Don't tweet with your mouth full

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From left, Getty Stewart, Rebecca Hadfield, Wendy Elias-Lopez, Hadass Eviatar, Allison Hickling, Ellen Pruden and Shel Zolkewich at their bake sale. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Epicures assemble!

Last summer, Shel Zolkewich got wind of the Minnesota Food Bloggers -- a group of gastronomes who muse about recipes and restaurants associated with the Gopher State. Zolkewich is a freelance writer who spends a lot of time penning stories about food. In August 2011, the married mother of one adopted an if-they-can-do-it, so-can-we attitude, and formed an organization called the Manitoba Food Bloggers.

"I thought there might be 12 or 15 people who'd be interested, but it quickly turned into one of those 'be careful what you wish for' sorta things," Zolkewich says.

At last count, the club's Facebook page had 154 members -- a number that includes writers, chefs, restaurant owners and, in the case of Peak of the Market's Larry McIntosh, CEOs.

"We're called the Manitoba Food Bloggers but you don't have to have a blog or even be a writer, necessarily," Zolkewich explains. "What you have to have is an interest in food, whatever that may be. I always say that we're all-inclusive but non-denominational."

The original game plan was for people to hook up online via Facebook or through members' individual Twitter feeds. Zolkewich was guessing that the group would be a valuable resource for people who wanted to know what ingredients a particular dish called for or where to find a late-night dessert palace.

Much of that changed four months ago when the Manitoba Food Bloggers convened in person for the first time at Elements, located at 599 Portage Ave.

"To actually meet somebody face-to-face is almost like a whole new experience nowadays," Zolkewich says with a laugh. "So many of us only knew each other through our online personas that getting together was really cool." (Although everybody in attendance wore a lanyard with his/her name on it, a lot of people introduced themselves by their Twitter handles.)

"Shel put it out there that she was looking for a venue and within 30 seconds, we jumped at the opportunity," says Ben Kramer, the head chef at Elements. The event, which was held on Feb. 29, was scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission was capped at 50. Both of those guidelines went out the door fairly quickly, Kramer says.

"We gave them the bar side but everything kind of spilled over into the rest of the room," Kramer says. "We served a ton of hors d'oeuvres; staff was coming out of the kitchen with food all night, it seemed."

Soiree No. 2 was held six weeks later. It was an even bigger success.

"I think by the time we announced that we were going to Bistro 7ü (725 Osborne St.), everybody had already heard about how much fun Elements had been," Zolkewich says. "The tickets were gone three weeks ahead of time; we sold 50 (tickets) but I think we could have sold 150. People who were having dinner on the other side were poking their heads in all night, wondering what was going on." (Admission to both events was $10, with all proceeds going to charity. Food was provided by the host venues, but guests were required to pay for their beverages.)

Kathy Grisim writes a blog called Food Musings, which focuses on how people socialize and express their emotions around meal time. Grisim attended the Elements and Bistro affairs, as well as a mid-May get-together at a farm, south of Winnipeg.

"That last one (on the farm) was so much fun; there were tractor rides going all night and a lot of people brought their kids along," Grisim says.

Interacting with people she had gotten to know through the blog community is the key reason Grisim joined the Manitoba Food Bloggers. But the meet-ups have now given her an opportunity to "get closer" to her food, she says.

"In the last few months, I've met canola farmers, wine reps, chefs... not to mention a lot of women that I tweet with all the time, people that I never had the opportunity to speak to in person before," Grisim says.

This summer, the Manitoba Food Bloggers will be taking their show on the road. Plans are currently in the works to gather at outdoor settings such as the St. Norbert Farmers' Market and at venues like the just-opened Red River General Store on Henderson Highway, near Lockport.

"We're also considering setting up some cooking demonstrations," Zolkewich says, adding that the group is truly provincial in nature, with members from as far afield as Cranberry Portage. "I was just talking to our prairie fruit person, Getty Stewart, this morning. She has a new cookbook coming out so I said, 'Hey, would you like to do a jam and jellies workshop for us?" She was like, 'Yeah, great idea, but let's plan it for the fall, when the fruit is coming up.'"

As for the word "plan," well, that's a bit of a misnomer, Zolkewich admits.

"Yeah, so far each get-together has been pretty informal with no real agenda to speak of. But that's obviously working, because the one thing that strikes me about these events is how much fun everybody has.

"There are smiles all around -- everybody's laughing. I don't know if it's the food or the drinks or just the aspect of getting together with people who share the same interests you do, but so far things are working."

For more information on the Manitoba Food Bloggers -- and to find out what's cooking in the future -- go to www.facebook.com/#!/groups/manitobafoodbloggers.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca

Grills on film

SECONDS after the waiter at Rudy's Eat & Drink brings Kathy Grisim her lunch -- a creative take on tuna carpaccio -- Grisim reaches into her purse for her camera and begins snapping pictures. Later, Grisim will post the photos on her blog, along with a synopsis of her experience at the downtown hot spot.

"I haven't had a negative reaction yet," Grisim says, when she is asked how restaurant staff react to her vocation. "But then, I'm not a critic. I've worked in the business -- my husband used to have his own restaurant -- so I know that anybody can have an off-night. And I don't think it's fair to broadcast that to the world."

Ben Kramer, head chef at Elements, admits that there is bit of a love-hate relationship between restaurateurs and people who go online and blog about their dining experiences.

"It used to be that you would be given three or four months to work out the kinks before you got reviewed," Kramer says. "But now everybody wants to be the first person to crack a story, so on opening night, you've got all these people with camera phones blogging about you."

That said, Kramer allows that food bloggers have become a force to be reckoned with.

"Nowadays, social media and food blogging pull almost more weight than the traditional press; when people are looking for a place to eat, they go to sites like Urbanspoon, which are written by regular people."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 23, 2012 E3