The Pearl Street Whole Foods store hosted a marvelous tour and dinner last night for local food bloggers, moi included (thanks, Whole Foods, for a delicious, social, and informative evening!). The big news in the newly remodeled store (big festivities planned for this whole weekend, starting tomorrow) is their new Cooking Department, with Beth Pilar as Cooking Coach. I'm still getting my head around this fascinating concept, but the general idea is to encourage people to get back into the kitchen and cook with real ingredients. The department is centered in the bulk area, with an information kiosk based there. Undoubtedly the coolest new toys are the iPads scattered throughout the department, with which you can find recipes and email them to yourself, ask food questions, and the like. At the center of the online component is a partnership with Food52, a project of NYT's food guru Amanda Hesser (she was there last night!) to build food communities nationally. Fascinating concepts, so we'll see where they go.
A note about the remodeled bulk department. In addition to upgrades like heirloom beans and more gluten-less flours, a station of oil and vinegar dispensers is to be installed. I'd presume that means they intend to give Alfalfa's wonderful oil and vinegar station a run for its money. However it plays out, I treasure my bottle with the Alfalfa's logo, currently holding fantastic, organic Tuscan herb olive oil.
I was glad to have a chance to meet so many other local food bloggers yesterday (who knew there were so many of us?). Thanks again to Whole Foods and the many people they brought together to make a wonderful and informative evening.
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Interesting! About how many bloggers ended up attending? Did you get to share blogging tips with them?
ReplyDeleteAnd what did they serve you for din-din?
Goodness, there were probably about 40 people there, including the Whole Foods folks who joined us. The dinner was fantastic from start to finish. Wish we'd had more time for the appetizers that were being passed as we signed in. The fig and proscuitto crostini were especially divine, but I discovered them just as we headed into the store for our tour, so I walked into the store while devouring one. Dinner proper consisted of salmon with beets and apples, then Yukon Gold gnocchi atop a local corn puree with truffle oil, a smoked pork belly dish, sorbet cleanser, dry aged ribeye with shallot potato rosti, then two cakes from Kim & Jake's plus Allegro coffee and tea to finish it off. What a feast! P.S. These fine folks at Whole Foods are also available for catering outside events.
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