#Cookchat With Master Chefs LaCasse and Ogborn
Confession. I’m not a master chef. Neither is my co-moderator, Sam Ogborn, of the newly created #Cookchat, at least as far as I know. Behold the power of Twitter…we’ve never met face to face, a problem to be remedied tomorrow, yet we are creating a chat sure to dominate Twitter in the months and years to come. Or at least make someone hungry. I mean, like, REALLY hungry. Like these guys:
I've always been a sucker for Hungry Hungry Hippos
We were both participating in the #chatmixer event hosted by Justin Goldsborough, Valerie Simon, and Heather Whaling; when an idea of creating a chat that would fill a void missing in the “chatterverse” (copyright pending on chatterverse). Much to our mutual amazement, there isn’t a single cooking or food related chat on Twitter. The mission was at once clear.
So, how to START a chat?! Fortunately, many people seemed genuinely excited about participating in the chat, so getting people to show up (hopefully) won’t be an issue. Cooking and food are pretty diverse topics though, so how do we keep the focus? That’s something we’ll be working on as #cookchat matures and progresses.
Shonali Burke, (and by the way, what an awesome name. It just rolls of the tongue, does it not? Go ahead, try it out loud. I’ll wait….See? Meanwhile I got Matt. What was your name again? Mark? Mike? No? Oh. Matt! So sorry. GAH!!!!!!) has a great post on three questions you need to answer before starting a chat. The answers Sam and I come up with to those questions will determine how successful #cookchat will be.
But what do YOU want #cookchat to look like? Sam and I have some ideas, which we’ll be sharing soon, but frankly, if it’s just her and I tweeting back and forth about food and cooking, this is going to get really boring really fast. What topics would you like covered? Is this about recipes, methods, and favorite foods? Or is it about those topics and the food industry? Those are questions you’ll all have a say in as we move forward. Sam and I are simply attempting to serve as your tour guides.
And with that, a scene from Julie & Julia. Why? A) Because I enjoyed the movie way more than I should have B) It’s a great food-centric film, and as this is a food-centric post, it ties in nicely, and C) I cannot get enough of Meryl Streep impersonating Julia Child:
Love this idea
Will be looking forward to hearing it evolve… I used to write restaurant reviews and my husband loves to cook, so I will certainly have to swing by #cookchat when it gets started! Maybe you all could even cook dinner together… live?! Trying to cook complex dish would certainly be less intimidating if there were others to ask questions to and share ideas with. Just a thought. Can’t wait to see where this goes. Thanks for joining us at #Chatmixer 
Love the idea of cooking live Valerie! Maybe it could be a UStream event! Who knows! Would love for you to stop by once we launch it, the more knowledge we can add to our group, the better.
yay! As if you couldn’t tell by my twitter postings, I obsess over food. I watch Food Network like others watch illicit material. I am always thinking of what to cook and excited to try new recipes.
Julie and Julia made me happy (even when I was super annoyed with Julie and later learned of her next book, which made me dislike her more, I digress).
I cannot wait to participate in #cookchat I’ll spread the word. I know LOTS of people who will LOVE this!
Matt – I’m tickled pink that my name rolls off your tongue. Perhaps you can sprinkle some of your fairy dust on everyone who mispronounces it.
I’m really looking forward to #cookchat. Here are some ideas: make an ingredient a theme and ask what the participants have done with it. Examine different vegetables/herbs and their health benefits. Oh, there’s so much one could do… and, of course, share recipes that folks have come up with. Might I suggest creating a really basic spreadsheet/calendar, so that you can map out the themes? That will help you bring in guests, etc. (if you ever want to talk about Indian cooking, hint hint).
Lovely to “meet” you!