On the Lamb @ Surfas

It's no secret I'm a fan of the L.A.-based blogger Joy the Baker, including her catering triumvirate On the Lamb. A couple of weekends ago, the three of them held a strawberry-themed cooking demonstration at the "holy crap, this place is dangerous" kitchen and restaurant supply store Surfas in Culver City.

Between the video monitor and the overhead mirror, it was easy to see the prep work as the strawberry & balsamic basil soda, the strawberry & arugula salad with strawberry black pepper biscuits, and the strawberry banana cream pie (or mini-tarts for demonstration purposes) were assembled for the audience to sample.

And for what it's worth, it was refreshing to see actual food preparation, like whisking custard and slicing bananas, rather than the televised demonstrations where all the ingredients are pre-measured and pre-diced (are you listening Food Network?) and you have no idea how long it actually takes to make a recipe.

Breakin' the Wall

The internet has made us more detached and isolated than ever before. Don't want to go to a store? Amazon will deliver right to your door. So when Joy the Baker announced that she was having a rooftop picnic to bring her readers together in person, I was amazed. Not that she would be so generous as to cater a complete picnic, complete with her homemade cupcakes, for people she'd never met, but that so many people would actually come.

It's a testament to the power of food, and more importantly, people that love food, that made Sunday's picnic such a success. I not only got to meet Joy the Baker, who was as charming and funny in person as she is on-line, but also people like the lovely couple behind Savour-Fare. Their little girl knew exactly what to do with her cupcake, and enjoyed every bite.