This Post was written by Charlotte from Great Big Vegetable Challenge


1. Where are you based?
In West London

2. How long have you been blogging?
Since November last year when I needed something to try and help change the food we were eating, and more specifically inspire my seven year old son to learn to like vegetables.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
The sense of community that it gives you, the inspiration it offers and the fun.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
It takes hold and gets out of control...Is there a bloggers anon meeting?
5. What inspires you to cook and write?
We are eating our way through the alphabet of vegetables - so we have a lovely journey to go on. We are inspired by learning from other people who maybe grew up eating a particular vegetable with their family and can teach us to enjoy it too.
6. Where do you like to blog?
Mostly at home, which is where our cooking takes place.
7. What's your signature dish?
I don't have one...but I love making something new every day.
8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
I spent 15 years as a TV news correspondent

Before we go - if any of you fancy an artistic project involving vegetables, we would love you to join in this activity -
http://greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com/2007/08/go-on-you-know-you-want-to-make.html

An Introduction from David of BookTheCook

This Post was written by David from BookTheCook

1. Where are you based?
In East Boldon, Tyne & Wear, England (oop the frozen north!)

2. How long have you been blogging?
I began on 1st January this year (my 37th birthday!) after my wife had advised me it would be a good idea. As a frustrated writer, (frustrated because I wasn't actually doing any writing and making excuses for it!), it has been a great bit of advice and I am now addicted to it.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
I could talk about food all day. Just ask my long suffering family and friends! So food blogging is an amazing platform for getting those discussions, thoughts or recipes down without having to tell the whole world verbally. It is also a great way of building up your recipes and ideas, moulding your style and realising that food is the best discussion subject in the world. Another great thing about food blogging is meeting people from all over the world (well, meeting in cyberspace). I've had goodwill messages from all over the planet and I still find it amazing that one minute I'll be sat in my pyjamas on my settee in cold and wet Tyne & Wear typing a blog, then minutes after posting somebody in Australia is commenting on my post. I can never take it for granted. I've met so many lovely like-minded folk and they are a constant source of advice and encouragement.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
Feeding your addiction by writing a post no matter what the circumstance or time of day! Or finding yet another amazing food blog, adding it to your favourites and hence condemning yourself to more hours of catching up with other people! Seriously though, I can't find much negative to say. Blogging has been good for me and I am so happy that I started it.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
Food is pretty much my number one subject after family. It is the centre of my universe and I revolve my whole life around it. The perfect setting for me is a huge table laden with food I have prepared, lots of wine, lots of friends and family and lots of talk and laughter. We don't do it enough in the U.K. and I find that heartbreaking. So I cook through a sheer love of food, giving it to the people I love and watching them enjoy it. Watching my little daughter growing up and getting excited about food makes me feel really proud; she will eat anything - just like her dad! I guess it takes little for me to feel inspired to write. A memory, a new ingredient or a new potato ricer, the slightest thing and I am away chatting about it. Putting it down in writing saves eardrums and my vocal chords!

6. Where do you like to blog?
Anywhere. I suppose I do most of mine sitting on the settee with my laptop and my other addiction going on in the background - music.

7. What's your signature dish?
A difficult question. But as a lover of all things simple, I suppose an easy herb stuffed roasted chicken with lots of garlic, lemon and thyme and lots of seasonal vegetables takes some beating. I have lots of cakes in my repertoire too!

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
I made the final 4 in BBC2's MasterChef Goes Large this year.

An introduction from Anne @ Annes Kitchen

1. Where are you based?
In Staines, very near to Heathrow Airport!

2. How long have you been blogging?
On and off about two years

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
Putting my thoughts down in writing, my friends and family have started to tire of my constant food talk, so my blog is a good release of built up thoughts!!

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
That I never seem to quite get the whole html code thing right and words seem to move around all by themselves..

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
Everyday life, sometimes it’s a memory of a place I have been, a smell of something or even a picture! I love trying out new dishes and discovering new foods, that in turn I could make into something great!

6. Where do you like to blog?
At home mainly as far too busy at work!! Like to unwind at home with a glass of wine and update my blog

7. What's your signature dish?
I have been asked this before..and I really do not know what to choose!! Most often made is tuna & spinach pasta bake but that sounds pretty lame, however is loved by all!!

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
That I only learnt to cook three years ago!

Experience New Zealand's Most Radical Food In London

This Post was written by Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef

There are a few places left at the food bloggers' dinner I've arranged at The Providores in Marylebone for Saturday 1st September. Organised by me as a last supper before I head off to work in Catalunya, this is a great opportunity to sample some of the most inventive and excellent Australasian fusion food to be found anywhere in the world. I've arranged a set multi-course dinner (with choice of dishes) and selection of New Zealand wines (including some special tastings) that will satisfy anyone's appetite without breaking the bank. The meal is planned sufficiently early to allow everyone to get home easily. And Providores' world-famous chef/patron and "father of fusion" Peter Gordon will be joining us during the evening to discuss his style of food, Kiwi cheeses and anything else a food blogger can decently ask about. More details and booking arrangements here.

A Techie Question - Links in a new window

Hello fellow bloggers!

