If you've got $1395 to spare (and who doesn't), spend an October weekend with the fifth annual Gourmet Institute. Experience cooking demos and seminars with such culinary luminaries as Ruth Reichl, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Eric Ripert, Colman Andrews, Drew Nieporent, Masaharu Morimoto...and me.
What?
Shhhhh....I know. It's sort of batshit crazy. I've been asked to be on a blogger panel. Here's the description from the website:
Eat the Web: Blogging's Effect on the Food WorldTyler Colman (DrVino.com)/Ben Leventhal (Eater.com)/Ed Levine (SeriousEats.com)/Ganda Suthivarakom (EatDrinkOneWoman.com)
Blogging is a new and powerful phenomenon. In this discussion, four of the most respected bloggers share their thoughts and insights on topics such as: How does one start a blog? What makes a blog a blog? What does the food-blog world look like? How is the Internet changing the restaurant business and how bloggers are shaping food trends. Ruth Reichl moderates.
Shut up! Stop laughing! What the hell am I going to talk about? Who wants to hear from a blogger panel?
I feel a little bit like I did when I was a freshman in college. My buddy Julian and I desperately wanted to see our favorite Brit pop bands (shut up! stop laughing!) play down at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. The only problem was that I was 17 and she was 18, and Bottom of the Hill is 21+.
So -- very sneaky -- we would take the Bart to 16th and Mission and walk many, many blocks to the club. Once we got there, which was usually around 5pm, there was never anyone checking IDs at the door so we'd sneak in, go to the back garden and just pretend like we belonged there. The bartenders would be setting up, it would be fully light out, and if we were lucky, we'd catch a bit of the band's soundcheck. The only problem was that the bands didn't actually go on until about 11pm. So we would basically get there and hang out in this tiny club for SIX HOURS.
I mean, clearly we did not belong. But nobody kicked us out once we were in. I'm just hoping the gatekeepers at the Gourmet Institute turn a similarly benevolent blind eye and let a fangirl squat in the telephone booth. Maybe next to the Andrew Carmellini white truffle station.
give congrats to you! i'm really glad to see you get recognized for fantastic writing. Also I laughed after "British Pop band."
Congratulations! This is one seriously cool gig. You better rock that all-access pass!
OMG that is so hot!!!!!!!!!!!!! I totally want to go....
that is AWESOME. go you! god, i wish i had a sugar daddy.
Way to go, Ganda.
Blogger panel your ass off.
I won't laugh until you name some of the bands you waited six hours to see.
I am supremely jealous and in awe. I should switch that around to make myself sound like a better person. Regardless, I congratulate you. Your blog is great and you deserve it. Ruth Reichl...at least you will know what to say to her. I don't think I could think of anything she hasn't heard less than ten times.
rock on, lady!
I don't remember all of them. I definitely remember the first one, though. Oasis. (Shut up!) Blur and Pulp had played a show at the Fillmore the night before, so they showed up in the audience. I just about wet myself. On top of that, the Brian Jonestown Massacre opened, and that crazy maracas guy said we should go hang out. I was literally 16 years old, yo. Echobelly we definitely snuck in to see. I think Elastica played during finals, so I missed that one. Supergrass was at Bimbo's. Suede was at the Fillmore.
Ah anglophilia.
Hey Ganda... I'm really happy that you're on board for this panel. I'm the web editor at Gourmet and I remember suggesting the panel when we first talked about this year's institute. Everyone here was really behind the idea... which makes me happy because it's really indicative of how excited they all are about these internets we keep hearing about.
Also... Oasis, Pulp, Suede??? Don't laugh??? You're seriously not embarrassed by those bands, are you? Try sneaking into a 21+ club to see Cub, Bunnygrunt or Tullycraft. Yes... I was a teenage twee pop fan and I'm not ashamed to admit it. See you in October! Bring a tambourine made out of dry pasta and paper plates... I'll bring a kazoo... and we can try to start a band with Anthony Bourdain.
Hello!
Thanks. I'm thrilled! And hope I don't sound too stupid. Though I have to say that nobody I know can afford to go, so I'll only sound stupid in front of a bunch of strangers.
Side note, I should clarify -- I was 16 when I saw Oasis. It was Sep. 25, and I turned 17 the next month. In case anybody cared about the discrepancy. Which I'm sure no one did, but I didn't want you all to think I was being hyperbolic. Not that I'm not hyperbolic.
As I was saying, I hope I at least come off as a funny and charming neurotic nut and not a bump on a log boring neurotic nut. Could swing either way, really.