her blog: here). Céline is adorable — I’m right at the front of the stand, she explains every step and glances over at me in particular. I’m so pleased, as I had never made marshmallows before (or eaten them, for that matter ^^). Céline is joined by Sandra for this recipe, which looks genuinely easy to make. And this time I managed to taste the marshmallow at the end of the workshop — a first for me… it’s quite a… strange sensation. I have to admit I wasn’t really won over.
Here’s the recipe in pictures:
You can find the recipe on Céline’s blog here.
Time was moving on… my husband had gone to watch the fruit and vegetable carving workshop led by Chef Claude. I went to join him and was amazed at what can be achieved — incredibly precise, meticulous work!
A few last photos, we also took the chance to leave a little memento in the photo booth at the gallery entrance (posted directly to FB). We collected our things, I finally packed away my apron, and it was time to go. I was disappointed not to have been there to see Philippe Conticini, the patron of this edition of the SBC 🙁 But I had a hen party to get to that afternoon…
I wasn’t there for it, but the day ended with a raffle (though I’ve never had much luck with that sort of thing) and an evening at the 750g workshop was organised for those who wanted to keep the fun going 🙂
We did however have the pleasure of leaving with a goodie bag, and that’s always a nice touch!
To sum up the positives:
– outstanding organisation! Genuinely, well done to everyone!, – a warm welcome, – interesting workshops, – new encounters, – sharing and community, – a great atmosphere…
As for the negatives:
– the venue was perhaps a little too small, – so many great workshops but you have to choose — you can’t be everywhere at once, unfortunately, – I can’t think of any others (not bad, right?)
In short, my husband and I both had a really lovely time — him as much as me. A wonderful turnaround after the Sugar Paris show that had disappointed me so much! This show is the very embodiment of sharing and community, and I loved it! It’s quite fun to bump into bloggers and look at their badges first thing, wondering if you know their blog ^^ — you do end up chatting a little (despite my reserved nature), you learn, and the atmosphere is just right.
Thank you to 750g, to Chef Damien and to all the other bloggers who made this such a genuinely enjoyable and enriching day! Thanks also to photographer Sylvain Bertrand for making his photos available to us.
Next stop: the Salon du Blog Culinaire in Soissons. It’s further away… I’m not sure yet whether I’ll make it 😉