I'm asking for your help once again. I'd like to set my blog up to open up links in a new window, so people don't leave my site.

Does anyone know how to do this using blogger? I assume I'll need to add some code to my template somewhere?


This Post was written by Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie

This Post was written by Lynn from Lynns Cooking Blog.


1. Where are you based?
Glasgow, Scotland.

2. How long have you been blogging?
Since December 2006

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
Trying out new recipes for the first time - if I can cook them, anyone can.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
The laughs of derision from my family when I (yet again) pull out my camera. Didn't stop my husband buying me a mini photography studio though!!!!!!

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
I love food and cooking and, most importantly, sharing what I've created.

6. Where do you like to blog?
I think about what I'm going to write in bed at night and then just type it into the computer in the living room the next day.

7. What's your signature dish?
I'm not sure that I've got one. But I do make my Grans' Scotch Drop Pancakes with depressing regularity.

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
I met my husband at a Star Trek Convention. There's something about a big (6'4") strapping bloke in black leather (he was a Klingon) that sends shivers up and down my spine.

An Introduction..

This Post was written by Leemei from Lemongrass :: citronelle :: serai :: 香茅

1. Where are you based?
Shad Thames, London.

2. How long have you been blogging?
Since February 2007.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
It's where recipes and ideas are shared. At the same time, it encourages me to put extra miles to be creative in cooking. Apart from that, there's where my interest in food photography grows.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
To juggle the time in the evening to write up posts.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
I love food and I love to cook. Thus, I'd like to share, especially on the food/cuisine that I've been brought up with and also food that I've tried/experienced throughout my life.

6. Where do you like to blog?
In the living room after dinner.

7. What's your signature dish?
Satay Chicken (Malaysian-styled chicken skewers)

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
Ermmm....

Introduction to Annemarie

This Post was written by Annemarie from Ambrosia and Nectar.

1. Where are you based?

Walthamstow, London

2. How long have you been blogging?

Only since June this year but I should have been doing it much sooner, given how much I talk to myself about food.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?

As everyone else says, it's the great food blogger community and finding so many like-minded people. Also, I find it's making me think in some much more detail about all my meals. If I'm making something, I think of what to put in the 'recipe', of where to source the ingredients, of an easy way to describe the instructions. I think of the presentation of the food (since it must be photographed!) and about how to describe what it is I'm eating. The blogging is giving me the luxury of thinking about my food all the time.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?

Fighting my husband for the computer since he also likes to do writing.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?

I love eating and I love extending the pleasure of good food to other people, so cooking and writing about food seems a natural way of tackling both the eating and the sharing.

6. Where do you like to blog?

On the laptop just before or after dinner. We have a desktop as well but I only use it when I draw the short straw. The monitors are broken and display everything in either magenta or cyan – not easy for deciding which food shot is most alluring when it's cast in purple/green.

7. What's your signature dish?

Chocolate brownies. I can whip up a batch in 5 minutes (even under the influence of drink). I can finish eating the batch in about the same time span.

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?

Like a lot of teenage girls, I saw food as the enemy and spent many years trying to eat as little as possible trying to be thin. My first trip to Italy as a 20 year old opened my eyes very wide, and I realized there was more to food than microwaving it and being afraid of it. I have very happily never looked back since.

Introduction to Niamh from Eat like a girl

This Post was written by Niamh from Eat like a girl

1. Where are you based?
I am based in North London but I am originally from Ireland on the southern coast.

2. How long have you been blogging?
Only 3 months now! It took me a long time to get the courage to do it. I don't really know why in hindsight. It seemed like it might be scary exposing myself in this way, but really, it's not like that atall!

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
Connecting with other food bloggers, people with the same obssession, food. Seeing what others make and how they use ingredients is inspiring, and while I love cookbooks this has an added dimension, it's more accessible. It's a fantastic creative outlet, allowing me to work on how I photograph and write about food. Getting feedback and comments from people who use my blog is also so encouraging.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
The waistline! I spend so much time cooking, shopping for food and eating out there's a constant surplus and no time to do anything to work it off. Which is a poor excuse, I know, but I am sticking with it ;-) Blogging has also become a little compulsive so I need to work on that.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
Currently, other food bloggers, my cookbook collection, ingredients in shops, menus in restaurant windows, food on television, fruit growing on trees! Anything atall. There's constant inspiration. As a child, sweet things generally inspired me, I found it the best and quickest way to get my hands on some cake and sweets! I used to make turkish delight and lemon meringue pies. Also, my mother and aunt taught me loads as did my home economics teacher.

6. Where do you like to blog?
At home when I am relaxed. I have no garden so I am confined to my living room but if I had one it would be there.

7. What's your signature dish?
Tough question. There's lots of dishes that I like to prepare frequently and they're usually quick and simple. I don't think I have one, I suppose I should really. A recent favourite is laksa, I make that often. I expect that as my blog develops a signature dish may with it.

8. What about you might surprise other food bloggers to know?
I had the most ridiculous eating habits as a child and one Christmas would only eat baked beans and cake. I was a vegetarian for 11 years but that's all been turned on its head.