You might be shaking your head (sideways), saying “molecular WHAT”? but when I received an invitation to attend a molecular gastronomy demonstration – I shook my head up and down to indicate YES.

I’m not sure when I was first introduced to molecular gastronomy but I’m pretty sure it was at Charlie Trotters’ restaurant in Chicago many years ago. Or perhaps it was at Joel Robuchons’ restaurant in Las Vegas. All I know is that I think it’s spectacular!

So what is it? Its a method of cooking that I WILL NEVER master. LOL.

However there are some great chefs out there who do an awesome job…including John Placko who is teaching a series of hands-on molecular gastronomy workshops at Humber College.

I was tweeting about the demonstration throughout the evening and received some tweets back that said “I would kill for that machine”. (special machines and ingredients are often used in molecular gastronomy – so I found out). The tweet was in reference to a $4,000 pacojet!

The evening demonstrated a few special techniques including: spherification, reverse spherification, emulsification and more. It was a 3 hour demonstration and I loved every minute.

The photo at the beginning of the blog post is one of the many items that were demonstrated that evening. It’s cereal milk ice cream (made in a pacojet) in a frozen bowl made of coconut milk with raspberry niblets (with the help of liquid nitrogen) on a bed of white chocolate powder, topped with gold flakes. IMPRESSIVE.

There’s a series of workshops taking place each Saturday from March to June at Humber College. For further information,visit the Humber College website or call 416-675-5005.

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This photo might explain more about the Shes Connected Conference I recently attended:

Staying Connected!!

Ok..I will be serious for a minute. The conference looked like this:

You are probably asking..what’s Shes Connected? It was a conference that connected brands with digitally connected woman. We all had blogs, we were all on Linkedin, we all used facebook, we all loved twitter…basically we all embraced Social Media with open arms.

I did not have to shell out hundreds of dollars, like other conferences. We were all selected i.e we had to apply. I was positively thrilled to get an email that I was selected.

So that day, I got dressed in “business attire” and headed downtown for 8 a.m…armed with my camera, my iPhone, my laptop, a hundred business cards and of course, my beloved chargers. (see above photo).

I felt empowered by 8 a.m.. It felt very different than my usual day of visiting grocery stores. (I’m a food sales rep).

In the morning we listened to a variety of speakers talk about Social Media and in the afternoon we listened to a variety of brands.

Did I connect with the brands? Well I certainly took the opporttunity to talk to John Placko from Maple Leaf Foods coz he was easy to recognize (wearing chef whites and one of the few men there). I also approached a PR rep who works with Kraft Foods. I clearly wanted to connect with other foodies.

Did I connect with other women?  Absolutely. I came home with two dozen business cards, inputed the email addys into my address book …and sent a few people a quick email saying how much I enjoyed connecting with them at the conference.

Did the brands connect with the participants? I’m hoping that at the round tables they learned more about how as bloggers we can help them and how they can help us!!  They all listened, took notes, and asked questions.

The day certainly went by quickly and before I knew it, it was 6 p.m.

I went home feeling even more connected and have already scheduled the dates of ShesConnected 2011 into my calendar.

Happy Connecting!!!

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