It’s surprising what a roomful of geeks can do. At Bar and mini-camps they can reinvent the wheel. At any other numerous Web 2.0 conference there’s cries of a Web 3.0 uprising and more techno-inspired innovativeness and creativeness than can be held in one room, or after party bar.
What would happen if you put said geeks into a kitchen and told them to cook in teams of two a three course meal? Disaster? Utter confusion? Mayhem?
One of the above is true.
Tried and tasted Nicole and myself of Girl Geek fame were representing in the Food 2.0 nom nom nom Action Against Hunger cook-athon. The event sponsored by our always superb and energetic friends at TrustedPlaces and SpinVox made for a fast-paced and exhausting day! And someone should really hide the sugar from Walid, such high energy levels become more than contagious!
Deliberated,
Before the event there was some light deliberation and mocking on behalf of Nic and myself fed through various Tweats, wallposts and even SpinVox’s (where what you say is turned into text. A very cool, and mighty fun use of voicemail I might add) which seemed apt as it was mostly Whatelydude of SpinVox fame we were challenging. Girl Geek pride was at stake and we were taking things seriously enough to continue our practice run-through into the wee hours of Saturday night (well Nic was cooking, I was there more for ‘decoration’, and to chop). At 1am there was still essential cookery stuff to be done. No wonder G. Ramsey is losing his hair. Phew; hard work! I think I dreamt of cooking that night. Well certainly chopping!
Cogitated,
But no time for proper rest! in true to form ‘hard at work’ chef style we arose early Sunday to cogitate about the event ahead and in anticipation of perhaps having the honour of not only Girl Geek status, but as flavour of the day in the kitchen too!
And Digested…
What we hadn’t factored in was the absolutely amazing menu’s from the rest of the Geek crowd. And these were no simple feats of cookery concoction. Everyone had taken the day and task at hand really seriously. My favourite themed menu was by far Richard Moross (Moo) and Russell Davies (self-acclaimed fame for ‘doing digital stuff’) who had created four different styled breakfasts that ranged from the hangover friendly poweraide and fruit pastal sweets to the posh totty’s slap dash fry up.
Points for inspiration and presentation! Not least as their actual cooking and in the kitchen time was about half of everyone else. Leaving R and R free to roam the two floors of the state of the art cookery school to take some superb images and soundbites of the day.
But megapixals aside. No-one could compete with Sara Maternini and Julia Parsons, both top foodies and food bloggers knew a thing or two about food. The menu an Italian / Britishbeing fusion left judges and participants alike crying: ‘More please!’ and ‘Ooo and how ever did you make that pastry?!’ Seriously people ran across the room to request the recipe!
So Julia and Sara we at Girl Geek salute your cooking superiority AND should you ever want to cook again, we know a little place you would be very welcome. Maybe we should host a Girl Geek cook-off?…
On another note, there was a serious side to the event: Whilst we gorged on our nice food, Amy from Action Against Hunger reminded us of those in more serious situations of real hunger and in danger of malnutrition. It’s a tall order, but with more events like Food 2.0 to raise awareness and engage the brightest networked stars and their friends things can only change for the positive!
But folks it doesn’t end here! With so many blogger, vloggers and cloggers (my new term for cooking blogging creativity) much was recorded and is now being shared across various digital networks. (the Food 2.0 webjam is a great starting place to find these). And so it seems only fair that we invite You, our strongest and most respected of critics to view, deliberate, cogitate and digest our cookery attempts. In the next few weeks you’ll be able to vote for your favourite team cooking attempts!FYI; the Girl Geeks were Team 9 ‘I.T. Girls’ and I will of course let you all know once our vid is uploaded: For amusement note Nic’s attempts to get me to flirt for ingredients at Marylebone Farmers Market. No, I don’t know what to make of it either!
And so it just leaves me say a HUGE thank you to everyone the I.T. Girls cooked, tasted and met. And to some brilliant hosting from Food nom nom nom, TrustedPlaces and SpinVox. My gosh geeks we rocked the kitchen!
Find out more about Action Against Hunger
About Dr Mariann Hardey
I hold the position of Lecturer in Social Media Marketing at Durham Business School. I also spend too much time enjoying social technologies, media+ stuff. That'll make me a Geek then. And a gal.
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