Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Food Revolution Day 2016 | Lake County to the Netherlands


Golly gee willacker! Summer is in full swing and it's time to take a look back to one the best months of my life. I hope you enjoy my diary of Food Revolution Day 2016!

I celebrated Food Revolution Day for the first time on Aces Day at West Oak School on May 4th and for the second time at the Liberty Prairie Plant sale on May 14th. Ambassadors Christina and Sara and I braved the unusually brisk weather (yes it snowed!) and we passed out recipes to inspire market goers to buy kitchen garden ingredients together. I am one lucky girl to have passionate teammates like them!!







And then I was off...


I flew standby out to Europe (so crazy thankful to my friend Susan!), got bumped, stayed overnight in Detroit but finally took off on a London flight. And it sure paid off...


It was a very unexpected detour, but on the way to Amsterdam (via the City London Airport), I got to meet the lovely Jo Creed and team, visit Food Revolution Headquarters and sip tea at Fifteen London. Pretty amazing hiccup that I am so very grateful for!


Even thought there was not enough time to cook with them, I got to see a little bit of the Hello Fresh cook off event with Food Revolution team! What fun and what an incredible team building idea to promote employee food education + workplace wellness!






After a final epic picture, and a good bye promise to come back again soon, I finally arrived in the Netherlands to see my dear soffritto sister, Terri Salminen


This is how we roll! Terri + me in her "bakfeit" (cargo bike). Yup I fit just fine in the front.



In partnership with Hutton Europe, Terri's first Food Revolution workplace wellness event went off without a hitch. Chef's Damien Sawyer (left) and Damien Taylor (Executive Chef) were amazing to cook with! I loved connecting with the Hutton team and the Microsoft employees; The energy was fantastic and everyone LOVED the FRD inspired recipes we prepared for them.


Find, prepare and eat all of 10 FRD Recipes! Here is one of the beautiful plates of salmon I prepared and served with my team at Terri's first event at Microsoft NL!






Our second cooking event was located at SAS Institute B.V. Which was absolutely Gorgeous.






Wack the pomegranate! I prepared and served Jamie's SuperFood Salad. YUM.






Gosh I love watching her work! Terri prepared her beautiful ricotta, risotto and strawberry dishes for the employees to enjoy and be inspired!





I made crafty handmade tags for each of our chefs and bloggers who led cooking stations at Terri's Food Revolution Day 2016 Food Symposium (A better description would be a pop up cooking market event!) Over 350 people came to Fifteen Amsterdam event including 50 school children. It was simple amazeballs and I will NEVER forget being a part of epic free food education gathering.

Here is a link to my previous post explaining the who/what/where/how of the FRD event.


I hope you enjoy our video!











I love your face Thomas!!!











20 years ago me and Annemiek went to High School together (she as a foreign exchange student). It was absolutely INCREDIBLE to see her again and catch up after all these years! Thank you SO much for coming to see us Annemiek!!!








It was truly incredible. The work, the effort, the volunteering... I never could have imagined this level of talent and passion spreading and teaching at the same time. We were all so tired, so content, so happy to be together here in our celebration circle. I wish I could go back! Terri, your vision and organization impresses me like know other, I will follow you to the ends of the earth my dear Super Ambassador and Soffritto Sister!


To Chef Ramone Otto and Chef Damien Taylor: Without you both, this would not have happened. I am one lucky girl to have had the honor to cook and play with you both. Thank you for everything. And I sure hope we meet again!


Amsterdam, Haarlem... You have captured my heart.











I even got to cook with her at her beautiful workplace!


I treasure our friendship Terri. You are my soffritto soul sister and I cannot wait to see YOU in July! GET HERE!!!!!!



I'll be seeing you around town, on my fun new Dutchie bike (Found at Higher Gear!) Bringing a little part of Netherlands BACK baby.

To the mullies we go,

xoxoL